The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressive Congress, APC have engaged themselves in war of words over the proposed new minimum wage in the country.
The PDP urged organised labour not to accept a minimum wage below ₦120,000, asserting that the Federal Government had no justification for not meeting this amount.
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC), proposing a N60,000 minimum wage, criticised the PDP’s recommendation as unpatriotic.
Organised labour, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trades Union Congress, initiated a nationwide strike on Monday.
The union, however suspended the strike and gave the federal government a week.
In an interview, PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary Ibrahim Abdullahi accused the APC-led Federal Government of insincerity in its negotiations with labour unions.
He argued that the government had been wasteful with funds and thus could not claim it could not pay at least ₦120,000 as a minimum wage.
Abdullahi said, “With the lies the APC is telling us, if they can afford to construct a road for ₦3tn, if they can afford to do all this jamboree if they can afford to take 1,500 government officials out of this country for things that are not important, then I don’t know why, for crying out loud, they should not be able to pay a reasonable minimum wage.
“The reasonable minimum wage Nigeria should take at this moment should be N120,000 or nothing less. If Nigerians cannot be given that as a minimum wage, then we better go on with this strike unending. So that the government will know that some people put them there if they were truly elected.”
Meanwhile, the APC Publicity Director, Bala Ibrahim, slammed the PDP for instigating the organised labour against the government.
“The PDP is gradually turning into something that will one day question the integrity of the Constitution of Nigeria.
“If the PDP had won the election, believe me, it would have not been a question of minimum wage, there would be no wage at all. So, they said it out of anger, the bitterness of losing an election, and lack of patriotism,” Ibrahim stated.
