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The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has revealed that President Bola Tinubu offered to pay the 250 thousand naira new minimum wage demand presented by organised labour provided they allow an increase in petrol pump price.
Ajaero disclosed this while explaining the reasons why labour unions agreed to the 70 thousand naira minimum wage proposal from the President.
After a meeting between representatives of the Federal Government led by Tinubu and the organised labour at the Presidential Villa on Thursday, July 18, 2024, all the parties agreed to peg the new minimum wage at 70 thousand naira.
The President also agreed that the national minimum wage review would no longer be done every five years, promising a three-year window for reviews.
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“We’re happy to announce today that both the federal government and Organised Labour have agreed on an increase of the ₦62,000.
“The new national minimum wage that we expect to be submitted to the National Assembly for legislation is ₦70,000," Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation had said.
Ajaero says Tinubu was prepared to pay N250k
In an interview on Channels Television's Politics Today on Thursday night, Ajaero said labour unions accepted the Federal Government's new offer after great work and wide consultation.
The NLC President added that organised labour decided to make a big sacrifice by dropping its 250 thousand naira demand for the new offer.
He said, during a meeting with Tinubu last week, the President said he was ready to accept labour's demand provided he's allowed to increase the fuel pump price.
Ajaero said accepting such an offer would have pounced more misery on Nigerians who are already reeling from the biting effect of the economy.
"The first instance, the government team came for what they called living wage to minimum wage and when they moved to the issue of minimum wage, it has been a running battle between all tiers of government that were supposed to equally participate in the process.
"While we were even negotiating, comments and files from the states who said they can't even pay 60,000 were there. Comments from states that are still paying 18,000 has been there.
"Now, the issue of revenue in the last minute discussion with the President equally came up and accepting 70,000 was the best way to make sure that we save Nigerians from further hardship.
"The last week meeting, the President brought a proposal, 'I will give you guys ₦250,000 if you allow me to equally increase the pump price of petroleum products' and we said no, we need to go and consult," Ajaero said.
He stressed that the labour decision was an attestation to the fact that it was ready to make sacrifices without allowing Nigerians to suffer further on the increase in the pump price of petroleum products.
"We equally looked at, instead of waiting for five years, we're still going to have another negotiation before the end of the present administration," he added.