From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Chairman of Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang, has pleaded with state governments and the private sector not to use the recently approved N70,000 minimum wage as an excuse to retrench workers.
He said that both the Federal Government and the organised labour have demonstrated enough faith in arriving at an agreeable national minimum wage and as such employers of labour should reciprocate by paying that amount.
Speaking with newsmen in Jos on Sunday, Plang said retrenching workers as a result of the implementation of the new national minimum wage would worsen unemployment and lead to a bigger problem than the one it’s intended to solve.
He said, “I pray that the implementation of the new national minimum wage will not lead to retrenchment. We don’t want more unemployment as unemployment leads a lot of criminality.
“I also pray that it will not lead to closure of the private sector. But make it boom. I also pray that both state and local governments will be able to pay. May we also bring policies that will favor the private sector so that they will survive well and be productive and be in position to meet up payment of this salary minimum wage for our workers.”
Plang said that as chairman of the senate committee on labour and productivity, he was involved in all the discussions and negotiations that led to the amicable settlement of the wage issue.
He thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all the labour leaders for their relentless efforts to settle the issues involved.
The senator, who represents Plateau Central, also spoke on the bill for the establishment of University of Mining and Geosciences in Jos said that the institution is overdue in Plateau as the centre of mining in Nigeria.
He said that the essence of the university is to deepen Nigerian’s knowledge in exploration. Exploration.
“We need to explore to find out what we have. After we now know what we have, we also need to deepen our knowledge in extraction. When we extract, explore and exploit, we also need to process and package. We don’t have to depend on n getting royalty from a mineral resource that’s found in large quantity in our land.”
Earlier the senator was in Pankshin where he distributed fertilisers to victims of the crisis in the area and tree seedlings to schools, churches and mosques in Pankshin, Kanke, Mangu, Bokkos and Kanam.
Among the tree seedlings distributed were mango, guava, oranges, avocado pear, palm trees.
He said that what prompted him to distribute the seedlings was his interest towards environmental conservation and the biological importance of plants as air purifiers.
Plang said that he decided to distribute the plants to schools for study as some of those plants are already going into extinction.
The senator added that the essence of the exercise is that those plants should serve sources of medicine, windbreakers, shelter, sources of food and help to check flooding.
He said, “I came from a village and I’ve lived a village life. I have an idea of what it used to be in the village and what it is now, especially with nature, plants, animals, availability of natural water. So many changes have taken place negatively.
“Secondly, I’m a scientist and I’m aware of the natural importance of plants, especially in the purification of the air I and you take. We take in oxygen and we give out carbon dioxide. Human activity, especially with hydrocarbons, ends up with a lot of carbon monoxide around. And carbon monoxides are not good for hemoglobin. There is a need to purify what we take in.
“Because of the combustion of hydrocarbons, there’s a lot of carbon monoxide around. And we’re lacking God in his own way, as a way of filtering the air. By plants picking up the carbon dioxide and then giving out oxygen to us. So the biological importance of trees cannot be explained. Then subsequently, trees are food.
Trees are shelter. Trees are medicinal. Trees are, I say, shelter. And trees are protective variables that can bring about windbreak that will protect our institutions.
“Now, you have an organized sector. You have the schools where learning takes place and where it is systematic protection can be found. I prefer giving it to schools because of the level of knowledge of schools about plants. And it will also be a material for study for the students.”
He encouraged schools to have botanical gardens where children will begin to learn the trees, available trees, botanical names and their importance, how to grow them and how to protect them.
The post Do not use excuse of N70,000 minimum wage to retrench workers, Senate chairman committee on labour, Diket Plang pleads appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.