Joe Ajaero, President Bola Tinubu, Festus Osifo
By Victory Oghene
President Bola Tinubu has approved N70,000 as the new minimum wage for workers in the country.
Tinubu announced the minimum wage during a meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the presidential villa on Thursday.
Joe Ajaero, NLC president and Festus Osifo, president of the TUC, were at the meeting.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Nkiru Onyejeocha, minister of state for labour, said Tinubu and the labour leaders agreed that the time limit for the review of the minimum wage should be reduced to three years.
Onyejeocha added that the parties agreed that the time limit of five years for review is too long.
On his part, Ajaero said the N70,000 offer was accepted because of the provision that the minimum wage will be reviewed every three years.
“We are taking this with mixed feelings because of the situation of the economy,” the NLC president said.
Osifo said the president promised that the minimum wage bill would be transmitted to the national assembly next week.
The TUC president said the labour leaders appealed to the president to intervene in the withheld salaries controversy of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU).
