We Accepted ₦70,000 Minimum Wage to Avoid Fuel Price Increase – NLC President

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said it declined President Bola Tinubu’s offer of N250,000 as the minimum wage and an increase in petrol prices.

The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, made this known during a Thursday interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, following a meeting between Labour representatives and President Tinubu in Abuja.

Ajaero stated that the decision to accept N70,000 instead was to prevent further hardship for Nigerians.

“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’,” Ajaero explained.

“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 rejection of the proposal comes amid a sharp rise in petrol prices, which have surged from ₦184 in May 2023, following President Tinubu’s declaration that “subsidy is gone” to more than ₦700, depending on the state.

Tinubu is expected to submit an executive bill to the National Assembly to formalise the agreed minimum wage rate for legislative action.

This acceptance of  ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage contradicts the organised labour’s earlier stance that they will not accept any slight increase to the ₦60,000 offer proposed by the tripartite committee for the new minimum wage.

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