By Ameh Comrade Godwin on May 12, 2016@ dailypostngr Majority Leader of the House of Representatives,
Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has called for a review of
the minimum wage.
He made the call following the deregulation of the
petroleum downstream sector, which skyrocketed
the pump price of fuel to N145 per litre.
Gbajabiamila, who had fought relentlessly against
efforts by past governments to remove petroleum
subsidy, said though it was necessary to
deregulate the petroleum sector to shield the
country from economic problems, it was also
necessary to raise the minimum wage in order to
meet the rising cost of living in the country.
He said, “There has to be a serious review of the
minimum wage if you are going to increase the
pump price of petrol because we all know
everything rests on that.
“Prices are going to skyrocket, from school fees to
food, to transportation, to school uniforms and to
books. Everything is going to go up because of
mono economy. If we are going to do that, it is
incumbent upon the government to take
seriously the demands of labour.
“Minimum wage needs to be reviewed; we cannot
increase the cost of living and keep salaries where
it is, they go hand in hand.”
Gbajabiamila gave a vivid account of what
transpired at the stakeholders’ meeting at the
Villa on Wednesday.
He said: “I was at the stakeholders; meeting with
the Vice President Wednesday and other
stakeholders before the decision was made.
“The story that was painted, the details, the
breakdown and the facts were scary. From what I
read and what I saw, if we had continued that
way we may not even have a country in two
months time.
“Salaries would not have been paid by any state.
Faced with that, it puts me in a very difficult
situation and serious dilemma as to which way to
go. I have always on one hand fought against the
removal of fuel subsidy but now, I am confronted
with very scary details as to what will happen if
they don’t deregulate.
“The consequences will be very bad for me and
you, so it is like being caught between the devil
and the deep blue sea.”
Gbajabiamila, however, said the Federal
Government ought to have established refineries
before removing the subsidy.
“I believe that if God has given you natural
product, the least we should do is to allow the
people to benefit from that kind of product,” he
said, adding that subsidy had dented the image
of the country.
“If subsidy is being abused, all we need to do is to
block the holes of abuse and not to punish the
whole of Nigerians for the abuse of a few people.
“But having said that, I have always argued, why
don’t you build a refinery first if at all you have to
remove the subsidy. It is only in Nigeria that
subsidy is given a bad name.
“There is subsidy all over the world, in America
agriculture is subsidized and in UK transportation
is subsidized. It is only in Nigeria that they say
subsidy is bad. So, why is it not bad in other
countries? That’s what we need to look at.”
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