Timi Frank Tells Organised Labour To Reject Minimum Wage Less Than ₦250,000

A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has urged the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, to reject any minimum wage offer from the federal government that is less than N250,000.

Frank, in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja, queried President Bola Tinubu on a hurriedly sponsored bill for the 300 percent upward review of the salaries of judicial officeholders while a tripartite committee was set up to negotiate the minimum wage of Nigerian workers.

He noted that Tinubu had failed to fulfil his promise of giving Nigerian workers a living wage, a vow he made in 2023 upon his assumption of office.

According to Frank, the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government ought to reduce their salaries and allowances to accommodate Nigerian workers who could barely afford one meal a day rather than increasing their take pay, which is already overbloated and economically, financially and socially suffocates workers.

He urged the leadership of organized labour to be resolute in their demand to ensure that workers get a deserved living wage, considering the country’s socio-economic hardships.

He said, “How can you increase the salary of an arm of government that is already earning a humongous salary by 300 per cent and add peanuts to the paltry N30,000 that workers have been compelled to live within this country as minimum wage in the last five years?

“Why did the President send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to effect a 300 per cent upward review in the salaries of judicial office holders but set up a tripartite committee to negotiate a “starvation wage” (apologies to NLC President Joe Ajaero) for suffering Nigerian workers instead of a “living wage” he promised them on assumption of office in May last year?

“Any amount below N250,000.00 cannot be considered a decent wage for Nigerian workers considering the present socio-economic hardship in the country.”