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Minimum Wage: Why We May Not Accept N100,000 – Organised Labour

Published

1 year ago

May 20, 2024

The organised labour has told the government to perish any idea of offering N100,000 as the new minimum wage.

The labour has also told the government to be serious with the negotiations on the issue of workers wages, insisting that it used the lowest minimum in arriving at the N615,000 as new minimum wage.

Recall that the organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, pulled out of the negotiation meeting last week Wednesday when the government offered N48,000 as the new minimum wage.

However, Chairman of the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum wage, Alhaji Bukar Goni in a letter to the organized labour for a meeting tomorrow indicated interest that the government will shift ground and asked the organised labour to also shift ground.

Speaking to Vanguard in Abuja, the NLC Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, said that the organised labour would honour the invitation tomorrow but he advised the government to be serious.

He said, “Our expectations are that the government should be serious this time around. We expect them to take more seriously the issue of wages of workers.”

On whether labour would accept N100,000 as being insinuated, he said, “Well, it will not be fair and these are the reasons. The first reason is that when we demanded for N615,000, we broke that down. In fact, we used the barest minimum.

“For instance we put accommodation for N40,000, we also use for feeding N500, tell me where you are going to get food for N500 with a family of six. As I said, we used barest estimate but beyond that, government hiked electricity tariff by two hundred and fifty percent after we made our demand and that has introduced new cost and expenses. So if government is serious, it should not be thinking about a hundred thousand naira.

“You know that when you create poor citizens, you create a poorer county.” On his part, a member of the NLC delegation on the Tripartite Committee, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, said it would not be kind of the government to offer N100,000.

He said, “I don’t think one hundred thousand naira is a kind of thing we want because it’s far below expectation, we will accept something that can at least keep somebody alive. I don’t think a hundred thousand naira will keep a worker alive in this country a man with a family of six because our computation is based on the size of family.

“So, if they come up with that kind of amount, I don’t think we will appreciate it. In the private sector even artisans are not taking one hundred thousand a month. Whatever we accept we will look what is the income, what are they collecting, what is available to government because if government is collecting one trillion naira, we cannot ask them to pay two trillion.

“We are responsible people but the same government should know that people are suffering they will have to agree with us that there is crisis, that something needs to be done to create wealth, that something needs to be done for Nigeria to be a producing country and not a consuming nation.

“Something needs to be done to reduce the cost of governance. We are supposed to be partners in governance, after all we are the labourers.”

Asked to give reason why labour may not accept one hundred thousand, he said, “If we see that that hundred thousand is affordable, if we see that they can afford more, we will reject it. They have to tell us why they cannot pay N615,000, the onus is on them to tell us why, then we will sit down and say okay you don’t have the money but we will also know why you don’t have the money because Nigeria is a country that is naturally endowed but something is wrong, how do you make sure you get the money so that when we come again in two years time, you won’t tell us the same story?

“What are you doing to create wealth, how are you going to partner with us to create wealth instead of being wasteful, how are you going to partner with us to reduce cost of governance. If a father comes home and says the only money he has is one thousand naira and you know that the father is not wasting the money, you will manage but if it is when the father comes and he is eating food bought from the fast food joint and it cost N10,000 and he gives one thousand to the entire family to go and look for food and cook for themselves, he may be beaten up, the family may refuse it.

“The letter they wrote to us they said that both parties should shift ground, that means they will shift ground and they are expecting us to shift ground but the question is, what ground are they shifting, are they going to shift ground by two naira or two thousand naira to make it N50,000 or are they going to shift ground by N62,000 to make it N100,000 or by N150,000 or N200,000 to make it N300,000 plus.

“The point here is, this thing we are doing is not rocket science, the government should sit down and calculate how much it will cost, what is a befitting wage for an average Nigeria? They should breakdown what they are giving us because even in salaries, you break everything down. So when you break it down, they will tell us whether they are going to put one thousand naira per month for transport and two thousand naira per month for food.

“That N48,000 they are offering, they should have broken it down so if there are certain things they don’t want to make provision for, for instance health, if they say if any worker is sick they person should go and die or they don’t want to make provision for food, let them just put standard things.

“The problem here is that, you asked someone to tighten his belt, you said there is no money but you removed subsidy. Since they removed subsidy, FAAC has been collecting almost three times of what they were collecting before subsidy. That money you are collecting, what are you doing with it?

“You now said you want to build coastal highway when the existing roads to the same location are not passable, you are budgeting trillions of naira, you want to build Lagos-Sokoto brand new Highway, you want to put billions for hajj subsidy, you bought 200 vehicles for Customs and this is somebody that is complaining that naira is having issues but you now want to spend hundreds billions to import Toyota cars for Customs, why can’t you buy made-in Nigeria vehicles?

“This whole thing doesn’t make any meaning, we don’t even understand it. They are behaving as if they have money but they don’t know what to do with it like General Yakubu Gowon said in the 70s. You bought 200 Toyota Jeeps for Customs, it means you really do have the money but you don’t know what to do with it. But one thing you don’t want to do with the money is to feed Nigerians, feed your workers, make your workers comfortable.

“And as you can see, they are not even giving anybody hope. There is no programme for agriculture, government is not declaring emergency on power, food security, transportation.

“So what we are expecting is that, if they tell us they cannot pay N625,000, they should tell us why they cannot pay, this is negotiation. If we have told them to pay N615,000, what we expect government to calculate how many workers that are expected to receive this minimum wage.

“We did our research, you now say each state has this workforce, this is what they are now getting as revenue forget the fact that some of them are not doing anything to increase their IGR. Whatever they are getting now from the money coming from the federal revenue account, the federal government should say, this is the number of workers that we have, this is how much that you are asking, at the end of the day, this is how much we are expected to spend as salary and this is how much we have.

“So, NLC please look at it, we don’t want to spend this percent on salary, we will then sit down and ask, if you don’t want to spend it on salary, you want to spend it by importing vehicles for Customs when you have locally manufactured vehicles that won’t cost capital flight.”

He, however said that if the government comes out with something”relevant “, the organised labour will shift ground as asked.

“We must discuss with them that the figure presented is realistic and based on facts and statistics as the organised labour has done,” he said.

He said, “For provision of food for one person, we put N500 but there is a survey carried out by the National Bureau for Statistics covering all parts of the country, NBS is the custodian of statistics and it came out with that in today Nigeria, the average you can spend for a meal is N900.

“But we went low, we took the minimum. Their average is N900 but we took the minimum of N500, that is you cannot go below the N500. So you can see how realistic we are. So we will insist that government breakdown every item. Food, hospital, accommodation, transportation etc.

“We don’t want anyone to come and say that the NLC and the TUC presented arbitrary figure.”
VANGUARD

Related Topics:#FG Labour NLC organised labour

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Nestle Sacks CEO Over Office Romance

Published

3 hours ago

September 1, 2025

Editor

Swiss food giant, Nestle, on Monday dismissed Laurent Freixe as chief executive with immediate effect over an “undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate.”

The multinational behind Nespresso coffee capsules and KitKat chocolate bars said Freixe’s dismissal followed an investigation.

In a swift move, Nespresso CEO, Philipp Navratil, was appointed to take over by his fellow board members.

“The departure of Laurent Freixe follows an investigation into an undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate which breached Nestle’s code of business conduct,” a statement said.

The board said it had ordered an investigation overseen by chairman Paul Bulcke and lead independent director Pablo Isla, with the support of outside counsel.

“This was a necessary decision. Nestle’s values and governance are strong foundations of our company. I thank Laurent for his years of service,” Bulcke said in a statement.

A company veteran, Freixe joined Nestle in France in 1986. He ran the firm’s European operations until 2014, steering them through the subprime and euro crises that began in 2008.

He headed the Latin America division before his promotion as CEO.

Freixe had only been in the top spot since a surprise switch in September 2024, entrusted with reversing soft spending by consumers for the company’s food and household goods.

Nestle’s share price slumped by nearly a quarter last year, raising concerns in Switzerland, where pension funds invest heavily in the company, whose brands also include Purina dog food, Maggi bouillon cubes, Gerber baby food and Nesquik chocolate-flavoured drinks.

Nestle shares closed up 0.13 percent at 75.49 Swiss francs on the Swiss stock exchange.

– Net profits –

In late July, Nestle reported a 10.3-percent drop in first half profits as it struggled to turn around its fortunes amid sluggish consumer spending in China, even as it passed on higher cocoa and coffee prices to consumers.

New chief executive Navratil had been an executive vice-president at Nestle, which is headquartered in Vevey on Lake Geneva.

“The board is confident that he will drive our growth plans forward and accelerate efficiency efforts. We are not changing course on strategy and we will not lose pace on performance,” insisted chairman Bulcke.

Navratil started his career with Nestle in 2001 and took on various roles in Central America, leading the coffee and beverage business in Mexico from 2013 to 2020, when he took over responsibility for global strategy and innovation for the Nescafe and Starbucks brands.

He became chief executive of the Nespresso brand in July last year and joined the company board in January 2025.

“I fully embrace the company’s strategic direction, as well as the action plan in place to drive Nestle’s performance,” said Navratil, pledging to “drive the value creation plan with intensity.”

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VIDEO: Motorists Stranded As Bridge Fails On Lagos-Benin Expressway

Published

3 hours ago

September 1, 2025

Editor

Motorists and passengers were stranded for hours after a truck fell near a failed portion of a bridge along the Isoko axis of the Lagos-Benin Expressway, exposing the river beneath and rendering the route impassable.

A viral video from the scene showed queues of trapped vehicles as frustrated road users called on the Minister of Works, David Umahi, to urgently repair the dilapidated sections of the highway.

One stranded passenger, who was filmed in the video, lamented that the incident left commuters stuck for over two hours, halting both vehicular movement and the flow of goods.

He said, “I’m currently standing on the Benin-Lagos Expressway, and where we are now is Isoko Camp. This is a bridge, a very short bridge, and this message is to the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, the one who is building a road from Lagos-Calabar Highway, the road to nowhere. This place is currently shut down.

“This truck fell here, and there’s no way. Look at this place. Vehicles are blocked. Look this way, everywhere packed up.”

The visibly frustrated commuter revealed the deteriorating state of the bridge, pointing to exposed sections above the river, which he described as a threat to lives and businesses.

He criticised the Federal Government’s focus on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, accusing Umahi of neglecting critical economic routes such as the Lagos-Benin Expressway.

“This is an expressway, and we have a minister. This is the Lagos-Benin Expressway yet, our minister, dey do Lagos – Calabar Highway,” he said.

“This is what we have. Do you know how many people pass here? As I’m speaking to you now, if you look up, trailer. If you know the number of trailers that are here and are trapped, it means the economy of Nigeria is affected. Because the number of goods and services has been shut down. Everywhere is shut down.

“This road now, everywhere is at standstill. This vehicle is even lucky that it didn’t fall into the water. And we have a Minister of Works wasting money, saying Calabar Expressway.”

He further argued that the Lagos-Benin Expressway carries more economic importance than the Lagos-Calabar Highway, urging the minister to prioritise repairs.

He said, “Mr. Minister, let me educate you. If you have a small economic sense, you will know that this road alone is affecting Nigeria’s economy. But that Calabar Expressway, it’s not affecting anybody. If you go there now, you won’t see vehicles parked lined up there. The only place where you will see vehicles lined up is on this road. So if the Minister has more direction, he will go and fix this road.

“I see when they say they need more money, they are borrowing more money to put in the road we don’t use. Then the one we use is abandoned. So please, those who are close to the Minister, talk to him. We are stranded here now. We have been here for over two hours now, and nothing is moving.”

The video has gained the attention of concerned citizens on social media, some of whom describe the road as a “death trap” and joined in calling for quick intervention on the road.

Watch video below:

https://x.com/MobilePunch/status/1962577345832714466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1962577345832714466%7Ctwgr%5Edf307ccd0eb71fe84e2d24b726307513398112b3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpunchng.com%2Fvideo-motorists-stranded-as-bridge-fails-on-lagos-benin-expressway%2F

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Bauchi Govt Inaugurates Pastors, Imams Peace Building Committee

Published

5 hours ago

September 1, 2025

Editor

Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state has inaugurated a 32- member Pastors/Imams peace building Committee to promote peaceful coexistence in Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa Local Government Areas of the state.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony on Monday, the governor said the move was necessitated by the need for the government to consolidate on the peace it had built and sustained over the last six years.

According to him, this peaceful coexistence had recently been threatened by the actions of unpatriotic elements within the state who didn’t wish the state well and were bent on hiding under the cover of farmer-herder clashes to taint the gains Bauchi has made so far.

While acknowledging that minor incidences are common, especially during the farming season, Mohammed said that the dimension of the recent threats in the areas was indicative of a deliberate attempt to cause disharmony.

He said it was to also portray the state in bad face in order to sully the recognition it had attained as one of the most peaceful states in not just the Northeast sub-region but in the country at large.

“We will not allow our hard earned peaceful coexistence to be truncated by the special grace of Allah. We have invested massively over the last six years in security and peace building measures and mechanisms.

“I will not allow anyone, no matter how highly placed, to scuttle the serenity and harmony that we have attained upon which our development and growth lies. I will deal decisively with all shenanigans fueling this crisis.

“I want to assure the citizens of the state that we are working very hard and continuously with the security agencies to contain every situation around the state”, he said.

The governor said the committee is to embark on religious, sensitisation to promote peaceful coexistence and encourage inter-group communication.

He said they are to also mediate disputes and foster dialogue between different groups where necessary, act as bridges by leading initiatives for inter-faith dialogue and understanding.

Mohammed added that they are to utilize their religious institutions to provide the platforms for community engagement and mobilisation of people towards peace building efforts, influencing attitude and behaviors.

The committee, the governor said, is to leverage on the teachings of religious sacred texts to inspire others to embrace the values of love, forgiveness, eschew hatred and violence.

Responding, Rev. Benson Bature and Imam Faidu Musa, Chairmen, Council of Imams and Pastors of the two LGAs who are the co-Chairs of the committee vowed to discharge their assigned duties even if they would have to pay with their lives.

They said they knew the miscreants were being pushed by some people that didn’t want peace to reign in the two LGAs, pledging to fish them out and hand them over to the authorities.

According to them, this would be done in no distant time as the religious leaders were working in unison, adding that even if a member of the committee is found culpable, he would be handed over to the authorities.