The Director General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS), Comrade Issa Aremu, has urged the federal government to carry human resources along in its monetary policies to achieve the desired success.
Speaking with journalists during the third annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) in Ilorin, the foremost labour leader stated that labour is at the heart of the government’s monetary policies “because labour creates wealth.”
Aremu emphasised that human resources must be well-motivated, trained, and included in the government’s reform agenda.
“While I commend the CIPM for putting human resources at the centre of national discussion because reforms are inevitable despite the challenges involved, these reforms can only be successful when we carry the human resource, the human beings, along. And in this case, I can say labour is at the heart of it because labour creates wealth,” he said.
He identified the greatest challenge currently in the world of work as the crisis of compensation, noting that employers of labour need to pay working men and women adequately.
“Because it’s only when you pay them for the work done that you can get the best out of them. There is a direct link with productivity and proper motivation of the workforce,” he added.
While commending the federal government and sub-national entities for implementing the minimum wage, Aremu pointed out that the minimum wage is not the same as a living wage.
He called on the government to promote more negotiations and collective bargaining in the respective sectors of the economy, as this brought about the new N70,000 minimum wage for the least paid workers in the country, to start discussing real adequate pay for workers.
“The minimum wage is significant, but in real terms, when you take inflation and the devaluation of the naira into account, you will see that the new minimum wage is even less than the old minimum wage,” he said.
He charged members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) to be concerned with appropriate monetary policy to make purchasing power sustainable, suggesting that stakeholders should reconsider the floating of the naira, which he argued is not appropriate for a developing nation like Nigeria.
“Our currency needs to be well managed. There’s nowhere in the world that you allow your currency to be subject to the vagaries of market forces. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should take a relook at it, and I commend the efforts made so far.
“You’re targeting inflation and hiking interest rates. Who can borrow money at a 36% interest rate? And you allow the naira to float in a way that makes what the government and labour have agreed upon in minimum wage appear as if you’ve actually devalued the purchasing power of the working people. So, what the president has given away with the right hand has been taken away by devaluation. The president is talking about eradicating inflation and ensuring a double-digit growth rate, but monetary policies are taking us in different directions, and that cannot be the result.”
The MINILS Director General, who stated that the conference, themed “Human Resource Management in a VUCAR (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and risky) World: Building Resilience and Agility,” is timely, praised the CIPM for addressing the challenges facing human resources in the dynamic world we inhabit today.
He also challenged the government to take labour market institutions or those institutions dealing with human resources more seriously.
“The federal government should make them partners in the reform agenda. Finance them very well. Promotion of labour education involves money. For example, the Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS) or the National Directorate of Employment (NDE),” he said.
ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
