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As debate continues on what should be the appropriate national minimum wage for Nigerian workers, with the organised labour throwing up different figures, a commissioner in Lagos, Akintola Benson Oke, has submitted that the state government, not federal, will decide for its workers.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, (TUC) in 2016 jointly submitted a proposal of N56,000 to the Federal Government as minimum. Recently, however, the two labour centres withdrew the figure and made a fresh demand of N66,500 while their counterparts in United Labour Congress (ULC) are insisting on N96,000 per month as appropriate national minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The Federal Government in November 2017 inaugurated a 30-member tripartite committee headed by Ama Pepple, a former Head of Service and Minister of Housing. The committee comprising labour, private sector representatives and government was tasked with discussing the labour’s demand and arriving at what will be a new national minimum wage.
Nigeria currently pays N18,000 minimum wage, a sum that stakeholders across sectors of the economic believe is inadequate, and one of the lowest in the world. The minimum wage was signed into effect in 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan and meant for a review after five years.
The NLC and TUC in withdrawing their initial demand of N56,000 said it was necessitated by the current economic realities whereby workers in the country have become poorer in the face of inflation and depreciating value of the naira which have combined to raise the cost of living in the country.
Peter Ozo-Eson, the general secretary of the NLC, said the union submitted the fresh demand at the last meeting of the tripartite committee on March 27.
According to Ozo-Eson, we have taken a position since we made the initial demand on the government which is almost two years back.
“When we got to the tripartite committee and the committee called on all stakeholders to submit a memorandum.
“In responding to the request for a memorandum, we then use current economic indices to make a fresh demand. So, what we place and what we demand is an outcome of analysis we carried out.
“We did the analysis using the current economic table and data of the nation and of course that came to something different. We are going to maintain what is in the memorandum that we have submitted to the tripartite committee.”
Noting that the fresh demand was a joint memorandum by the NLC and TUC, Ozo-Eson declared: “We have made the presentation to the committee and we have defended it. We have also taken into account changes between the first demand and the current position.”
However, responding to a question on the possibility of Lagos paying a higher minimum wage, Benson Akintola Oke, the state commissioner for establishments, training and pensions, said it was within the purview of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led state government to decide what to pay workers in the state public service.
He believed that Nigeria’s federalism was not well-structured, arguing that each of the federating units ought to operate independently, but in synergy with the federal where both have concurrent responsibilities.
JOSHUA BASSEY
