President Muhammadu Buhari has said the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) wants to force the government to print more money to meet their demands for N30,000 minimum wage.
The NLC and the federal government have been struggling on the transmission of new minimum wage bill to the National Assembly which the president said it might cause inflation.
Buhari said he wondered how his administration Nigerian state governors will pay workers the N30,000 minimum wage, considering the current struggle to pay N18,000.
“I have just mentioned how much this country was earning between 1999 and 2014, but there are states that were not paying salaries,” Buhari said in an interview with Arise TV.
“We had to do what you call bailout twice and then paid Paris Club and whatever it is, up till now there are states that for six months are not paying one kobo.
“So when the recruited labour wanted salaries to be increased, I had to relapse into my culture, Hausa culture, and told them about a mad woman; she went to make firewood, she made firewood, she tied it, once she couldn’t carry it because it was too heavy, she increased it instead of reducing.
“When they can’t pay the basic salary of N18,000 per month, they say it should go to N30,000. My budget presentation was no secret, I read it all out. Where do we get the money?
“Do we print more currency? If you do it, you cannot control inflation, but if we have to stay in government, they would force us to print more money, let everybody be a millionaire.”
