18,000 Naira and the value of a Nigerian worker

As a young lad growing up in the then bustling and peaceful city of Kaduna, I still could recall with pride the period when the federal government under the nationalist leadership of General Yakubu Gowon paid the famous Odoji windfall. I could still recollect the joyous faces of those who benefitted from that legacy.  To me, it  remaines till date the greatest bonus ever splashed on the Nigerian public worker.
Over the decades the Nigerian worker who hitherto was the envy of most of its colleagues across the globe has suddenly found himself slaving to survive amidst bureaucratic, dictatorial and political forces. Sometimes one wonders if an average Nigerian worker is presently anywhere better than a slave in the 18th Century, apart from the freedom of movement and expression now partially being enjoyed by the present day workers.
Again, it sometimes beats my imagination when subsequent governments over the years after the Odoji extra always come out openly to resist any form of increment or genuine demands by the Nigerian workers. This  more evident during the civilian eras with our expensive and flamboyant politicians fighting   shamelessly against any increment that might better the life of those striving workers who daily ensured that things work out smoothly for them.   I wonder if they sometimes imagine how it would be like if they were left to carry on with the act of governance alone without the participation of the Nigerian workforce.
  I mean what it would look like without the states and federal workers from the messenger downstairs to the permanent secretary, director or whatsoever upstairs, including their counterparts in private sectors.  I wonder if our tooth fighting and grumbling governors will be able to govern and run the affairs of their states without the workers at the various ministries and agencies.  Who knows maybe they might decide to import robots and aliens to do the work for them, just as they import the water they drink , the cars they drive and the clothes most of them wear to their expensive sittings.
The most baffling aspect of the whole shadiness is the reality that none of these governors is expected to pay a kobo out of his pocket; rather it is going to be a payment from the people’s money. But because of the state of mind of most of our politicians in leadership position who always have this illusive idea that a state income or allocation automatically belongs to them, most them have come out cheaply to say that they cannot pay the agreed and approved N 18,000 minimum wage, an agreement that has since been signed into law and gazetted by the government. It clearly shows how disrespectful these men are for the law of the land.
The truth is, this is actually the time to question the qualification and capability of  some of these  helmsmen to lead their states. It is a shame that some of them are coming out at this early hour of their tenure to say they cannot pay their workers. What is the essence of their being in their position when they are merely waiting for carrots from the federation accounts? What vision or plans do they have to generate revenue for their states apart from waiting hopelessly as beggars for handouts from the federal government? Surprisingly some of these governors are the world’s most recognized globetrotters, where they travel expensively on tax payers’ money to America, Europe, Malaysia, Dubai, England, Saudi Arabia and what have you. In these places they  see and daily witness how some of the states,counties, municipals  and cities they visit are generating internal revenue and paying their workers, yet they come back home after fruitless journey abroad to do nothing or bring nothing meaningful to their own states. They brag and make loud comparison with other developed cities, but at the same time have nothing positive to show about their own. They spend  thousands of naira everyday of their life in their position on frivolities and other unnecessary ceremonious outing, huge amounts that could pay an average worker for close to  five or more years, but yet they are finding  it difficult to pay just N18,000 to their workers. An amount most of them spend every day within a blink of an eye.
The Nigerian worker over the years has been at the mercy of the local, state and federal government,that dictate and control them like robots in their places of work, sometime threaten to sack them for fighting for their legitimate rights. Others have died along the way for fighting for their pension allowance or gratuity over the years. They are treated like aliens in their own country, while a foreigner is seen and treated like a lord.  All around us we see people from other countries that are enjoying the wealth of this rich nation more than the citizens in most of our ministries, agencies and some private sector driven  of our economy.
Our politicians are willing and ready to pay an outsider N 100,000 (One hundred thousand) monthly as long as he or she is not a Nigerian and could convince  them that they schooled abroad  and are professionals in their field of work.Who cares if the fellow was just a mere labourer back  in his country. The blind following of our leaders to outsiders has been one of the major causes why an average Nigerian worker is treated like slave in his country, part of the reason why18,000 naira is seen as too much or not reasonable by our insensitive leaders.  What is their concern if we all go to the same markets with them,their wives, their mistresses or their close associates? Do we really carry the same amount in the pocket?
The value of the Nigerian worker, his skills and zeal has since been dampened by low wages, poor working environment and nepotism.  Our politicians have taught most of us that getting to the top is no longer a matter of merit or committed service to our fatherland, but godfathrism, sycophancy and who you know at the top. They have since taught us not to work and wait for reward of our sweat without fighting for it. And painfully they have sold our values for cheap political gains and unproductiveness. They don’t respect what we do or how we do them, rather they believe we must work as 21st century slaves and wait for their direction on how we  feed ourselves, clothe our frail frames and  shelter our overexploited heads. They believe the Nigerian worker was born or made to serve them, while they ride big cars, build gigantic houses and marry the most enticing women around. It is also part of their reasoning that their children must work in juicy establishment and get paid in high currency, while the average worker beg to be paid cheap  stipend  to keep body and soul.
The Nigerian worker is that man or woman who is owed bulk of monthly salaries and other rightful entitlements and yet he or she is expected to come to work either by magic or any other disappearing act. Nobody cares if you have transport money or not, neither does anybody want to know if you have not eaten a good meal in the last one week, or do most establishments care if you are sick, in a sorrowful mood or can’t afford to pay your house rent and your children’s school fees.
To the governors,18,000 is just too ridiculous for a worker to take home at the end of slaving for thirty days. Why not remain at status quo till they finish their unproductive tenure and let others come and carry on with the bill from where they stopped, they always reason, but right now they can’t just afford to forgo their expensive governance and let go all thejumbopay,chop-chop and,owanbe,including the free spending associated with their position.
Our leaders and the elite over the years have been the root cause why the private sector has always treated their workforce like housemaids, paying them chicken feed monthly and dismissing them at will, without adequate compensation, and also part of the reason why a foreign company comes into Nigeria to confidently exploit their Nigerian workers and  treat them like modern slaves.
Who says the value of a Nigerian worker is up to N18, 000, please ask our politicians and governors for more enlightenment.
NEW  NIGERIAN  ON  SUNDAY, JULY 10 ,  2011

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