Nigeria: May Day brings demands to hike minimum wage

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Nigerian workers Monday called for the country's monthly minimum wage to be raised threefold from $60 to $184, insisting that the current pay is at odds with economic reality.

The call came as the country's labor force joined workers worldwide to commemorate May 1 May Day, set aside to celebrate and champion the cause of workers’ movement across the globe.

Ayuba Wabba, head of the Nigeria Labor Congress, told a rally in the capital city Abuja that a review of the minimum wage “is long overdue and must urgently be carried out” in view of the economic recession and inflation in the country.

Nigeria last reviewed the minimum wage in 2011.

Wabba also condemned a bid to give state governments the power to decide what they pay, effectively eliminating the national minimum wage.

“We are talking about protecting the most vulnerable group, that is the principle and philosophy...and we condemn in its entirety the attempt” to make minimum wage a state matter, he said, warning that this is an attempt to exploit labor.

Labor Minister Chris Ngige’s May Day message did not address the demand.

Nevertheless, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara said in a statement that parliament will endorse an adjustment to the minimum wage once a bill on it comes before lawmakers.

In a May Day message also apparently meant to quash rumors of ill health, President Muhammadu Buhari assured workers that he is looking after their welfare.

- Officials booed at May Day rally

Nigerian workers booed officials at the Eagle Square venue of the national May Day rally, with security details abruptly whisking the officials away in the middle of the event. Chants accusing them of being “thieves" rent the air as the officials -- including Ngige, Senate President Bukola Saraki, and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara -- tried to address the workers.

The workers, drawn from the country's two major labor centers, instead demanded to have Buhari address them on what he is doing to ease workers’ hardship.

Nigerian officials, especially lawmakers, have become an object of public ridicule for their generous salaries, which many say defy reason in a country where over 70 percent of the people live below the poverty line.