I Pity Tinubu If He Approves Unsustainable Minimum Wage

Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, has warned President Bola Tinubu against approving anything he described as an unsustainable minimum wage.

Tinubu, in his Democracy Day address on Wednesday, assured Labour that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers would soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.

The President is expected to decide on the ₦62,000 government and private sector proposal and the ₦250,000 demand of the Organised Labour.

However, Soludo, while speaking at ‘The Platform Nigeria’, a programme by Lagos-based church, Covenant Nation, to mark the 2024 Democracy Day, said he pities Tinubu if he approves an unsustainable minimum wage for workers in the country.

The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) warned that an unsustainable wage might lead to job losses and spiral economic challenges in the country.

Soludo said at the best of estimates, the Federal Government revenue will not exceed N17 trillion this year and “If you share it to all Nigerians, it comes to N6,160 per person, per month, per capita. If you take even the total N28. 7 trillion and share, it will come down to N10,000 per capita.”

According to the Governor, the private sector employs a huge percentage of the total workforce in the country, and not all of them can pay the N62,000 proposed by the Federal Government.

Soludo said he spoke with nine entrepreneurs in the state, and none of them could pay the proposed amount.

Recall that Soludo and his 35 colleagues under the umbrella of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum had also described minimum wage demands of Labour as sustainable.