The Organised Labour has insisted that the only agreement it had with the Federal Government is the N250,000 submitted to the tripartite committee and has vowed not to accept any payment below six figures.
Speaking at the 25th Democracy Day anniversary dinner at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja on Wednesday night, President Bola Tinubu indicated that Nigeria would pay a new national minimum wage based on what it can afford, rather than adhering to a specific amount.
The president, who spoke to leaders of the National Assembly, emphasised that the government will do what was expected of it but will only pay what it can afford. He used the popular proverb “cut your coat according to your size” to emphasise the point, suggesting that the government will not overextend itself financially.
“Senate president and deputy Senate president, you will get a notice from me if I have changed my mind on minimum wage. Nothing about minimum wage, we are going to do it; what Nigeria can afford, what you can afford, what I can afford. They ask you to cut your coat according to your size, that is if you have size at all,” he said.
He had earlier said in his Democracy Day address to the nation that he would soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what had been agreed upon.
But at a joint briefing yesterday, at the ongoing International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, said President Tinubu could only be referring to the committee’s recommendation.
“We have no agreement with the president. He is expected to reach out to all stakeholders across the tripartite, including employers, labour and government. We still expect him to do the needful,” Ajaero said.
He said organised labour did not expect the president to announce a figure that would not be acceptable to all parties, hence the need for him to reach out to all stakeholders.
He said labour was worried that the president was talking about review in five years or less, which showed that he must have not read the content of the report submitted by the committee.
“We are worried now that the content of the report was not accurately transmitted to the president and we are going to demand the report be transmitted page by page before it is transmitted to the National Assembly.”
He said what organised labour proposed was a three to two years review based on the inflation in the country, cost of living index and value of the nation’s currency.
Ajaero said labour would also push for the payment of arrears as the government allowed the minimum wage to expire last month.
“As of today, there is no minimum wage in Nigeria,” he said.
The TUC president insisted the committee agreed that the two positions of N62,000 and N250,000 should be forwarded to the president so that he could consult further and then make a proposal to the National Assembly.
Osifo said based on the submission of the committee, Tinubu’s broadcast could be interpreted from both sides of the organised private sector (OPS) that proposed N62,000 and the organised labour’s N250,000.
“We expected the president to submit both positions to the National Assembly,” he said, noting that the National Assembly has the “prerogative to debate, increase or reduce.”
He said labour’s demand is that the government should consider giving workers what would ameliorate the present sufferings their members are passing through in the face of the present nation’s economy.
“What we are even saying is no longer a living wage, initially when we proposed over N600,000 it was based on that. We have left that concept and expect the president as a father of the nation to do the needful. Our responsibility is to push to get something that is okay for our members,” he said.
The TUC president said the same scenario played out in 2019 before the former president, Muhammad Buhari, signed the bill of N30,000 in 2019.
“This was done in 2019 as we have two figures as well,” he said.
In 2018, the federal and 36 state governments had rejected the N30,000, opting to pay N24,000 and N20,000 respectively, despite labour’s insistence on N30,000.
However, the tripartite then recommended N30,000 which the president later endorsed and passed to the National Assembly.
The Federal Government was to delay the passage as the National Council of State came with another recommendation of N27,000 minimum wage for states and private sector workers in the country. This was vehemently resisted by labour that organised a protest then at the National Assembly with nationwide strike in 2019 for labour to have its pay of N30,000.
Osifo said labour would not wait endlessly for the government to make pronunciations on the minimum wage as the workers are presently anxious after the expiration of the last minimum wage in April.
“As a pressure group, we will not leave any stone unturned. Our responsibility is to go to the National Assembly and put pressure until we get what we want when the government sends the recommendation to the Assembly.
“Unlike 2019, there is urgency at the moment. If it is transmitted to the National Assembly today, we will ensure the bill is passed within a reasonable time frame,” he said.
TUC Deputy President, Tommy Okon, said workers are looking forward to a new wage in the range of six figures and nothing short of that would be accepted. “I want to believe that Mr. President would be very conscious of our submission of N250,000 because of the high cost of living, so we are looking at, at least, six figures.”
Okon said the N250,000 proposal by the organised Labour is very germane. And Mr. President who is a true democrat would look at that and also approve for the interest and fulfilment of what he said as a living wage.
Okon, who doubles as the president of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, said labour is and believes the president will reciprocate the support from labour, “in the sense that we are giving him his words back and believing he will live up to it.”
“He said he is going to give the workers a living wage, the committee has deliberated and said N62,000 is not the living wage, so it is we, the organised labour, that has pushed for the proposal to the president which is in line with his Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.
On whether the organised labour has abdicated the campaign for the reversal of the electricity tariff, the NLC president said labour was only acceding to the intervention by the National Assembly.
“We have left it in the hands of the National Assembly. They have given a directive for reversal,” he said.
The NLC president said the National Assembly wants to do a small public hearing about the tariff which he describes as a “time bomb waiting to happen because you cannot even pay a tariff with N60,000 wage.
“Whatever ought to have been done should have been done before now. Jobs are being lost, employers are folding up. I was expecting that the OPS would think of protesting on the tariff which is making its members’ businesses to close,” he said.
The Labour leaders, however, slammed the presidency in its inability to recognise the role played by organised labour in the birth of democracy in Nigeria.
Both the NLC and the TUC said though the president mentioned the former general secretary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Frank Kokori, among the June 12 patriots, but his inability to link him up with his constituency is unpardonable.
“One expected that Kokori should be properly situated and the roles played should be featured prominently. Roles played by all should be seen and not in the periphery,” Ajaero said.
TUC President equally posited that most of the struggles of June 12 were led by the organised labour, noting that both the general secretaries of NUPENG and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) were incarcerated during June 12 struggles.
“Mentioning Kokori was good but outside individuals, trade unions played a significant role to democracy,” adding that most politicians benefiting from the struggles now never tasted any hardship while workers who bear the brunt are now finding it difficult to live.
