SINCE Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, successive governments have only increased workers’ minimum wage three times. This is despite the snowballing cost of living in the country over the years.
Nigeria was plunged into darkness on Monday, June 3, 2024, when organised labour, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), embarked on a strike to demand a new minimum wage.
The workers shut down airports, schools, train and power stations, among others to compel the federal government to meet their demand.
Labour leaders chased out government workers who showed up at their offices, as virtually all public institutions in the country, including the National Assembly, the Federal Secretariat and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in Abuja, were shut down.
Despite economic conditions that have historically been persistently affected by inflation and other forces, Nigeria’s minimum wage has only been significantly increased on three occasions since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999.
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office on May 29, 1999, Nigeria’s national minimum wage was N250. For federal employees, it was N3,500.
By 2000, the Nigerian government, under Obasanjo, raised the national minimum wage to N5,500 and N7,500 for different categories of federal workers, promising that it would be further increased by 25 per cent the following year and 15 per cent in 2002.
Until he left office in 2007, there was no further increase to the minimum wage, as the Wage Increase Agreement was not implemented.
After several nationwide protests by organised labour in the country, the Nigerian government under the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua set up the Belgore Committee to work out a new minimum wage.
Although the labour unions demanded N52,500 as minimum wage, the committee recommended N18,000 in 2010. However, it was not signed until 2011, under Yar’Adua’s successor, Goodluck Jonathan.
A renegotiation between labour officials and the government pegged the minimum wage at N18,900 that year.
Again, workers’ minimum wage was not increased until the labour began to threaten industrial action in 2019. At this time, a new administration led by Muhammadu Buhari had ousted Jonathan’s government and was in its second term.
After a series of meetings between the workers and the federal government, former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, announced the new minimum wage of N30,000.
Five years later, with inflation nearly triple the 11.98 per cent obtained in December 2019, workers are again clamouring for an increase in minimum wage.
While labour initially proposed N615,000, the federal government offered N46,000. Negotiations saw both parties shift far away from these initial figures.
But when the government insisted on a N60,000 offer, workers downed their tools.
Barely two days into the nationwide strike, the government called for further negotiations, and though no new amount has been agreed upon, workers suspended the strike for five days.
With harsh economic conditions fuelling agitations for better pay, some state governments are yet to comply with the N30,000 minimum wage that took effect five years ago.
The Zamfara State government only announced its intention to commence payment of the existing N30,000 minimum wage, in May 2024.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.