Any Governor That Fails To Pay The N30,000 Minimum Wage Is Wicked – Godwin Obaseki

Posted by: Folamidavid in News, Politics Dec 3, 2019

Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki has come out to say that the new N30,000 minimum wage cannot even take workers home because of the current hardship in Nigeria.

According to him, it will, therefore, be wickedness on the part of any governor to not pay the already small N30,000.

He added that our focus should not even be on the money but on building the environment for workers to be more productive.

His words, “I want to assure you, due to the work my predecessor in office did, we have currently the minimum wage of N25,000 in Edo state, so moving to N30,000 is not going to be a big thing for us at all.

“For me personally, I don’t think the emphasis should be on N30,000 minimum wage, the emphasis should be on improving the environment in which workers work such that they can be more productive and justify what we pay. N30,000 you can agree with me cannot take workers home.

“So what we should be angling for is to demonstrate that workers are producing much more they are being paid and on the basis of that, demand a fairer share of what they are producing. We must continue to insist that education is key, not only for the development of human capital, but also for attractive citizenry poised to the development of our community and country at large. “

“For our country to survive, we must begin to think on how to strengthen our institutions, be it educational, health, research or social services. What is key for us for our development is to make sure that we have strong institutions.

“Nigeria does not need strong men, what it needs are strong institutions. Strong institutions are the cornerstone of any stable government and for institution to function optimally; it must be guaranteed stable and assured funding.

“Funding of education, healthcare and research institution and other social services are critical functions of the state and that function must be prioritized because it is conditional to the organization and development of the state.

“In the quest of the need to build strong institution, we are constantly faced with the concern over the insufficiency of funding which is required to guarantee optimal effectiveness and service delivery. Our reality is that government particularly the federal government no longer has the requirements to meet its responsibilities.

“So for us to work with the insufficiency resources that are available to deliver results to our people, we need to think more creatively and more innovatively and reach out to other sources of capital for government to function. Any government that believes that it can do it itself, it can carry out the total function on its own today is only deceiving itself.”