National Public Relation Officer, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Comrade Abdussobur Salaam, has advocated elimination of disparity in worker’s wages.
Salaam stated this at the 1st memorial lecture in honour of late Comrade Adoro Obiageli of the National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Sheda in Kwali area council, Abuja-FCT Thursday.
Speaking on the theme: “Nigerian workers and the struggle for survival” he said there was a correlation between the salary of workers and the wealth of a nation.
He stated that until when Nigeria is able to evolve a salary structure that will make workers happy, the nation will not be able to advance.
“We believe so much that there are too many inequalities in the country and that the absence of social justice has also been a major problem that has affected the nation.
“The only solution is to establish a social justice in this country and bridge the gap between the inequality among the rich and the poor,” he stated.
He said N30, 000 new minimum wage as at today is inadequate, because as we have discovered, the minimum wage of N125 that was given to a worker in 1981 is far better than the N30,000 being negotiated now.
Earlier, chairman SSANU, NMC branch, Mr Olorunsuyi Ademola said the lecture was apt and pertinent considering the current situation in our country Nigeria, where the standard of living for Nigerian workers is low.
He said, “Inflation is on the rise, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is below average and yet, salaries and wages are static and our take home pay cannot take us home,” he said.
Ademola stated that, the objective of the memorial lecture among others is to provide a platform for intellectual discourse on the real essence of unionism and to build capacity on the essence and ideal of human relation, to encourage the development of leadership skills and virtue as well as foster productivity, ethical development and national orientation.
