A spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rubbished the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the new minimum wage into law.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the main opposition party, Prince Diran Odeyemi, described the minimum wage signed into law by Buhari as “mere propaganda, deceit and scamming” of the Nigerian civil servants. He insisted, in a statement, that the Nigerian workforce deserved more than the N30,000 minimum wage.
Odeyemi argued that based on the high exchange rate of the dollar when compared to what obtained under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, workers deserve better than N30,000.
According to him, “I was amused at the wide jubilation and undeserved publicity being accorded the so-called minimum wage” which he described as “ridiculously low if compared with the N18,000 ($122) minimum wage approved during the reign of President Goodluck Jonathan under the PDP administration.
“The exchange rate of US$ dollars to the Naira in 2010 was N147 to $1 which then translated N18,000 to be $122.
“If the APC wants to be honest with themselves and the sufferings of the Nigerian civil servants, what was expected of the ruling party was to just multiply $122 by the current exchange rate of N360 to $1 which would have given the civil servants a minimum salary of $122 x N360 which is N43,920 that they truly deserved.
“The Federal government has deliberately cheated the Nigerian civil servants with not less that $19 or N13,920.
“These are the reasons why PDP went the whole hug traversing the length and breadth of this country during the presidential campaign with assurances that the Naira was too weak with the lowest purchasing power ever in the history of our dear nation since the inception of APC administration on May 29, 2015.”
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