Kwara Central PDP Senatorial Candidate Promises to Advance Pro-workers Policies

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

A former Minster of Youths and Sports, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, who is also  the Peoples’  Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Kwara Central senatorial district in the forthcoming general election, said during the weekend that he would advance pro-workers policies in the National Assembly (NASS), if given the mandate to represent the senatorial district.

Abdullahi, therefore, advised members of the organised labour to show keen interest in the choice of the leaders they would elect during the polls.

Speaking in Ilorin during an  interactive session with the joint labour congress at the state’s secretariat of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Ilorin, Abdullahi said that the organised labour has ample time to determine credible leaders now rather than waiting endlessly for salary increase negotiation after the elections.

He regretted that the current state of the economy has shown that the take-home pay of Nigerian workers is grossly insufficient to cater for their needs.

Abdullahi urged the organised labour to rally round candidates on the platform of his party to help find solutions to the problems in the country.

“Every government operates by policy. But the question is whether that policy will help the people or will punish the people.

“Each year, labour talks about salary increase; an increase in salary that will go with promotion and all the dynamics of everything that has to do with promotion of workers.

“That when you promote a worker, this is the number of years that it should take to move from one cadre to another; and when you move from one cadre to another, this is the kind of benefit that should go with it.

“Where Nigerians have found themselves in this country is such that even if one is earning more than four times what minimum wage is today, it amounts to little or nothing as Five Hundred Thousand Naira is behaving like Fifty Thousand Naira.

“That didn’t happen by accident. There is a reason and there are reasons why it is like that. What was the exchange rate of Naira to the Dollar when we left government in 2015? What is the exchange rate of dollar today? These are the factors that determine whether your Naira has value or not,” he declared.

Abdullahi, who was a former editor with THISDAY Newspapers, called on the government to make policies that would strengthen the Naira in a way that makes it possible for the citizenry to get the benefit of the money in their pockets otherwise it would be meaningless.

Also speaking, the PDP House of Representatives Candidate for Asa/ Ilorin West Federal Constituency, Mr. Ibrahim Ajia, said that the cost of living should determine the minimum wage for workers. 

He, however, assured that he would initiate a bill at the lower chamber that would add values to workers if he is given chance to represent the federal constituency.