‘Doctors In Nigerian Are Irresponsible; Workers Should Be Paid ‘Very Low’ Minimum Wage’ – Gov. Nasir El-Rufai
Speaking at the ‘Governance Matters’ round table organised by Development Alternative Incorporation, DAI in Abuja, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai accused the trade unions in Nigeria of always pursuing their narrow minded selfish interest, without thinking of the good of the country.
According to Governor Nasir El-Rufai who berated Nigerian doctors for going on strike despite taking an oath to always save lives, it is only in Nigeria that doctors go on strike.
The Governor who in his speech advocated for a cut down in the National minimum wage, accused trade unions of always dragging their state chapters into the unnecessary fights with the Federal government.
‘Trade Unions have never served the country well. They have been selfish and everything is about their narrow interests. In general, in Nigeria, trade unions have been a danger to our progress and I think they should be curtailed. The mistake we made as a country was placing trade unions in the Exclusive Legislative List. If the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has an issue with the Federal Government, then the state universities will go on strike too. In Kaduna, I warned the Kaduna State University, that if ‘you ever go on strike again because of somebody else, I will fire all of you. I think we need to do some things. First, take labour matters out of the Exclusive List because many of us are victims of agreements reached with ASUU by the Federal Government. The states were never part of such agreements.
Secondly, is the issue of minimum wage. Except we set a very low minimum wage, there will continue to be issues especially with states that do not have wide tax net. You cannot set the same minimum wage for Lagos and Jigawa. Also, we must apply the labour laws strictly. No work, no pay, because there has to be a trade dispute before anything strike’ he said.
