NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE: HOW MANY PUBLIC SERVANTS ARE DESERVING OF IT?
Samuel Enyi Otsapa
Samuelotsapa@gmail.com
08038127832
Over the years, the organized labour unions (mainly NLC and TUC) in Nigeria have regularly sought and fought for wage increment for Nigerian workers mainly through the instrumentality of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) law that stipulates that the national minimum wage (atleast, the base), must be reviewed upwards every five (5) years. This is the abiding law but the absence of empathy, compassion and political will by governments to follow the law (abuse of rule of law) often leads to industrial strikes by organised labour.
Time was when the NMW was N5,500 but today, it is N30,000. Increasing the wages of the Nigerian worker every five (5) years as stipulated by law is commendable but can we also ensure that workers also increase their productivity and performance on the job as wages increases? This becomes necessary because, and the truth must be told, the average Nigerian worker, particularly those who work in government departments and ministries, are largely redundant, idle and lazy. I do not have empirical figures/data on this but my experiences and observation alludes to this – and Observation is a scientific instrument of gathering data. Take a walk into any government department or ministry and there, you’d see many civil servants, for those who cared to go to work, idling away but they’d readily come for the jugular of government via industrial strike actions when salaries are not paid or increased. Where is the conscience?
Granted, there are some government departments and ministries whose workers are up and doing (mainly government parastatals) – and so they are rightly deserving of their monthly salaries, but those who do next to nothing but are quick to demand salary increments and prompt payment are in the majority. Time and time again, I have seen government ministry workers sit under trees to gist, gossip and eat groundnuts and guguru from morning to the close of work in the evening. Government people know this much and I suspect this is why some state governors do not see it as obligatory and mandatory to pay the salaries of workers as and when due or increase it as stipulated by law. To them, many civil/public servants are not deserving of their pay – and they are right to a large extent.
So, as we constantly and rightly push for the welfare of the Nigerian worker and the increment in salaries, we ought to also ensure that civil/public service workers perform their jobs and are productive while doing so. Doing this means changing the common and continuing narrative among Nigerians that “government work no be my papa work”, which makes the average civil servant in Nigeria docile and lazy but expects to be paid at the end of the month. To achieve this, heads of government departments and ministries and permanent secretaries must draw up new work plans that would keep civil servants busy from 8am – 4pm and that would, at the end of the day, contribute to national growth and development. When we do this, we have fed our consciences and can boldly push for salary increments, better welfare packages and better conditions of service for public sector workers.
