Earlyface

Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has described the current N18,000
minimum wage paid to Nigerian workers as not longer reasonable as a result of
the free fall of Naira against the US Dollar.
Oshiomhole
Oshiomhole said that N200 to one US Dollar means Nigerian workers are earning
just meager income of $90 per month at the current N18,000 minimum wage, The
Union reports.
He decries the poor salaries paid to the Nigerian workers noting that the situation
is even worse at the level of public service. Oshiomhole made this remark while
speaking with State House Correspondents yesterday July 11 shortly after meeting
with President Muhamnadu Buhari. He did not however disclose the ideal
minimum wage.

Oshiomhole said: “ Let me be very clear, I believe the Nigerian worker is underpaid,
particularly in the public sector. If you look at the wage trend now, you will find out
that that a graduate earns Lever 8 Step 2 in the public service. If the same young
man is to get a job in an oil company or some subsection of the public section, his
pay will be much more.
“If a worker is confronted with endless rise in costs of living and his wages are
stagnant, obviously whether you know it or not, he is already experiencing pressures
on his living standard. If you look at the minimum wage when it was fixed, the
exchange rate was about N140 to a dollar, so N18,000 is about $130 a month.
“ Now at N200 per dollar, N18,000 is about $90 and so you can see the only
beneficiary in this kind of inflationary environment are those who have fixed assets
like building. Because the more your Naira is devalued, the higher the nominal value
of your assets.”
He said the recent bailout to states came at the right time pointing out that the
immediate past administration shortchanged states as much as N10billion. He
declared that the funds was sourced from the amount remitted by the Nigerian
Liqueified Natural Gas, NLNG, but that the funds have never been remitted to the
Federation Account.
“ What was extraordinary is that the NLNG has over the years been remitting funds to
the Federal Government. But the Federal Government illegally refused to transfer
these fund to the consolidated revenue fund which belongs to the three tiers of
government.
“All that President Buhari has done is in line with his commitments to ensuring that
all funds and monies accruing to the Federation Account are so remitted, that he has
directed the CBN to transfer the funds to the Consolidated Funds, ” he said