Before the giant becomes a toddler

One of the major highlights of this year’s May Day celebration is the organised labour’s much talked about N56,000 minimum wage request. The demand is said to be part of an agreement between labour and the federal government, which stipulated that salaries of workers would be reviewed every five years. From the initial N7,500, civil servants, beginning from 2011, now collect N18,000.

The fiat increment by the federal government then, left the states in the lurch and at the mercy of their workers, who at the slightest provocation, threatened to down tools. It may surprise many to know that five years down the line, many states are finding it extremely difficult to pay salaries partly as a result of the ‘imposed’ N18,000 minimum wage…And now this!
Among the states battling with payment of salaries, many genuinely do not have the financial wherewithal to sustainably implement the minimum wage while a few do not have the political will to do so. The non-implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage has been a source of friction between the ‘debtor states’, and the organised labour.  For both categories of states, with or without the payment of the minimum wage, they have become so financially handicapped they had to individually and collectively go cap in hand to the federal government for help in terms of bailout or window of opportunity to reschedule payment of accumulated old debts.

Although the workers’ demand was commemorative and in line with the extant agreement with the federal government, it is even more so in alignment with the lawmakers, whose notoriety, for budget padding, crass ostentation in the midst of a debilitating poverty among the masses they claim to represent and overwhelming allegation of meddling with the provision for critical infrastructure in place of bogus constituency projects (which the lawmakers hardly even deliver), has become a source of embarrassment for the country; so much so that almost five months into the new year, the budget is at the labyrinth between the Presidency and the National Assembly. Shame!
Such is the unfortunate state of affairs in this country, that every group claims to represent our collective interest and to serve the nation and the people; only for them to turn around to deep their hands in the public coffers just to help themselves.

How can we, in clear conscience blame the NLC and even the NASS members when we are now witnesses to revelations about the plundering of the state resources by previous government officials and their friends, and as we might likely hear of the officials of this government when they are no more in power. How can we point accusing fingers when the Presidency controls 52 percent of the nation’s wealth, leaving the remaining 48 percent to 36 states and 774 local governments?
The dwindling revenue profile of the federal government occasioned by crisis in the international oil market has further reduced allocations to the states. It is, therefore, no surprise that states are indebted to workers many months in arrears. Only last week, governors of the 36 states under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum came again knocking at the Presidency’s door seeking for ways to ameliorate what has become a very bad situation of near bankruptcy by the states.

It is disturbing that under this heavy weight of indebtedness; fall in oil price and near absence of internally generated revenue sources, organised labour sought for another upward review. But can we in all honesty blame the organised labour?
From the first time the minimum wage was introduced in 1981 (N100 then was about 10 dollars) everything that was right about us then now seems curiously wrong.
The stories we hear do not inspire anyone/group to sacrifice for the country. We all want a piece of the patrimony; even when it is almost depleted to its nadir.
A negligible percentage of civil servants (there are about seven million civil servants across the federal and state governments), lawmakers, governors and their retinue of aides cannot continue to consume over 90 percent of the nation’s earnings and hope to make progress as a nation, build infrastructure, revamp education and healthcare and do things that the general public/electorate can benefit from.

It is either there is something for every one — low and mighty, poor and rich, haves and haves not, or forget the possibility of leaving in a nation, where poverty, robbery, kidnapping and sectarian crisis are not the way of life.
Nigeria has to invest in non-oil sectors and diversify to be able to produce and process agricultural products, refine and not import fuel, and in the process create jobs, and depend less on government. Without these, how do we hope to sustain the nation’s economy with the current grim reality?
An increment at this stage is a landmine for the states, a time bomb whose capacity will boomerang on us. How can states finding it difficult to pay N18,000, now pay 56,000? Five years ago, Nigeria was earning stupendously from oil. Unfortunately, we did not save for the rainy day, which is now here. Today the story is a sorry one.

I know it is tempting for unions to seek for more in the face of the pervasive news about corruption, stolen money, Panama papers, Dasukigate etc., but if the impunity and the largesse sharing of the past must stop, opportunism of today, patronage dispensing and indiscriminate upward review of emoluments have to stop, otherwise, the country will in no time be on its knees and become a beggar nation. I empathise with the workers, having to pass through the hard times engendered by the global recession, but poorly managed locally.  We do hope that the euphoria that ushered in this government will not end in mere hopes and dreams for the populace. We also hope the government will seek for ways to do things differently.
We all share in the collective guilt of bringing the nation to where it is today, and together we must find solutions to them. Increasing workers’ emoluments now with an economy that is already on its knees can at best worsen an already bad situation.

NOTE: This column will now be published every Wednesday.