The details of Nigerian government meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on minimum wage has been revealed.
Recall that the NLC and TUC had met the federal government in Aso Rock on Monday to resume negotiations.
A committee was set up to consider the demands of the Federal Government (FG), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and given an eight-week deadline to decide on the minimum wage.
The decision to set up a committee was collectively made as part of the resolution by the unions and the FG following the fuel subsidy removal.
Addressing Journalists after the meeting, the Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Special Duties, and Strategy, Dele Alake, the President TUC Festus Osifo, and President of NLC Comrade Joe Ajaero disclosed that a Presidential Steering Committee to which several sub-committees would report on various aspects of the demands has been created.
Ajaero said that there are long-term and short-term effects of subsidy removal and in those key areas, several sub-committees will be created to report on the various demands before the end of August.
He said “The purpose of the meeting today is actually to put together the framework, what we submitted as our demand, how will they be delivered and so we are looking at that framework, the government came with what they think will work, we also made some input. From this night, we are going to continue the work to have that framework together.
“This meeting is intended to give life to those agreements that were reached. We have set up committees in those key areas to work on them to ensure we wrap up in the next eight weeks.”
“We agreed that anything we are putting together we are going to conclude everything in eight weeks. Everything must be rolled out within that time not something that we are going to leave endlessly.”
Highlighting some of its current challenges and how to tackle them, he said “The issue of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), we need experts, people that are willing to invest, the help of national oil company, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to come up with what they need to do and the time with which they are going to deliver
“These are some workings that are required beyond this meeting, and a technical committee will be incorporated into the Presidential committee but we must conclude everything maximum in eight weeks.
‘’So those technical committees, some will submit their reports in one week when they submit in one week, we implement when they submit in two weeks, we also implement but the last should not exceed eight weeks, and by June 26th, 2023, we will convene here again.”
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategies, Dele Alake, said that the meeting considered the short term, medium term and long term measures in resolving the issue with government.
He said, “We reconvened today, both parties went through this list and we tipped off the viable ones, those things are broken into three categories. The immediate, those that can be of low hanging fruit in the short term, the medium term and the long term.
“So those list of demands in terms of implementation and execution fall into those three broad categories of short, medium and long term categories. So that’s what we decided today and other meetings will still be held in order to cross the ts and dot the is.
“One group has been constituted at today’s meeting, there is a steering committee that will be like a clearing house, there are other groups set up comprising both parties, government and labour members and these groups will work together very harmoniously and efficiently to arrive at the final resolution of all these demands and what we call interventions.”
Present at the meeting were the delegation of the NLC, led by its President, Joe Ajaero, the delegation of the TUC led by its President, Festus Osifo, the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zachaeus Adedeji, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachallom Daju.
Others were the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL, Mele Kyari, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, the CEO of Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, among others.
