Minimum wage: NLC says Labour won't resume strike

The Nigerian Labour is not resuming its suspended nationwide strike over the minimum wage yet.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said labour would not go on strike yet because the figures are currently on the table of President Bola Tinubu and a feedback is being expected.

The NLC president spoke on Monday at the International Labour Conference taking place in Geneva, Switzerland.

He said it is not impossible for the President to increase the figure before him to avert the strike.

However, Ajaero is dismay about governors who said they have no capacity to pay the even the proposed N62,000 new minimum wage, which is currently what the Federal Government is offering.

The NLC president, who dismissed the position of the governors, described them as lazy.

“We cannot declare strike now because the figures are with the President.

“During the tenure of the immediate past President, the figure that was proposed to him was N27,000 by the tripartite committee but he increased it to N30,000. We are hopeful that this President will do the right thing. The President had noted that the difference between N62,000 and N250,000 is a wide gulf,

“How can any governor say he cannot pay? They cannot also be calling for the decentralization of the minimum wage.

“Are there wages decentralized? Governors whose states are not contributing a dime to the national purse and who generate pitiable Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) are collecting the same amount as governors whose states are generating billions of dollars into the FAAC.

“They should decentralize their salaries and emoluments first,” he said.

Ajaero wondered where “the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, is getting his money from? He is paying N70,000 minimum wage. This is the type of governor that should be emulated and not the lazy ones.”