FIJ
On Friday, it was revealed that President Bola Tinubu approved N500 million for the inauguration of the New National Minimum Wage Committee.
This, according to Tinubu, was an initial sum for the 37-member committee. Their original budget, as submitted by George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), was N1 billion.
The lofty sum has drawn criticism from opposition parties and Nigerians, who describe it as financial recklessness and a waste of the nation’s resources.
Earlier, Joe Ajaero, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, said several governors on the committee were paying workers below the minimum wage. For financial context, the approved N500 million budget would pay the salaries of at least 16,666 workers earning N30,000 a month.
If the SGF gets his way and the entire N1 billion budget gets approved for the work the committee would do in February and March ahead of the April 1, 2024, deadline, then they would have spent enough money to pay 16,666 workers for two months. But even if the money went to the workers, they would still be worse off than prison dogs.
PRISON DOGS EAT BETTER THAN MINIMUM-WAGE EARNERS
The minimum salary paid to workers in Nigeria is N30,000 ($20.69) per month. This translates to earnings of N1,000 ($0.69) per day in a 30-day month.
Any worker earning this sum would have to feed poorer than a prison dog to survive a month on such wages. According to Haliru Nababa, Controller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS), security dogs in Nigerian prisons are fed meals worth N800 per day. This is independent of their daily upkeep and maintenance.
On prison security dogs’ food alone, the Nigerian government spends N200 shy of what it pays as the minimum wage. For context, if anyone who earns this sum decides to spend as much as N800 a day on food, they would have just N200 left to transport themselves to work, pay rent, electricity bills, phone bills, other bills, and cater for a family.
