Minimum wage: Opposition, groups slam FG over delay in payment

Written by The Punch Friday, 03 February 2012

Opposition parties and other groups, including the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria on Wednesday took a swipe at President Goodluck Jonathan over his failed promises on the minimum wage and January salaries.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for Progressive Change, All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Campaign For Democracy said that the Federal Government had shown that it could not be trusted.

The ASCSN’s Sercrary-General, Solomon Onaghinon, accused the Federal Government of unseriousness for not fulfilling its earlier promise to be paying workers’ salaries not later than 20th of every month.

In an interview with one of our correspondents, Onaghinon also accused the government of always playing politics with the issue of minimum wage.

During government and organised labour’s negotiation on the N18,000 minimum wage, both sides agreed that the implementation of the new salary structure would start in August, 2011.

Also, the President, in a nationwide broadcast on January 8, promised that as part of the palliatives to ease Nigerian economic hardship occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, the salaries of all public servants would be paid on the 20th of each month.

Investigations by our correspondents have however, shown that almost four months after the new salary structure ought to have taken off, federal workers were still being paid based on the old structure.

Contrary to the President’s directive, public servants had not received their salaries as at January 20.

The National Publicty Secretary of the CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said that the failure had confirmed the position of the party that the present administration was not trust-worthy.

Fashakin stated, “This is a government that freely entered into a negotiation and an agreement with university teachers and more than two years down the line, it is far from implementing that agreement. That government cannot be trusted.

“A government that promised the minimum wage and the minimum wage is far from being implemented more than one year after that promise, you know that government cannot be trusted.”

Also, the ACN criticised the Federal Government, saying it lacked “capacity and sincerity of purpose.”

The ACN National Publicty Secreary, Alhaji Laid Mohammed, noted that the present adminsitation did not scrutinise its policies properly.

Commenting on the Federal Government’s Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme, he said, “We are watching. But we know they will not meet up with all the promises they have made.”

The CD president, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said that the present adminsitation should not be taken seriously.

She said, “The President should learn to match his words with action. The civil servants should know that he has told them a lie.

“If they have leaders who cannot sell out, they should engage this government in a long-drawn battle.”

Also, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Chief Emma Eneukwu, urged Nigerians not to believe that anything good would come out of the Peoples Democratic Party government.

Eneukwu told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview that Nigerians should know that part of government propaganda anytime it was going to introduce unpopular policy was to cajole them with promises that would never been fulfilled.

He said, “This is not the first time the Federal Government would be making such promises, which are politically motivated. They were never meant to be fulfilled.

“We heard such promises during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua. This government is a government of deceit.”

Criticising the Federal Government, the ASCSN Secretary-General said, “Is the early payment of salaries the palliative for the removal of subsidy? I don’t count that as a palliative and they (FG) don’t know what they are talking about.

“They should be serious but unfortunately they are not yet serious. But I expect that since the committee is already in place let us wait to see what they will be able to do. They are just bragging and I have not seen anything they want to do.

“They are only interested in how to get this money and spend it. They have forgotten about the budget. They don’t even believe the budget affects anybody.”

On the N18,000 minimum wage, Onaghinoin said, “They just paid us N6, 500. The Federal Government recently approved N11bn and we thought it was for core civil servants. They only shared N10.5bn and the other, we don’t know where it has gone. We have sent a memo to government on that matter.”

Several calls to the Special Assistant (Media) to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Sam Nwaobasi,did not yield any result.

But when contacted a source close to the Head of Service of the Federation told our correspondent that the delay in the payment of the salaries beyond 20th of the month was due to the recent strike against the removal of fuel subsidy.

“We have even be paying and obeying the Presidential directive. But unfortunately, they went on strike and this was one of the reasons why we were against the strike. There was nobody to prepare the salaries,” he said.

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