Minimum Wage: Oshiomhole blasts governors
.Says,’Non-payment of wages is a criminal breach of contract whether in recession or prosperity’
.It’s wrong for govs who enjoy nationally fixed emolument to say minimum wage not applicable to their states
.It’s duty of government, employers to find revenue to pay workers
.Blames current economic crisis and the depreciation of the Naira on the massive looting during PDP regime
From the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, came, on Wednesday, a damning verdict that state governors who have refused to pay the national minimum wage are committing criminal offence.
This is even as he berated the immediate past regime of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for what he called the crass corruption and looting which characterised that administration.
That, he pointted out, was the architect of Nigeria’s current economic crisis.
Oshiomhole gave the verdict while speaking at The Podium, a public discourse organised by the Kukah Centre in Abuja.
At the Podium with the theme, “From Activism to Political Power: The Challenges of Democratic Governance in Nigeria”, the Governor pointedly declared that it was wrong for the governors who enjoy a fixed national emolument same way it was fixed for National Assembly lawmakers to now turn around and say that the national minimum wage should not be applicable to the states of the federation.
He said: “What I questioned and which I don’t accept is that you cannot have a centralised system of compensation for executives, governors, commissioners and local government chairmen. Their pay is centrally determined and the economy can afford that.
“What Lagos State governor is receiving is what Edo State governor is receiving. If we have a national compensation, how can these governors turn around and question the wisdom of a national wage structures for workers.
“It is that selective application of fiscal federalism that I found extremely offensive and unacceptable.
“Even today I remain firm that we must maintain a national minimum wage and we must find ways to implement and adjust it to reflect the cost of living and it is the duty of government and employers to find the revenue to pay those they hired to work whether in private of government employed.
“Non-payment of wages is a criminal breach of contract whether in recession or prosperity”.
The Governor maintained that no one can change the situation through individual activism because the order that is meant to be changed was not due to the ignorance but due to those that benefit from the order and would not want to let go, and that they must therefore be engaged to change the order.
He blamed Nigeria’s current economic crisis and the depreciation of the Naira on the massive looting during the PDP regime.
His words: “We have to change the society where all you need to do is to get your brother elected and get him around the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and he turns to an oil marketer, do some papers and become a billionaire in the name of subsidy.
“We have to change that; and that is what this change is all all about. There is always a time between decisions and consequences. What politicians did in the past that is the consequences we are facing now”.
In his address, the Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Donald Duke, stated that it was saddening that Nigerian politicians are mostly jobbers and budget padders, who are advocating for themselves and not the society who deceived with change campaigns.
Duke, who was a former Governor of Cross River State, said: “They cleverly and surreptitiously apply the word change. I of course won’t use that word because as a member of the PDP or what is left of it that word, change ‘dey do me wan kind’.
The Director of the Kukah Centre, Dr. Arthur-Martins Aginam, pointed out that ‘The Forum’ was, among other things, geared towards elevating the quality of political discourse in the country by generating ideas through robust and informed engagement between public officials and citizens and in the processes deepen the nation’s democracy.
