Minimum Wage: Tinubu tasks committee on prompt completion, submission of report.
President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, January 30, inaugurated the Tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee, tasking the 37-man team to promptly conclude its assignment and bring in its report and recommendations.
President Tinubu, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, also directed the Bukar Goni Aji-led Committee to ensure their decisions are firmly rooted in social justice and equity.
To guarantee sustainability in all tiers of government, the President said the committee must pay attention to the ability of all parties to pay the new wage, just as he asked the committee members to ensure timely completion of their assignment.
According to the President, the timely conclusion and submission of the report and recommendations of the committee is very important to the take-off of the processes of a new national minimum wage regime.
He, however, informed the committee that he had already instructed the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy to ensure that the required funding for the assignment is also made available promptly for the team.
“The committee is anticipated to conclude its deliberations promptly and submit its report and recommendations. This timely submission is crucial to initiate the necessary processes for implementing a new National Minimum Wage.
“The Hon. Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy has been instructed to allocate the essential funds and logistics to the Committee, facilitating the timely completion of its assigned task,” he said.
He further stressed that the “government’s decision, following the consideration of your final recommendation, will be presented as an Executive Bill to the National Assembly.
“This bill, enriched by the contributions of state governments and private sector employers, will undergo thorough legislative scrutiny before being passed into law,” he added.
On the need to firm up the basis of their activities in social justice and equity, the President said: “Our objective should be to surpass the basic Social Protection Floor for all Nigerian workers, considering the sustainable payment capacity of each tier of government and other employers or businesses.
“I express this viewpoint because the minimum wage represents the least amount of compensation an employee should receive for their labour, and as such, it should be rooted in social justice and equity. I hope that the results of your deliberations will be consensual and acceptable to all parties involved,” the President told members of the committee.
President Tinubu reaffirmed his administration’s promise to improve the welfare of Nigerian workers and, by extension, the entire nation, saying, “The labour force stands as the cornerstone of the progress of every nation, and ours has been the enduring engine of our pursuit of development.”
Underscoring the significance of the assignment as reflected in the composition of the tripartite committee, the President urged all members to take their new task with all seriousness, even as he directed the committee to employ the principles of full consultation with social partners in all of its deliberations.
Accordingly, he directed that state Governors, Ministers, and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, who are members, must personally attend the committee meetings and if they are unavoidably absent, their deputies, commissioners, and Permanent Secretaries should represent them.
“Recognizing the significance of this initiative and to ensure a substantial engagement, I hereby direct that Ministers and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation should personally attend the meeting. In their unavoidable absence, their Permanent Secretaries should represent them.
“Similarly, Governors are expected to attend in person or be represented by their deputies or commissioners where necessary. I urge you to consider the issue of a National Minimum Wage and all related matters with thoroughness and concern, keeping in mind not only the welfare of our workforce but also the impact on the country’s economy,” Tinubu stated.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, said the states will ensure to be faithful to the report of the committee by finding alternative ways of funding to meet up.
“This shows the willingness of this government to the welfare of the citizens of Nigeria.
“We don’t want to preempt the outcome of this meeting, but you need to understand that the sub-nationals also have challenges and that the federal government, in its own wisdom, has brought the sub-nationals into perspective and this discussion will be done together with the sub-national, so I’m not sure we’re going to foresee any challenge.
“We are looking for alternative ways of funding and we’re assured that with the backward integration in the economy, a lot of us will be able to stand tall to this challenge”, Bago said.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Secretary to Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume, urged the committee to give its best, noting that the task before it carries the hopes and aspirations of millions of Nigerian workers.
He said the inauguration of the committee to come up with a new national minimum wage is in fulfilment of the promise of the Tinubu administration to embark on a comprehensive review of the minimum wage for the average Nigerian worker.
On his part, the Chairman of the Tripartite Committee, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji, assured the President that the committee would do justice to the task assigned to it.
“We shall, by God’s grace, carry out extensive consultations with key stakeholders to arrive at a new minimum wage that is fair, practical and implementable,” Aji, a former Head of Service of the Federation, noted.
The President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Festus Osifo, said the upcoming minimum wage, from the current process, will stand out, saying the harsh conditions that Nigerians have had to endure will guide them to negotiate the best deal for the workers.
“We’ve had a lot of minimum wage negotiations over the years, but this one will stand out, it will stand out because we have never seen a time like this in Nigeria. So this is a period where people are passing through pains, in fact, the purchasing power of an average Nigerian worker, and indeed the entire Nigerian masses, has been eroded. So we are going to put on our thinking cap we are going to press to get the best for the working people of Nigeria”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Life Vice President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Mr Humphrey Ngonadi, who is also a member of the committee, has tasked the federal government to find a way to tame the escalating prices of commodities in the market, if the plan upwards review of Nigerian workers would be of any effect.
Ngonadi also suggested that to tame market prices of commodities, the government must first find a way to manage the volatile situation in the foreign exchange market by shoring up the value of the Naira against major foreign currencies, then prices of commodities will be manageable.
“I thank God for this initiative that the government is taking at this particular place, but I’m still being worried. We may remember some time long ago there was a Udoji Award and that was the first time the salaries of workers were increased and immediately after the increment the commodity in the market ran up to meet.
“So while we are talking about minimum wage, I think the government, on its own side, has to think on how to bring down the prices of commodities in the market.
“If a worker is paid N1 million as the minimum wage and a bag of rice is N900,000, the N1 million still has no meaning. So what I think is while we are thinking of minimum wage, to hike the salary of the worker, the government, on its own side, has to think of how that money will have value.
“Having value is if a bag of rice that was N8000 yesterday is now N50,000 and you increase the salary of the workers and the price or price will be N200,000, the salary increase has no value. So I think the government is now going in the right direction, also, while we increase the salary of the workers, let the government work on the prices of commodities to come down.
“If the dollar will step down now, the prices of commodities will step down. My mind is going that way”, he advised.
The 37-man tripartite committee has six Governors, some cabinet Ministers, representatives of the organized labour, and the private sector among its members.
The Governors include Mohammed Bago of Niger State, representing the North Central; Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, representing the North East; Dikko Radda of Katsina State, representing the North West; Charles Soludo of Anambra State, representing the South East; Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, representing the South-West, and Otu Bassey of Cross River State, representing the South-South.
The Ministers are the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. (Mrs) Yemi Esan, and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
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