Nigeria recently called on African leaders to emulate Europe and initiate a uniform minimum wage across the continent. Nigeria’s call came on the heels of earlier one made by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, on a common minimum wage across Europe at the recent International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Nigeria also made case for the adoption of an African language as one of the languages of communication at the ILC.

Having a common minimum wage in Africa just as Europe has been urged to do is not a bad idea. It is laudable that Nigeria, which has increased its national minimum wage to N30,000 per month to ensure the welfare of her workers, is leading the cause for a common minimum wage in Africa. It will be recalled that advocates of a uniform minimum wage have argued that a ‘living wage,’ defined as a fair wage sufficient to allow for a decent existence, should constitute a basic social right. They also have pointed out that this has already been included as one of the 20 basic principles of the ‘pillars of social rights.’

Similarly, a recent report by the German-based Institute of Economic and Social Research shows that in 2018, minimum wages in European countries have continued to grow dynamically. It makes case for a common minimum wage policy globally and supports the efforts of many national governments to increase their minimum wages in line with acceptable standards.

However, a uniform wage for all African countries, though the ideal, may not be easy to accomplish considering the fact that many of the countries on the continent are poor.  The common wage policy will be stoutly resisted by the governments of these poor countries. Also, the employers of labour in the private sector may likely oppose it. The German government has indicated that one of its priorities in the second half of 2020 is to explore prospects for a European minimum wage policy.

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This is understandable because Germany, like other countries in Europe, is not preoccupied with issues of underdevelopment, political instability, famine, wars, among others. These are the problems most African nations are still grappling with. We believe that some of these African countries would have preferred to be left out of the uniform minimum wage issue for now. We say this considering the extant statutory minimum wages in some of these countries and the existence of many low-paid workers in Africa.  The majority of workers in Africa live with salaries that keep them slightly above the poverty threshold. Most African countries have a national minimum wage, but it varies significantly from one country to another. In Nigeria, it can be as low as one-fifth of the average wage. It is much worse in other less resource-endowed countries. Some of them do not have minimum wage at all.

The suggestion to adopt an African language as one of the official languages of communication at the ILC is a welcome development. It is good to encourage the diversity of languages in the conduct of affairs at ILC.  However, the pursuit of this goal should not be at the detriment of solving the continent’s pressing socio-economic problems. The problem of which African language to choose from among the many languages in Africa would definitely arise.

Africa has over 1,500 national languages. It is feared that the choice of one of them to be adopted for ILC events may lead to avoidable crisis if not adequately handled. African countries should avoid the unwanted distraction and strive to solve their cogent socio-economic problems first before other things.

The uniform minimum wage policy for the continent and an indigenous language that should be adopted for ILO events can be pursued much later after due consultations with all the stakeholders. The labour leaders from Africa should worry more about how to address issues such as decent working conditions, child labour, human trafficking and abuse of workers’ rights which are prevalent on the continent.