TheCable

Donald Duke, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has called on the federal government to find a long-term solution to the lingering minimum wage crisis in Nigeria.

In a statement on Saturday, Duke also called for a periodic review of salaries every ten years, considering variables such as inflation.

Duke said the government’s “fire brigade” response to the minimum wage issue was tantamount to giving a short-term solution to “a long-term problem”

The former governor of Cross River said the approach is inherently faulty and unsustainable and called for a holistic and systemic approach to addressing the issue.

“I wish to advocate a shared ownership of the process and solutions to the issue through an effective dialogue between Labour and government taking into consideration all the variables including revenue accruing to government,” he said.

“The federal government must involve all the stakeholders, including the organised private sector and state governments in the negotiation process.

“They have an equally important stake being that they also employ reasonable number of workers.”

Organised labour is seeking N30,000 as minimum wage, a demand the government had earlier said was not affordable.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently said he will study the proposal of the tripartite committee on the matter.