Just a few months after my NYSC service, I heard the news of the new minimum wage, which is now currently seventy-seven thousand naira. I just laughed, not because it was funny but because it won't be sufficient for a lot of people even though they were the ones earning thirty-three thousand naira.
Currently in my country, I don't know about the rest of the world, the prices of things don't seek anyone's permission before they increase. Garri, which used to be common man's fast food, is now expensive. The current fuel price is even nothing to write home about, and transportation cost is now above the roof. Even though they said the minimum wage has increased, some people are not even earning half of the current minimum wage, and yet a lot of people look up to them even though things keep rising like a beard that fell inside water.
Though I am not a civil servant or government worker earning that amount, I have imagined earning that amount because by the time I remove food money, transport, emergency, urgent 2k here and there, and even data money, the money is finished already, and when I see some people managing their lives like trekking some distance before catching the bus, not coming online regularly, and skipping some meals, I totally understand them.
And of course, if they double it with the current situation of things, I think things will become easier, and people will breathe small. Not that they will get comfortable, just that the pressure will not be too heavy on them. And from my view, they might be able to afford an easier life if that person knows how to manage things. Because some people buy what is not necessarily and complain a lot.
Yes, if the money is tripled, I think that sounds much better, but with that, some of my country people are very wicked because they will use that opportunity to loot people and triple the prices of things that they grow at the back of their house, and then they blame the government, meanwhile they are the problem after all. So to me, that looks like going after something that keeps shifting.
And I have asked myself, when people complain about the current minimum wage after it was increased, what amount will my people actually be okay with? And to be honest, I don't think it's about the amount or getting more. It is simply about stability because when we wake up with the fear of getting to the market and discovering that what we bought for N3k last week is now being sold for N4.5k, all the unnecessary calculations will reduce, and people will have enough room to breathe and not be overwhelmed.
I have gotten to know that 90-95% of my problems can be solved with money, and it also creates new space for thinking. The fear of it getting finished and how to maintain it. So these days I don't spend above my means and dip into my pocket. Because right now all I can say to those currently collecting the minimum wage is that it might be small as an income but more people are still surviving with it.
Thank you for reading.
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