Minimum Wage: Senior Civil Servants Demand N46,000

Following the current high cost of living in Nigeria due to persistent rise in prices of goods and services, the Association of Senior Civil Servants has demanded a minimum wage of N46,000 for workers in the country.
Mr. Bashir Lawal, the union’s Secretary-General in Lagos State, on Wednesday said that the existing N18,000 minimum wage cannot meet the socio-economic needs of workers.
Lawal said a minimum wage of N46,000 demand was arrived at after the union met with the National Public Service Joint Negotiating Council.
He said, “In the past one year, we presented a proposal for salary review to the Federal Government but the government said that the price of crude had fallen.
“We argued that if the price of crude is 30 dollars per barrel and the resources of the country are well-managed, money will be enough to pay workers decent salaries.
“From the memo we submitted to the NPSJNC, we computed what it will take for an average worker to survive and we arrive at N66,000.
“So, we took 75 percent of that and we arrived at N46,000 minimum wage.”
Assuring that the new minimum wage demand will not cause crisis in the economic sector, Lawal said, “If the government believes that the amount will create crisis, we will tell them what to do to ensure that everybody will be carried along.”

By Patrick Aigbokhan