By Seyi Babalola
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have agreed to end the minimum wage deadlock by next week.
This was the conclusion of President Tinubu’s meeting with the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, and the TUC, Festus Osifo, in the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Ajaero stated that the President’s conversation with them needs to be assimilated for a single deliberation next week.
“The President made his remark as the President and we all agreed. Let’s go back to internalize it, have some conversations and in one week, we will come back and we will continue the meeting.
“In a real sense, it wasn’t a negotiation but a discussion and we have had that discussion. We agreed to look at the real terms, probably and reconvene in the next week”, he said.
On his part, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said he is hopeful of a positive result after next week’s talks.
“Recall that already there is 62,000 naira that has been put out there from the government side and the organized private sector but the Organised Labour is still not accepting that but we know that they will come to the table, we know that this is something that is going to be workable for Nigerians.
“The Organized labor and the government will reach an agreement. We have adjourned now for a week. The labor union has asked the government to allow them at least a week to discuss further and we have allowed them”, he said.
Recall that the Nigerian government and organized labor had insisted on a different minimum wage of N62,000 and N250,000.
Meanwhile, Nigerians await the outcome of the minimum wage discussion amid harsh economic hardship which saw headline and food inflation rise to 33.95 percent and 40.66 percent, respectively.
