President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has said the organised labour accepted ₦70,000 as a new minimum wage after meeting with President Bola Tinubu to save Nigerians from further hardship.
Indeed, he said the President agreed to their proposal of ₦250,000 minimum wage but that it would come with another major increase in petrol prices.
Ajaero said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday shortly after Labour met with the President in Abuja.
“Accepting ₦70,000 was the best way to save Nigerians from further hardship,” he said.
“At last week’s meeting, the President brought a proposal that ‘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’.
“Today, we went there to tell him, ‘No’. The labour movement can make sacrifices without allowing Nigerians to suffer further on the increase in the pump price of petroleum products.”
The pump price of petrol jumped from ₦184 in May 2023 when Tinubu declared that “subsidy is gone” to about ₦700 at the moment, depending on the part of the country.
Ajaero also said the Organised Labour agreed to ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers because the wage reviews in the country will no longer be every five years but once in three years.
President Tinubu is expected to send an executive bill to the National Assembly on the agreed rate for onward legislation.
