See How Labour Reacted To News That President Buhari Has Not Endorsed N30,000 As New Minimum Wage

Organized labour has reacted to the statement on Wednesday which revealed the N30,000 minimum wage proposal submitted to Buhari was still a recommendation and had not been approved.

President Muhammadu Buhari would still have to study the report presented to him on Tuesday before taking a decision on it as explained by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spoke with State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.

Naija News recalls Amal Pepple, chairman of the minimum wage committee had on Tuesday, presented the report of the committee to the President.

It is believed that the committee recommended that the national minimum wage be increased from N18,000 monthly to N30,000.

A section of the media had thereafter, been reporting that Buhari accepted the report and endorsed the recommendation of N30,000 as the new minimum wage.

Information minister, Lai Mohammed, however, said that may not be the true situation of things.

“I think it (N30,000) was a recommendation. Mr President will consider it and will make his views known in due course,” the minister said.

“I said a recommendation was submitted. Mr President will get back to the committee after he has studied the recommendation.”

However, the Organised Labour has threatened to go on strike if the Federal Government fails to approve and implement the N30,000 minimum wage recommended by the tripartite committee.

General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Mr Musa Lawal, said this in reaction to the minister’s statement that the committee’s report was a mere recommendation.

“They can say anything they want to say. Why were they panicky before? Why did they agree to the N30, 000? They can call it a mere recommendation or whatever they want to call it but the important thing is that at the end of the day, if we do not get the N30,000, they know what we will do,” Lawal said.

The minimum wage committee’s report will still be presented before the National Economic Council and the Council of State before a decision will be made.

Once a decision is taken, the Federal Government will then send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to that effect.