The General Secretary of Textile Workers Union, Comrade Issa Aremu, has called for the removal of governors who cannot pay salaries of their workers.

Aremu, who is also General Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress, said these governors were sworn to an oat based on 1999 constitution that they would ensure welfare of citizens and their security.

The labour leader stated this during the maiden Ramadan lecture organised by Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kwara State Council in honour of his late wife, Hajia Amdalat Aremu.

Aremu, said chapter II of Nigeria’s constitution deals with the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy.

“It says that the duty and responsibility as well as the primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. The same section of the constitution also says that the state shall direct its policy towards ensuring among others that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national (minimum) living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens.

“Indeed based on the spirit and content of the constitution, it is not only shameful for some states to renege on salary payments, as President Muhammed Buhari rightly observed but it is also clearly an impeachable offence,” he said.

The NLC leader, who condemned governors that were not paying workers their salaries, said they have turned them to glorified slaves.

He noted that it would be difficult for a nation to fight corruption when workers are not paid their salaries, stressing that “anti-corruption campaign cannot be sustained when workers do not receive adequate salaries on time.

“Hungry worker is not only angry but vulnerable to graft. There is a link between economic growth and wage payment. A well paid motivated worker will definitely be productive worker. President Obama as part of the efforts to revive American

economy raised minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour in 2015 and to $20 per hour in 2020. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) had raised the alarm about low demand for locally produced goods, leading to high inventories and low capacity utilisation.

“Nigeria can only diversify its economy if workers as consumers are well paid to patronize locally produced goods and services.”

He further said: “It is a sad commentary that most states’ civil servants in particular and Nigerian workers in general have been turned into glorified slaves as they work without pay for months. In fact, most workers have unfortunately been turned to working beggars.

“Alhamdullahi today is the 20th night of Ramadan. For many workers, they have been fasting before Ramadan. But for God’s sake, let’s pause a bit and consider, the plight of that worker who has not been paid for months.

“If he or she is the breadwinner, it is clear then that the family support collapses. Food must have been difficult to find to feed the children with all the implications for malnutrition. Some kids must have been withdrawn from school on account of non-payment of school fees while Sallah cloth will necessarily elude them. Pray the family is not sick either. Since the breadwinner cannot meet expectation, depression logically replaces love within the household.

“The options before unpaid workers in a society without social security like Nigeria are therefore better imagined.”

•Text courtesy of Peoples Daily. Photo shows Comrade Issa Aremu.

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