Tinubu to take decision on recommended N62,000 new minimum wage

*As he assures Labour NASS will get Executive Bill on it soon

*What Nigerians need is not minimum wage increase but Naira that is valuable – Published Opinion

On Friday, June 7, 2024, the two sides (labour and the government) still failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped again its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000 and offered workers ₦62,000.

Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured the Organised Labour that an Executive Bill on the new national minimum wage for workers will soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.

Tinubu made this known on Wednesday in his second Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024.

“In this spirit, we have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with Organised Labour on a new national minimum wage. We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less,” the President said.

He said in the face of Labour’s national strike on June 3, 2024, none of the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were arrested or threatened.

“Instead, the labour leadership was invited to break bread and negotiate toward a good-faith resolution,” he said, adding that “reasoned discussion and principled compromise are hallmarks of democracy”.

Tinubu also acknowledged the economic difficulties in the nation and empathised with Nigerians. He promised “necessary repairs required to fix the economy”.

“The reforms we have initiated are intended to create a stronger, better foundation for future growth. There is no doubt the reforms have occasioned hardship. Yet, they are necessary repairs required to fix the economy over the long run so that everyone has access to economic opportunity, fair pay and compensation for his endeavour and labour,” he said.

Talks for a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers have been on for a while. The Minimum Wage Act of 2019, which made ₦30,000 the minimum wage, expired in April 2024. The Act should be reviewed every five years to meet up with contemporary economic demands of workers.

President Tinubu in January set up a Tripartite Committee to negotiate a new minimum wage for workers. The committee comprise the Organised Labour, representatives of federal and state governments as well as the Organised Private Sector.

However, the committee members failed to reach an agreement on a new realistic minimum wage for workers, forcing labour to declare an indefinite industrial action on Monday, June 3, 2024. Businesses were paralysed as labour shut down airports, hospitals, national grid, banks, National Assembly and state assemblies’ complexes.

The labour unions said the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 can no longer cater to the wellbeing of an average Nigerian worker, saying government should offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures, attendant effects of the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex windows of the current administration.

Labour “relaxed” its strike on June 4, 2024 following assurances from the President that he was committed to a wage above ₦60,000.

Both TUC and NLC leadership subsequently resumed talks with the representatives of the Federal Government, states, and the Organised Private Sector.

On Friday, June 7, 2024, the two sides (labour and the government) still failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped again its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000 and offered workers ₦62,000.

Both sides submitted their reports to the President who is expected to make a decision and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to pass a new minimum wage bill to be signed into law by the President.

Not minimum wage increase but Naira that is valuable

The DEFENDER, in one of its publications on June 4, 2024, published an opinion entitled “What Nigerians need is not minimum wage increase but Naira that is valuable” with a rider that urged the Nigeria’s federal, state and local council systems to remove “some nonsensical around human economy” meaning to stop all the hoodlums in whose hands economy has been handed by politicians in government.

Failure to stop those hoodlums constituted into parallel government, the opinion, written by Publisher of the online newspaper Prince Bashir Adefaka, says will continue to make life difficult as increase in minimum wage will be ineffective even if it is increased to N1 million.

“What we need is a responsible governing system that will check the attitude of three sets of traders: Fuel marketers, food and other commodity markets’ men and women and transporters who see minimum wage announcement as a crime to trigger automatic increase in prices of items and cost of transportation.

“In addition, any government that is serious should know that anyone who has hand in creating hardship for people in these three major aspects of human living system does not deserve to live. As a fuel driven economy, not even the removal of fuel subsidy should push any fuel marketer to exploiting members of the public the way it is done that transporters at various levels, too, climb upon to further extort passengers, the commuters, who patronise them.

“Same way, food and other related commodity marketers, who exploit customers, should not be allowed to thrive in the act because he that deprives people of food or make feeding hard for anyone is worse than the devil. As a government, you do not require setting up a commission or committee or panel on price control to do this. What is the essence of government, if people are now left to the mercy of these evil-minded marketers extorting and creating hardship for fellow citizens from the dark side taking advantage of unconsulted policies by which the government has plunged the people into the untold hardship and hunger that are now being unprecedentedly witnessed in our country? It must be addressed.

“Another major area that must be completely disconnected from our public life, which those who are declaring nationwide strike are not talking about, is the presence of non-state actors on our roads and bus stops who have now moved from charging unlawful taxes to commuter buses operators to demanding driving license, okada plate number renewal papers and annual vehicle’s change of ownership renewal documents.

“Sadly, this attitude of the non-state actors (agberos, thugs, hoodlums and more) is common across Lagos State and parts of Ogun with Sango-Idiroko route more infested with this disgusting thing. More sadly is that, our people, who don’t want to see police ask for vehicle particulars, now see how agberos ask for vehicle particulars but they are not complaining.

“Do you know the taxes content? Owo Chairman, Owo Alejo (entertainment tax) for Chairman, Owo Olopa (police tax), Owo Obstruction, Owo Osan (afternoon tax), Owo Irole (evening tax), Owo Security. Infested areas mentioned here are gateways into Nigeria. How then do politicians in charge of our government, who unleashed these elements on our roads and economy, intend to justifiably defend this uncivilised attitude and appearance before investors they seek to bring in their hard-earned money and invest in our country?

“Which foreign investor would bring his money to invest in a country where hoodlums (or agberos) are more powerful than the police and take taxes based on the direction dictated by their hearts not by law of the land? How better to describe this, if not as a parallel government? It does not portray us as a country and a people serious about developing when, instead for those we voted for to govern our states, all we see in turn are hoodlums called the non-state actors that have been unleashed on us as our governing elements. Only in a failed state that happens. If we want our Naira to be strong and valuable, these people are the nonsensicals around our human economy that must be removed.

“Imagine! Unexplainable taxes?! Owo Chairman, Owo Alejo (entertainment tax) for Chairman, Owo Olopa (police tax), Owo Obstruction, Owo Osan (afternoon tax), Owo Irole (evening tax), Owo Security.

“This is still not inclusive of money for whole seat of four plus one making five passengers they lift from an 18-passenger bus at point of loading and the ‘Owo Load’ (loading tax) that they pay at every bus stop where they drop passenger. It is meaningless whether the bus picks new passenger or not at that bus stop, the transporter must pay ‘Owo Load’.

“Another is this idea of charging heavy taxes on merchants who bring food items and animals in trailers from Northern Nigeria to ease food security needs of people of the South who depend on Lagos warehouses to buy. A woman once complained on a Yoruba FM radio station in Lagos, saying she was stopped by hoodlums at Mile 12 Market to offload her tomatoes unless she paid N300,000 on one trailer alone. She then asked, “Where does that N300,000 go? On the tomatoes of course,” she answered by herself on the station.

“We need security, protection and safety against all of these agents of insecurity that ravage our living system but which politicians in charge of our government across the states are believing is normal thing to allow. If you want to compensate thugs who worked for you during elections, it is not for you to entrust areas of basic life that are essential for living into their hands,” he said.