The Democratic Front (TDF) has described the successful intervention of President Bola Tinubu in the long standing crisis over a new national minimum wage as a great relief for Nigerians.
It said in a statement signed by its Chairman Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary Wale Adedayo that it was a reflection of the President’s solid, time-tested negotiation skills.
“We welcome the cheery news of the resolution of the lingering minimum wage crisis and the role played by President Tinubu in breaking the deadlock.
“As many Nigerians may have realized now, it took the intervention of the President to break the impasse between Federal Government officials and that of Organized Labour after the tripartite committee had completed its 6-month assignment without all parties reaching an agreement.
“What better way could anyone describe a situation where the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC and that of the Trade Union Congress TUC gave the President a standing ovation as soon as the deal was sealed.
“This for us is a reflection of the political will to get things done even when confronted with a dead end so President Tinubu deserves credit for staving off a potential Labour crisis which could have impacted negatively on the economy.
“As we all know, the history of faceoffs between Labour and Government is rooted in a series of multi-dimensional trajectory that have impacted negatively on national productivity.
“Whenever we remember in retrospect, the exemplary role President Bola Tinubu played in 2016, as a non state actor, to prevail on the then Ayuba Wabba led NLC to call off an active nation-wide strike over the national minimum wage, our confidence in his ability to successfully break the impasse was never in doubt. And we were indeed proved right.
“So we believe the President deserves to be appreciated for the manner he got the two Labour centres to shift ground from their earlier wage demand to accept the new offer of N70,000, despite its consequences on the recurrent expenditure.
“We also laud the President for his unwavering determination to cushion the effects of subsidy removal by going beyond wage increase to allocating N100 bn for the purchase of CNG buses and CNG conversion kits across Nigeria, as well as also providing N125bn to energise MSMEs.
“The President’s intervention measure of N185 bn palliative loans to all state of the federation should equally be appreciated within the same context.
“We however know that some people have been calculating the new minimum wage in dollar terms without considering Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) but we make bold to say, for instance that the naira equivalent of $100 could buy a lot more in Nigeria than what same amount could get in any American city.
“So for us, a new minimum wage which is more than twice the previous one should be viewed from local perspective which obviously Labour acceded to by accepting the President’s offer,” it added.
The group also urged Organized labour to continue to cooperate with government in order to make ongoing reforms a success.
