• Says Miserable Minimum Wage Will Hurt The Economy
• Yoruba Ronu Backs Trade Unions On N250,000 Minimum Wage Demand

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has flayed state governors over their comment that they cannot afford to pay the N60,000 minimum wage earlier proposed by the Federal Government, warning that paying a miserable national minimum wage portends grave danger not only to the workforce but also the national economy at large.

The NLC urged the governors to do a re-think and save the country from certain death, noting that the economies of most states are driven by workers’ wages.

Head of Information and Public Affairs, NLC, Benson Upah, in a statement yesterday, said the poor economic capacity of Nigerian workers has resulted in overflowing warehouses of the productive sector of the economy.

He said the downward trend would continue unless the capacity of workers and businesses is enhanced.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) had in a statement yesterday claimed that “few states will end up borrowing to pay workers every month” if a new minimum wage of N60,000 is enacted.

Already, the Federal Government and the Organised Private Sector (OPS) have increased their offer to N62,000, while organised labour, comprising the NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), has reduced their initial demand of N494,000 to N250,000 as of last Friday’s tripartite national minimum wage committee meeting.

As per the veracity of their claim, Upah said nothing could be further from the truth as the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has since moved from N700 billion to N1.2 trillion, alleging that the government has become extremely rich at the expense of the people.

Noting that the governors acted in bad faith, Upah said it was unheard of for such a statement to be issued to the world in the middle of an ongoing negotiation.

According to him, all that the governors need to do to be able to pay a reasonable national minimum wage (not even the N60,000 earlier proposed) is to cut the high cost of governance, minimise corruption as well as prioritise the welfare of workers.

“We are not fixated with figures but value. Those who argue that moving the national minimum wage from N30,000 to N60,000 is sufficiently good enough miss the point.

“In 2019, when N30,000 became the minimum, N300 exchanged for $1 (effectively making the minimum wage an equivalent of  $100 or thereabout) while inflation rate was 11.40.

“At the moment the exchange rate is at N1,600 to $1 while inflation hovers at 33.7 per cent (40 per cent for food). This puts the value of the minimum wage at $37.5 for a family of six. This is happening at a time costs of everything have risen by more than 400 per cent as a result of the removal of fuel subsidies. This is an extreme bad news for the poor.

“Government’s policies of fuel subsidy removal, mindless devaluation of the naira, energy tariff hike by 250 per cent and interest rate hike by 26.5 per cent will continue to hurt the economy (especially manufacturing sector) and the poor,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Southwest socio-political group, Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum (YRLP), yesterday, took a stand behind the NLC and the TUC in the ongoing dialogue with the Federal Government over a new national minimum wage.

The forum insisted that the trade unions have a strong point in its resolution on a minimum wage that is above N60,000, which the government proposed and therefore threw its weight behind the unions in the ongoing deliberation.

In a statement signed by Akin Malaolu, the forum said: “Following the position of the 36 governors on what to them is appropriate or not appropriate as national minimum wage, we want to warn both the governors and the Federal Government that the labour unions are standing on very strong points in this negotiation.”

The forum insisted that the Federal Government’s commitment in the June 2, 2024, resolutions it signed with the labour unions could no longer be breached suddenly, anyhow or by chance even if the governors see things otherwise, stating that the reality today is that those governors do not understand or have a deep and thorough understanding of the economics of our situations.

“Furthermore, and from a psychological point of view, the decisions of the governors quite eroded the confidence of the generality of Nigerians in democracy because of their lack of good faith on issues regarding the welfare of the citizens. The governors are therefore requested by our leadership forum to seek an audience as a partner in the negotiations and not as a ‘guest’.

“We must warn against the rhetoric emerging from certain people asking the governors to bargain individually with the unions. Wage disparity must be avoided at this critical stage when the national currency (naira) has lost significant value in our pricing system. The value of N30,000 as a minimum wage is now like a token and nothing more.

“Now that the labour unions have downsized their demands for minimum wage to N250,000. 00, which is not a bad idea, the Federal Government with the state governors should accept labour’s position as proper. The people of Nigeria are very interested in the ongoing negotiations and are watching keenly. We must not disappoint them,” the group said.