'My cleaner earns N60k'- Oshiomhole slams FG’s N30k minimum wage

The former governor of Edo State, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, has slammed the N30,000 minimum wage pegged by the federal government, noting that his cleaner earns N60,000 monthly.

The lawmaker representing Edo North senatorial district made this known on Sunday, July 23, during an interview on Channels TV's late-night program "Sunday Politics" anchored by Seun Okinbaloye.

Oshiomhole makes case for civil servants

While speaking on the N30,000 minimum wage, Senator Oshiomhole described it as a "criminal wage."

He said: “If you exchange N30,000 at N800 or N700 to the dollar, what does that translate to? So, the value of that minimum wage when it was N125 – when it was first introduced under, I think, (Shehu) Shagari’s government – is about two times or three times the value many years later, even in the public service.”

“I can tell you what I have decided to pay my cleaner. My cleaner is just a primary school – I’m not sure she has even a school leaving certificate. But she’s knowledgeable enough to clean the hous.”

“I found myself unable to pay her less than N60,000 – in fact, N60,000. It’s about my conscience. I’m trying to imagine what she has to pay for a house. She told me she has four children.

“I’m trying to imagine how she has to look after those children and I cannot question why she should have four children.” Oshiomhole argued that, given his background and knowledge of the cost of living, he could pay her any less “in a clean conscience”.

The 71-year-old lawmaker explained that “if I have chosen to employ a cleaner and chosen not to clean the house by myself, that is the least I thought I could pay” her.

According to him, the pay will not necessarily “deliver a comfortable living standard, but what you call irreducible minimum for her to survive”.

He said: “If I do that to my cleaner, I have to do a little more to my driver because he requires some training and, sometimes, even retraining, and my security is in his hands.”