Cut spending, pay minimum wage —ASUSS

The National President, Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, Mr Samuel Omaji, has told  federal and state governments to cut back on  wasteful spending to enable them to  pay  workers the  N30,000 minimum wage.

Omaji, who   said this in a statement on Monday, lamented the delay in the payment of the new minimum wage   since it was approved  by the Federal Government.

He said, “They have no excuse to continue to delay  the  implementation  of the new minimum wage. If it is a question of insufficient funds, we have told them that federal and state chief executives should  reduce their wasteful spending, including the needless foreign trips that gulp millions of naira. They need to be more creative, block all leakages, be more patriotic, purposeful and fiscally disciplined.

“It is inexplicable that after over two years of agitation by the labour movement, culminating in  the  signing into law of the  (minimum wage) bill, the Federal Government has continued to deploy various tactics, including divide and rule, to negate the implementation of a basic surviving wage, notwithstanding that Nigerian workers have a right to a living wage and not a mere minimum wage.”

Omaji added, “The foot-dragging on the minimum wage issue and poor attention to public secondary schools generally appears to us as a calculated attempt to take education off the reach of the common man as  private schools continue to soar in the face of  government’s lackadaisical attitude to funding public schools.”

According to him, the performance of the education sector is tied to the implementation of the N30,000 new  minimum wage.

The ASUSS  chief   said, “improved wage, working tools and a conducive teaching – learning environment are directly proportional to performance”.

He  decried the sorry state of  infrastructure and a lack of basic teaching aids, including modern laboratories in most of the secondary schools in  the country, demanding  urgent action.