Minimum Wage Bill: NLC protest won’t prevent NASS from sponsoring – DG, PGF
Tom Okpe, Abuja
Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, PGF Salihu Moh. Lukman has stated that the protest embarked upon by the organized labour against the decentralization of minimum wage will not prevent the National Assembly from passing the wage bill, saying the protest was needless.
Speaking in a Press Conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the one-time senior official of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC said labour’s usual resort to protest and strikes have become outdated, urging them to perfect their negotiation skills.
Organized labour had on Wednesday staged a protest to the National Assembly, armed with placards carrying various inscriptions like ‘On national minimum wage we stand’, ‘No to the relocation of minimum Wage to Concurrent List’, ‘Yes to the minimum wage on the exclusive list’.
Lukman who said he was speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the APC governors said:
“We are not saying they should not protest but this protest is needless. I can guarantee that it is not going to stop the process in the National Assembly. It is not also going to take away the issue. We need to work with them to develop this democracy and we can only do that if every constituent unit and citizens in those units can negotiate with the constituent governments and get results.
“As it is, we are all frustrated and that is what we should be addressing. This ‘we against them’ that labour is creating does not exist. We should be applying ourselves to resolving the problems of this democracy. There are fundamental problems bigger than we can imagine.”
He stressed that a structure that imposes the same minimum wage on a state as buoyant as Lagos and a state that is less buoyant like Zamfara or Yobe would impact negatively on productivity as workers in Lagos would feel shortchanged and therefore, will not give their total commitment to job pointing that; “even if all states commences the payment of N30, 000 minimum wage, the problems of Nigeria’s workforce would still remain unresolved.
“I want to be able to engage labour though, some of them continue to accuse me of being sponsored by a governor. It is not just a governor. I have 20 governors sponsoring me. I am happy to have the knowledge that would attract all the consideration of being sponsored.
“The total number of membership of NLC is not more than 20, 000 for the whole country. I left NLC in 2006 and at that time, the total membership was about 4,000, but I am giving it to them because they have organized new sectors. There are new areas so, it is possible, they have risen to 20,000. That is a very critical mass but needs to be guided and led, properly.
“I believe the future of this country is about negotiating these issues. I have respect for the NLC and TUC leadership but my advice to them is that they have a better capacity in getting things done. In fact, this country is where it is because they are not really applying themselves in the right direction.
“We all have a lot to do in this country. It is not about dancing on the streets, but, to develop capacities.
“I am worried at the situation where anything that appears contrary to what labour wants; the next thing is to go on strike. My belief is that the main business of labour is negotiation and negotiation is about applying knowledge and information that you have,” he stated.
