The federal government seems under pressure to trash the Amal Pepple Committee recommendation of N30,000 as the minimum wage for Nigerian workers, and the organised labour known for its far-sightedness has yet to see it coming.
Of the two unions which mobilised members for a nationwide strike Monday before a compromise was reached for a roundtable, only one, the Trade Union Congress, has reacted to the possibility of the proposal being shredded.
Thursday, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said, contrary to reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the recommendation, the new wage is still being contemplated.
He also said the recommendation will be sent to the National Economic Council and the Council of State before a decision can be made.
The TUC didn’t take this lightly.
“They can say anything they want to say. Why were they panicky before? Why did they agree to the N30, 000?,” said Musa Lawal, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress on Wednesday.
“They can call it a mere recommendation or whatever they want to call it. But the important thing is that at the end of the day, if we do not get the N30,000, they know what we will do.”
The federal government might have just postponed the evil day as the chances of the recommendation not sailing through remains high.
Many sate governors have spoken out saying they cannot afford that, so the president should allow each state to decide how much it can afford.
The governors’ decisions, combined with the federal government red-tapism has been understood by many as denial.
And denial, according to the PDP flagbearer Atiku Abbakar, is a second nature to the Buhari government.
“A government is only as reliable as its word and if its word is not reliable then nothing else about the government will be stable,” said Atiku in statement from hus campaign office on Wednesday.
Nigerian workers earn one of the world’s lowest minimum wages—N18,000 monthly.