President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday presented the 70,000 Minimum Wage bill to the House of Representatives for consideration and passage into law.
The President and the leadership of the Organised Labour had last Thursday agreed on ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The letter from the President which was read on the floor of the House by Speaker Rep Tajudeen Abbas provides for a new national minimum wage as well as the legal framework for the implementation of the agreed wage.
Tinubu appealed to the Lawmakers to expedite the passage of the minimum wage bill to ensure immediate implementation for the benefit of Nigeria workers
The President in another letter also wrote the Lawmaker seeking amendment to the Nigeria Police Act by section 58 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The amendment seeks to alter the Police about the appointment and tenure of office of the Inspector General of Police.
Tinubu and Labour last Thursday agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage.
Information Minister Mohammed Idris had said “the new national minimum that Mr President is expected to submit to the National Assembly is N70,000”.
The truce between the government and labour sides followed a series of talks between labour leaders and the President in the last few weeks after months of failed talks between labour organs and a tripartite committee on minimum wage constituted by the President in January.
The committee, which comprised state and federal governments and the Organised Private Sector, had proposed N62,000 while labour insisted on N250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers who currently earn N30,000 as minimum wage.
Labour had said N30,000 was unsustainable for any worker going by the economic vagaries of inflation and high cost of living which followed the removal of petrol subsidy by the President.
Despite its initial insistence on N250,000 as the new minimum wage, Labour accepted the President’s offer of N70,000 last Thursday.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said Labour accepted N70,000 and rejected a proposal by President Bola Tinubu to pay N250,000 minimum wage on a condition to increase petrol prices.
He also said Labour agreed to the N70,000 offer because minimum wage won’t be reviewed once in five years anymore but once every three years.
The transmission of the wage bill came about six weeks after the President said in his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024, that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers would be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
