Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has described the request of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to peg minimum wage for workers at N494,000 as unrealistic.
In an issued statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, Primate Ayodele noted that the NLC is wasting time with the request, because according to him, the highest the Government can go comfortably is N60,000.
He stated that NLCs request is unachievable and unrealistic because ordinarily, any increase in salaries will also lead to increase in inflation and cost of living therefore, the more the salary, the higher the inflation.
The NLC is only wasting time with the request for N494,000 as minimum wage. As a matter of fact, increment of salary will lead to increase in inflation and cost of living. Labour is only dreaming with the proposal; its not realistic and cant be achieved.
I would advise them to water-down on the strike, it wont make the Government give them what they are asking for, except if they want to be deceived. In the Nigeria of today, N494,000 as minimum wage isnt realistic; it would only push Nigeria into recession.
Speaking on the planned nationwide strike of the NLC, Primate Ayodele advised the union not to embark on strike because it wont make the government give them what they want.
Furthermore, Primate Ayodele averred that any Governor that says he will be paying N70,000 as minimum wage is just doing so because of politics. He asserted that such a government will continue to borrow money to pay salaries, and when it becomes too much to maintain, the N70,000 wage would crash.
He, therefore, advised the union to fight for prompt payment of salaries and other amenities that will add value to their salaries instead of requesting for things that are not achievable.
He further admonished NLC not to allow any Government politicise salary structure because it will cause more problems in future. He also called on the Government to plan properly before concluding in order to avoid more problems in Nigerias economy.
