By Suleiman Umaru
Worried by the indefinite strike that had been embarked upon by the Organised Labour, championed by Chris Ajaero, led Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC starting from Monday, June , 2024, which had paralyzed the nation’s’s economic activities may have informed why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally was a former Lagos state governor has moved in swiftly to end the strike.
The Nigeria’s President’s major worry was the shutdown of the national grid to stop power supply by the striking workers who were said to have stormed the grid and plunged the country into darkness. There is no gain saying the fact that the darkness across the country may have given room to the Bandits Group, declared a terrorist Group by the Court to intensify their attacks on flash point Communities in Kaduna, Katsina, okoto, and Zamfara, described as the home of the Bandits.
T In dealing with the Bandits in this trying times, the Nigerian Air Force Operation Whirl, acting on Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance , IRS, had bombed and destroyed the terrorists’ camp in Giwa Local Government Area of Kauna state, and between Friday May 31, 2024 and Monday, June 4, 2024.
The terrorists gangs may have realized that they could not take advantage of the striking Labour unions which had plunged the nation into darkness to intensify their attacks and kidnapping activities within the flash point Communities in Giwa, Birnin Gwari and Igabi LGA,s, of Kaduna state, as they are under close watch by the NAF, which have the available air assets to strike at their locations at any given time.
Another major worry of the Nigerian President was the disruption of scheduled Local and international flights at the busy Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Murtala Muhammed International airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve center, and other major air ports across the country.
The former Lagos state governor who may have seen the indefinite strike embarked upon by the Organised Labour to the refusal of the government to raise the mnimum wage from the present N30,000.00 to N494,000.00 as proposed by Labour Representatives in the Tripartite Committee appears to have seen the strike as a bad advertisement to the government.
Mohammed Idris, minister of Information and National Orientation, was aid to have have asked the striking unions to sheath their sword as the government do not have the N9.5 trillion to pay if it bows to pressure to pay the proposed Labour minimum wage of N494,000.00, , describing as’’ a burden and untenable for the nation’s lean finances’’.
The government was said to have proposed a 100% increase to N60,000.00, which was a far cry to Labour’s demand. Wale Edun , minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy, may have spoken the mind of the President when he said that the proposed Labour’s demand for a national minimum wage of N494,000.00 was ‘’ economically unsustainable’’ , noting that it will further destabilize the economy, which Muhammd Sanusi, a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and now Emir of Kano, was mismanaged in the eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration.
According to the Labour and Employment minister, even with the N30,000.00 national minimum wage, agreed by the tripartite Committee in 2019, during the then President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration, some state governments still can’t pay it, let alone increasing it to the N494,000.00 demanded by the Organized Labour.
Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, minister of Labour and Employment, who has remained uncomfortable since the Orgnised Labour gave notice of the indefinite strike has appealed to the striking unions ‘’to shelve its ongoing industrial ation which has already crippled economic activities in in the country.
An aggrieved Onyejeocha, who could not hide her feelings was said to have made it clear to the Labour Leaders that the Federal Government is not the sole decider of the country’s national minimum wage as the state governments and the Organised Private Sector, OPS, have an input to make into it.
Given that the one-day old Organised Labour strike have already paralyzed the nation’s economy due to the inability of the Tripartite Committee to agree on an affordable minimum wage for the country, may have encouraged the President , who believes that the bulk stops on his table to step in.
Senator George Akume, a former governor of Benue state and Secretary to Government of the Federation, may have gladdened the hearts of the workers when he disclosed that the Tinubu’s government is committed to a national minimum wage above N60,000.00. The SSG, who was said to have held a closed door meeting with the Labour Leaders at the FCT, on Monday, June 4, 2024, where he had announced that the Tinubu’s Government is committed ‘’to national minimum wage that is higher than N60,000.00’’.
He did not stop there , he was said to have also informed the Labur Leaders, who in turn are expected to take the agreement reached to their various unions that the tripartite Committee is to meet every day for the next one week with a view to arriving at an agreeable national minimum wage. The Presidential assurance, to pay a national minimum wage above N60,000.00 may have encouraged the striking unions to reconsider their decision over the indefinite strike.
Femi Falana, a Lagos based legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, would want, Lateef Fagbemi , the Attorney General of the Federation and minister of Justice to take it up a responsibility to sanction states that had failed to pay the current N30,000.00 national minimum wage to avoid making a mockery of the new national minimum wage if agreed by the tripartite Committee in the next one week.
The Lagos based SAN, had said that since payment of the minimum wage is an agreement entered into freely by all the parties, state governments which are unable to honour such a deal are breaching the Law and must be sanctioned. He insists that state governments, which had been accused over the years of diverting monumental Local Governments Funds must be compelled to pay the national minimum wage.
