He however expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership of the labour unions. According to him, “The labour union has become politicized, what they are doing is politically motivated. It is all a game plan by the ruling APC to promote their campaign for 2019. If not, why now. The labour union should have been out fighting for the poor man’s interest a long time ago. Like during the fuel hike time, that is when they should have raised their banners if they were truly pro-poor. N18,000 has been lingering for a long time and people have been surviving on it. But nobody cared, it is now they care because they are campaign for Buhari.
Mr Adam Ohiza, said it is a good development but presently, it is not viable especially if one looks at the implication for the economy. “It may lead to inflation in the economy and that won’t augur well for the economy,” he said.
On his part, Shehu Zakari who work with the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), said: “Let’s look at it from two different perspectives, that is, how it affects your life as an individual, before you look at the economy. How does it affect your life? In that regard the minimum wage is well deserved because our country seems designed to favour the wealthy few.
“That is why you see the governors ganging up to say they cannot comply or they will be forced to down size. These governors have been spending massively on their welfare having a multiplicity of aides. So the minimum wage is well deserved. Why is it that in this country everything must be publicized? By the time the government enacts this law, I think the minimum wage will have a ripple effect on the private sector. If it is religiously implemented, the private sector will follow suit.”Eyes Of Lagos gathered that, Mr Mike Golu, a public servant said the Nigerian labour unions have failed the Nigerian workers. “My own personal grieve is that when fuel price was increased from 87 to 145, that was a good opportunity for labour to try to see that it was cushioned for the workers,” he said. “By that time, life drastically changed because virtual everything that you buy at N100, had a price increase of almost 200 percent. For instance, like food stuff which is the common need of everyone, a bag of rice was about N7000 and with the increment in the fuel price, a bag moved to almost up to N20,000 at that time. Then with the exchange rate that affected the economy at that time measures would have been put in place to cushion the effect then, not now when people have already almost gotten used to the situation.“That is why it seems this is all politically motivated. I can assure you that many Nigerians have lost faith in labour. Not that minimum wage is not good, it is good. After every four to five years constitutionally the government need to do something about the minimum wage. The other problem is that inflation will rise.“The mistake has been made, the government through its many anti-people policies have dealt with the common man. There is no more a middle class in Nigeria. The economy is in shambles. Minimum wage is good, there is nowhere in the world that there is no minimum wage.”
