• May resume picketing of NERC, DisCos premises next week
• States defaulting on N30,000 wage to be picketed
• AGF, NJC, RMAFC, others back proposed 300% salary, allowance increase for judges
• Nigerians will suffer if judges are underpaid – CJN
• Utomi calls for stakeholders’ summit on reconstructing economy

The labour unions under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have threatened to embark on a massive protest should the Federal Government fail to conclude on a new minimum wage before May 31.

The labour leaders handed down the ultimatum ahead of today’s tripartite negotiation meeting for the implementation of a new minimum wage. They also promised to attend after walking out of the committee’s meeting last week.

At the end of their joint National Executive Council meeting in Abuja yesterday, president of NLC, Joe Ajaero, and his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, charged the government to prioritise the new wage to avert industrial action by next week Friday.

Though unhappy with the speed of the negotiations, both centres acknowledged the efforts of government and members of the private sector, but insisted that urgency is required to conclude the process.

A communiqué, jointly signed by the duo, said: “The NEC-in-session reiterates the ultimatum issued by the NLC and TUC to the Federal Government, which expires on the last day of this month. It emphasises the non-negotiable nature of the demands put forth by Nigerian workers and urges the government to prioritise the resolution of these issues in the best interest of industrial peace.”

Also, state governments that are not implementing the N30,000 wage to date may draw the ire of organised labour as it has directed its state councils to declare strikes in such states from May 31.

The meeting also affirmed both labour centres’ joint ultimatum earlier issued to the Anambra State government by its Anambra state councils. It, therefore, directed all affiliates and workers in the state council to mobilise their members to ensure a successful action in the event the state government fails to meet the demands of workers by Thursday, May 23.

“If the government fails to meet the demands outlined within the stipulated time frame, the NEC authorises the leadership of NLC and TUC to take appropriate actions, including but not limited to the mobilisation of workers for peaceful protests and industrial actions, to press home these demands for social justice and workers’ rights,” it said.

On the electricity tariffs, labour condemned the unilateral increase in electricity tariffs by the authorities.

It noted that the action, taken without due consideration for the economic hardships faced by the masses and the provisions of the law, is deemed unjust and burdensome.

It called on the government to reverse the hike and the vexatious categorisation into bands to alleviate the suffering of Nigerian workers and citizens and issued the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Federal Government until the last day of May 2024 to meet these demands.
THIS is just as the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), yesterday, supported the proposed 300 per cent increase in the salaries and allowances of judicial office holders in the country by President Bola Tinubu.

The National Judicial Council (NJC), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMAFC), among others, also endorsed the proposal.

The AGF, NBA, NJC, RMAFC, and other critical stakeholders spoke during a one-day public hearing on a Bill titled: ‘A Bill for an Act to prescribe the salaries and allowances and fringe benefit of judicial office holders in Nigeria and Related Matters, 2024.” The public hearing was organised by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters, chaired by Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (APC – Borno North).

Fagbemi, in his presentation, urged the committee to note that the efforts to improve the remuneration of judicial officers in the country have a chequered history. He said: “I wish to remark that the Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc.) Bill 2024 is quite innovative, aside from the increment in the basic salary, it also took cognisance of certain peculiarities of the administrative structure and operation of the judiciary.

“This Bill will birth an appropriate and commensurate remuneration that will ensure judicial independence and integrity. The present-day but sad reality is that the judiciary has stagnated on the same salary scale for over 16 years, this is totally unacceptable and quite antithetical to any meaningful judicial reform.

“I strongly commend this Bill for your kind consideration and do urge the Senate to support and ensure the passage of this Bill in the national interest of promoting the rule of law.”

Speaking in a similar vein, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola, has said Nigerians would suffer the consequences if judges are deprived of good salaries, allowances and official benefits. He stated this at the public hearing yesterday.

Ariwoola was represented by the Chief Judge of Borno, Kashim Zannah. In his address, the CJN specifically said the demand for a review of judicial officer’s salaries was in the interest of Nigerians.

“When judges are well compensated, yes, they do their best. But actually, as clearly demonstrated, the real interest that is being looked at is the interest of these citizens because they will be the ones who suffer the consequences of a deprived judiciary,” he said.

Ariwoola likened the situation of judges in the country to a patient in a critical condition and need of urgent medical attention.

“Distinguished senators, in a nutshell, what we are saying is this. The situation of judges across Nigeria is like one in a critical condition in the ICU. The beam, the schedule to the beam would stabilise the patient. The one captain in the appropriation door would have him moved from the ICU to the general ward.

“When a patient is in that condition, you don’t start physiotherapy at the ICU. You make sure he is stabilised, move to the general ward, gain some strength, and then you now look at physiotherapy and all other therapists. And that is the nutshell of our presentation that distinguishes senators as we have already exhibited.

“Do move quickly, move the patient out of the ICU to the general ward and then we will come. But for now, let us stabilise the patient, move him out of ICU and then we can talk about the rest later,” the CJN described.

The CJN, thereafter, commended the Senate committee for organising the hearing. Ariwoola also disclosed that many judges in the country are enduring severe pain as a result of the underpaid system, adding that the last review of judges’ salaries was in 2007, about 17 years ago.

“The salaries were last reviewed in the year 2007. It has been 17 years earning the same amount despite the tumultuous depreciation in purchasing power. While other sectors have theirs renewed several times over the period, Judicial officers have been in silence,” he said.

Ariwoola, therefore, urged the lawmakers to pass the bill seeking an increment of judicial officers’ salaries in order to strengthen the Nigerian judiciary system.

Meanwhile, a political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, has called for the convocation of a stakeholders’ summit to discuss the country’s economy and suggest ways to reconstruct it. Utomi was reacting to the May 15 tripartite committee meeting on the new minimum wage, where organised labour pulled out, following disagreements that ensued.

He said the problem was that the Nigerian economy was being mismanaged. According to him, the tripartite committee on new minimum wage does not understand what it is dealing with.

“So, labour is looking at price inflation, naturally, they take the traditional approach of – inflation has gone this way; it has gone by 100 per cent. Therefore, for workers to catch up, they need to go up in similar proportions at the very least, but what we are dealing with is so much more complex.

“The truth is that most things are dysfunctional; what we need is an understanding of a national emergency, in which all stakeholders will really come together to say, how do we reconstruct Nigeria?,” he said.

Utomi said that the major economic challenge of the country was productivity. According to him, Nigeria is not producing, economic managers are not creating conditions for production, and workers are developing an entitlement mentality.

“You have a national strategy and everybody will want to key into this emergency war cabinet approach, then massive mobilisation to solve to win the war.

“It means, for example, that we know that in agriculture, for certain legumes, in three months you can produce so much food, mobilise half of every village into a farm protection army, since one of the big problems with why people are not farming is supposed to be insecurity.

“Take another quarter, who are interested in massive agricultural investment or support and give every young person almost like Operation Feed the Nation of Obasanjo’s time.

“Charge everybody within four months, and run this output from agriculture; mobilise volunteers, and then as we improve productivity, we will agree on certain parameters within labour, private sector, and government.”