ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – In this interview monitored on Channels TV, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, spoke on various issues including President Bola Tinubu’s one year administration and the battle with the Federal Government on the proposed new minimum wage.
Are you angry at what FG offers Labour as minimum wage?
You can see it is still not substantial compared to what you need to keep a family moving. There are various ways of expressing displeasure on issues. Last time, we told them there was no case submission. And in this matter, we told them that that’s nothing on the table.
The state governors were missing in action. What was missing as the governors were absent?
Well, it may be the seriousness attached to it. Some of them had representatives at that meeting but without mandates to commit the governors. It is one thing to be represented, it’s another thing to give your representatives’ mandate. That is where we are today to make sure that they’re present or they will be present tomorrow. Or proceed from where we stop today.
Invariably, the offer of N54000 is coming from the Federal Government
Government in this context, especially in a sector that is in the exclusive list is represented by the Federal Government and in particular, the minister of labour who should be the vice chairman of the negotiating Committee, but we understand, realise that within them, they may equally have governors and other parties; the organized labour was there, the Federal Government present, even governors representatives, but we want to do a holistic all-inclusive meeting.
Was the minister of labour present in this particular meeting?
Yes, she was
What was her stand? What explanation did she give to the N54,000 offered?
These are the issues. We didn’t go into the cannel of the discussion. Labour has been insisting that they should provide that explanation. She was the one that made the offer on behalf of the Federal Government, citing that the government has been involved in so many projects like the provisions of fertilizers and other issues, but you see, we didn’t stop talking because that offer is neither here nor there. They have not given any justification on what to do. Because we itemise all that we needed. Then we expected them to go into it so that we will harmonize on something, but they are yet to commence on something apart from this paltry offer.
Don’t you think the Federal Government is serious this time?
Saying somebody is not serious over an issue is an insult. It’s just the approach to it. When you don’t give seriousness to an issue, the other party may gladly say you’re not serious. Now the government is offering N48,000, because labour was the first to present and we were looking at what this amount could afford; we broke it down to even what a plate of food is, contrary to their report from Bureau of statistics where their plate of food is N900; we broke ours to even N500, that’s if you will eat a plate of rice without meat.
But they didn’t just say anything, they just said N48,000. We have not seen a negotiation that goes that way. That is a point of unseriousness. Probably they will tidy up and give justification to that figure, and say this is why we are doing this. That is what the labour is expecting from them. And I know that employers in the organized private sector are expecting that.
What about some governors like the one of Edo who has pronounced N70,000 minimum wage, and Lagos State which is thinking same way…Some economists would say sustainability would be the problem, that N614,000 would crash the economy and spike inflation, are you not worried about all these dynamics?
When you suppress wage for the very long time, those are the kinds of things you see. If you look at a country like Ghana, wage is reviewed annually and if you do that, you take care of so many other factors including inflation. Now by the time you suppress wage for five years and you expect us to be talking N31,000, N32,000 or N33,000, it doesn’t work that way.
Those are the areas we’re looking at. It’s not enough to call it N615, 000; N615,000 as a country, compare it to its dollar value. That is where we brought our currency to this ridiculous level. And then we all need to work on it. We have to look at all those variables in agreeing on what we are going into.
It’s not a question of taking six hundred and something today; in the next one week, six hundred and something would be enough to buy a bag of rice. That is not what we are talking about. We have to have a holistic approach to this and introduce an element of COLA(Cost of Living Allowance) that we’ll be able to take care of some levels of inflation as they come.
So if we have that and then reduce the number of years of review of minimum wage, then we can achieve something substantial. For us to leave wage to be suppressed for five years and you are saying six hundred and something is much, it’s not.
It looks like a far cry, what is a worst case scenario here?
I wouldn’t know what is the worst case scenario on the part of the government. Labour has said we can come down if variables like inflation, issue of foreign exchange and value of naira, the issue of constant tariff increase, issue of walking on CNG, subsidy on PMS and other issues. We have to check these things together.
If we look at them, we can now determine where we are coming down to. But if these things remain open, even if we take N615,000, we are still vulnerable and it’s useless, so we have to look at all these issues; it’s about take 40, take 50, what are those things that make it valuable and meaningful and like I said before, N54000 of any currency is a big money, but not when everything is running with such a speed.
Some say government is not showing example of tightening their belt as they asked citizens to, looking at the cost of governance, now is labour holding the government accountable for all these?
This issue has been reoccurring even after the constitution of the current executive of president Tinubu’s government. We met with him, we met and complained about many Ministers, SAs, SSAs. I think he jokingly retorted, saying ‘I’m creating more jobs. We say no, this has implications to the economy. Even refining locally should be in the front burner. The issue of almost all activity to wastage even when they started buying vehicles at almost one sixty something million for each legislator; we raised alarm on and on we have been doing that.
When the issue of subsidy was removed, they said go and negotiate, and that’s the point we’re now. And all manner of analysis are coming out, how our proposal would destroy the economy, an economy that’s already destroyed; the economy of the worker is totally destroyed. In fact, the worker doesn’t have any economy. So, I think there are two economies in the country. The economy of them (politicians) and the workers, so we have to harmonise this and have a meeting point.
What is your zone of possible agreement?
You have asked this question in various forms and I have said, it’s not a matter of saying, take 500 or this amount, we can’t continue to brandish figures. It’s not something that is just pronounced that way; wage is not supposed to be arrived at for the fun of playing with figures.
There are factors to be taken into consideration for you to arrive at a figure and when you do that, it makes sense and makes it sustainable. The fact that you called it 700 or 800 does not make it sustainable; there have to be other contributions in the economy that would make it sustainable and valuable to the worker that will make it lasting.
Your ultimatum to the Federal Government will elapse in days; do you see the Federal Government being able to meet up in all of these demands before you hit the street?
Well, the old minimum wage expired on April 18. And for five years, ordinarily, the Federal Government was supposed to start the process of reviewing wages six months before this time. It didn’t happen, and we have had experience in the past where after negotiations, I’m talking of arrears, the issue of commencement date of new wage continues to be distorted. When people are given ultimatum that this thing must be concluded within this period, it was based on the fact that as at today in Nigeria, there’s no minimum wage by law.
And then we should have concluded this for a new minimum wage to come into force and you realize that after this agreement and the drafting of the new minimum wage Act, it has to go to National Assembly for legislation. These are the roots. If not how we begun to pursue these people, they may not even tell you that we need to review the minimum wage till the end of this year.
We meant every word we used. Because we knew that Nigeria had no business staying till the end of the old minimum wage which lasted for five years without showing any seriousness and commitment as we speak. And Nigerian workers will speak at the appropriate time on this issue, whether this is the best way to go.
Tinubu one year in office, we were told not to blame the president for Nigerians woes, do you agree?
Well, I think the problem of this country, you can’t fix it within one year. It has been declining. Nobody will give an honest assessment by saying that it is this government, that will be wrong. But the essence of having another government in place is to correct the ills of the past.
But we can’t dwell in the past, they are the people sitting down there and they are people we know, but let me say this, the rate at which inflation, the rate at which the naira, the PMS skyrocketed within this one year, is grossly alarming. So we need to stabilise this and to move on and to renew confidence. We were buying a litter of PMS within N180, and within one year, we’re buying it at N700, and at the same wage; no worker would clap for you.
