Not for the first time, Nigeria’s main Labour Centres are divided over the Federal Government’s wage award for federal workers. To stem worker agitation over economic hardship from sweeping economic reforms, the Bola Tinubu administration offered workers a N70,000 transport allowance on Tuesday. The palliative will last six months, beginning in November.
In a country where the National Minimum Wage is N70,000 monthly, this could offer some relief for hard-pressed public workers if the government faithfully implements the initiative.
High inflation and high energy and food prices have accompanied the reforms. Petrol shot up from N187 to N600 per litre. It now sells for between N1,365 and N1,400. Rice, beans, oils and proteins increased astronomically. From N467 to $1, the naira breached N1,900 before the current rate of around N1,360.
Rent, transportation and services also rose. It was a no-brainer that most Nigerians could not cope.
The unions have tabled figures ranging from N400,000 to N650,000 monthly as the NMW.
In January, PwC estimated that 141 million Nigerians lived in extreme poverty.
In October, the Federal Government discounted petrol prices to N1,350 per litre for a month to lower transport costs.
But instead of the transport award assuaging the unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress expressed dissonance.
A day after the government’s call, the TUC flatly rejected the transport award. It demanded increased wages of N300,000 monthly, arguing the government could pay.
In contrast, the NLC welcomed the transport award.
Workers deserve decent wages. So far, in Nigeria, that is a mirage.
In South Africa, the monthly minimum wage of R5,894.40 is equivalent to N489,000.
The minimum wage in the United Kingdom is £12.71 per hour for those aged 21 years. That derides Nigeria’s minimum wage, and even the wage awards. But at £167.26, the N300,000 makes sense in theory.
Despite the biting hardship occasioned by the removal of the petrol subsidies and the floating of the currency at the inception of the Tinubu administration in 2023, it is a tall order to suddenly jerk up the minimum wage by more than 200 per cent close to the end of a budgetary cycle.
Some state governments are yet to even pay their workers the N70,000 NMW, which began in July 2024.
Fiscally, Nigeria is at a crossroads. The Federal Government has not implemented the full capital component of the 2024 budget. This, and the 2025 component, have been repeatedly moved forward.
It is also borrowing heavily, especially to build road and power infrastructure. On Wednesday, Tinubu made a fresh request to the National Assembly to borrow $20.51 billion and €1.04 billion. Before then, national debt stood at about N159 trillion.
This is not to excuse the government from paying decent wages to Nigerian workers, however.
Public officials and lawmakers live in luxury. The cost of governance is obscenely high. Tinubu has about 48 ministries, some containing a minister and a minister of state. The President should cut its coat according to its cloth.
On its part, the NLC backed the N70,000 offer. It explained that the TUC was not part of the negotiations that led to it.
Earlier, the NLC’s Acting General Secretary, Benson Upah, warned of a general strike after a meeting with the Minister of Labour, Muhammadu Dingyadi, on October 20.
Its major demands included the reduction in petrol prices to 2024 levels, renegotiation of the NMW and implementation of agreed tax relief measures. Upah added that outstanding issues under the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council demands included peculiar allowances, wage awards and hazard allowances.
It directed its affiliates, state councils and civil society allies to begin mobilising for possible nationwide action. According to Upah, the Federal Government has refused to make concrete commitments regarding the workers’ demands, as they came to the meeting without clear mandates.
With the transport relief, this seems not to be the case.
The N70,000 minimum wage cannot provide sustenance for an average family of six on a monthly basis, as this amounts to N38.89 per day for each of them.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, told his audience at Chatham House in the United Kingdom that some Nigerian workers spend 120 per cent of their wages on food. That translates to acute hardship – and extreme poverty and debt.
The Tinubu administration has touted macroeconomic reforms as having turned the economy around and set the country on the path to stability and progress. That cannot be denied.
But the government has also acknowledged that its reforms have not had appreciable impact on the populace.
Despite calls for the government to consider subsidies in some form to cushion the crushing economic crisis, it insists that its policies have come to stay.
Some analysts argue that the petrol discount and the transport award are cosmetic.
In September, Tinubu moved to bring down the cost of transportation by appealing to state governors to take necessary remedial actions in that regard. He touted his administration’s CNG policy under which it had encouraged private and public vehicle owners to convert from petrol to compressed gas. The President did not apparently factor in the high cost of conversion.
Estimates range from N750,000 to N2.5 million to convert petrol vehicles to CNG.
CNG operators say their overheads, such as maintenance, staffing, compression equipment, as well as unsustainable pricing in addition to reduced governmental subsidy, are to blame.
Giving insight, a CNG private operator, Fuel Buddy, says, “Marketers argue that the previous CNG price of N230/SCM for commercial vehicles was artificially low. Station operators could not cover operational costs – maintenance, staffing, compression equipment – at those rates. The price hike is framed as a necessary correction to keep the industry running.”
It adds: “CNG pricing had been kept low through government concessionary pricing. As of 2025, the domestic base gas price was set at $2.13/MMBtu, with a concessionary Autogas rate of $1.57/MMBtu for five years.
“When these concessionary arrangements tighten, pump prices rise. The Federal Government has pushed back on taking blame. PCNGI stated the federal government did not order the price increase, pointing instead at private investors setting their own market rates.”
Beyond these are expensive vehicle maintenance, nuisance taxes being extorted by security agents, sundry government agencies and louts on the roads, the poor state of major highways, among others.
These negatively impact the wages of workers, leaving a good number mired in debt or unable to provide adequately for their families.
Workers have a right to demand a review of the minimum wage. So, the government should negotiate with the workers.
The Middle East crises have worsened the global economic problems. Crude sells for $107 to $114 per barrel. This imposes pressure on energy prices in Nigeria.
Therefore, the tense times demand frugality and lean recurrent expenditure by public office-holders.
Middlemen, bad roads, nuisance taxes, insecurity and high cost of labour put affordable meals out of the reach of ordinary citizens. The government can mitigate the severe food prices by addressing these impediments.
In France, the cost-of-living crisis sparked riots amid growing global discontent.
Therefore, both sides must urgently return to the negotiating table, as Nigeria cannot afford a general strike at this time
PUNCH
