Minimum wage: Atiku lampoons Buhari presidency over insincerity

…Says govt must be trusted to keep its word
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has knocked President Muhammadu Buhari and the Presidency for reprobating on the widely announced pledge by the administration to pay N30,000 minimum wage to Nigerian workers.

President Buhari was reported to have agreed to and signed the recommendation of a Committee headed by former Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Amma People following agreement with representatives of the Nigerian Labour Congress and other affiliate Labour unions on Tuesday.

Atiku in a statement by his presidential campaign organisation said approbation and reprobation which is characteristic of the Buhari administration is evidence of the lack of leadership at the very top that is putting the economy in peril.

Labelling the APC government as unreliable, Atiku said government is only as reliable as its word and if its word is not reliable then nothing else about the government will be stable.

He called on President Buhari to keep faith with the agreement his government freely reached with labour and affirm the new minimum wage.

Accusing the Buhari government of inconsistency in policy and statements, Atiku said “just two weeks ago, two of the world’s largest banks, HSBC and UBS, pulled out of Nigeria citing lack of policy stability as their reason.

This same reason was given by Procter and Gamble when they pulled out last year. In the span of the three years that this administration has been in office, more than 500 companies have pulled out of Nigeria for similar reasons. Nigeria under President Buhari has become synonymous with policy flip flopping”.

Making case for the nation’s workforce, the Presidential candidate said “we urge the Buhari administration to note that Nigerian workers are the goose that lays the golden egg that top members of this government are enjoying to the detriment of those laying the egg

“We are aware that both President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo, despite living and feeding at the public expense, collect a hardship allowance of 50% of their annual basic salary,

whereas, the long suffering Nigerian workers, who are the main sufferers of the hardship caused by the incompetence of this administration, do not have any hardship allowance and are expected to live on the unliveable minimum wage of the Buhari government.

“It is a testament to how badly we have treated our workforce over the last three years that Nigeria was officially declared the world headquarters for extreme poverty by the World Poverty Clock and the World Economic Forum”.

He promised that the PDP administration under his presidency will change this by paying workers “a living wage as opposed to the starvation wages now paid to them by the Buhari administration”.