Organised labour made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Monday suspended for 30 days the planned nationwide strike scheduled to commence on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. The federal government and the labour bodies had signed a 15-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after meeting for several hours on Monday before suspending the strike.
In the MoU, the federal government agreed, among others, to grant a wage award of N35,000 only to all federal government workers beginning from September pending when a new minimum wage would be signed into law. It was agreed also that a minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement. The federal government has equally suspended the collection of Value Added tax (VAT) on diesel for six months beginning from October, 2023.
The government accepted to vote N100billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit across the country. Similarly, provisions are also being made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to commence an auto gas conversion programme. At the same time, work is said to be ongoing on state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide. The rollout of the CNG buses will start in November with pilots across 10 campuses nationwide.
Consequently, the government will come up with plans to implement various tax incentive measures for private sector and the general public as well as wade into the leadership crises in NURTW and the purported proscription of RTEAN in line with the relevant ILO Conventions and Nigerian Labour Acts. It is expected that the ongoing impasse in the two crises-ridden transport workers’ unions will be resolved by or before October 13.
In the same vein, the Ministry of Labour and Employment has been tasked to further engage with relevant bodies to resolve the issue of outstanding salaries and wages of Tertiary Education workers in federal government’s educational institutions. Under the MoU, the government will as from October 2023, pay N25,000 per month for three months to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners.
The federal government will urge the state governments through the National Economic Council and Governors Forum to implement the wage award for their workers. A similar gesture will be extended to local government and public sector workers.
We commend the labour bodies and the federal government for signing the MoU and thereby averting the planned nationwide indefinite strike. No doubt, the federal government has acceded to most of the demands of organised labour. However, we urge the government to fully implement them. The government should within the 30 days grace period demonstrate the willingness to meet most of the demands.
It is one thing to reach agreements, it is another thing to faithfully implement them. Unfortunately, governments in this part of the world often do not honour agreements reached with workers’ unions. The agreements the federal government reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) following its last strike are yet to be fulfilled. We don’t want the government to renege on the new MoU with organised labour.
The issue of having a uniform minimum wage in a federal system of government is still contentious and contradictory. While it may be easy for the federal government to grant its workers a minimum wage or wage awards, such an agreement will not be binding on state and local governments. After all, many state governments are yet to implement the extant minimum wage of N30,000 per month. The new wage award will automatically compound their fiscal challenges.
Moreover, many of the states depend on Abuja or federal allocation for their survival. As Nigeria stands today, only about two or three states can really survive without the monthly handout from Abuja. Therefore, each layer of government will be allowed to negotiate with its workers and decide what to pay them.
Since the local government does not really exist in reality, the states under which they are subsumed can decide what to pay their workers. We say this because every state government controls the finances of their local governments. In most of the 774 local governments across the country, there are no elected officials as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended).
With the rising inflation and high cost of living, the wage award, though laudable, may not adequately address the needs of the average Nigerian worker. The government should provide the CNG buses to ease the burden of high cost of transportation on Nigerians. The idea of paying N25,000 per month for three months to 15 million households and vulnerable pensioners may appear good but it is always riddled with politicisation and corruption.
Government can empower more people through giving them revolving loans to establish small businesses instead of doling out cash for free to individuals. The Buhari government did it clannishly and it did not work. Indeed, there is no guarantee whatsoever that the present exercise will succeed.