As the organised labour in Nigeria, comprising of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) relaxed their one-week planned nationwide strike after its day two, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is poised to get to the very root of the cause of the industrial action after he has been compelled to demand quick fix from his Cabinet Minister
By Udoka Ekeleme, Abuja
For the first time in his one-year old government, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was compelled to take prompt action to address a national malady. The nation’s organised labour’s industrial action which began on Monday, June 3, 2024 and was called off temporarily the following day, Tuesday, June 4, 2024, shook the Federal Government to its marrow, promoting Tinubu to issue a marching order to his cabinet’s Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun to compute, within 12 hours, the cost implications of a new minimum wage for the Nigerian workers which is realistic, affordable and also sustainable on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
Tinubu directed that the preparation of the minimum wage cost implications must be ready on that Wednesday as the basis of the ongoing negotiations with the organised labour. Tinubu further directed that government officials involved in negotiating minimum wage with labour must equally expedite action to ensure that the new minimum wage brouhaha must be settled as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Tinubu had met with the Federal Government representatives in the tripartite committee on minimum wage negotiation whereupon he gave the matching orders. Present at the meeting were the Minister of Finance, Edun, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, Minister of State (MoS) for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, as well as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari. The Minister of Information, Idris, confirmed that the meeting was summoned by Tinubu to assess the contentious issues with the organised labour and find ways to resolve them.
The organised labour and Federal Government have locked horns over issues of minimum wage for the Nigerian workers which resulted in labour embarking on the planned weeklong strike when both parties could not find a common ground. Labour had proposed a minimum wage of N615,000 for the Federal Government, insisting that the rate of inflation was very high due to the fuel subsidy removal and floating of the naira which weakened the currency against the dollar. Labour was to review its proposal downward to N497,000 and N495,000. But the Federal Government was able to offer paltry amounts of N48,000, N57,000 and N60,000. The disagreement between the organised labour and Federal Government negotiators compelled the Joe Ajaero-led NLC and Festus Usifo-led TUC to embark on the strike. The strike which began on Monday June 3, according to labour, was relaxed on Tuesday, June 4. Labour said it would continue with the strike if after seven days it could not reach a truce or compromise with the Federal Government on the minimum wage saga.
Speaking to the media after their meeting with Tinubu, Mr. Idris revealed that negotiating with the organised labour was a challenging task. “It has been quite challenging, but we thank God that we are at this point”, he said, adding that, “We thank labour that its leaders have suspended the strike early this morning (Tuesday, June 4)”.
Idris added, “On government’s side, the President has just summoned a meeting of all those negotiating on behalf of the Federal Government, led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the Minister of Finance was there, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, myself, the Minister of Labour and the GMD of the NNPCL were all there to look at those issues.
“The President has directed the Minister of Finance to do the numbers and get back to him between today (Tuesday June 4) and tomorrow (Wednesday June 5) so we can have some figures ready for negotiation with labour.
Speaking of President Tinubu’s determination to settle the labour matter, Idris said, “Let me say that Mr. President is determined to go with what the committee has said. He is also looking at the welfare of Nigerians. Like I said earlier, government is not an opponent of wage increase.
“But what is there is that government is always desirous of ensuring that there is a balance between what government pronouncement is and what realities are on ground and, therefore, will work assiduously to ensure that whatever we do, whatever promises government makes, will be kept. That is the idea of this meeting.
“The President has given a marching order to all those who negotiate on behalf of government and all those also who are representatives of other sectors, the Organised Private Sector, the sub-nationals to come together so we can have a new wage award that is acceptable, sustainable, and also realistic for Nigeria.
“A wage award is not just that of the Federal Government, like I mentioned earlier. The sub-nationals are involved, the OPS is involved, organised labour is involved. It was labour that stepped out during those proceedings.
“Now that we have come back to the negotiating table, all of us will work together again, seriously within the next one week, to ensure that we have a new wage for Nigeria that is acceptable, sustainable and realistic for all Nigerians”.
As days passed by, it appeared the Federal Government was unable to assuage the anger of the organized labour, hence the nation can be preparing to witness another industrial action by labour. On Friday, June 7, 2024, three days after Tinubu issued the marching order to Edun, the government came out to announce that it could not increase the minimum wage sought by labour beyond N62,000. On their part, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum also insisted that their states would not be able to pay a new minimum wage that is beyond N57,000. However, Labour has reduced its demand to N250,000 from N494,000. Whatever will be the outcome will be decided in the coming days.
