The Federal Government has been accused of grave wrongdoing by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which asserts that the N35,000 wage award that was agreed upon was stopped after the first month.
Festus Osifo, the president of the TUC, made these claims on Monday in an interview with Arise Television.
Osifo emphasised that after the first payment, payments stopped, even though the government had promised a 6-month wage award.
The TUC presented President Bola Tinubu with a 10-point agenda that outlined their requests and expectations from the federal government as a result of their concerns over this development.
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The president of TUC emphasised that the Nigerian government has the money to meet these requests. He did, however, take issue with the government’s seeming lack of will to “actually do what is right.”
This statement suggests that there is a disconnect between the government’s readiness to accommodate the trade union’s needs and requests and its financial capacity.
The demands of the TUC highlight how urgent it is that the federal government take action in response to the situation, which has exposed the difficulties that the nation’s workers face.
Many parties will be keenly observing the federal government’s attitude and activities as the TUC presses for the adoption of the agreed pay structure and other demands.
He said, “If you’ve signed an agreement and you’re finding it difficult to implement, what you do normally is for you to call the other party, and you sit down together. But we don’t even think that is the challenge, we don’t think that is the problem.
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“Because today, you could see from the federation account how much they share every month, it has doubled compared to the figures that they were sharing or the amount of money that they were sharing as at April/May.
“Today, they share trillions of naira, that shows that even if the value of this money has plummeted, even if the value has gone down, but the physical note is there, the volume has actually gone up.
“So, they could actually take care of this. It is not because they don’t have revenue, but it is the will for them to actually do what is right. You know very well, that as at when this government came in, the exchange rate was somewhere around N450 to a dollar. But today, officially, it is over N900, which is times two. That has actually made the government to be earning more money.”
Osifo pointed out that the 10-point agenda the TUC had submitted to the government—which was ultimately approved—had not been notarized by the administration.
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He said, “The last point in that agreement that we reached as at then contained the fact that it will be a consent judgement, but up till now, to the best information available to us, that has not been done. As at today, it’s not been placed before the court of law for it to be adopted as a consent judgement.
“But even beyond that, there are some provisions in that agreement that we felt that government, they have not implemented to the latter.
“It is left for government to tell us the reason why they have not taken that document to court, it’s left for them. But for us, our responsibility is to hold them accountable to be sure and certain that every statement in that agreement as agreed with them must be implemented.”
Osifo went on to say that the TUC’s demands, which were outlined in the 10-point agenda, were prompted by the pain that the typical Nigerian was experiencing as a result of high inflation-driven prices, the elimination of gasoline subsidies, and other financial difficulties.
Fuel Subsidy Removal: The Only Thing Nigerians Want – TUC Tells FG
He stated, “It was based on this that the government came up with this 10-point agenda, because we feel that if government is sincere enough to implement these and put frameworks in place to address all these, the life of an average Nigerian will be better.
“This government must sit down, buckle its belt and address the issues that are affecting Nigerians.”
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