Petrol price renders N70, 000 minimum wage useless — NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Thursday, said the new price for Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol, has eroded the gains of the yet-to-be-implemented N70,000 new national minimum wage.

The organised labour said it would meet with the federal government to discuss how workers could survive the recent hardship orchestrated by the development.

President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, who disclosed this at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on “Minimum Wage Implementation Workshop, Southern Zone, with the theme ‘Strategies for Effective Implementation of the 2024 National Minimum Wage Act, in Lagos,” insisted that the organised labour was deceived by President Bola Tinubu into accepting the N70,000 minimum wage to forestall petrol price increase.

Ajaero urged the government to tackle the excruciating hunger, poverty and frustration of Nigerians before things got out of hand, lamenting that Nigerians were suffering.

The NLC president, while giving insight into the conversations with President Tinubu before the N70,000 minimum wage was agreed, lamented that Nigerians appeared to have started adjusting to the situation on the ground because the government had been distracting organized labour.

“There is a tactic to distract our attention, to call us names, level allegations against us over cybercrime, financing terrorism, sponsoring terrorism and the rest.

”Those things have paid off because while we are facing those allegations, this issue of pump price has remained.

“I repeat, we were betrayed by Mr President, that statement we issued over our being betrayed is being denied by officials of the government.

“I am repeating that we were betrayed. Some of you here were at the meeting when Mr President said, ‘Ajaero you are the problem’”, he said.