https://nextedition.com.ng/2019/05/02/workers-day-n30000-new-minimum-wage-will-be-fully-implemented-%E2%80%95-buhari/

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerian workers that the new N30,000 minimum wage recently signed into law would be fully implemented by his administration.

The President, who gave the assurance on Wednesday during the Workers Day celebration organised in Abuja, appreciated the leadership of organised labour for their understanding during and after the negotiations of the new National Minimum Wage.

He assured that his government would continue to provide the enabling environment for higher productivity, industrial peace, and harmony, as well as an appealing atmosphere for effective collective bargaining among trade unions and employers.

Buhari, who was represented by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, gave a detailed account of his stewardship in his first term and plans for his second term, promising that his government would do all it could to promote productivity among workers.


He said: “On assumption of office in 2015, in spite of the daunting economic challenges, which confronted us at the time, we ensured that no worker was retrenched across the country. We further kept faith with this commitment by providing bailout funds for States unable to pay salaries and other benefits in order to pay accumulated arrears. We also released the Paris Club refunds owed since 2005 to make sure workers were not owed anything.

“We also ensured the payment of outstanding benefits of retrenched Nigerian Airways workers owed for decades. We also ensured the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, also paid arrears owed to parastatals and Civil Service pensioners covering 101,393 Civil Service pensioners on all grade levels and 76,310 parastatals pensioners across 186 agencies.

“This is in addition to arrears paid to pensioners in the Police and Customs Services in 2016 and 2018.

“Our administration also settled the issue of benefits of Nigerian Armed Forces and Paramilitary personnel who were dismissed and later pardoned for participating on the side of the secession in the course of the Civil War from 1967-1970. All of these veterans have now been paid their benefits.”

The President also touched on the social investment programme of his administration insisting it was the largest of its kind in Africa.

He said the programme was directed at ensuring that “we are able to provide opportunities in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy,” and pledged continued commitment of the administration to improving the lot of every working Nigerian as well as providing for those who cannot work.

He also assured of protection of fundamental rights and other lawful rights of the Nigerian people and especially people who are at work.

“At the just concluded general elections, Nigerians and indeed Nigerian workers gave our administration another mandate to govern them. We shall reciprocate this electoral gesture by focusing on the critical issues that will advance speedily and improve the quality of lives and livelihoods of Nigerians.

“These include the building of infrastructure, roads, and rail, hydroelectric power, and also reforming key driving sectors of the national economy in order to put the country on a sustainable path of economic growth and prosperity.

“We are especially committed to changing the narrative in the power sector. Today that sector, after it was privatized, still remains challenged in delivering power to many Nigerian homes and businesses. We must work as a matter of national importance and we are committed to doing so, to rework and re-engineer the sector for much more effective performance.

“Workers shall be called upon to play greater roles in supporting the government to attain all these goals I have stated.

“Industrial peace is central to economic stability. Every industrial disruption costs the national economy very dearly in money and man-hours that are lost.

“It is for this reason that I urge all actors in the industrial relations system to be more circumspect, patriotic and ethical in the use of industrial actions as tools for resolving workplace crisis and addressing grievances. Industrial actions, because of the huge economic and social costs, must be the last, not the first option for resolving disputes,” the President said.


Leaders of Organized Labour at the rally noted that in spite of all the President’s achievements average workers and indeed Nigerians were still going through untold hardship as a result of inflation on all items.

In a joint address, the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, however, congratulated President Buhari and all the newly elected political office holders at the 2019 general elections and urged those aggrieved to seek redress through the judicial process rather than heating up the polity.

They also charged elected officer to be selfless in discharging their duties and to empathise with the suffering masses.

“While acknowledging the difficulties associated with the 2019 general elections, we congratulate all those elected into public political offices during the last polls.

“We call on political leaders at all levels of government to re-dedicate themselves to the task of governance by demonstrating genuine empathy and affinity to the suffering of the Nigerian people.

“We urge all elected political office holders to fulfil the promises they made to Nigerians. We implore those whose political aspirations were not realized at the last elections to demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship.

“We also urge those who feel cheated at the 2019 polls not to overheat the polity but to engage the judicial process for justice,” Ayuba Wabba, NLC President who spoke on behalf of the two bodies said.

He commended the Nigerian workers, pensioners and their families who have continued to bear "the fecundity and obscenity of an unrepentant ruling class," for their courage, resilience and patriotism.

Speaking on the state of the economy, the NLC President said: “Despite promising nature of Nigeria’s economy, our economy is yet to be weaned from import dependency. Our economy remains essentially rent seeking, subsistence, non-inclusive, vulnerable to shocks from the global commodities market, fraught to unwieldy inflationary trends and unable to create sustainable mass jobs.

“Despite the best efforts of the government to diversify the economy, attract foreign direct investment, increase our foreign exchange revenue and create more jobs, these efforts are being frustrated by systemic challenges. These challenges include endemic corruption, institutional chaos, crises in our social sector, and disabling physical infrastructure – electricity supply, water, rail system, road network, inland waterways transportation etc.”

He argued the fact that the double digits inflation on all items (year on change) had dropped from 11.44% in December 2018 to around 11.25 per cent in March 2019, the purchasing power of Nigerian workers was still weak.

“The unofficial reality shows that life is becoming increasingly excruciating today for the average worker and citizens. The phenomenal hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as ‘fuel’, or ‘petrol’ in 2016, the devaluation of the Naira in the same year and increase in the cost of electricity in the past five years have sustained high inflationary rates.

“The persistence of double-digit inflation and stagnant remuneration for workers has almost wiped off the purchasing power of Nigerian workers,” Wabba lamented.

He called on President Buhari to as a matter of urgency, “emulate the tested and proven prototypes elsewhere in places as Singapore, Argentina, Brazil, India, and China to attract relevant production lines and labour-intensive industries to Nigeria,” saying it would help to “engage the teeming population of our country in industrial production, build the skills of Nigerians and place Nigeria in a progressive manufacturing trajectory.”

Also, he said the government “should provide practical incentives and support to encourage large scale industries to develop networks of SMEs to be part of their production networks and supply chains. This is the most viable way to promote horizontal integration.”

The Labour leaders also urged Buhari’s administration to scrap “Service-wide votes as they encourage arbitrariness, undue discretion, and abuse of public financial management tools by dishonest public officials.

“Furthermore, the release of capital budgets should be tied to performance based on job certification. This is a fundamental way of tackling official graft and ending the regime of arbitrariness and indiscretion in public finance management.”