The Nigeria Union of Pensioners, South West zone, on Thursday rejected the N70,000 minimum wage that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) negotiated, which was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
They urged organised labour to return to the negotiating table while blaming them for allowing the Federal Government to trick them into accepting the amount in the first place.
The NUP Southwest noted that before the N70,000 was even implemented, the federal government had gone ahead to further increase the price of petrol, saying that the NLC and TUC that went into that negotiation were blindfolded and naïve.
The pensioners also said that they wholeheartedly support the autonomy of the local government, provided that whatever arrangement is being put in place, the pensions of primary school teachers and the local government pensioners at the local level are not to be tampered with.
The NUP Zonal Public Relations Officer and Secretary of Oyo State NUP, Dr Olusegun Abatan, stated this in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, while addressing newsmen after the zonal meeting of the pensioners.
He said that labour leaders ought to be more clever when dealing with politicians.
“There are two burning issues that we need to put forward to the public domain. The first issue is the agreement between labour and the Federal Government over the minimum wage of N70,000,” he said.
“The NUP Southwest debated it extensively and we found out that before the N70,000 was even implemented, the federal government had gone ahead to further increase the price of petrol. And we concluded that the two labour centres that went into that negotiation were blindfolded; they went there naïve.
“They forgot that when you are dining with the devil, your spoon must be very long, and when you are dining with the politicians, your spoon must be longer than that of the devil. So, the federal government took advantage of their naivety and the inexperience of Comrade Ajaero and Osifo by tricking them into accepting N70,000 and that they would not increase fuel prices.
“But no sooner did they agree than the federal government went ahead to increase the price. To that extent, the NUP Southwest is rejecting the minimum wage that the labour has negotiated and advises that they should go back to the negotiating table and insist on the N250,000 they initially wanted.
“What is the value of N70,000? It is just about sixty litres of fuel. We say they should return to the negotiating table, and if going on strike will bring about an improvement, then we will support it. These people are not reducing their level of enjoyment; rather, their level of profligacy is increasing minute by minute. It is only the workers that are expected to tighten their belts; they don’t even have belts because their stomachs are too big to take a belt.”
On Local Government Autonomy, Abatan said, “NUP wholeheartedly supports it. But with the condition that whatever arrangement is being put in place, the pensions of primary school teachers and the local government pensioners at the local level are not to be tampered with. The salaries of working teachers should also continue. The salaries of LG workers and allowances of the traditional rulers should be taken care of as the first-line charges.”
