A federal lawmaker, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has said that “Nigerian workers are in chains because they have not been properly remunerated.”
Adeyemi made the observation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Monday.
He said the Nigeria Labour Congress was planning a nationwide strike over the unresolved payment of the minimum wage to workers.
The legislator, a PDP Senator from Kogi State, said, “I say this as a legislator and against the background of what I know about government today, which before now, I did not.
“There are so many areas of wastages in Nigeria. Some of these wastages have been so institutionalised that you can’t even say no to them because they are backed by law.
“And against that background, I have a feeling that Nigerian workers are not well paid or remunerated.”
Adeyemi said that the situation whereby few people were enjoying, while millions were living in penury was ungodly and un-African, noting that it was high time government reviewed upward wages of workers.
“I feel there is a need to review salaries and wages of workers upward so that they too can live a fairly comfortable life.
“I stand by the labour congress on any issue that will improve the wellbeing of Nigerian workers.
“But because I don’t want to be a judge in a case I am interested in, I therefore, appeal to labour to also make their demands known to other tiers of government like the National Assembly, as their representatives, so that we can push for them.”
He said that a nationwide strike at the moment might be misinterpreted and could affect the nation’s democracy.
Adeyemi said, “But I will want labour to get nearer and present their positions and push for it because it will amount to betrayal of people like us, who got to this level by the privilege position of championing the wellbeing of workers.
“But again, I would want to plead that I have a feeling that this government, headed by President Goodluck Jonathan, is a listening government.
“I have interacted with him and I know that he is definitely going to do something about it.”
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010260494128
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