Nigeria Newspapers Online

 I would like to crave the indulgence of read­ers to share this enthralling story which I would like to use to illustrate my support for President Tinubu on the policy of removing subsidy on petrol and the naira which is a mea­sure that has been in operation in our country for more or less four decades.

Hopefully, when we all understand and accept the principle behind ending subsidy, the obnox­ious regime, then we can also appreciate why we all have to make the sacrifices that would lead to the leapfrogging of our country as Singapore moved from third to first world as narrated by Lee Kuan Yew, the revered Prime Minister of the Island country in his iconic book, ‘From Third To First World’.

The narrative of which the author is anony­mous goes thus:

MEDICAL CONSULTANTS REVEALED HOW MEN CAN NATURALLY AND PERMANENTLY CURE POOR ERECTION, SMALL AND SHAMEFUL MANHOOD, AND INFERTILITY ISSUES WITHOUT SIDE EFFECTS. STOP THE USE OF HARD DRUG FOR SEX! IT KILLS!!!..

There was a family that lived on the outskirts of a small village. They owned one cow and de­pended on the milk of that cow to eat each day. If there was little milk they ate little. If there was a lot of milk they ate well. But the lives of the mother, father and children depended on that cow. One day a lone traveler passed through the village. He was hungry. The family shared their milk with the traveller who was extremely grate­ful and wanted to return the favor. The traveler heard that there was a wise man in the village, so he walked to his house and narrated his experi­ence with the cow owning family that hosted and fed him when he was hungry. He wanted advise on how to show them gratitude.

The wise man advised him to kill the cow. The traveler was taken aback.

But because of the reputation of the wise man he did as he was told. A year later, the traveler passed through the same village. This time he noticed a bustling market stores and a hotel. He walked into the hotel and standing behind the front desk was the eldest son of the family of the cow. What happened, asked the traveler. We lost our cow and had to go out and find a way to eat.

And so we opened a market and it grew and we opened this hotel and it is growing. Then the words of the wise man returned to the traveler’s mind– kill the cow.

At the time the advise was given, it appeared like such a very cruel thing to do. But alas, the sav­ing grace for the family which become ensconced in their peasant living from hand to mouth which they felt they had been destined to lead until they were compelled to move out of their comfort zone after the cow was killed incidentally by their benefactor who wanted to repay their kindness.

The lesson inherent in the narrative above is that sometimes, you have to let go of that security (comfort zone) and things that keep you comfort­able in order to get to the next level in life.

Obviously, I find the anecdote above very fit­ting for our present situation in Nigeria. That is because we are so comfortable with subsidies on petrol, naira, and electricity that we do not want to let go by moving out of our comfort zone of being buffeted by the subsidies coming from money earned from the sales of oil/gas.

Metaphorically, the subsidy on petrol, naira and electricity is the milk from the cow in the family cow story.

Nigerians and the organized labor is the fami­ly that owns the cow, and President Tinubu is the traveler that benefited from the cow family, but had to kill the cow on the advise of the wise man.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, is the wise man that advised the traveler (Tinubu) to kill the cow which is the subsidy that some Ni­gerians are warring against for killing.

Presumably, the metaphorical illustration is as clear as night and day for every Nigerian to comprehend and understand without any ambi­guity about the need to remove subsidies.

It must also have dawned on some of us that have been making the case that President Tinubu should not have removed subsidy without prior consultation with Nigerians, that the ‘traveler’ did not consult the cow family before killing the cow.

They would have rejected the proposal and depending on the milk from the cow would have remained their only means of sustenance until the cow dies naturally.

In light of the above, removing subsidy that was strangulating the country does not require a conference with Nigerians to seek their approval which is the path that had been followed by for­mer military President Ibrahim Babangida via the 1984 IMF loan debate after which Nigerians settled for the alternative– Structural Adjustment Program, SAP.

Please let us take notice of the fact that the ‘wise man’ (IMF) had also advised then head of state Gen. Ibrahim Babangida back in 1984 to adopt the measures introduced by President Tinubu in 2023.

Now, some Nigerians who prefer to look at crit­ical national issues from the periphery would rail against me and literally attempt to lynch me in the social media for analyzing our country’s present unsavory circumstances of being at a cross junction, from the prism of the Cow Family narrative above.

But they do not bother me because I have only contributed to nation building from my under­standing of the fundamental issues besetting our country and which are largely responsible for her underdevelopment.

Advertisement

According to the Irish polemicist and political activist, George Bernard Shaw:

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Reputation-wise, President Bola Ahmed Tinu­bu, who is reputed to be a progressive politician, is not afraid of change.

Hence, he took what appears to skeptics like a plunge into the dark by declaring at his inau­guration: ‘Subsidy is gone’.

For those who also claim that having cam­paigned against President Goodluck Jonathan for attempting to remove some subsidy on pet­rol during his reign, President Tinubu has no moral right to remove the subsidy which he had kicked against, I make bold to refer them to the wise counsel of George Bernard Shaw earlier referenced.

Regarding the ongoing minimum wage crisis, one thing for sure is that right now, President Tinubu, as it were, is literally standing between the devil and the deep blue sea.

That is simply because as he has progressed in his governance in the past one year, he has realized that leading Nigeria is a tad more com­plex than it seemed before taking over the reins of governance.

That is why that popular phraseology that Ni­gerians often apply when they are in a dilemma: ‘Standing between the devil and the deep blue sea’, appears to be the lot of President Tinubu right now.

Practically, moments of decision or indecision arise when the two best choices that are available to choose from are both tough and offer no respite or comfort.

For emphasis sake, President Tinubu is in a fix or quandary with regards to the best decision to make between the N62,000 recommendation of the team of negotiators that he impaneled to engage with organized labor for a new minimum wage, and the N250,000 being the irreducible min­imum demand of the organized labor before the strike was called on the 3rd of June and later suspended after 48 hours.

My guess is that what President Tinubu may be muttering under his breath as he ponders what to do with the organized labor’s incredu­lous wage demand as he heads to the office on Wednesday is ‘you picked a fine to demand in­credible increase in minimum wage’.

Let me explain the assumption above which is underscored by the fact that the organized labor is making the demand at a time that our economy is tanking with the naira exchanging at the rate of N1500/$1, petrol selling at about N600 per litre and food inflation being over 40%, plus national debt also being in excess of N80 trillion with 98% of our national budget dedicated to servicing the monstrous debt.

So, basically Mr President is in such a precar­ious situation that can be described as a tinder box, underscored by the fact that a new minimum wage negotiation driven by a 2019 minimum wage Act which requires renegotiation every five years has fallen due at such a critical time that the ongoing one year old socioeconomic reforms in Nigeria have disrupted and dislocated all the economic fundamentals in the country moving her into uncharted territories.

Owing to the dire and unusual situation de­scribed above, it must be very difficult for him to determine which parameters to use in determin­ing the fixing of the new minimum wage which by law must be reviewed – usually upwards since inflation often goes up and hardly comes down in our clime.

Bearing in mind the above highlighted quag­mire, the question that must be giving President Tinubu sleepless nights would be: is it ideal to base the new minimum wage on purchasing pow­er parity (PPP) or peg it to inflation rate?

It is a particularly very difficult question for the president, perhaps because it is even as com­plex as the untying of the proverbial Gordian knot, as both options do not possess redeeming features at all.

So, he has to think out of the box.

In a classic book on negotiation based on the­ory of principled negotiation which aims pri­marily for win-win agreements and nothing else, written by Roger Fisher and William Ury titled ‘Getting To Yes Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In’, the authors talked about issues cre­ation to meet the expectations and interests of all the negotiating parties.

Willy-nilly, after Salah celebrations which ends today (Tuesday, June 18) as work resumes on Wednesday, President Tinubu has to contend with the options of approving a 100% increase of minimum wage from N30,000 to N60,000 which the organized labor deems as a starting point viz-a-viz the reality that the economy in its current status would struggle to even accommodate the 100% increase (plus N2,000 making it N62,000) which government negotiators have already committed to so that the strike action would be suspended; how much more accommodate the whopping quarter of a million naira (N250,000) being canvased by the organized labor.

Although, the negotiators on the side of la­bor have been telling Nigerians that their target is N250,000 as minimum wage, it is clear to the discerning that the demand for a quarter of a mil­lion naira as minimum wage is mere red herring and a gimmick by labor activists.

In my estimation, the best option for President Tinubu is to accept the deal made by government negotiators on his behalf which is N62,000 mini­mum wage. But leveraging the wisdom intrinsic in the earlier referenced book, ‘Getting To Yes …” he must wedge the offer with another which is a reversal or reduction in the ill conceived elec­tricity tariff increase for the so called Band A consumers.