The minimum wage remains fixed despite rising cost of living (inflation) and unemployment. It increased from N18,000 in 2018 to N30,000 in 2019 and has since remained at that.
The fact that Secondary School Certificate holders form the majority of the labour force makes this condition a general labour problem because these are the group paid the minimum wage and less.
Many State Governments are even opposed to paying the minimum wage of N30,000 despite being much lower than the living wage.
Generally, the level of compliance with fundamental labour laws in Nigeria has declined from a score of 3.5 of 10 in 2015 to 2.9 of 10 in 2018.
Source: Statista
For workers outside government employment and employees of industries without trade unions, their minimum wage is not even regulated. Thus they are exploited and paid wages lower than the low minimum wage.
While the average wage of Nigerian employees are low, there is a further disparity between the average wage and the minimum wage, leading endangered workers in the rural areas and their encumbered colleagues in the urban areas towards a stage of rage.
This rage takes on a rabid turn when compounded by the 9.8 million unemployed persons, a 15.2% of the 64.48 million (64,479,317) labour force in 2021. Presently, crimes of unprecedented magnitudes ravage the country.
Nigeria currently experiences the highest levels of insecurity in the rural and urban areas. While economic and financial crimes are rife in the urban areas, acts of terror and killings are more common in the rural areas.
Source: Premium Times Twitter Poll
Peculiar to the rural areas are crimes such as terrorist’s attacks and takeover of large swaths of land, kidnapping, bandit attacks on intercity travellers through the rural areas, and worse still, attacks on rural farmers.
The attacks and killings of rural farmers caused higher employment in the rural areas than the urban areas since.