The Ogun Baptist Conference has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration to summon enough courage and “objectively” confront the base of insurgency and banditry so that Nigeria can conveniently overcome challenges of economic hardship currently being experienced nationwide.
The Conference also faulted the newly approved amount of N70, 000 as minimum wage for workers in Nigeria, emphasising that any minimum wage that is lesser than N100, 000 ” in Nigeria currently is only mirage”.
President of the Conference, Rev (Dr.) Wale Oyeniyi stated these while speaking with journalists yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital during a press conference held to herald the 47th edition of Conference In Session beginning today (Thursday) at First Baptist Church, Oke-Odan in the Yewa South local government area of the state.
Noting that no society can record any meaningful development in an atmosphere of insecurity, Oyeniyi said insecurity and political instability in various parts of the country have disrupted agricultural practices and commercial undertakings, which now cascaded in food scarcities and high cost of living nationwide.
President of the Ogun Baptist Conference explained that the press conference was particularly called to state its position on state and national issues at the meeting with the theme: “Discipleship”, where over 500 Baptist Churches within Ogun State will be in attendance.
Faulting the newly approved minimum wage, Oyeniyi said the federal government needs to be more sincere and stop playing politics with the issue of minimum wage, emphasising that “a minimum wage that is less than N100, 000 in Nigeria of today is only mirage.”
“As it stands, minimum wage should not be less than N250, 000. Indeed, governments at all levels can afford it when all loopholes are blocked and cost of governance is cut to the barest minimum,” he said.
Aside from tackling the insurgency from the root, Oyeniyi also appealed to the federal government to muster necessary courage towards ensuring that the various money already recovered are not re-looted, but injected back into the nation’s economy so as to further cushion the effect of the economic hardship.