Chemical and Non-Metallic Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (CANMPSSAN), has urged the Federal Government to speed up policies that will improve the economy and lives of citizens.
CANMPSSAN President and General Secretary, Segun David and Ugenlo John, in a solidarity message to mark Workers’ Day, said that despite the change mantra and inception of the administration of Tinubu, Nigerian workers have been bedeviled with challenges arising from abrupt fuel subsidy removal, without proper cushion effects put in place to ameliorate the inevitable rise in the cost of transport and services.
They said as the workers were struggling with the reality of meagre income amidst urging the government to make palliatives available while a new minimum wage is put in place, the central bank came up with a policy to float the Naira and foreign exchange rates.
The Naira, the duo said experienced unprecedented massive devaluation as it slumped at an alarming rate, which has led to serious inflation and high cost of living, which ultimately impoverished a larger section of Nigerian workers, making essential commodities and basic foodstuff expensive beyond range.
Noting that the present minimum wage cannot buy a half bag of rice, the unionists lamented that with an average Nigerian worker that has up to ten dependents, if the immediate and extended families are put into consideration, the renewed hope is fast becoming a lost hope if urgent policies and programmes of government are not swiftly designed to arrest the situation.
They maintained that for companies in the chemical sector as well as the manufacturing companies in general, the difficulty in procuring dollars for raw materials and the consequent high exchange rate has grossly affected their operations, thus raising the overhead costs.
According to them, the provision of goods and services to the consumers will increase “because we have to maintain quality. While we acknowledge the CBN efforts in lowering the free fall of naira to dollars, we want more efforts to be geared towards bringing it down to a bearest minimum, thereby reducing inflation and food costs.”
The unionists urged that the Federal Government should encourage the minimum wage committee to fashion out an acceptable minimum wage for an average worker.
This, they said, would restore workers’ confidence in the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his renewed hope agenda.
