Minimum Wage: Ugochinyere Hails Abbas Over Effort To Resolve Labour Strike

The member representing Ideato North/South Federal Constituency of Imo State in the House of Representative, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, has described the efforts of Speaker of the House, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, to help resolve the ongoing strike by Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) as a commendable public interest move.

Ugochinyere, in a statement on Monday, noted that the Speaker, alongside the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had jettisoned other engagements on Sunday to meet with the leadership of the Organised Labour and Federal Government in order to avert the indefinite strike, which commenced on Monday.

The chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), also said that the commitment, passion and importance Speaker Abbas attached to the resolution of the labour dispute to forestall the strike action, which is detrimental to the economy and general polity, made him to shelve his two-day official assignment in Lagos State to lead several principal officers and members of the House to the emergency meeting at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja on Sunday.

He said the passion in the Speaker’s voice when he addressed the Labour leaders at the meeting, conveyed a strong feeling of patriotism for one’s country, even the unionists proceeded with the strike.

He, therefore, urged the Federal Government and Organised Labour to quickly resolve issues in the interest of the people.

Speaker Abbas had said: “We are on the side of the government, and we are on the side of the people. That is why we call ourselves ‘The People’s Parliament.’ Whatever affects the common man affects us, too.

“I am sure someone would recall what I said during the independence anniversary lecture, that one thing that this government and this country can do to eliminate corruption in the long-run is to embrace a ‘living wage.’ There are no two ways about it. But we should also be mindful that the issues of numerous decades cannot be repaired within one day. It will be a gradual process.

“We have to start (from) somewhere and then agree to a plan of what we can do to reach that level where every Nigerian worker can beat their chest and say ‘I am earning enough to put food on the table; enough to take care of my basics.

“So, my take-home for all of us here is to say thank you to the organised labour for even accepting to come to this National Assembly; to give Nigerians and the government the hope that all is not lost; that we can be able to continue interacting, and we can continue to dialogue on this critical subject.”