The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the government to establish a new minimum wage that is in line with the country’s cost of living.
While insisting on a living wage for Nigerian workers, NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero, in his speech at the 11th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria in Abuja, urged the federal government to allow salaries and wages to be commensurate with the cost of living.
This comes as Comrade Kabiru Minjibir, Acting National President of the Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU), said that anarchy was impending in the country if nothing was done immediately to address the current crisis.
Recall that the NLC proposed N709, 000 as the new national minimum wage during the North Central public hearing on Thursday. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) proposed N447,000 as the new national minimum wage.
The existing N30,000 minimum wage, enacted into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, will expire in April of this year. Ajaero bemoaned that the country’s economic crisis has reduced workers to beggars.
He said, “Food has become so scarce that Nigerians have become scavengers, resorting to raiding food trucks and warehouses for food. If those in government cannot see the danger in what is happening, we must ensure that the government fulfils its duties to the people.
“We are increasingly going hungry in our father’s land and cannot continue in this destitution. The greatest unifier and mobilizer of a people is hunger, so it is common for those in government to assume that somebody is sponsoring people who are protesting because of hunger.
“If anybody is arousing the people, it is those in government whose policies have impoverished the people and stripped them of those values that make them human beings.
“The looting of food trucks and warehouses is what you get when this happens. Unless something is done, this may unfortunately escalate.
“We pray it does not. Those who therefore think that they can stop us from this divine mission with their threats and violence should think twice.
“We cannot be cowed. We cannot surrender our natural mandate to the powers and agents of poverty and emasculation.
“We are not after anybody’s job, but we must insist that the instruments of governance must be used for the greater good of the people and not to wreck their lives.
“We must insist that any political calculation that does not put the lives of Nigerians first fails abysmally and is totally unacceptable.
“The people of Nigeria must survive first so that Nigeria can survive before we begin to talk about 2027.
“We must all work together to build power, which we can use for successful engagement with those who are in charge of power in our dear nation. Nigerians look up to us, and we must not fail them. We are in the NLC, which includes your AG.
“President and Deputy President of Congress, Comrade Ado Sani Minjibir, will always court and cherish your support to build the necessary structures that will make the NLC stronger to challenge the vicissitudes of the nation’s current socioeconomic realities.”
The Minister of Labour and Employment, stated that the government is dedicated to delivering cheap healthcare to Nigerians.
Onyejeocha, who was represented by Yusuf Mohammed, Director of Trade Union Services and Industrial Relations, also stated that the government was dedicated to improving welfare packages for health workers.
Acting National President of the Medical and Health Workers Union, Kabiru Minjibir, stated that the elimination of gasoline subsidies has “unleashed hardship on Nigerians.”” Minjibir noted that “anarchy may be looming if nothing practical is urgently done.”
