By Matthew Omonigho A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Delta State, Sunny Onuesoke has said the solution to Nigeria...
By Matthew Omonigho
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Delta
State, Sunny Onuesoke has said the solution to Nigeria’s economic problem is
not an increase in minimum wage but deflation of the economy.
He made the assertion in a phone interview with our
correspondent in his reaction to the imbroglio between the federal government
and labour unions in the country.
Onuesoke said the increment of wages will not solve the
economic problem in the country but it will rather increase it.
“Nigerians are getting it wrong. What Nigeria want is
deflation. If you increase the salary to one million Naira today, the prices of
goods and services will keep increasing.
“The more you increase the minimum wage, the more it goes
‘pari pasu’ with the increase of goods and services. The average person who is
not in the civil service but produces food items like pepper, tomatoes, yam,
garri etc will increase his produce.”
According to Chief Onuesoke, ”Wage increase cannot resolve
the inflation rate because as there is more salary increase, there is more
currency circulating in the system. When there is more currency flow in the
system, the prices of goods and services will keep increasing. It is a simple
economic theory. The more increases in workers’ salaries, the more you will
build up the high inflation rate.
“The country is not being controlled by only civil servants
alone. The civil servant is just 14% of those providing services in Nigeria.
They are an insignificant margin. When you are thinking of civil servants, the
private sectors are not addressed as civil servants. There is no private sector
that will be able to pay that amount of money as salary monthly.”
He said what Nigerians need right now is the reduction of
the inflation rate to the extent that even if a worker is receiving N20,000
thousand as minimum wage, he should be able to pay his rent and take care of
other responsibilities comfortably.
He also urged the federal government to intensify building
low-cost houses for the common man, subsidise them and mortgage the same for
the period of their lifetime as a way to reduce the inflation rate.
“The people need social infrastructure that will downsize,
that will deflate, that will reduce the hard side of their hardship. What I am
saying is that the Federal Government and state governors should intensify
massive agricultural and housing programmes. They should subsidise and reduce
the cost of education. Health insurance should be all-embracing.
“Our problem is that we are giving projections without
knowing the database of Nigerians. If you ask our leaders how many acres of
land will produce a certain quantity of cassava, they don’t know it. But they
go on air to produce certain figures borrowed from armchair economists.
“Each local government should be able to have 80,000 acres
of cassava farmland. Yam, maize, rice etc. They should fix the refineries. What
stops the country from fixing the four refineries till tomorrow? Is it a
problem to fix the refineries? Why are we importing refined products and we are
the number six oil-producing country in the world”.
The increase in the minimum wage is an addition of two
thousand naira which the Federal Government said is above their initial offer
of sixty thousand naira.
The labour union had stepped down their demands from four
hundred and ninety-four thousand Naira ₦494,000 to ₦250,000 per month.
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