PROTOCOL

Comrade Adams,

Comrades, it gives me much pleasure to address you on this May Day of the year 2000.

Before I go much further, let me commend you for the relative industrial peace and harmony we have enjoyed in this first year of democratic governance.

This day is traditionally set aside world wide to celebrate and appreciate the invaluable role of labour in organised societies and in the march of civilisation.

Together with the rest of the world we mark this May Day as the first in this century and indeed the first of the new millennium.

At home, this is the first May Day in the context of the new democratic dispensation that will clock its first anniversary at the end of this month. By now, comrades, I am sure that you would have got the message of our administration’s committment to national rebirth and reconstruction. We fully accept that attainment of this goal will only be possible with the full cooperation and participation of organised labour in Nigeria.

Economists traditionally regard labour as one of the three componentsof economic production, the other two being land and capital. A most important fourth factor in the new age is knowledge. Successful nations and societies make maximum use of whichever component they are most endowed with. China, for instance, with its huge population, has endeavoured to use that as the backbone of its economic and industrial muscle. We, in this the most populous of African nations, are blessed not only with great natural resources but also with a workforce of immense economic potential. What we need is to harness this combined potential of material and human resources for optimal use in productivity.

Whatever the perspective, labour in action with production is a prerequisite for economic development and progress. By developing the skill-base of Nigerian workers, we empower them; we equip them to survive in the modern world. Thus, qualitative improvement of our workforce is part of this administration’s Poverty Alleviation Programme.

A labour force so improved, motivated and focussed will be a primary force of change in our drive to better economic performance and prosperity. We need to change labour in order for labour to change our society. I can assure you, comrades, that our Administration is fully committed to this qualitative change of our labour force.

I would like to draw your attention to some of the details of our recently launched 10 billion naira Poverty Alleviation Programme. This programme uses the workforce as the central component of its successful implementation. And its targets include enhancing our physical environment. That is essentially, to improve sanitation and general cleanliness, to rehabilitate and beautify dilapidated structures and create an altogether healthier, more comfortable and pleasant environment for all of us to live in.

Comrades, this is only the beginning and we have some distance to go in this very important use of the labour force. In fact, there is so much to do to get this country moving again, that it is extremely absurd that we have such high numbers of people who are not gainfully employed - and this is the statistical definition of unemployment. On top of which we also have serious underemployment in our public service and our national life which is graphically illustrated by the picture of too many civil servants chasing too few files, or even no files at all. Comrades, our administration inherited an economy that was just not working. In a word, we inherited A FAILED ECONOMY.

The problem is two-fold: one has to do with governance, particularly as applied to good management of the economy. For example:

►    1] the Nigerian worker has certainly been underpaid for some time;

►    2] the supervisory capacity within our institutions has dwindled to an ineffective level;

►    3] we certainly need to rationalise our organisational methods within the system;

►    4] there has been insufficient reward for deserving Nigerians for industry and enterprises;

►    5] lastly, but most devastating of all - the pervading corruption on a colossal scale.

Comrades,once again I would like to believe that you have observed this administration’s singular committment to remedy all the aforementioned deficiencies in our economic and productive system. Every single one of them has had at least one or two policies formulated and targetted at it. In the particular case of corruption, which is the twin of inefficiency, the Anti-corruption Bill put before the legislature at the beginning of our term in office, will become law when the National Assembly perform their final act on it.

I would like to make an observation here about how a fine principle intended to enhance our productive capacity has been perverted in time. I am referring to the principle of Federal Character enshrined in our national constitution. This principle was intended to enhance national unity without sacrificing merit or performance. How do I know that? Because I was one of those who recognised that need over twenty years ago and instituted it as a policy. I still continue to believe in the merits of the priniciple of Federal Character as a factor of national unity. I am, however, alarmed at how this priniciple has been abused and made to become the price we must pay for sacrificing the criterion of ability and competence in making appointments.

Today, people are more inclined to see the elevation of their kinsmen and kinswomen and the promotion of indigenes of particular areas of the country as more important than rational and meaningful application of Federal Character to ensure equitability and fairness, on the basis of track record efficiency and merit. Federal Character criterion must go hand in hand with full appreciation of track record and competence and ability to perform. While Federal Character cannot be based solely on academic attainment, it must not also be based on accident of birth alone, without proven record of performance or competence. Otherwise, there is a grave risk of enthroning mediocrity all round which ultimately cannot be of much use to any individual nor to our collective goal of moving this country forward.

Dear Comrades, as you all know, I have on several occasions in the past expressed my great concern at the plight of workers. They have suffered a great deal during the last twenty years of economic stagnation and decline. At the lower levels, paid workers have added significantly to the number of Nigerians living in abject poverty.

In June 1999, I directed the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission to review salaries in the Federal Public Service and also salaries of the holders of political office. I was then and I am still also very concerned about the very wide disparity that has developed over the years between pay in the public service and pay in the private sector for people with equivalent qualifications, functions and responsibilities.

It is very necessary and urgent for government and private sector employers to do all that is possible in our current economic circumstances to improve the salaries and welfare of workers to give them the incentives and motivation to work harder in order to improve productivity and help bring about economic recovery and growth.

The Wages Commission duly submitted its report and I was able to set up a few weeks ago a Committee on the Review of Minimum Remuneration in the Federal Public Service and the National Minimum Wage. The committee was composed of people drawn from Government, National Employers Consultative Association (NECA), National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), and Farmers’ Associations. They were required to work together as Nigerians who are fully conversant with the realities of the nation’s economic situation to produce bold but sustainable recommendations.

I am pleased that they have made recommendations which the Government has accepted and which we must all work together to implement in order to start the process of economic recovery and improvement in the lives of our citizens. I intend to submit to the National Assembly a Draft Bill which will repeal the existing Law (1990 Act) fixing the national minimum wage at 250 naira a month and to fix a new national minimum wage of 5,500 naira a month.

This, like the previous national minimum wage, is the total package or clean wage per month and will be effective from today, 1^st May 2000.The total package payable at the lowest scale in the Federal Public Service is also revised from the current 3,500 naira per month, effective from 1^st May 2000. The basic salary will be 4,000 naira and allowances will bring the total package to 7,500 naira per month. The other salary grades and scales will be adjusted proportionately. The Federal Public Service includes, the Federal Civil Service, the Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police and Security Agencies, and the Para-Military Services. The harmonised salaries and allowances for Tertiary Institutions will also be proportionately adjusted.

I expect that our economic reforms, poverty alleviation programmes, investment promotion efforts and other measures will result in economic improvement. National productivity should also increase. Therefore, depending on the state of the economy, I intend that there will be automatic increases in the Public Service salaries and the National Minimum Wage. We are mindful of keeping inflation low and maintaining stability in the value of the naira to enhance the purchasing power of our national currency.

By the end of the year 2002 all necessary institutions for collective bargaining and negotiations in both public and private sectors will have become fully functional. Therefore, from now on, there will be no need for the Government to resort to General Wages and Salaries Review Commissions to review wages and salaries across all sectors of the national economy with their tumultuous and inflationary impact. Rather, as in the advanced and well managed economies, recommendation will be annually or periodically adjusted as a result of agreements arrived at through collective bargaining. The new Minimum Wage Bill will also contain provisions to enable periodic adjustment by the Government without the need for new Acts of the National Assembly.

I have consulted State Governors and Leaders of the National Assembly. It must be emphasised that the National Minimum Wage is payable by all employers covered by the Law. Beyond the minimum wage, economic realities will determine the agreement to be reached by employers and their staff and workers.

The Government is anxious that these increase should be of real benefit to the workers. There should be no reason for market women to increase the prices of food stuff in the market nor for landlords and transporters to increase rents and fares.

In the medium and long term, competition and additional investment and improvement in these sectors should lead to improvement in real incomes. The Poverty Alleviation Programme will result in new activities and new output for which there must be a market. The Government will therefore, lead a vigorous campaign of “ Buy Made in Nigeria Goods” to improve demand for local products. We shall also intensify reforms in Customs and Excise administration to reduce smuggling, under-invoicing, evasion of import duties and other abuses which discourage local production and generation of employment. This is the time to change and to co-ordinate policies and action to begin the upward climb on the ladder of prosperity.

Earlier, I said the problem with our productivity was two-fold. The second level of responsibility falls to you, the workers, and indeed, all citizens of this great country. Every Nigerian has the duty, the obligation to join the strugle for national reconstruction. Government cannot work alone. It has to be a pact between you and us, to whom you have given the mandate of governance. Together, we have to fight the battle against forces that conspire to work against our aim to get this country back on the road to economic, social and political well-being.

It is in this context Dear Comrades, that I urge that we strive to institute a national work ethic premised as follows:

►    Let us develop a more robust sense of public duty;

►    Let us see the moral virtue of honest pay for an honest day’s work;

►    Let us banish the notion of the Whiteman’s job - there is more to a job than just a pay packet at the end of the day;

►    Let us seek fulfillment from whatever we do, wherever we do it, and no matter how small;

►    Let us perceive corruption for what it really is - an evil antithesis to development and progress.

Comrades, the road ahead is long and rough. We must stay resolute all the way. The cost of failure is unthinkable. The prize for success at the end of the struggle is glory and prosperity for our nation. This prize is our only option.

May God bless the fruits of our labour.

I thank you all.

As part of our effort to improve employment condition of workers, just over a month ago a Committee was inaugurated to review the minimum wage and salaries and allowances in the Federal Public Service. I am happy to announce today that this Committee, which included representatives of the NLC as well as those of the organised private sector, has more or less concluded its review. The committee has recommended a minimum wage package N7500 for Grade One Step One of the Federal Public Service. The basic salary component of this recommendation is N4000, the rest is in allowances. There will be commensurate increases in the income of public servants at higher levels, as well as in pensions of retired civil servants.

This recommendation is accompanied by terms and condition which will make the increase sustainable within the limits of resources available to the economy. The primary aim is to ensure that public servants take home a living wage. Thus subject to overall performance of the national economy, salaries and wages in the Public Service are to adjusted upward by 25 per cent in year 2001, and 15 per cent in the year 2002.

The Committee has also recommended a sectoral arrangement whereby the three tiers of Government, as employers of labour, should constitute their various institutions for collective bargaining to negotiate within limits of their resources and peculiar circumstances, which will take account of location and other factors.