After abandoning the session, the furious labour leaders summoned an emergency press conference where they vented their displeasure with the offer, describing it as ‘an insult to the sensibilities of Nigerian workers.’
Earlier at the opening of the meeting, the Chairman of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji, appealed to members of the committee to push for a national minimum wage that is fair, realistic and also implementable.
Alhaji Aji who was speaking at the opening of the 4th plenary meeting of the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage in Abuja, said the Committee has now reached the crucial stage of its assignment, and needs to approach the conclusive part of the assignment with some sense of honesty, patriotism, respect, and accommodation in the national interest.
It would be recalled that both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), had demanded N615,000 as a new minimum wage for workers to cope with the many economic realities and high cost of living in Nigeria.
He urged Members of the Committee to move away from emotional appeal and embrace rational appeal in the wake of too many competing demands from the citizenry.
According to him, “The build-up to today’s meeting in undertaking this national assignment has been friendly, cordial, educative and informative which gives me a safe comfort that we shall run the remaining part of this national duty with a sense of responsibility and love of country.
“I will crave the indulgence of each one of us and solicit a robust discussion with a greater understanding of each other’s position and put forward an acceptable recommendation for a new National Minimum Wage.”
A statement from Head of Press, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Emmanuel Njoku said the Chairman of the Tripartite Committee urged the Committee to focus their minds on doing the right thing even when such a decision is difficult and goes against our personal position. No matter how difficult the decisions are for everyone, there must be a decision. In this drive, the philosophy of country first and National Interest should be our guiding principle.
“We are all gathered here as leaders with massive and wide knowledge and experience on this matter and are representing the interests of our various constituencies in this assignment but today as far as all of us are concerned we only have one constituency which is Nigeria.” Alhaji Goni Aji said.
However, the National President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, explained that the amount was arrived at after analysing the current economic situation and the needs of an average Nigerian family of six.
Rationalising the N615,000 demand, the labour leader stated, “Living wage is such that will, at least, keep you alive. It is not a wage that will make you poorer and poorer. It is not a wage that will make you borrow to go to work. It is not a wage that will lead you to be in the hospital every day because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried to look at N615,000.
“Let me give you a breakdown of how we arrived at that figure. We have housing and accommodation of N40,000. We asked for electricity of N20,000 — of course, that was before the current tariff increase. Nobody can spend this amount currently. We have a utility that is about N10,000. We looked at kerosene and gas, that is about N25,000 to N35,000.
“We looked at food for a family of six. That is about N9,000 in a day. For 30 days, that is about N270,000. Look at medical. With the N50,000 provided, there will be no surgery or whatever.
“For clothing, we looked at N20,000. For education, N50,000. I don’t know about those who tried to put their children in private schools, they will not be able to cope with this amount. We also have sanitation of N10,000.
“I think where we have another bulk of the money is transportation. This is because the workers stay on the fringes and because of the cost of petrol, which amounted to N110,000.
“That brought the whole living wage to N615,000, and I want anyone to subject this to further investigation and find out whether there will be any savings when you pay somebody at this rate,’’ the NLC president explained.