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An Ibadan-based
estate consultant, Sufian Kazeem, has warned governments at all levels
in Nigeria against additional increase in workers’ wages, saying move
will further plunge the country into more crises.

“Salary increase is
not the solution to the problems of Nigeria and her citizens. In fact,
it will bloat the inflationary trend in the country. If the minimum
wage is fixed at N1 million a month today, it will not solve our
problem; it will add more to it,” he said.

Mr. Kazeem, whose
company manages late Moshood Abiola’s estate in Oyo State, made his
position known during a chat in Ibadan on Monday. He stated that rather
than increasing the wages all the time, the country should take
advantage of her rich vast land and huge population to engage in
massive farming in order to solve the ravaging hunger and boost her
foreign exchange earnings.

He said the nation
will achieve tremendous leap in its quest to solve hunger and empower
her citizens financially, if it engages in high profile farming in
which every aspect of the economy will be involved.

To achieve this, he
suggested that all government parastatals and corporate organisations
must be compelled to engage in farming to maximise the use of the
nation’s vast land, saying Nigeria has all potentials to feed her
population and produce enough food for the entire African continent.

According to him,
the government can make corporate organisation, particularly the
multinationals, which have benefited so much from the nation’s economy,
pay back to the nation by compelling them to engage in mechanized
farming, and be prepared to sanction any of them who defaults.

He wondered why the
prisoners whose terms of punishment include hard labour could not be
made to farm and produce food for themselves and the nation, adding
that rather than made them to produce food for themselves, Nigeria
still spends billions of naira to feed them, even when they have erred
the system.

Mr. Kazeem also
advised that the nation should work out a legislation that will ban
politicians from holding any political office beyond the age of 70
years as, according to him, the absence of such rule has made it
possible for the same set of people to be at the helm of affairs in the
country, to the detriment of the system and its people.

“Anybody who
reaches the age of 70 years must be retired from politics. He should be
barred from having direct involvement in decision making. They could be
allowed to participate at the advisory level. But they must be told to
leave the stage for younger ones who will inject fresh blood and ideas
to the system,” he said.