Funmi Olaitan, Ibadan
With the controversy over the recommended new minimum wage of N30,000 to Nigerian workers yet to abate with governors in the country under Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) vowing not to pay the amount, Founder of the One Love Family, Mr Satguru Maharaj Ji, has said the minimum wage should rather be N150,000.
Maharaj who made the call while speaking with journalists as part of activities marking the grand finale of the Golden Age festival, at One Love Family Village, Ibadan, berated the governors for insisting on not paying N30,000 as minimum wage, stating that the recommended new minimum wage cannot help the situation of workers in the country.
He said rather than threatening to sack workers for them to implement the new minimum wage, the governors should rather cut their ostentatious lifestyle, insisting that they were elected to make life more meaningful to the people and must be seen to be doing this.
According to him, instead of debating whether to pay N30,000 as new minimum wage, it should rather be increased to N150,000, noting that with the present economic reality in the country, the recommended new minimum wage is a misnomer and cannot be in the best of workers in the country.
He said, "There is no need talking of whether or not N30,000 should be the new minimum wage in the country, the amount is ridiculous such that it cannot ease the suffering of Nigerian workers. As for me, N150,000 should be the ideal new minimum wage given the economic situation in the country today.
"For governors threatening to sack workers if they should be forced to pay N30,000 as new minimum wage, it is quite unfortunate that they do not know what they are saying. What they should be concerned with is how they will reduce their lifestyle which is oppressive to not only Nigerian workers but the entire masses in the country."
On alleged plan to sell Ajaokuta Steel Company, he said such an action would be repulsive to patriotic and nationalistic mindset, stating that auctioning of Nigeria's economic assets is a feature of neo-liberal globalization which sets circumstantially weak economies like Nigeria up for sale.
He said, "If the plan to sell the company is true, it simply tells that the prevailing national economic management culture that the reigning crop of Nigerian leaders is hooked on is the kick-and-start type, a wretched and totally unreliable standard. For how long will Nigerian leaders be selling Nigeria's economic assets to sustain Nigeria.
"What is wrong in investing in the creative talents of Nigerians and in the protection of Nigerian creativity as a national development imperative? When our viable assets are all sold off to so-called foreign investors, what will our leaders fall back on to fund our country's annual budget? Will they release their loot? Most certainly, they will pack their bags and fly off to UK, USA, Saudi Arabia, China and Japan to enjoy their tranches of stolen funds."
He then called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reject all proposals made to him to sell the company, noting that a sustainable deal that protects the country's right and access to using the company to transform its economic state should rather be worked out and duly implemented.
