What Else Can Your Country Do For You?

If we cannot enforce our Nigerian rights; can we truly say that we have them?

7 min readAug 15, 2018

For the average Nigerian, it is a passed down and generally accepted, pseudo-traditional custom that the next decision to take after throwing your grad cap in the air is “What company can I sell my skills to?” The exceptionally low level of minimum wage however, set at N18,000, has been a concern for many years. Naturally, there’s been a lot of excitement around the new minimum wage that’s rumoured to be announced in September.

But how useful are our rights? The Global Slavery Index reports that modern slavery is a reality in Nigeria, and lists 5 milestones that are yet to be completed by the Nigerian Government in response. Hopefully the new minimum wage will trigger proactive implementation of fair trade in the Nigerian Labor Market.

What the Nigerian Labour Market is Like

In Nigeria the average employee earns between N20,00–N50,000 a month.
The Unemployment And Under-employment Report [Q1 — Q3 2017] by the National Bureau of Statistics set the youth unemployment/underemployment rate at 52.5% stating;

“Unemployment tends to be higher for people within the labor force that have post-secondary school (50.0% of people with postsecondary school education in the Nigerian labor force are either unemployed or underemployed). Graduates tend to prefer fewer in supply white collar jobs rather than often rural, seasonal and low skilled and lower paying blue-collar jobs that are more in supply.”

White collar jobs are less in supply than blue collar jobs, but Nigerian graduates prefer white collar to blue collar jobs. This means there is a surplus in the demand for white collar jobs in the labour market. White collar employees as a result, as few as they are, consistently have thousands of applicants to choose from. The surplus in demand encourages meagre pay and unfair employment agreements.
Many graduates who are employed work under-skilled jobs for long hours and earn less than their colleagues who work shorter hours in higher level jobs. Level of skill determines level of pay — But even high skill/high level jobs often come with several requirements that are outside an employees job description.
Working longer hours does not translate to higher pay and having skill does not exclude the possibility of being underpaid, working under-skilled jobs, or not being paid at all.

A Brief History of the Nigerian Minimum Wage

In 2004, the Labour Act set the minimum wage to N5,500 a month. In 2011, the Minimum Wage Act was passed by former President Goodluck Jonathan — it set the least amount a worker can/should be paid every month at N18,000.

Just to get a realistic perspective on the issue, a bag of rice; depending on the brand and type, will cost you anywhere between N10,000 and N20,000 in Nigeria. For those who live at or below minimum wage here, a bag of rice will cost them all or most of their salary. In fact, minimum wage will buy you less now in 2018 than it would have bought you even in 2011, before the Minimum Wage Act was passed, and the future is looking glum.

For a few years now, in fact since about 2012; the Nigerian economy has consistently depreciated. It was after one of the biggest blows to the economy — the rise in Petrol Pump Prices in May 2016, that a Technical Committee was appointed to note the effects and make recommendations to the FG. An increase in minimum wage was one of those recommendations. Following this, a National Minimum Wage Committee was inaugurated by current President Buhari on the 27th of November 2017 to negotiate a new minimum wage. He quoted international law and social justice as the government’s motivations behind reviewing the minimum wage.

Side note: The governors who represented the State Government on the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee were Rochas Okorocha of Imo State; Nyesom Wike of Rivers State; Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State; Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State; Simeon Lalong of Plateau State and Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State. It is fascinating to note that some of these men are governors of states that are notoriously known for not paying salaries.

On the Subject of International Law

The International Labor Organisation Minimum Wage Fixing Convention №26 which was ratified (adopted as binding in the international community) by Nigeria essentially provides the following:

ILO Minimum Wage Convention #28

1. Every country that ratifies the convention is expected to create a system where minimum wage is applied to jobs that pay extremely low wages or that are not regulated by any minimum wage. [Article 1]
2. Employee contracts and private or collective agreements should not supersede the set minimum wage. [Article 3]
3. Countries that ratify the convention are expected to take every measure to inform workers and employees of the minimum wage, and ensure that no-one is paid less. [Article 4]
4. Workers who have been paid less than the minimum wage, are entitled to recover everything that they were not paid. [Article 4]

Side note: According to the Convention, countries are allowed to choose what kind of ‘trade’ or ‘work’ minimum wage applies to. The question then is not only “What is minimum wage in Nigeria?”, but also “Am I entitled to it?” Also note that there’s a newer version of Convention #28 (Convention #131: with special reference to developing countries), which has not been ratified by Nigeria.

There’s also the Slavery Convention, which defines slavery as [Article 1]:“the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” and requires that every contracting party to the treaty is to [Article 2]: “bring about, progressively and as soon as possible, the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms.”

Modern Slavery in Nigeria

According to the Global Slavery Index, there are about 1.4million people living in modern slavery in Nigeria. The most applicable definitions of modern slavery to the Nigerian Labour Market are forced labour and debt bondage.

Let me give you a few examples:

Femi is a financial planner for a financial institution. He has been working the same position on contract for the past 5 years — which means his employer can terminate their arrangement at any time. He has a target of N500 million every quarter, without which he risks being let go. This keeps him in the streets looking and begging for customers. He has no time for career development or training so he is stuck at the level he is with no hope of promotion with his employer, or application to a higher level somewhere else — he’ll probably be hired to do the same thing at his next job in another company.

Mary is a relations officer in an events management company. She’s been on an “internship programme” and probationary pay for almost two years. She’s not given internet access and is expected to use her data and resources to meet deadlines or be let go. She has not been paid for 6 months.

Taiye is an entry level lawyer. She works involuntary and unpredictable shifts from Mondays to Fridays from 8am to sometimes well past 6pm. She is also expected to be on call on Saturdays. She is paid N80,000 a month.

Being underpaid is almost commonplace in Nigeria. Employee contracts are often unconscionable or violated, not every Nigerian is aware of their right to earn at least N18,0000 every month, and the justice system is horribly backlogged.

So what can be done?

For many Nigerians, the planned increase in minimum wage will never be a reality. And an even harder pill to swallow is that tackling this issue is a tall order. The high unemployment rate voraciously feeds the mentality of putting up with poor working conditions. A Nigerian who has lived in poverty his whole life will happily work 12 hours a day (60 hours a week), take N5,000 a month as payment, and is unsure of or has no confidence in his rights as a worker. Those who earn more substantial figures consider themselves fortunate, even if they are being treated poorly and their wages are less than their time and skill deserves.

According to the Global Slavery Index, the following are goals the Nigerian Government has not yet achieved in responding to modern slavery:

Identifying and supporting people who are under modern slavery to leave and stay out of modern slavery.
Preventing modern slavery with an effective and functional criminal justice system.
Accountability and coordination at regional and national government levels.
Addressing risk factors; social attitudes, systems, and institutions that encourage modern slavery.
Exclusion of good and services produced by forced labour.

With such a long way to go, a pressing question is if there are going to be fresh methods implemented — other than through the backlogged and counterproductive legal system — in enforcing the new minimum wage.