The long-standing squabble between the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Buhari administration over minimum wage review for Nigerian workers may have finally come to an end, at least for now, it is however, believed that government's struggle to accept the proposed N30,000 minimum wage is a clear indication that the country is indeed poor.
This sentiment is also shared by the Nigerian Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, who claimed that the Nigerian economy is too small compared to developed countries like the US, Turkey and even our African neighbor, Egypt.
According to the Minister, the highly deliberated new minimum wage is nothing to right home about when compared to advanced countries like the United States where N31,000 is spent on a prisoner daily. He however, said it is unfair to compare the Nigerian economy to that of the US in other to appreciates what we have.
Speaking on Friday during an interface with the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Interior at a budget defence session, Aregbesola said, “comparing Nigeria with countries like America, Turkey and even Egypt as illustrated by some of the federal lawmakers will completely demoralised the morale of any concerned citizen but what we are sure of in the Ministry, is that we shall with the limited resources available make the best for the country.
”One of such challenges is the paucity of fund which has made the Ministry of Interior unable to pay for forty fire trucks manufactured for the country by Turkey since 18 months ago“, he said.
The minister, however, assured the committee members that the Nigerian Prisons will not be allowed to degenerate to concentration camps in line with the new mantra of correctional service given to it.
“We are engaging the governors because there is no other way to do it than to work with them. We are working with the Ministry of Justice which already have a committee in place for decongestion of prisons.”
"We are also planning a meeting with the Nigerian Governors Forum in order to sensitize them on what they should do to make sure that aspect of criminal justice administration is not neglected.
”There will be serious problems if all of us failed to come together to solve it. No sane person will want to administer or be in charge of a concentration camp in this time and age because of the problems faced by those who last operated a concentration camp. No one will in any way be connected with concentration camp. We are all concerned.
“I have said it in general terms but I will be more specific now. We will think out of the box. Nothing can be done by limiting ourselves to what is available but much can be done by being creative, innovative and very prudent in the management of scarce resources,” he explained.
