Minimum wage: Current labour leaders are toothless – Frank

A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Friday, said that Nigerians should not take the leadership of the nation’s labour unions seriously over their threat to call for a strike if the government refuses to pay the N30,000 minimum wage.

Frank described the labour leaders as ‘traders’ and said that they have been compromised to the extent that they can no longer fight for the welfare of their members.

Reacting to the latest threat by the organized labour to go on strike if federal government refused to meet their demand over the new minimum wage, the political activist, in a statement in Abuja, urged Nigerians to ignore the threat, saying the NLC’s cry came too late.

He lamented that, with the current imposed charges on telecommunications providers, Value Added Tax, increased bank charges, proposed toll gates and partial closure of land borders, the N30,000 minimum wage had become useless.

“The Buhari-led federal government promised the Nigerian workers heaven on earth before the general elections but has been complaining of no money to pay workers just N30,000.

“The money being looted daily under the current administration is enough to pay even more than N30,000 as minimum wage to Nigerian workers but no one will blame the government because the current labour leaders are weak and compromised,” he said.

Frank said the labour union is one of the problems of Nigeria as they have refused to take action to resist bad policies of government.

“All over the world, labour unions are always the first to speak up against unnecessary increase in taxes, bad policies and other actions that have direct bearing on the citizens but in Nigeria, most of the Union leaders are compromised and have turned a blind eye to the plight of their members,” Frank said.