Many Nigerians on the social media platform, X, have tackled President Bola Tinubu and his government for proposing N48,000 as the new national minimum wage.
Truetells Nigeria reports that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) rejected the new proposed minimum wage on Wednesday
The Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage resumed negotiations yesterday (Wednesday) but labour leaders said the meeting “reached an unfortunate impasse as a result of the apparent unseriousness of the Government to engage in reasonable negotiation with Nigerian workers”.
The organised labour said it decided to walk out of the negotiation process after the government offered to pay N48,000 as the new national minimum wage, without providing any substantial date to support the offer.
The organised labour had demanded N615,000 as the new minimum wage, noting that the demand could go higher if the inflation rate continued to rise.
The developments have continued to attract outrage from all sections of the country as the masses note that the government is not emphatic towards the economic realities in the country in deciding the new minimum wage.
An X user, Hidima said any minimum wage less than ₦150,000 is enslavement.
He wrote: “This tomato today in Warri goes for ₦7000, the pepper is also ₦7000, the other red pepper is ₦6000 and each tuber of yam there goes for ₦3,000 each. A kilo of meat (beef) is ₦7,500 & a kilo of chicken is ₦7000. The ordinary worker (public of private) will take a commercial vehicle, or if he or she has a vehicle, will buy fuel. They’d save something for children school fees, a portion of rent, other food stuff, even a bag of Garri today I learnt is ₦65,000. Dear @NGRPresident, let the poor breath.”
“If not for the selfishness of our leaders, this issue is as simple as ABC. Let’s calculate it based on the dollar exchange rate and see, when the Minimum W was approved, the exchange rate was around N300 and now it’s around N1,600. So 30k /N300 = $100 And $100* N1,600 = N160,000,” another user, Dan Arewa wrote.
Sarki said, “The people proposing a N48,000 minimum wage are the same people sharing millions/billions of taxpayers’ money among themselves. It tells you the kind of leaders we have in this country.”
Taller said, “The FGN wants the minimum wage to be 48k, while a Senator is earning 23 million Naira and a Rep is earning about half of that every month, which is 500 times the minimum wage. With one senator’s salary and allowances, a salary for 500 civil servants earning minimum wage can be paid. My brother if you have the good chance just japa from this country don’t play with your future.”
Mr. El-Bonga said, “Any minimum wage below N150,000 should be regarded as a joke. They keep preaching the gospel of “no money” yet they’re not even pretending to reduce the cost of governance. Also, we keep seeing corruption cases in billions almost everyday. It’s even laughable to suggest N48,000.”
“In today’s Nigeria, N48,000 can’t – Buy you one bag of rice – Pay school fees – Do full tank – Pay monthly electricity tariff for Band A. Nigerian workers shud not settle for anything less than N150,000 as minimum wage, 1 US Dollar is N1,500,” another user, Abdul-Aziz said.
