Confederation of All Progressives Congress (APC) Support Group (CASG), on Thursday, July 18, commended President Bola Tinubu for approving the N70 thousand Minimum Wage for Nigerian workers.
The group urged Nigerians to accept the development and support the government for better governance to ensure upward review in the nearest future.
Briefing reporters in Abuja on the State of the nation, the Director General (DG) of CASG, Kailani Muhammed also cautioned Nigerians against the proposed nationwide protest. Adding that many people may hijack the protest to topple the present government.
President Tinubu approved a N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers with a promise to review the national minimum wage law every three years.
Tinubu also promised to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage.
Muhammed said: “Our president with his magnanimity has approved N70 thousand Minimum Wage. Labour unions have a case because of the living standard and the cost of living. But we also have to sympathise with our government.
“We know that the government doesn’t have much money. Labour unions and Nigerians should manage that while in the nearest future it would be reviewed. The APC support groups will continue to sensitize Nigeria on the need to cooperate with the government on this and accept reality.
“I feel pain to address the Press today, on issues that are lingering in the Nigerian political space, threatening to undermine the co-values of our political sojourn. First of all, let me emphatically acknowledge the fact that the Nigerian state is going through a very harsh economic downturn. Secondly, is the factual development that, the consequential manifestation of hardship, and poverty as a result of the soaring cost of living, has negatively devastated Nigerians of all strata.
To deviate from stating these obvious developments would be like shying away from my responsibility as an elder statesman, an All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, and a friend of the masses.
“I genuinely accept, appreciate, and sympathize with my fellow countrymen and women on these unfortunate scenarios, to wit: soaring prices of food items, services, and goods across the country.
“As a democrat, I also accept the feelings of Nigerians, mostly, the downtrodden, whose meagre economic demand power, has not been able to cope with the development. These happenings in Nigeria need synergic dialogue with Mr President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for a mutual template that can robustly ensure hasty remedies in terms of, not only high food insecurity but also internal land, air, sea, and the porous borders security of our dear country.
This is why the Confederation of APC Support Groups (CASG), of which I, Prof Kailani Muhammad, is the Director –General, strongly stands against any ill-advised group of persons or individuals, to organize and stage a nationwide protest against the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, under any guise, because, it is a distraction that is loaded with landmines.
“No nation in the world has survived an uncoordinated nationwide protest, because it will plunge the nation into chaos. Kenya is struggling to survive. Nigeria cannot afford that experience at this critical moment. We have not forgotten the EndSars’ painful memory.
“Therefore, we should not indulge ourselves in an untimely protest that has the potential and attraction of being hijacked by hoodlums, political jobbers, and losers. We have not forgotten the looting syndrome that normally characterizes protests in Nigeria.
This is why the President of the National Harmonized Association of Nigerian Traders, Bature Abduazzez, categorically, warned its members to stay away from the planned protest. After all, President Tinubu has a listening ear. In the wake of these, he has dispatched 20 trucks of rice to each of the 36 states, including Abuja, the Federal Capital of Nigeria.”
