President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said the Federal Government will approve a new minimum wage that Nigeria can afford amid its economic woes.
He made this disclosure on Wednesday night while speaking at a dinner to celebrate Nigeria’s Democracy Day in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Tinubu thanked those who stood by him over the years, promising Nigerians that he won’t depart from the tenets of democratic governance.
The president said; “I have to celebrate with you my dear brother, Senate President, Deputy Senate President. The minimum wage is going to be what Nigerians can afford, what you can afford and what I can afford. Cut your coat according to your size, if you have size at all.”
Furthermore, he pledged to bring down the prices of food items by tackling the menace of banditry that has forced many farmers away from their farms.
Meanwhile, Tontrends recalls that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) earlier dismissed President Tinubu’s claim that federal government and labour agreed on a new minimum wage for the workforce.
In his Democracy Day Speech on Wednesday, June 12, Tinubu said he will soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon in the next five years or less.
But in a statement by Acting President of NLC, Comrade Prince Adewale Adeyanju, President Tinubu may have accurately recounted parts of the democratic journey’s history, but he was misinformed regarding the outcome of the wage negotiation process.
He said in part; “The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the President would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the federal government and the employers on the base figure for a National Minimum Wage nor on its other components. Our demand still remains N250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand Naira) only and we have not been given any compelling reasons to change this position which we consider a great concession by Nigerian workers during the tripartite negotiation process.
“We are therefore surprised at the submission of Mr. President over a supposed agreement. We believe that he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC.
“There was none and it is important that we let the President, Nigerians and other national stakeholders understand this immediately to avoid a mix up in the ongoing conversation around the national minimum wage. We have also not seen a copy of the document submitted to him and will not accept any doctored document.”