26th September, 2018
By: Amir Abdulazeez
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ccording to
media reports, over 300,000 people have applied for the about 4,000 Federal
Road Safety Corp job vacancies which recruitment process is currently on-going.
Statistically, every single vacancy is chased by at least 75 possibly qualified
applicants or more. Some few years ago, it was reported that over 800,000
people applied for some few thousand INEC job vacancies. Reports available
then, suggested that the figure was just conservative going by the fact that
the deadline for closure of the applications was just mid-way.
When the
Nigerian Police Force recruited 10,000 officers last year, the trend was
similar; in fact over the last one and a half decade, any massive recruitment
exercise has been greeted by this desperate rush. The circumstance in which
some twenty one Nigerians lost their lives while many others sustained
different degrees of injuries in search of jobs with the Nigerian Immigration
Service in 2014 is still fresh in our minds. Apart from the dead, fainted,
slumped and the injured, hundred others lost all or some of their heard-earned
academic credentials in stampedes.
The irony of
all these is that while majority of employed Nigerians at various levels are
working under one of the least conducive atmospheres coupled with one of the
most unrewarding remuneration packages, millions of other Nigerians are
willing, struggling, fighting and even dying to become like them. When Nigeria
reviewed its minimum wage to N18,000 almost a decade ago, Venezuela already had
its at N80,000 while several other developing countries in and outside Africa
paid between N25, 000 to N90, 000. Worse still, Unemployed Nigerians virtually
have no power over their fate as the processes through which they can escape
their predicaments are usually anything but transparent and credible. That’s
not all; every year, the backlog of unemployed graduates keeps accumulating
with the addition of fresh ones who are not only mostly unemployable, but who
lack any initiative and guidance to see opportunities outside the prism of
government jobs.
The Nigerian
Labour Congress is preparing to go on strike over the Federal Government’s
alleged foot dragging and lacklustre attitude towards finalizing talks that
will pave way for a hypothetical new minimum wage which figure appears to be
undecided. While it has been reported that NLC is demanding N56,000 or N65,000,
the private sector proposing N47,000 and states
appear reluctant to name a figure. To be fair and honest, one cannot
fault Nigerian workers if they ask for a pay rise considering the high level of
inflation that have made the price of some goods and services to more than
quadruple since the last time minimum wage was reviewed. The popular feeling
among the labour circles is that every commodity in Nigeria adds value every
now and then except workers’ wages. Since, they don’t have the power to control
the cost of living; the only language they’ll understand is a pay rise.
Looking
beyond the minimum wage however, there are so many directly and indirectly
related questions and issues which we must be asking and raising aside the
minimum wage itself. Is the new proposed minimum wage viable considering the
economic situation of local, states and federal governments as well as the
private sector? What do we do with rising unemployment crisis in the land? Is
there a need for general labour reforms in the country? What are the other
issues surrounding wages; wage structure, wage timing, wage equity, etc? As the engine room of the Nigerian
bureaucracy, what role is labour playing in the country’s development? What is
the initiative or lack of it of the Nigerian labour towards moving the country
forward?
More than 20
states in Nigeria have at various times between 2013 to 2018 been unable to pay
workers’ salaries despite a series of Federal Government bail-out given to them
through the Central Bank of Nigeria at various times. Before the bail-outs and
Paris Club refunds, the states owed workers from between 2 to 12 months
salaries. Several months later, many of these states still owe workers. It is
still not very clear whether this problem still persists because some of the
states allegedly misapplied or even diverted the bail-out funds or because the
bail-out funds were not just enough to solve the problem. Whatever the case,
one thing that is crystal clear is that majority of the states in Nigeria are
not economically fit to exist as states not to talk of having the ability to pay
a revised minimum wage and hence no short-term solution can change this. Of
what general value will the minimum wage be when not all employers can pay it?
Our tragedy
is not that we have carelessly allowed our governments to be the biggest
employers and are battling to pay an existing minimum wage that is at par or
below the world severe poverty line parameters; it is that a revised minimum
wage can only last for a while even if implemented. It is painful to say this,
but as long as our economy is unstable and vulnerable to inflation, we may need
to review the minimum wage upward almost every year which is quite unrealistic.
Only a stable and growing economy would allow citizens to make significant
meaning out of their earnings. Another issue is that Nigerian workers depend
almost entirely on their salaries for everything. Long term subsidized packages
from government and private sectors that will allow them acquire basics like houses,
cars and other properties are not popular in this part of the world.
The
unemployment crisis we are being faced with will sooner or later consume this
country if left unsolved. Seeking for a job in Nigeria is a job in itself. The
sooner we treat it as a national emergency, the better. Government cannot
provide employment for all, but it can seek partnership with labour to open up
the private sector and expand its capacity as well as mentally prepare
graduates to think outside being employees and become employers themselves.
Government must also reform the recruitment process at all levels to accommodate
transparency, credibility and meritocracy to have semblance of justice,
fairness and inclusiveness. As long as employment continues to be a privilege
of the connected few citizens, a violent revolution driven by frustration one
day awaits.
We always
blame the politicians for the corruption and backwardness of the country
without looking at the roles of the civil and public servants in that regard.
The question is whether Nigerian workers at all sectors are playing their part
towards a better Nigeria. For example ASUU have been going on strike for years
blaming the government for almost everything without looking inwards. The
union has been seeking a rise in education quality from without more than it is
seeking it from within. Isn’t the union aware of how internal recruitment of
lecturers has now been dominated by nepotism and favouritism? While this has
resulted to the system becoming replete with incompetent hands, how much has
the union tried to stop university administrators from doing this? How is the
union working towards mounting a mechanism that will expose the incompetent
members among its ranks who are the main drivers of poor quality education in
the country due to their poor teaching?
The need for
general and far reaching labour reforms in the country is imminent. Consider
the fact that in this country, two graduates of the same discipline and
experience and roughly the same nature and amount of work employed in different
sectors would be earning different wages that are miles apart. One may be earning
between N40,000 to N60,000 because he works in a state or federal ministry office
while the other may be earning between N250,000 to N500,000 because he is
working in CBN, NNPC, NCC, DPR, NPA, NIMASA or FIRS. With this, how do you
expect all workers to be fighting for the same cause? There is no labour law in
Nigeria you will review and get any convincing justification for this inequity.
The argument
usually advanced is that these are agencies where huge monies are generated or
involved and hence the workers there must be paid well or else there’ll be
corrupt. Isn’t this a clear admittance of the inability to discipline workers? Is
this to say revenue generation is the most important national priority? Should
others working in sensitive places like justice and environment be neglected
since they don’t generate revenues? The bigger problem is that it is not
anybody’s fault that he is not able to work for these agencies since their
vacancies are only reserved for the privileged.
While
government complains of shortage of funds, politicians who supposed to be
public servants earn huge, mind-blowing and sensibility-insulting wages that
are enough to cater for so many Nigerian workers and even employ numerous
others.
From the
1960s to date many developed and developing countries in Europe and around the
world have enacted laws to guarantee wage equity so that differentials in wages
would not be determined by gender, race, status or privilege, but rather, if
necessary by qualification, experience, profession, amount and nature of work
as well as risk involved. Here in Nigeria, the wage gap keeps expanding not
only across tiers of government, but across sectors and agencies with little or
no justifications. There is need of wage
harmony and regularization.
While the
Nigerian Labour Congress is declaring a warning strike over the minimum wage,
it will be better if it starts looking beyond it to attain substantial and
sustainable gains in the Nigerian labour system along with global best
standards. To achieve that, short term solutions like the minimum wage, though
vital will not suffice. A larger stakeholder effort may have to be initiated to
look into the problems holistically and come with bold action plans to solve
the problems.
Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez
