The Federal Government says the agitation for more wages by workers is not peculiar to Nigeria, noting that it is a global issue.

Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige said this on Saturday after receiving the Business Day “Excellence in Public Service Award” in Abuja.

“The other day that I passed through Bailey, they said airport workers were on strike, only for four days. When I passed through London, the railway workers were on strike, only for three days. They are all demanding for more pay,” the ministry’s spokesman Olajide Oshundun quoted him as saying in a statement on Saturday.

“Workers’ demand for more pay is not peculiar to Nigeria but the problem everywhere in the world today as a result of global economic crunch, occasioned by COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and other things that make it look like everybody will die today.

“We will not die today. We only have to adjust both as individuals and as a country in order to survive the crunch,” he said.


But to tackle the tide of strikes in Nigeria, the minister recommended social dialogue, as recognised by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

This for him, will handle several labour issues whether it is the demand for more wages or better conditions of service.

But he described that in Nigeria, certain people disobey the law instead of doing the right thing.

“In Nigeria, the man who implements the law is a very wicked and stingy man. He is seen as a man who does not understand what the law says. It is even worse in government,” Ngige added.

He warned that if Nigeria must make progress, people should not be made to look odd because they obey the laws of the land.