The Senatorial candidate of the All Blending Party of Nigeria (ABPN) for Gombe South, Dr. Danlami Arabs Rukujai has called on Labour to avoid being scammed by the Federal Government over the N30, 000 minimum wage it has been agitating for.
According to the candidate, the Federal Government’s intention of sending the new minimum wage bill to the National Assembly, NASS, on 23rd January, 2019 will only amount to Labour being scammed because NASS may not seat over the bill.
Dr. Rukujai spoke to our Correspondent in an interview shortly after an interactive session he had with the Gombe State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) where he cautioned Labour to wake up and ask pertinent questions that would ensure or guarantee a comfortable purchasing power for them.
He said, “On the eve of the elections, Labour is allowing the Government to scam them. You want to send a bill to the National Assembly on the 23rd January 2019. Who is going to pass the bill? Nobody is going to sit, so, anything they (Labour) don’t get, they should forget it”.
He said Labour has shown concern over the matter but that he is a little bit different from the way Labour has shown its concern. According to him, “I have done a calculation using the current exchange rate. The N30,000 we are agitating for as minimum wage is less than N120 that Late President Shehu Shagari gave as minimum wage in dollar terms, I hope people in labour know that”.
According to him, “Labour deserves not just N30, 000 but in terms of value, in terms of purchasing power. Labour should wake up and begin to ask questions like, what is our purchasing power? Our exchange rate for example, what determines interest rates in the banks? All these have impact on what the Labour gets”.
He explained further that “You give N30,000 today and tomorrow you take the dollar and make it N450 to a dollar, the value of that N30, 000 comes back to N20,000. What have you gained? Nothing”.
“I think Labour should be more pushful because it appears some people somewhere are playing games”, he cautioned.
