SDP chair: The minimum salary of ₦100,000

SDP chair: The minimum salary of ₦100,000 will enable Nigerian workers to breathe.

If the Federal Government genuinely wants the public to breathe, it should not pay civil officials less than N100,000, according to Social Democratic Party National Chairman Shehu Gabam.

During his Sunday appearance as a guest on Politics Today on Channels Television, Gabam made the request.

This comes only a week after the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress went on a statewide walkout in protest of the newly raised energy rates and a higher minimum wage for workers.

However, after the labor leaders pledged to the Federal Government that they would reopen talks and come up with a new minimum wage within a week, the industrial action was put on hold for five days.

The FG, the Organized Private Sector, and Labour all agreed on N62,000 at the end of last Friday’s Tripartite Committee meetings, but Labour set its demand at N250,000.

However, Gabam argued that in order to prevent civil officials from undermining the system, the government would do itself a favor by agreeing to a fair wage that is higher than N100,000.

“At this point, I believe the government should do something above N100,000,” he stated. It’s manageable. It is somewhat comprehensible. People don’t have to consider destroying the institutions in order to breathe or go to work.

“You are just paying N30,000 to private workers and civil servants. When you go to the market, you can’t find anything at the lowest price point for N30,000.

The leader of the SDP also chastised the governors of Nigeria for declaring that paying a minimum salary over N60,000 would not be financially viable.

He was doing this even as he made a request for the gasoline removal subsidy program to be reviewed.

Gabam said, “Any serious governor that can put his priorities right can pay N60,000 comfortably,” adding that states could afford it provided ghost workers were removed from the system. The unfortunate thing

is that most of the issues we face now originate in the United States. A major portion of the issue is being caused by the governors.

“They have to think about reviewing this subsidy,” he continued. You can get it right at the current rate of subsidy, as I have stated on multiple occasions. By eliminating the fuel subsidy, this government started

this crisis, thus it goes without saying that there would be repercussions.

He said, “What we anticipated is that by the time the government decided to eliminate the fuel subsidy and the suffering that would ensue,

the nation’s consumption rates, supply rates, and demand rates, no one could stand it.”