Against the N56,000 demand by the Abuja faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) led by Ayuba Wabba faction, the Lagos faction led by Joe Ajaero is demanding for N90,000 as minimum wage that could take the Nigerian worker home.
While the Ayuba led faction and the Trade Union Congress are standing on N56,000 as demand to be presented by President Buhari tomorrow, May 2, 2016 during the May Day celebration, the Ajaero faction in Lagos is of the view that N56,000 is not feasible, considering the economic situation of the country and the financial challenges facing the Nigerian workers.
At a pre-May Day symposium, titled, “Inclusive Socio-Economic Space for Sustainable Development” in Lagos on Saturday, April 30, 2016, Ajaero said with the current exchange rate of the Nigerian currency, N56,000 wage would be too small.
According to him, “No sacrifice is too much to liberate the Nigerian workers. Every year, we go to the stadium to salute those who have been enslaving us, those who have refused to pay us minimum living national wage.
“But since last year, we have been forced to gather under the bridge of the National Stadium, which we have named `Workers Freedom Square’
“We will gather, match through the streets, take the May Day to the real owners, the Nigerian workers and masses, to tell them that there is no electricity despite the astronomical tariff, that there is no fuel, that there are no good roads, that public universities are being closed down, that there are no jobs and so on and so forth.
“Few days ago, we were told that N56.000 minimum wage proposal has been sent to the government. We want to tell you that we are not part of that because even as they were sending the proposal, they equally said that they know that the economy is bad. By the time you say that, it means that the proposal is dead on arrival.
“We all know that the current minimum wage is less that the electricity bill paid by most workers. On our part, we are demanding N90,000 minimum wage. The N90,000 we are demanding is with a proviso, depending on the exchange rate. If the exchange rate goes above N500 a dollar, we will ask for more.”
