On minimum wage

“Successive governments should have ensured that all workers get yearly raises commensurate at the minimum, to its annual inflation rate. This also forces government to manage the economy effectively and keep inflation down. This strategy is only fair, because government is meant largely for the betterment of the people.”

“I will urge that we slow down on the way we freely spend our oil proceeds. We should strictly monitor those parastatals that collect revenue on behalf of the country. That they collect revenue does not entitle them to the liberties they take to spend freely. All ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDAs) should be on very strict revenue targets and tight expenditure limits and we should double our budget next year by having a candid look at all revenue sources and ruthlessly going after the vast leakages that have put our country in bad light. Then we should increase minimum wage to say N30,000 and step up wages in the core service across the board. We should also freeze the perks of office of senior officers and politicians – like luxury cars – for the next two years to allow the economy breathe. This is where 25 per cent of our national budgets go anyway. While this is going on, we should create provisional employment schemes for post-secondary school youth, where they can earn, say, N15,000 every month for three hours work a day in the environmental and light security sector, among other unskilled work. This way, we will take the pressure off parents, and create a new spending class, thereby tying wage increase to a new productivity spike.”

“If we merely increase wages for those who are lucky to be in employment presently, we wouldn’t have gotten them to be more productive. Those who go to work to sleep will also get wage increases. Those without job functions will get. Even our mighty ghost worker sector, which cuts across all government services, will get wage increases. This would be a great tragedy to befall the economy. But if we tie wage increase to a ramping up of productivity, this will translate into a double digit growth for the economy, and even the private sector and SMEs will thrive because they will catch the fever of higher economic activities across the board.”

- Fasua, in an opinion piece, ‘Minimum Wage, Double Jeopardy’ published by Premium Times Newspapers on October 8th, 2018.

Tope Fasua

Office

Election