The Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Festus Osifo, and the union Secretary-General, Nuhu Toro, urged the Federal Government to uphold all labour agreements made in 2023, especially those pertaining to the National Minimum Wage, in a New Year’s message for 2024 titled “Our hope not renewed yet.”
Osifo expressed dissatisfaction at the government’s disregard for fundamental agreements with Labour, even in light of the TUC’s 2023 efforts to advance social discourse. He emphasised that Labour had insisted that the court formally accept the agreements reached on October 2, 2023.
The statement included: “However, government has serially violated the agreements. For instance, Item two states clearly that: ‘A minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement. Today, three months later, no such committee has been set up and this is our experience with this government in at least two previous agreements reached from June.”
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Osifo stated that the TUC would demand that the Tinubu administration carry out all labor-government agreements before 2024. This covers paying public employees in local, state, and federal government services their monthly N35,000 wage award until a new national minimum wage takes effect.
He emphasised that negotiations for a new national minimum wage should begin as soon as possible, and that any additional delays should result in arrears being paid. In order to bring the inflation rate down to the sub-Saharan African regional average of 9.4%, he also demanded a major drop in the present rate of 28.20%.
Osifo criticised the practice of borrowing by state and federal governments, especially when such loans are used for non-essential expenses like buying expensive vehicles for legislators and executive members. He said, “This is especially when these loans only end up being used to purchase thousands of expensive jeeps for legislators, pampered members of the Executive and their spouses, among others.”
Additionally, he denounced the government’s devaluation of the currency, saying that this was driving local industry to collapse because they were dependent on imports for raw materials and needed foreign exchange to do so, resulting in hyperinflation in the economy.
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Osifo demanded that the Central Bank’s artificial scarcity of Naira notes be ended, arguing that this could be accomplished if the government made sure there was a sufficient supply of Naira notes in the banking sector.
He also argued in favour of a significant drop in PMS prices in order to lessen the negative economic effects and encourage domestic manufacturing of refined goods.
Regarding security, Osifo declared that the standard by which Nigerians should be judged while deciding whether to keep or replace military and security officials should be the safety of their countrymen. He asked Tinubu to make authorities answerable for significant security lapses, like the Plateau atrocities in December 2023.
He underlined how important it is to put community policing first and encourage people to arm themselves against criminals and other dangers.
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Osifo concluded by saying, “The Year 2024 holds a lot of promise for us all provided Nigerians as a people would unite and assert our authority over all powers. These include the Nigerian ruling class manning all branches, levels, institutions and organs of government.”
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