The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has clarified the circumstances surrounding the new minimum wage and why the congress accepted for the least-paid Nigerian to get N70,000, minimum.
Speaking on Arise television on Friday, the president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero revealed the understanding that the organized labour had with President Bola Tinubu before accepting the amount (N70,000) during the national minimum wage talks at the President Villa, Abuja.
Ajaero said the organized labour turned down the offer of an increase in the price of petroleum to accept N70,000 as the new minimum wage.
He also disclosed that after the organized labour had agreed with the president on the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) alternative, the labour went ahead to negotiate with a team of experts who agreed to convert vehicles to CNG at the rate of N300,000 but that on meeting with the government team, the officials rejected the NLC deal and instead announced that conversion of vehicles to CNG would cost N800, 000.
It would be recalled that the organized labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had insisted on N250,000 as the new minimum wage but later settled for the offer of N70,000 from the President.
The NLC President, when asked whether President Tinubu betrayed the trust of the NLC by increasing the petrol pump price despite the alleged ‘agreement’ with him, Ajaero said, “I have to narrate the scenario to you, and then we now choose the appropriate word, whether it is betrayal, deceit or whatever.
”While we were discussing, we stalemated at N62,000, even the states were saying they wouldn’t pay, so there was a stalemate that took us to Mr. President. We insisted on N250,000 and Mr President at the meeting, turned to me and said, ‘Ajaero, you are the person holding my hand from increasing further’. And I said increase what? The president said, ‘Since I said the subsidy is gone, we should have gotten the appropriate price. We should have increased. I want to sponsor you people, labour, to travel to these West African countries and know how much they are paying. Some are paying N2,000, N1,800, N1,700’. As he announced it, we declined immediately that we were not going to take that sponsorship.
“He said, ‘Okay, I will go to my office for one hour. You guys decide, if you agree for me to increase the price of petroleum products, I will pay you N250,000 minimum wage, if not, you take this N62,000’.
“But we said, Mr. President, no, we can’t sit down here to decide in your office, we will take about one week to go back and discuss and get back to you, which was exactly what happened and we adjourned for one week. And when we reconvened, we made it clear to Mr. President that we didn’t have any mandate to come there to discuss the price of petroleum products or increase, we were only there to discuss minimum wage and minimum wage alone we were going to discuss. And on the basis of that we accepted 70,000 (Naira)”.
Ajaero would later say in an interview with Saturday Vanguard after the television programme, that the hike in the price of petroleum products has worsened the living standards of workers and Nigerians at large, noting that it was wrong for the president to take such action and expect the people not to complain.
Ajaero said, “The basis of accepting the N70,000 minimum wage was for the president not to increase the pump price of petroleum products and we made it clear there. If he had gone ahead to increase it, then we need to discuss the implications because we can’t compare N70,000 with what is happening now.
From N700 to where we are now, we are having about a 70 percent increase and it is telling more on transportation. And there is no CNG bus that is already operating. Before you do such a thing anywhere in the world, you consult your social partners. And if you check the implications of the increase on the employers, the manufacturers, the organized private sector, as regards the cost of production, then the issue has to be negotiated.
”The way forward is to reverse it because workers are on edge now to see whether they can go to work or not. We need to sit down, governance is for the people, governance is not all about increase in electricity tariff, increase in pump price of petroleum products, increase in taxes, etc. It has to be negotiated, various arms of government have to be involved in it.
”The increase in the price of petroleum products has increased the sufferings of Nigerians. If the president doesn’t reverse it, he has inflicted more injuries on Nigerians and there is nothing anybody can do about it. Those who are at the receiving end are complaining and they will continue to complain.”
Meanwhile, the NLC’s top man has accused the government of inflating the cost of CNG conversion.
In his Arise television interview, Ajaero said, “In June 2023, after the ‘subsidy is gone’ statement, it was the first conversation we had with the federal government and agreed that CNG was better than petrol.
”We spoke with some experts who agreed to enter into the conversion of vehicles immediately and we were to reach almost three million vehicles within the first three months and the government said no. Those were asking for over N300,000 for conversion. But when we met with the government team, they were talking of about N800, 000 and that derailed the process. And between that time and now, the government has procured some vehicles.
“I had said in that conversation that when a vehicle that is supposed to use CNG is procured and there is no station to fill it, that vehicle is as good as a carton. Even before they procured those CNG vehicles, many stations should have been able to refill the vehicles as they were coming in. So, that is the frustration we have now. As NLC, we have taken delivery of about 14 buses, some of them 15-seaters.”
Speaking on the state of the nation, Ajaero said, “On the issue of why I have not announced that the NLC will go on strike, every organization has its modus operandi and the NLC president has no powers to say, at any time, that there will be a strike tomorrow. We have our administrative processes for convening a meeting at the earliest possible time when decisions on the next line of action will be made. No NLC president will come out and say we are going on strike tomorrow or tomorrow without the organs’ meeting – in most instances, either the Central Working Committee CWC or the National Executive Committee NEC – and we are following that process. Next week we should be able to meet and have conversations around this so that the personal views of the leader do not influence the position of the members.”
