May Day message: President Buhari urges workers to be patient; silent on minimum wage

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerian workers that the present economic hardship in the country will soon be over, just as he promised to enable more incentives for workers to promote productivity.
The May Day rally for this year held at the Eagle Square, Abuja.
The President, who described Nigerians as resilient people, noted that such quality will enable them overcome the hard times the country is going through.
President Buhari was represented by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige.
In his address, read by the minister, the president was however, silent on the recent proposal by organized labour for a new minimum wage of N56, 000.

“The times may be tough, but we Nigerians are by nature resilient and strong and it is that nature that propels us to overcome adversities and still thrive as a nation,” the president said.
“We shall effect positive change in the lives of average Nigerians, to ensure that the downtrodden are elevated and, most importantly, to fight the intense pain of corruption which has enriched the very few to the detriment of the majority of Nigerians who groan under the overwhelming weight of poverty.”
On his part, NLC president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, commended the present administration for its efforts in tackling the issues of corruption, insurgency, inadequate power, shortage of petroleum products and the dwindling fortunes of the nation’s education sector.
He also commended the military for its renewed onslaught on the Boko Haram insurgency, but warned that the war could not be said to have been successfully fought and won without the rescue of over 200 Chibok girls who were abducted from their dormitory over two years ago and the reintegration of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the society.
He urged the president to come up with an action plan for the reconstruction of the devastated infrastructure of the north east geo-political zone, the hot bed of the insurgency.
“The ruling APC government in its manifesto promised to create three million jobs annually. We have waited one year for the government to bring out its blueprints on how it intends to go about achieving this. Congress will seek audience with Mr. President to get more information on this important matter. On our part as workers, we will be prepared and willing to contribute to any effort to create a ‘Job Creation Fund’ nationally to tackle this problem.”
“The bill upon which the wage was pegged at N18,000 minimum wage was signed into law by the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, thereby opening the way for a review in 2016,” he said.
In his own address, the TUC president, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, lamented the long years of pillage of the nation’s resources by a greedy few.
While commenting on the theme of this year’s May Day celebration, “The Working Class and the Quest for Socio-Economic Revival,” Kaigama called on the Nigerian workers to take the avenue of the day to reflect on how to bring an ailing nation to life.
“Whenever I have a chance to speak, I am quick to affirm that Nigeria is a great nation. The entire world acknowledges that fact. But many of our people have lost hope due to decades of rape of the national treasury by a privileged few.
“Yes we are a great nation, but greatness is never achieved on a platter of gold; it is earned and must be consciously sustained. As a nation we are endowed with enormous natural resources yet grope in the darkness of poverty and underdevelopment.
“We produce crude oil but sleep at filling stations to buy the by-products therefrom. As we celebrate Workers’ Day 2016, we must all resolve to put our acts together if we must revive our ailing nation.”