There is hope in sight for Nigerian workers as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu picked next week to unveil a new minimum wage in the country.
Comrade Festus Osifo, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), shared made this known during an appearance on ChannelsTV’s “Politics Today” program on Tuesday evening, September 19, 2023.
TUC had given the federal government a two-week ultimatum to address its demands or risk industrial action from workers across the country.
Osifo noted that the minister of labour, Simon Lalong, told them he had met with President Tinubu and the minister of finance, Wale Edun.
Osifo said Lalong told the union that the issue of wage had been reviewed adding that President Tinubu would speak on the matter in the coming days.
“The minister of labour told us that he had an audience with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the minister of finance and had reviewed the issue of wage award. But the president asked them to fine-tune the issues before he makes the announcement,” the TUC president said.
“The minister told us all these issues would be streamlined but because the president has travelled we should give him an extra two weeks. We said no; we don’t have an extra two weeks to give. After more discussions, he said the president would make proper announcement next week.”
Osifo noted that the union had engaged the federal government on the palliatives released to states.
“We are going to monitor distribution of palliatives in states to make sure the scheme is implemented appropriately. We want to see the template of the implementation which is why we engaged the federal government on this issue. We also raised issues around taxation and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas),” the TUC president added.
The current minimum wage is N30,000 and the organised labour unions including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) are demanding over 200 percent increment.
