TheCable

BY KARIOLA MUSTAPHA

During the last third term for secondary schools in Nigeria, the first continuous assessment test was approaching, therefore, I decided to let my students air their view on a national issue; the on-going basic salary palaver in the country. This article is the outcome of their interactions at the debate.

Ab initio, I teach Rhetoric, the art of positive persuasion, at a Classical Secondary school, Bethel American International School, Fiditi, Oyo, Nigeria. Rhetoric class generally is a time to think, talk and table one’s reaction reasonably and persuasively. It is about logos, appeal to logic; ethos, appeal to authority and pathos, appeal to emotion as laid down by Aristotle, the Classical Rhetorician himself. Rhetoric is all about making people take the right decisions through positive persuasion.

In the debate, while some of their contributions were honestly banal, some others were very sound and thoughtful. There were shallow arguments like: the usual 30,000 is too small; people need more money at hand; government should increase it in multiples of 2, 3 and so on. And there were thought-provoking ones that brought about this opinion. They provided insights into the fundamental problems of our nation; and how increasing the money is basically backwardness; finally they suggested that reducing the basic salary and improving the standard of living might be the way forward.

Before I put forward their submissions that increasing the basic salary is more of backwardness than the supposed progress, let us see some of the comparisons they subjected the debate to: the students put aside the common resolve of some Nigerians that people should not compare Nigeria with UK, US or Canada; with particular regard to our currencies. This was unavoidable, the students admitted, because as at 1977, ₦1 was equivalent to £1.20 while ₦0.58 was equivalent $1. The reality here is that 42 years ago, naira had more values than dollar and pound, so, what has gone wrong that £1 has enormous power that it now weighs as much as ₦500? This currency devaluation is a major bane in our society; this is one of the problems that the students identified.

The debate continued as follows: In the UK, US, and Canada one of the subtle implications of this sad reality is that a man does not need a five digit salary to be comfortable. In fact, one who earns a three-digit salary in the United Kingdom will live twice as comfortable as those who earn six-digits in Nigeria.

Another sad reality is that, this currency devaluation is the reason why ninety-nine out of hundred Nigerians, especially the scholars, and professionals who have value to offer our nation leave for these other countries. They leave their six-digits salary for three or four-digits salary in the UK, US and Canada and live twice comfortably with it over there. We know this is brain drain. And, I believe as you must have now realised that, no country, where brain drain is dominant becomes better than the country draining her brains.

To demonstrate how ridiculous this is, take for instance, in the UK, the basic salary of an average under-eighteen is £4.35 per hour; this will add up to the sum of £870 per month and it is the lowest one could actually earn in the UK. If you convert this to naira, it is a whooping sum of ₦404,550. This is not even the case, but how much you can live comfortably with that three-digit in the UK than six-digit in Nigeria. Have you ever wondered why Nigeria had a reasonably number of foreign citizens in the seventies? It was more like Nigeria was getting the best of the Whites in our country those days, partly owing to the opportunities here and the value that our currency held. The reverse is the case today; they are now having the best of us because their currencies are much better than ours.
From the foregoing, and back to debate, the first lesson I learnt from their series of reactions is that, “30,000 as a basic salary in any part of the world is too extravagant, and worse still, a sordid sign of backwardness.”

Before anyone judges this summation as green, let me point out that the figure in the statement above did not indicate any currency. Hence, it does not necessarily mean that ₦30,000 is extravagant; but that 30,000, five digits, as a basic salary is a sign of backwardness. Hence, why do we have this much but could only achieve so little with it? This is the problem the students made me realise.

However, in the current situation in Nigeria and in all honesty, ₦30,000 is too small a basic salary. To demonstrate this: an average Nigerian works for 40 hours in a week (8a.m.-5p.m). daily; and 160 hours in a month. At the moment the government is paying ₦18,500. If this is calculated per hour, the Federal Government of Nigeria is only paying ₦115, an amount less than the price of a 60cl Cocacola soft-drink in the country. Even if the money is increased to ₦30,000, it will only be ₦187 per hour; of course, it cannot get you a decent meal in a local cafeteria. This is where we are. And it speaks of nothing other than that the value of the naira needs an intensive care unit attention.

So far, the impression these students have given is that increasing the basic salary is not the solution. But bringing Nigerians to a point where the basic salary will be three-digit (₦900) and people nevertheless live comfortably with it. This is the lesson from these under-eighteen students of Bethel American International School.
Well, the solutions have not changed: our government should diversify the economy; there is need for a sound price-control system; this is not possible where there are no measures by the government to ensure that produce are made at the cheapest price possible; this in turn is not possible where people still burn fuel to generate power; the government may also constitute a special team of experts who would be willing to help without pay, to see to the implementation of strategies that will improve the naira value.

In conclusion, I learned from these students that government should make efforts to reduce basic salary and improve standard of living.

Mustapha sent this piece from Bethel American International School, Fiditi, Oyo. He can be reached via:  [email protected]