By Bilyamin Abdulmumin

To commemorate Workers’ Day on May 1st, FG announced the long-awaited salary increase from 25% to 35 %. However, hours later, the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, kicked against the increase and instead stuck to the 615,000 they proposed as minimum wage.

Although this total figure looks astronomical, it suddenly looks normal, putting the breakdown that Ajaero gave into perspective, especially with the current high inflation. At least that amount should reflect the salary of anyone receiving 100k or more before Tinubu came to power. In other words, the breakdown might be exaggerated to the bottom-line salary earners but not the middle ones.

When several pundits shared their analysis on National Assembly wages, the Ajaero recommendation suddenly became realistic again. The National Assembly’s daily take-home is more than the recommended minimum monthly take-home. So, the argument is that if NA daily wages are so high, the minimum monthly salary asked by NLC should not be too much. This is quite plausible.

But from the interview Abdulaziz Abdulaziz gave, it could be discerned that the highest minimum wage the government is ready to pay is double the current minimum. Abdulaziz first clarified that the current salary increase is temporary, pending when the tripartite committee under the former head of service concluded their assignment. However, as a committee member, he said unlike the 25 to 35% increase, the minimum wage may go up to 50 to 60k. He also emphasised that the federal government is bidding for the highest among the three parties: federal, state, and private.

An argument accompanying the discussion of salary increases is the plight of non-governmental citizens. The argument is that if FG increases government workers’ salaries, what about the rest of the citizens? To buttress this point, government workers are said to be just about 10% of the total population. This argument appears to carry substance, but it is misleading by flipping the coin because the more money on the government workers, the more money on every one.

The people who should be rather pitied are the state and LG workers. Because some of these tiers of government still receive the 1999 salaries benchmark. A friend who works with the local government health sector summarises their predicament. He said a decade ago, when he married, a mudu of foreign rice was 450 naira, and they only used half of it. Now the mudu costs five times, and because their family has increased, they need the whole mudu, but the pathetic part is that the salary hasn’t only increased since, but several bogus deductions have eaten deep into it.

At this time when the FG and labour are arguing about high salary increases to meet public expectations due to high inflation, there is no better time to remind ourselves of the famous “Udoji award” than now.

As a fan of Dan Anache, I heard one of his songs mention “Udoji.” I understood that he was mocking someone, but I didn’t know what it meant, so I took it at face value and enjoyed the song. The lyrics read: “Kai baka soja, kai baka dan sanda, kattsaya jiran Udoji. To Udoji in dai sadaka ce muma araba abamu.” It wasn’t until I came across Mahmud Juga’s article titled “UPE, WAI and Udoji” that I realised what it meant. 

In the article, Jega concluded, “Why has there been no Adebo and no Udoji in this country since 1974? Any young person who does not know what that means should please ask the elders.” So, with the right name in hand, I did what everyone does when faced with a burning question—I turned to search engines.

The Middle East, the world’s oil bank, is known for conflicts and unrest, so anytime one arises, just like the current one is on the card, the global oil price experiences a meteorological rise. One of the most popular oil price rises occurred during the Arab-Israeli War and the Iranian revolution in the 1970s. This was when Nigeria had had an oil boom, and there appeared to be no idea what to do with excess money, so the Udoji Award was. 

Jerome Udoji chaired the committee focused on the effectiveness of public service. One of the committee’s recommendations was to increase the salary twofold, which was implemented by the military head of state, Yakubu Gowon. The salary increase was so popular that it became known after Udoji. Please, someone should tag the current chairman of the minimum wage committee, Bukar Goni Aji.

There is no oil boom now, but there is a subsidy removal boom. So, to paraphrase Jega, Please FG, why has there not been a Udoji Award since 1974?

ByAdmin

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