President Bola Tinubu has declared that Nigerian workers, as the driving force of the country, deserve improved welfare, better wages, as well as safe and enhanced working conditions.
Addressing the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), led by the president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, and that of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), also led by its president, Comrade Festus Osifo, yesterday in Abuja, Tinubu said his administration prioritised the welfare of Nigerian workers.
The president said, "I pay attention to everything around me. A happy worker is a productive worker. And society depends on the productivity of the happy worker."
He, however, called for realistic expectations as regards the minimum wage question. According to the president, "You have to cut your coat according to available cloth. Before we can finalise on the minimum wage process, we have to look at the structure.
"Why must we adjust wages every five years? Why not two? Why not three years? What is a problem today can be eased up tomorrow.
"There is much dynamism to this process if we are not myopic in our approaches. We can take a surgical approach that is based on pragmatism and a deep understanding of all factors."
In his remarks, Ajaero emphasised the need for an upward adjustment to the minimum wage, stating, "Between living wage and minimum wage, we need to find a balance. Things are difficult for the Nigerian worker."
He congratulated the president on the judgement of the Supreme Court affirming the constitutional rights of local governments as regards financial autonomy and other salient principles.
The NLC president said, "I have to congratulate you on the issue of local government autonomy. We have been in the streets protesting for local government autonomy. Now that there is light at the end of the tunnel, it will amount to ungratefulness if we fail to commend you."
On his part, the TUC president said inflation had adversely affected the value of the naira and the measures initiated by the government to address the rising cost of food and transportation needed to kick in to give citizens relief.
He said the rollout of Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses will help in checking the high cost of transportation, while the recent directive on the suspension of duty on certain food imports will bring down the prices of food items, if properly implemented.
Osifo stated, "We commend you on the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court. History will not forget what has happened today. With this judgement, we believe Nigeria will make progress."
Meanwhile, the meeting between Tinubu and leaders of NLC and TUC over the new minimum wage yielded no result, as it failed to arrive at a conclusion.
Before yesterday's meeting held at the president's office at State House, Abuja, the government and the organised private sector had agreed on a monthly minimum wage of N62,000, while organised labour vowed not to go below N250,000 for the least paid worker in the country.
Another meeting between Tinubu and organised was scheduled for next week to continue discussion on the way forward with the new national minimum wage.
According to labour representatives, the one week interlude in the discussion with the president was introduced to allow them to go back and "internalise" issues raised during Thursday's discussion.
Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Ajaero, and Osifo affirmed that the meeting did not discuss anything in terms of naira and kobo.
Onyejeocha stated that Tinubu only had a discussion with the leadership of the organised labour as a father to children, but expressed the hope that a solution will soon be found to the minimum wage issue.
She stated, "It was a meeting between father and children and... I think we are hopeful that very soon everything will be resolved.
"When father and children talk, you know what it is. That's just exactly what has happened and it took us almost an hour, and I believe that it's all for good."
Ajaero said there was nothing like negotiation during the meeting, but a discussion on the current economic realities in the country.
According to him, "in real sense, it wasn't a negotiation but a discussion and we have had that discussion. We agreed to look at the real terms probably and reconvene in the next one week.
"So that's where we are, because we didn't go down there to talk naira and kobo. At least, there were some basic issues that we agreed on."
Asked whether organised labour insisted on the N250,000 demand at the meeting, Ajaero said, "I remember mentioning that we didn't go into naira and kobo discussion. Now the status quo in terms of the amount, N250,000 and N62,000, remains until we finish this conversation."
Osifo also said organised labour put all the economic indices on the table and how they were biting on Nigerians.
He said, "In the meeting, we tried to put the issues on the table. Issues that are bordering and biting Nigerians today, the economic difficulties and the value of the naira, how it has also eroded, how these have affected the prices of commodities and goods in the market.
"So, we tried to put these before Mr President because he is the president of the country and the buck stops at his table.
"We have had all the conversations with all his agents, but today (Thursday) we said let us meet with the father of the country and have this conversation and make the argument that labour always make.
"We made all the arguments, the economic analysis, macro, micro, fiscal and monetary issues. So we put everything forward and at the end, the president made his remark as the president and we all agreed let's go back to internalise it, have some conversations and by one week's time, we will come back and we will continue the meeting."
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, expressed optimism that there would be a positive result after next week's meeting.
Idris said, "Recall that already, there is 62,000 naira that has been put out there from the government side and the organised private sector, but the organised labour is still not accepting that but we know that they will come to the table. We know that this is something that is going to be workable for Nigerians.
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"The organised labour and the government will reach an agreement. We have adjourned now for a week. The labour union has asked the government to allow them at least a week to discuss further and we have allowed them. We're going to reconvene in the next one week and we hope and we believe by the end of day, we'll have something that is good for all Nigerians.
"We do hope that by the time we come together again next week, we'll have something that we can put out for Nigerians to see and to agree with."
However, a source privy to the meeting said Tinubu urged the organised labour to consider the N62,000 offer the federal government and the organised private sector made.
The source said Tinubu narrated what led to the subsidy removal and how Nigeria was feeding its neighbours and was suffering.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, " President Tinubu suggested that instead of waiting for five years to review the minimum wage, we can continue to dialogue and see the possibility of reviewing it every two years.
"He also said that the organised labour should consider the N62,000 offer because it is double of the N30,000 we were paying."
The source also said when the NLC president reminded Tinubu that it would amount to wage reduction if organised labour accepted N62,000, as the least paid worker currently went home with N72,000 (including wage award and 40 per cent increase), he (Tinubu) just laughed.
