This minimum wage talk is giving me hope and headache at the same time

I was scrolling through my phone this morning and saw that the NLC is about to start fresh minimum wage talks. My first thought was, God is faithful, maybe something good will come out this time. But then I remembered how many times we have gone through this cycle. They talk, they argue, they reach an agreement, and before you know it, the value of that money has evaporated because of how the economy is moving.

Back home in Ibadan, my younger sister is a teacher and she has not been paid properly in months. She told me last week that her rent is overdue and she is feeding the children on garri and groundnut. When I asked her how she is managing, she just said, Bose, we are surviving by God's grace. That phrase wey Nigerians use too much. Surviving by God's grace should not mean barely eating.

I know the government people will sit down and calculate percentages and all that. But the truth is, if the minimum wage does not match the real cost of living right now, it is just paper. A bag of rice is almost ₦80,000 in some markets. Transport has tripled. How is anybody supposed to live on ₦30,000 or even ₦50,000 a month? I am sending money from here every month and even with pounds it is not enough to cover everything. So I wonder, what are the people earning minimum wage supposed to do?