Today is "workers' day" in Nigeria. What may not be obvious to many is the level of decline in the purchasing power of this class of people in our country. Nigerian workers have seen a decline in their purchasing power, up to 90% in the last ten years under the current party that promised so much and delivered so little...
What N100k will buy in 2015 is worth N1 million today. Check the price of petrol, egg, bread, rice, fish, tomatoes, garri, used car, cement, clothing, coke, beer, flight, etc, they have all gone up by almost 900%.
During the same ten-year period, revenue accruing to the purse of the Federal government has increased because of increased IGR, and foreign exports; naira has also been devalued by as much as 90% since then, when you compare an exchange rate of N165 to $1 in 2015 to now N1600.
Most Nigerians spend naira, not dollars. If revenue converted to naira has increased by almost 900% for the government, they should at least increase salaries by 200 to 300%. Rather, salaries have stagnated since the increase made by OBJ around 2000 - 2004. The increase done last year is an insult to the workers, and a salt on the injury of the pains the middle class (salaried Nigerians) are feeling.
At LAUTECH in 2010, a Senior Lecturer was earning about N250k to N300k; what they earn today is just about N50k more. Whereas, the cost of fueling their cars, buying palm oil, ororo, pepper, rice, beans, garri, paying school fees of their wards, and other important life essentials has gone up multiple times...
It appears the labor leaders have been bought by the politicians in power... Otherwise, they would have led a revolt to ensure their members are properly compensated. Politicians have increased their own salaries to a point commensurate with the inflationary indices of the last ten to fifteen years. The Nigerian workers deserve the same...They constitute the majority of the middle class, and they are the driver of the economy. If nothing changes, we are close to being back to the 1980s and 1990s when the poverty of the working class was evident... If the middle class do not have the purchasing power, we should forget about any form of economic growth...
Nigerian workers are suffering while politicians who control our commonwealth and laughing to the bank every day... This is unfair and it needs to change NOW not tomorrow.
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