The Presidency has assured workers across the country of a significant salary increase with the implementation of the new minimum wage to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
The media and publicity adviser to President Bola Tinubu, Ajuri Ngelale disclosed that workers should expect their current salaries to at least double once the new minimum wage comes into effect.
Hr spoke during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today monitored by DAILY GIST.
Ngelale’s announcement came as part of a broader discussion on what the Tinubu administration is doing to mitigate the impact of subsidy removal on the population.
Currently, the national minimum wage is N30,000 but some state governments do not implement the policy.
However, after the removal of the petrol subsidy, organised labour has asked the federal government to increase the national minimum wage alongside the provision of palliatives to Nigerians.
On Wednesday, labour unions embarked on nationwide protests over the failure of the government to reverse some policies which they said have brought untold hardship to Nigerians.
Reacting to the development, Ngelale added that the savings realised from the removal of the petrol subsidy will be used to provide palliatives to Nigeria to cushion the effects of the policy.
He said the labour unions must be “fair” with the federal government during the negotiation of palliative.
“We won’t promise to do what can’t deliver if we don’t have the money, we say we don’t have, it’s with the subsidy savings we can bring out all the palliative we are agreeing to…we understand Nigerians are hurting but let’s be fair in negotiations,” he said.
The presidential spokesperson stated that with the removal of the subsidy, states now have enough funds to afford a new national minimum wage.
He noted that the president would pay workers nothing less than a doubling of the current salaries once the new increment takes effect.
He said, “It’s absolutely evident at this point and I do not want to preempt President Bola Tinubu.”
“I don’t want to preempt the president or the work of the minimum wage committee that is getting it down in those states, but what I would say is this: the president will want nothing less than a doubling. I mean doubling of the current minimum wage.
“As of June 36 states have received N300 billion more than they had received in any previous month in the last two years. They already have more money right now.
