Nigerians see no signs of economic growth —Labour

By Victor AhiumaYoung, Precious Enaike & Omotola Aremo

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, yesterday said Nigerians have seen no sign of economic growth according to the gross domestic product, GDP, released by the federal government on Tuesday.

President of ASCSN, Shehu Mohammed, who spoke during a chat with journalists at the Association’s South West zonal workshop on “A shift from confrontation to collaboration”, in Lagos, also expressed concerns over the increasing price of petrol.

This came as the immediate past President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo called for workers’ remuneration in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to reflect prevailing inflation, stressing the need to protect jobs and improve workers’ welfare.

Mohammed lamented that the current N70,000 minimum wage was eroded by inflation even before it was signed into law.

He, however, noted that “by next year, we are going into negotiations for a new minimum wage. So, any moment from now, in the pre-negotiation session, we need to kick-start the process so we have our data across the table and can negotiate a better minimum wage for Nigerian workers.”

On the GDP report, Mohammed said “the reported growth is not reflected on the living condition of the Nigerians especially workers. We are the engine room of the economy. We lubricate the economy but it is very unfortunate that what we are facing today is that we are lubricating, but we are drying.

‘’As I said earlier, even before the full implementation of the minimum wage, the rate of inflation had already taken away the value of the N70,000 minimum wage. It is not even about what is happening now; this is what we have experienced in the two to three years of implementation of the minimum wage.

“Civil servants are really the ones suffering because when you empower civil servants economically, then the nation will have a change of movement. When civil servants are deprived of a befitting minimum wage and economic empowerment, then definitely, the economy of the country will also suffer.’’

On rising fuel prices, he said: “It is the other side of subsidy removal. Upon the removal of subsidy, that means you are going to buy fuel at international market rates, despite the fact that we have refineries that are not functioning. So, that has caused fuel prices to escalate to this level of over N1, 000.’’

Workers’ pay must reflect rising inflation

Meanwhile, the immediate past President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, has called for workers’ remuneration in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to reflect prevailing inflation, stressing the need to protect jobs and improve workers’ welfare.

Osifo, who is also President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, made the call at a reception organised by the TotalEnergies E&P branch of PENGASSAN to mark his successful six-year tenure as president of the union.

He said protecting jobs and ensuring that workers’ wages kept pace with inflation must remain central to the future of the oil and gas industry.

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