Nigerian workers deserve more than a minimum wage!

By Olufemi Orunsola

In recent times, workers in Nigeria have had to grapple with excruciating work ergonomics. Ergonomics refers to the totality of working conditions within which workers operate and are rewarded in tandem with globally accepted labour standards and international labour laws. Nigerian workers have consistently suffered from what Professor of Industrial Research at Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, Elton Mayo of blessed memory once described as objectification or dehumanization of workers.

Successive administrations in Nigeria have sustained this sordid narrative of perceiving, dealing with and treating workers with the uncanny carrots brandishing model of wage increase without giving attention to the totality of socio-economic realities surrounding workers namely: inflation rates, transportation ease,  mortgage and befitting housing policy, food security, security architecture, merit-based promotion of workers, promptness in the payments of salaries and other allowances of workers including deductions and deductibles payable to workers cooperatives and unions, among other salient indicators of workers’ welfare.

In a country where inflation rates have consistently risen from a single digit to double digits, it is simply awkward to reduce the best package that is and that could be for workers to mere salary increment.

When the President-Elect Ahmed Bola Ahmed therefore affirmed that under his incoming administration, Nigerian workers would get not just a minimum wage or salaries increment, they will “have a living wage to have a decent life” such that they can conveniently provide for their families, that statement strikes a familiar chord of truth and reality.

As a country commemorates the last workers’ day in the current administration, one sincerely hopes that the in-coming administration will garner the leadership courage and will power to pursue the master blueprint for repositioning workers in Nigeria to enjoy better welfare packages and working conditions as clearly articulated in the Renewed Hope Agenda of the in-coming President who has previously demonstrated during his administration as the Governor of Lagos state that he indeed, has the magic wand for optimizing human capital resources.

No doubt, the need to take some tough and hard decisions to sanitize the civil service and public service system in the country cannot be overemphasized as endemic corruption and stone age bureaucracies have eaten deep into the fabrics of the system.

The auspicious occasion of the workers’ day is certainly a good time to reflect on the staggering unemployment statistics attending to Nigeria which experts have often described as akin to sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

Underemployment, unemployability of graduates are rife in the country whereas the ease of doing business indexes leave much to be desired. The onus therefore lies on the incoming administration to adopt a wholistic approach to solving the debacles by prioritizing the creation of more conducive business climate for businesses, promotion of entrepreneurship and the development of SMEs, MSMEs and start ups by young Nigerians, especially in the areas of Fintech, Mobility/Transportation, Agri-Business value chains as well as Digital solutions that deploy Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Drone Technology, Biometrics & Block Chain Technology for operations in different sectors of the economy.

Government should consider the establishment of functional Business Incubation Centres fully furnished with basic infrastructures like constant power supply, water supply, business mentoring, human capital development networks, security and broad band internet facilities  across the six geo-political zones in the country, (if not in every state) to  drive creative & innovative adventures of dynamic Nigerian youths.

Then and only then can we be seen as a country that values its work force and truly upholds the principles of dignity of labour and rigorously pursue social justice for workers in appreciation of their invaluable contributions to national growth and development.

The tripartite monsters of multi-dimensional poverty, unemployment and crime will therefore be weakened and lose their firm grips on the teeming population of Nigerian workers, especially the youth who constitute a significant part of that population.

Happy Workers’ Day Nigeria!

Olufemi Orunsola, a Media Entrepreneur

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