President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and leaders of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have committed to resolving the ongoing minimum wage dispute by next week.
This decision emerged from a meeting held on Thursday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, attended by President Tinubu, NLC President Joe Ajaero, and TUC President Festus Osifo.
Ajaero stated that the President’s remarks needed to be internalized for further deliberation. He explained, “The President made his remark as the President, and we all agreed.
Let’s go back to internalize it, have some conversations, and in one week, we will come back, and we will continue the meeting. In a 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 week.”
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Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, expressed optimism about a positive outcome from the talks scheduled for next week.
He noted, “Recall that already there is ₦62,000 that has been put out there from the government side and the organized private sector, but the Organized 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. The Organized 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.”
The Nigerian government and organized labour have proposed different minimum wages of ₦62,000 and ₦250,000, respectively. Meanwhile, Nigerians are eagerly awaiting the outcome of these discussions amidst severe economic challenges, with headline and food inflation rates rising to 33.95 percent and 40.66 percent, respectively.
