IBRAHIM QUADRI, Lagos and AKOR SYLVESTER, Abuja
As workers worldwide commemorate May Day Thursday, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said the minimum wage offered by the administration of President BolaTinubu can no longer buy a bag of rice to sustain workers till the end of every month, even as it lamented that some states are yet to implement the N70,000 minimum wage.
NLC, however commended President Tinubu for reviewing the frequency of Minimum wage negotiation downward from five years to three years as one of the conditions placed before it to accept the N70,000 minimum wage.
The President of NLC, Joe Ajaero who spoke to newsmen at the 2025 pre-May Day event in Abuja said because of the present economic realities, the N70,000 can not meet essential demands of workers.
He said the wage award earlier awarded workers was fought for by the congress as he maintained that federal government who gave the award was the defaulter in the implementation.
He said for government to remove subsidy virtually from everything, “the minimum wage cannot take care of workers who fuel their cars to their offices, pay for light bills, buy other essential things”.
Ajaero said: “The mood of workers in Nigeria is hunger. They are hungry. The minimum wage can’t buy a bag of rice. If you are sincere and you go to work every day, 20 days, your salary is gone on transportation.
“The last one, you know, is the issue of the way the minimum wage was implemented. In terms of consequential adjustment, it was implemented in breaches. Of course, it’s better you understand this.
“At the national level, when we signed the 70,000 Naira agreement as a minimum wage, we had it at the back of our mind that 70,000 is for somebody on level one, step one. And there are about 15 steps on level one, as we talked today. If the incremental step is 2,000, at step 15, the person would have had additional 30,000 to 70,000 on level one.
“Level two, about 14 steps, almost the same amount. Level three, level four, would have had about 60,000 or 80,000 to 70,000 to the person on level four, step one. And if you add that, the person should have been receiving either 130,000 or 140,000.
“Now the least paid in their state is on level four. And they start implementation from level four. That is the worst thing.
“That amounts to wickedness. But people now come to public service with may be a school certificate. And if you are coming with a school certificate, you earn level four.
“At level four, from what we negotiated, you should be earning close to one-third or one-fifth. But that’s not the issue. Those states will now say the least paid in their state are paying 70,000.
“And that least paid is somewhere on level four. That wasn’t our agreement. That’s what we call the reconciliation adjustment. This even happen in the federal. Some states added 5,000 to people’s salary. So as long as you are earning more than 70,000, if your salary is 80,000, they give you 5,000. What does that mean? So that’s the issue that we are bordering with.
“We have been pushing ourselves, other colleagues in the state or in the private sector, to see whether anything can be done. But if you follow it very well, N70,000 couldn’t have been a bad idea because nobody is on N70,000. After the implementation, I have signed and left.
“I will not go from company to company, state to state to say you must do this, you must do that. Ordinarily, the least paid that is on maybe level four, maybe the clerk, the messenger, whatever, should have been on at least N150, 000. Because nobody in the public service today is on level one, step one”.
When asked whether the President has renewed hope of workers, Ajaero said: “There are general feelings by all Nigerians on how things are done. You can do a voice, whatever, on the street to get a feeling of the people.
“But in terms of what happens to the workforce, even if you pay workers one million Naira today, it will not go anywhere because of inflation. The President has been able to introduce a new minimum wage of N70,000.
“He worked with us to that extent. To his credit, the organized private sector, even the federal government and state governments, stopped at 62,000 Naira. And we have to take the battle to the President.
“It was there that we got up to 70,000 Naira. Now, I would say we need to move from N30,000 to N70,000, which is about a 110% increase. But to what extent is that taking care of the workers? That’s the issue.
“There are some other policies that seem to undermine even what Mr. President did. Unfortunately, those policies are only in-house. When you allow the floatation of the currency, and you remove subsidy on virtually everything, then N70,000 will not bring any hope to the workers.
“So that’s the situation we have found ourselves in because the economic planners have failed to see this in that regard. But if you allow the Naira to float, you saw it move from 700 to almost 1,500, which is over 100%.
“And you allow the PMS we are buying, we are buying it at about how much then? About N200, or less than N200. And it now jumped to, is it N800 or N900?. In some places N1,000. How do you relate it? It is difficult for a worker that has a car to fill his tank in a week for 70,000.
“It is difficult for you to buy a token to recharge your meter for electricity in a month with less than 50,000 to 70,000. If you have a family, or you have one AC, or boiling pot, it is problem.Those are the issues that are before us now.
“I would say yes, to the extent of increasing the minimum wage. In fact, one of the achievements we had under him was the issue of reducing the frequency of negotiation. He got it, it was five years.
“But under him, we pushed, and we got it back to three years. So this minimum wage in the next three years, or thereabouts, we are still waiting for the next two years, we should be able to renew it again. Unlike before, where it was five years, and if you had to wait for five years, this level of devaluation would have been too much.
“So those are the things we did for the workers. We only agreed in detail to have what we called wage award. That wage award was fought.
“But it is only unfortunate that in some areas, including the federal government, we are owing up to five months for federal workers. And even some of the workers have retired since that time, who were supposed to have been evicted from the wage award. And now they are telling them that they won’t be able to pay them at once, that they will have to graduate almost one year after the minimum wage was signed.
Continuing, the NLC president said: “Those are some of the challenges we are having. There is no amount of money you are going to pay as wages when inflation continues to grow, and when the currency continues to lose its value. It doesn’t make sense.
“So we have to relate it. And then the tax regime seems to be so injurious to the workforce. So if you bring these three issues, high tax regime, inflation, devaluation of the currency, then what kind of wage can sustain a worker under this environment? So I think that the federal government should look at these things, because they have a direct relationship, a core relationship, with the wage of the workers.
“If the worker’s wage doesn’t have value, you can’t talk of a real productive economy. Because those producing, nobody can buy it. What they are buying doesn’t have value.
“So those are the areas when you talk about the new tools. However, we try to seek solace, I mean from the trade union movement, and we thought we had a smart one, of resorting to CNG, which was a smart way. The idea of every year, when PMS prices increase, we go on the streets to protest.
“We looked at it that we should go to the thinking box. We came out with something, we said, OK, let us have an alternative. Let us think of CNG.
“And then if the CNG revolution has come up, I bet you the price they were buying PMS then, you know, CNG would have been cheaper, as we talk today. And the means of transportation would have been easier. And if we reduce the means of transportation, goods and services, including human beings, will move freely.
“We wouldn’t have had this effect. However, the same government that, you know, we got to sign the CNG agreement, and we thought that it was going to be a CNG revolution, has not provided the infrastructure for CNG. Apart from one or two stations, if you are going towards the airport, there are no other filling stations where you have CNG for people to refill their tanks.
“If you have, go and ask those using it. It will be cheaper for you, and the 70,000 Naira you are receiving, you make use of it more effectively. In the same vein, we talked about electric vehicles.
“If you bring in electric vehicles and the CNG revolution in this environment, especially its eco-friendliness, you know, like this one we are talking of, the N70,000 would assist us very well. Because the problem of transportation will be solved. The problem of goods and services, their prices will come down, because the people that are producing from rural areas to the urban areas will not spend much in transporting them.
“So we are still hoping, you know, that the federal government will make the best use of this CNG technology and make sure that the infrastructure, the CNG conversion kits, more filling stations, and even the state governors, who have been appealing to them, will work. They released some buses to us as NLC to ease transportation, but we can’t get stations to fill the buses. So we are still using PMS.
“So until this happens, probably we have not started feeling the effects so much. But I think measures have been put in place. If you ask me, N70,000, fine, you know, moving from N30,000, and then if we upgrade the CNG, if we bring it, you know, in synergy with N70,000, that would be good.
“And then maybe the student loan, or those that can’t pay their school fees, if that is properly implemented. Mostly the children of the poor and the workers can access loans. Those are some of the factors one can look at and say the renewed urban agenda is working.
“But, you know, I think the foundation has been laid. We pray that real implementers of the policy will be involved in doing this”.
Meanwhile, as Nigerian workers join the rest of the world to mark the 2025 Workers’ Day, their experience is that of a troubling man, gasping for breath in the midst of overwhelming challenges.
With the theme, ‘The Civic Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship,’ the commemoration underscores the numerous challenges that affect workers productivity and overall well-being.
The theme succinctly captures what an average worker is passing through in the country, craving for survival with growing hardship.
Specifically, workers in Nigeria have over the years face agonizing experience in terms of take home pay. The salaries paid by both public and private sectors are grossly inadequate which jeopardize the ability to meet basic needs in each household.
An average worker endure untold hardship except those who have means of cutting corners that survive the difficult terrains.
Subsequently, the hardship worsened when President Bola Tinubu introduced new reforms upon assumption of office in 2023.
The twin policies of subsidy removal and floating of the Naira have weakened the purchasing power of Nigerians even though, the Federal Government has defended the reforms, saying it is meant to save the economy from collapsing.
However, the expected reliefs that were promised are out of the reach of the common man.
After much outcry, President Tinubu, in July, 2024 approved a new minimum wage of N70,000 for Nigerian workers and pledged to review the national wage law every three years. The resolution was reached after the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC met with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Yet, despite the increment of the minimum wage from 30,000 to N70,000, the cost of goods and services has outweighed the income of an average worker.
Also, some states, especially at the local government level have not fulfilled the payment of the meager requirement. The prices of goods and services continue to be out of the reach of the workers.
Worse still, Nigeria’s healthcare system is plagued by inadequate facilities, equipment, and staffing, making it difficult for healthcare workers to provide quality care. Getting healthcare is invariably tantamount to digging the rock to exploit honey. Most primary health centres are not equipped with drugs but are seeing as mere consulting clinics.
Recently, the Lagos State Commissioner fot Health Services, Prof Akin Abayomi stated that with over 20 million population, Lagos currently has a shortage of 33,000 doctors.
He added that Nigeria as a whole has a shortfall of 300,000 doctors. The commissioner gave stagering figure of not less than 16,000 doctors who had left the country in recent years.
Aside medical staff, thousands of Nigerian youths are migrating in droves abroad in search of greener pastures. Many Nigerian professionals, especially in the healthcare sector, are leaving the country for better opportunities. This has weakened the healthcare system and depriving the nation of skilled workers. The desperate journey to get relief at all cost hamper socioeconomic fabrics of many homes.
Despite the harrowing experience of workers, the cost of governance is believed to be playing devastating effect on the poverty level of the masses.
The leaders who are at the corridors of powers live in affluence and continue to amass public funds at the detriment of basic infrastructure.
In his reaction to the lethargy over payment of the minimum wage, the National President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero said the congress struggled to get some state governors to pay the “paltry” sum of N70,000 as minimum wage despite the harsh economic situation in the country.
Ajaero, who lamented the rising cost of food and other amenities in the country said the harsh realities in the country cannot be sugar-coated.
The NLC leaders said this during the delegates conference of the youth council of the NLC which was held in Abuja.
He said, “The harsh realities of our country cannot be sugar-coated. We live in a nation where the rich grow fatter on the sweat of the poor, where our youths struggle to find meaningful work, and where the value of labour is often trampled underfoot.
“A bag of 50kg rice sells for over N60,000, transport from Abuja to Port Harcourt is above N50,000, decent housing has become a mirage while basic healthcare is out of reach as basic social services become elusive even as we have to struggle to get some governors to pay us a paltry N70,000 national minimum wage; the product of a law passed by the state?”
To air their grievances over the disturbing trend, NLC in collaboration with civil socities group organized in August 2024, #EndBadGovernance protests. The protest was to last for ten days to address hunger in the land.
It was however shocking that the nationwide demonstrations resulted in killing at least 24 people in the states of: Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Niger, according to the figure by Amnesty International.
In its document analyzing the tragic incident Amnesty International noted, “Bloody August: Nigerian Government’s Violent Crackdown on #Endbadgovernance Protests” against rampant corruption and economic hardship. In all cases the victims were shot by the police, firing live ammunition at close range often at the head or torso, suggesting that officers were shooting to kill. Two survivors suffered injuries after being shot by police in the arm and legs, others were suffocated by the indiscriminate use of tear gas.
The Agency notes: “People in Nigeria witnessed unbelievable lawlessness as security personnel fired live ammunition at peaceful protests. The death toll could be higher than 24 because of the authorities’ desperate efforts to cover up the atrocities. Peaceful protest over government policies is now a matter of life and death in Nigeria,” said Isa Sanusi, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.
However, to address the pervasive hardship, President Tinubu and the 36 states governors should urgently review the current minimum wage as the current take home pay which ought to be a living wage is grossly inadequate.
The prices of consumer goods and services which are basic needs of average worker are daily skyrocketing, hence the need for pay rise.
In addition, government at all levels would have to put more efforts at providing infrastructure to ease the suffering of the populace. Infrastructure such as housing with appropriate mortgage, pipe borne water, motorable roads are essential for workers.
Furthermore, there is need for strategic planning to address “japa syndrome.’ Government would have to ensure provision of employment and at the same incentives should be made available to farmers to enhance their productivity. Strengthening the healthcare system by investing in facilities, equipment, and staffing to provide quality care for workers and the broader population will be a laudable means to assuage workers.
Similarly, offering continuous training and development opportunities to help workers stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and best practices is a necessity.
The agitation for state police which has lingered far too long should also be addressed through constitutional amendment. No doubt, insecurity in many parts of the country has worsend the prices of agricultural produce. With adequate security, government can tame the tide.
In all, Government needs to put human face to its reforms, workers should not be made to die all in the name of carrying out reforms. A stich in time, saves nine!
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Ope George, has disclosed that the state government spent N130billion on social interventions for 18 million Lagosians in 2024.
He said the intervention was through various subsidy interventions under the present administration.
The Commissioner made the disclosure on Thursday, at the ongoing 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing highlighting the activities of the ministry and scorecard of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu/Obafemi Hamzat administration.
According to him, some of the interventions include Transport Subsidy Allowance to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal, and the “OUNJE EKO” food subsidy programme, which has enhanced access to affordable, nutritious food for low-income households across the state.
George added that in 2024, the state had total revenue of N2.080 trillion with an Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of over N1trillion, saying the new target in 2025 is N2.968trn.
“The state government has delivered N130 billion in Social Protection Support, reaching over 18.5 million Lagosians through coordinated interventions such as the Transport Subsidy Allowance following fuel subsidy removal, and the “OUNJE EKO” food subsidy programme, which has enhanced access to affordable, nutritious food for low-income households across the State,” the Commissioner said.
Other achievements, according to him, was the strengthening of grassroots data systems through training of 400 enumerators for household data collection across the 20 local government areas.
He said in 2024, the administration achieved budget performance up to 87% which reflected in execution of projects.
“We conducted a cross-sectoral expenditure framework review, enabling more equitable and impact-driven resource distribution, engaging citizens across all five administrative divisions through budget consultative forums, aligning the budget with grassroots priorities.”
In the first quarter of 2025, the commissioner said the administration has so far achieved 78% of its budget for the quarter, adding that the estimated Gross Domestic Product, GDP, for Lagos State stands at $259 billion which is one of the top three largest in Africa.
He commended Governor Sanwo-Olu for his vision and commitment towards positioning the economy of Lagos State among the best.
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