Chrys
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), says the N30,000 minimum wage is no longer sufficient
to meet the demand of an average Nigerian worker.
In a statement issued on Sunday to felicitate with Nigerian workers
on the occasion of the International Workers Day celebrated on May 1, Atiku
asked them not to despair but be hopeful.
Atiku advised workers to see the 2023 Worker’s Day as a
moment for “sober reflection and stock-taking given the myriad of socio-economic
tribulations facing them in the last eight years”.
The former vice-president said the lives and welfare of
workers and their families have been reduced to the “abyss of mere existence
due to the litany of policy errors by the ruling APC government which created
insecurity in all facets of workers’ lives — food, shelter, health, wealth and
education”.
“In Nigeria of today,
the minimum wage of N30,000 cannot buy a full bag of rice, let alone cloth or
pay for a worker’s many utility bills. Hyperinflation in all sectors of our
nation has constituted serious socio-economic strangulation to the average
Nigerian worker, who’s now poorer than in 2015 when APC came to power,” Atiku
said.
“It is unimaginable how a government could be so heartless
to treat its bonafide citizens like medieval slaves in colonial plantations.
Where are the so-called ‘dividends of democracy’? Labourers do deserve
commensurate wages that meet pervading economic conditions of the time. Alas,
Nigerian workers now receive wages that can no longer take them home or bring
them back to the office”.
Abubakar said despite the “precarious situation”, workers
should not despair and cowed, but keep their heads above water and stay afloat,
be resilient and hopeful for the sake of the younger generation and the
country’s future.
Atiku further extolled the virtues of hard work,
perseverance and endurance of the working people in the country.
“Hope is the breath that keeps people alive. Let’s work
together in unity of voice and purpose to retrieve our electoral victory through
the law courts. Let’s have faith that the judiciary would be fair and dispense
unbiased justice,” Atiku said.
