Minimum Wage: NLC threatens nationwide protest Wednesday

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and its allies have threatened to go on a nationwide protest on Wednesday over the alleged attempts by some elements at the National Assembly to remove the Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List.

In a statement from the NLC headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday the protest, which will hold in the 36 states’ Houses of Assembly will start from the Unity Fountain Abuja at 7:30 am to the National Assembly complex.

The NLC was reacting to the move by the House of Representatives to alter the current wage structure which gives the Federal Government the power to negotiate the minimum wage for workers across the country.

It stated that workers would not allow their rights to be trampled upon by those it called opportunistic and narrow-thinking politicians.

The House of Representatives, last weekend, debated a Bill to remove the powers to negotiate wage matters from the Exclusive to the Concurrent list.

It cited the inability of some governors to pay the current N30,000 minimum wage for the move.

The Bill, which was sponsored by Garba Mohammed, has passed second reading in the House.

Arising from labour’s emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, NLC President Ayuba Wabba said the congress would resist any attempt to destroy Nigeria’s working class.

According to a communiqué jointly signed by Wabba and NLC’s acting General Secretary Ismail Bello, the Bill is an attempt to undermine the nation’s working class.

“The NEC decided that there will be a national protest, commencing from March 10, 2021 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and especially to the National Assembly. The protest is to make a strong statement that Nigerian workers would not lie low and watch hard-fought rights, which are of global standards, bastardised by opportunistic and narrow-thinking politicians.

“The NEC resolved that the national protest will be concurrently held in all the 36 states of the federation and to the different states’ Houses of Assembly across Nigeria.

“The NEC decided that should the need arise, it has empowered the National Administrative Council of the NLC to declare and enforce a national strike, especially if the legislators continue on the ruinous path of moving the national minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List,” the statement added.

The NLC also condemned the hoarding of petroleum products by some fuel stations, adding that if the stations persist in hoarding the fuel supply, it will picket them for inflicting pains on Nigerians.