MINIMUM WAGE? DYNAMITE. BE CAREFUL.

There are a number of issues today in Nigeria that need to be handled with care because they contain dynamite. A major one is the recent demand by organised labour for a new N56,000 a month minimum wage.
Going by the fixed official exchange rate that comes to N1866.7 per day or about 9.47 dollars each day on a 30 day month.
The current minimum is N18000 per month ;N600 per day or about $3 each day.
However, going by the official exchange rate could be deceptive because only few items now get produced with input brought in at the official N197 to the dollar rate.
Besides, since this year, prices at the market place of goods and services particularly energy, food and transportation costs have grown wings. So much so that even the new N1866.7 per day demand appears valueless before it can even find its way to the negotiation table.
To add insult to injury, political leaders are quick to call for understanding and sacrifice from the populace yet none has changed modus operandi to justify this call and truly encourage true  spirit of sacrifice for the common good.
For example, it took some time to sink in that Nigeria's main headache now was how to survive the dry up of crude oil foreign exchange inflow but even when it did, presidential response was to set record as the most travelled head of state Nigeria ever had, if not the most travelled in a year worldwide.
Yet each travel goes with estacode for the retinue of support staff and accompanying dignitaries. Meanwhile, official personal assistants and advisers still liter the place like breeding rats, and law makers remain amongst the world's best paid and executive governors still run their States like personal estates.
So it will be difficult to get organised labour to rethink its demand for a new minimum wage now of all times in Nigeria's history.
Yet, the truth is that even the Federal government can not afford to increase minimum wage and employ more policemen, reshape damaged North east, restrain Fulani herdsmen and saboteurs not to talk of kidnappers and militant elements.
Many States are still having issues either paying the current minimum wage or stopping earnings and allocations from being swallowed up by civil service wage bill.
On the part of very many companies a new minimum wage will herald new pressure on production and service delivery costs at a time many are already considering trimming labour force.
Thus the potential for leading to nation wide work stoppage if not handled with care is real.
We cant pay, won't pay is not the kind of response organised labour is hoping for but then, reality on the ground makes such a posture inevitable across the board.
The only way out is for the all parties negotiations to take place soon enough before positions harden like concrete but not to fix minimum wage but to establish how to transit to reward tied to productivity especially in the public sector.
In the current reward regime tied to minimum wage, there are too many idle hands and ghost workers in public service. Get the real job done by less people at less time and cost, then Nigeria can comfortably cross the current turbulent times stronger and more efficient.
Anything less will soon enough lead to another nationwide crisis the economy can ill afford. Buhari, please handle this dynamite with all the care, and not bravado, at your disposal.

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