NLC gears up for new minimum wage

There are indications that the nation would soon witness another battle for a review of the National Minimum Wage to mitigate the realities of the time.

The new President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, told reporters recently: “The NLC will pursue with utmost urgency a new national minimum wage law that would take into consideration the objective realities of our socio-economy; expand its reach to capture more workers and create variables and thresholds for automatic adjustment of the nation’s wage floor to avoid unnecessary politicking and impunity by our employers and reduce the suffering of workers.

“We are committed to resolutely pursuing the interests and desires of Nigerian workers and by extension the majority of Nigerian masses. We, therefore, pledge our loyalty to the NLC, workers, masses and Nigeria. Our breath, our thoughts and our actions shall be propelled by this avowal!

“We shall seek to reconnect more strongly to build greater solidarities with the people of Nigeria rising once again to be the carriers of their desires and amplifiers of their voices.

“We shall not only speak for the 133million Nigerians who are multi-dimensionally poor but shall also seek platforms to lift the shackles of poverty from the shoulders of our people. We shall once again be the true champions of the Nigerian people; crying their cries and jointly waging our wars against all forces of impoverishment and misery.”

The labour leader said the NLC would engage the Federal Government on how to cut the cost of governance, and reduce the opportunities for fat cats to raid the economy.

Speaking on the review of the privatisation of the electricity sector, Ajaero said the Congress was ready to work with the Federal Government to sanitise the power system.

Ajaero contended that everybody, including the Federal Government, agreed that the privatisation was fraught with corruption.

He said: “The electricity tariff remains stacked against workers and masses and we shall, therefore, work with the government to bring sanity to bear to that sector. We urge the Federal Government, again, to review the privatisation of the electricity sector – a process both the government and all of us have agreed was mired in corruption.

”Despite the humungous loss to public coffers occasioned by the under-valued sales of national power assets and the decision of government to still offer bailout funds to private sector investors who claim to possess the needed financial and technical expertise to turn around epileptic public electricity supply in Nigeria, the reward has been a trillion megawatts of darkness.”

Ajaero continued: “We warned the government that the power sector privatisation would only be a venture in the despoilation of choice national assets rather than a commitment to improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

”Today, we have been proved right as the successor companies that emerged from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) are more interested in stripping Nigerians of their money without rendering commensurate services.

“We warn the Power Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and the Nigerian Electricity Commission (NERC) to cease and desist from exploiting Nigerians through estimated billings fostered by their failures to provide prepaid meters to Nigerians.

”We reject the high electricity tariffs arbitrarily imposed on Nigerians. We wish to remind the Federal Government about our agreement on September 28, 2021, to freeze further hike in electricity tariff until some of the issues identified to drive high electricity tariff in Nigeria, including dollarisation of investments in the electricity sector, are addressed."