Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has broken ranks with his colleagues who have insisted they can no longer put up with paying the N18,000 minimum wage to workers; owing to dwindling revenues from the center and the slump in global oil price.
A former labour leader who often heckled governments from the trenches, Oshiomhole addressed the subject soon after his meeting with President Mohammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja.
“With due respect to my colleagues, it is offensive to talk about minimum wage. How can the food of the steward be the reason that the elders cannot eat? I mean by conventional wisdom, if there is crisis in the system, it is the excess fat that will shed weight and not the skeletons. The idea of using minimum is very offensive.”
Oshiomhole also said the Governors’ Forum has chosen the lazy way out of the situation and added that each State has its own peculiarities which it should deploy to solve the problems within its domain.
“The problem with Nigeria is that each time we confront a serious economic problem, we look at the escape route option. Those are not the hearts of the challenges, we must go to the heart of challenges, we must revisit issues. I also think it is simplistic to believe that one drug will cure all the ailments in the various states. Every state has to take its own independent evaluation of the nature of its own problems and design appropriate policy instruments to deal with those problems as they relate to each state.
“The problem in one state is not the same with the one in Edo State. Everybody will have to deal with its own. Lastly, I also think that if anybody wants to talk about federalism, let’s not talk about federalism where it affects the wages of the lowest paid. I have asked this question, why should Edo state governor receive the same salary as the governor of Lagos State when the population of Lagos State is doubled that of Edo state and their GDP is much higher?
“Why should I receive the same pay as the governor of Zamfara or Akwa Ibom? These states are richer by accident of location. If we want to preach this principle, we are in a federal system, everybody should pay according to his cost of living. The cost of governing Edo State is not the same cost as governing Lagos State.”
The post I find it offensive when Governors say they can’t pay minimum wage–Oshiomhole appeared first on Ekekeee.