The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, disclosed the details of an agreement made between the NLC and President Bola Tinubu during discussions about the national minimum wage.
Speaking on Arise TV’s Morning Show, Ajaero revealed that the NLC agreed to a new minimum wage of N70,000 in exchange for a promise from the government not to increase the price of petroleum products. The discussions took place at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Ajaero shared that the labour unions had initially proposed a minimum wage of N250,000, but after much negotiation, they accepted the lower amount of N70,000 to avoid a further hike in fuel prices. “The basis of accepting the N70,000 minimum wage was for the president not to increase the pump price of petroleum products,” Ajaero said.
The NLC had been negotiating with the government on the matter of fuel alternatives, specifically Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), as a cheaper substitute for petrol. Ajaero explained that the NLC had secured a deal with experts to convert vehicles to run on CNG for N300,000 per vehicle.
However, when the proposal was brought before the government, officials inflated the cost to N800,000, leading to frustration and delays in the conversion process. Despite these obstacles, Ajaero noted that the NLC had taken delivery of 14 CNG-powered buses.
In his interview, Ajaero criticized the government’s approach, stating that despite promises, there were still no CNG buses in operation. He expressed concern about the impact of the rising petrol prices on workers and the general population, adding that the cost of living has dramatically increased due to the fuel hike.
“He said, ‘Okay, I will go to my office for one hour. You guys decide, if you agree for me to increase the price of petroleum products, I will pay you N250,000 minimum wage, if not, you take this N62,000’.
“But we said, Mr. President, no, we can’t sit down here to decide in your office, we will take about one week to go back and discuss and get back to you, which was exactly what happened and we adjourned for one week. And when we reconvened, we made it clear to Mr. President that we didn’t have any mandate to come there to discuss the price of petroleum products or increase, we were only there to discuss minimum wage and minimum wage alone we were going to discuss. And on the basis of that we accepted 70,000 (Naira)”.
