Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has expressed displeasure over his colleagues’ insistence on reducing to N10, 000, the N18, 000 minimum wage, saying they had no option to than to pay workers their stipulated salaries.
Oshiomhole, who spoke to State House correspondents after a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, reminded his colleagues that the welfare of the people was the basic reason for governance.
He said: “With due respect to my colleagues, it is offensive to talk about minimum wage. How can the food of the steward be the reason that the elders cannot eat? I mean by conventional wisdom. If there is crisis in the system, it is the excess fat that will shade fats not the skeletons. The idea of using minimum is very offensive.
“The problem with Nigeria is that each time we confront a serious economic problem, we look at the escape route option. Those are not the hearts of the challenges, we must go to the heart of challenges, we must revisit issues. I also think it is simplistic to believe that one drug will cure all the ailments in the various states. Every state has to take its own independent evaluation of the nature of its own problems and design appropriate policy instruments to deal with those problems as they relate to each state.
“The problem in one state is not the same with the one in Edo State. Everybody will have to deal with its own. Lastly, I also think that if anybody wants to talk about federalism, let’s not talk about federalism where it affects the wages of the lowest paid. I have asked this question, why should Edo state governor receive the same salary as the governor of Lagos State when the population of Lagos State is doubled that of Edo state and their GDP is much higher?
“Why should I receive the same pay as the governor of Zamfara or Akwa Ibom, these states are richer by accident of location. If we want to preach this principle, we are in a federal system, everybody should pay according to his cost of living. The cost of governing Edo State is not the same cost as governing Lagos State.” – Vanguard.
