Port Harcourt — Comrade Joe Ajaero, the eighth President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is an evangelist with a clear and consistent message: Give us a living wage! This has pitched him and the 46-year old umbrella grouping of trade unions against the Executive branch at the centre led by the President and in the sub-nationals by the Governors. After futile negotiations last week, the NLC called out its members on strike on June 3 which they suspended the following day to allow for resumption of negotiations. There was, and remains a sea difference between both parties. Labour had proposed a “living wage” of N494,000 which they reduced to N250,000 in the post-strike negotiations. For its part, the Federal Government offered a “minimum wage” of N60,000 and upped it to N62,000. Labour is still not happy with the new offer, calling it a “starvation wage.”
Nigeria cannot afford a workers’ strike at this time as the impact of the brief shutdown shows. Fuel and flight operations were shut down as were power supplies when workers at the national grid were either chased out or walked out on their legs (depending on the version you are being fed.) Nigeria reportedly lost about N149 billion in oil and gas revenues on the first day of the strike alone, and about N7 billion in cargo fees following the forced closure of airports. Mind you, this is not a comprehensive count of the cost of the strike, the fourth since Tinubu assumed power in May last year.
I suspect even Ajaero was surprised at the level of compliance in a country divided along ethnic and religious lines. From Zamfara to Zungeru and from Plateau to Port Harcourt, the workers voted with their feet. The unanimity forced the Federal Government to hurriedly reconvene the negotiations and the President instructing the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to propose the cost implications of a new national minimum wage within 48 hours from the same day that the strike was suspended. Newspaper pictures published afterwards showed Tinubu and Edun smiling and shaking hands at what was reported to be the submission of the report. We don’t know the basis of the calculation of the new wage and we don’t know if the two men are still smiling with the hardened position of the NLC towards the revised minimum wage offer.
Speaking in a television programme today (June 10,) NLC Assistant General Secretary Chris Onyeka insisted the organisation won’t accept the government’s offer of ₦62,000 or the ₦100,000 proposed by individuals and economists. “We have never contemplated ₦100,000 let alone of ₦62,000,” he said. “We are still at ₦250,000, that is where we are, and that is what we considered enough concession to the government and the other social partners in this particular situation.”
It is clear that we’re heading to another jam, and this is beyond the negotiations for minimum or living wage. The removal of fuel subsidy has resulted in a mess which is partly the making of a government that probably underestimated its impact and the greed of Nigerians to exploit any situation to make money. When the NLC officials talk of the high cost of living, we relate immediately to it. A bag of rice is now N85,000. Tomatoes and pepper are as pricey as gold! The other day, I asked for N200 pepper and the mallam, a usually jovial seller, eyed me. I increased it to N500 and he counted a few grains that didn’t fill my palm and reminded me: “Na because of you.” My DSTV has expired and I’ve summoned a conference of urgent family importance on how we can forego that thing.
Can anyone identify an area that hasn’t seen price increase? It may be true that the tough and uncompromising economic policies are necessary and that relief will come soon, but Nigerians need to survive now. It is the “now” factor that has made Ajaero an evangelist and his call-out so effective. Workers who cannot afford to pay transport fares to offices need no encouragement to stay at home! This is the reality we face and which the Federal Government must take into account in its wage negotiations. Now I know Comrade Ajaero will not like this, but I don’t belong to the school of thought which believes that wage increase is the answer to the present economic crisis. How much and often can you increase wages and ensure worker’s pay still has value? The Tinubu administration is one year in office and is it still too early to expect Nigerians to reap some, if not all, the fruits of the reforms? Such fruits will back up the Government’s argument that we are turning the corner and things will soon be ok such that the value of workers’ wages will not be wiped off by spiraling market prizes.
I’m not sure last week’s strike is really over. That’s the hint I got from Mr. Onyeka’s response when he was asked of the reaction of NLC if the Government stuck to the offer of N62,000: “It was clear what we said. We said we are relaxing a nationwide indefinite strike. It’s like putting a pause on it. So, if you put a pause on something and that organs that govern us as trade unions decide that we should remove that pause, it means that we go back to what was in existence before.”
