The minimum wage strike embarked by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Monday, June 3, 2024, was indeed a special one.
It was a total shutdown.
Economic activities were grounded in the country.
To make things worse, this strike left Nigerians in total darkness.
The turn up for this particular strike was indeed impressive as Nigerians spoke in one voice.
Every state of the federation complied with the NLC directives.
How The Government Rates Nigerian Workers
It has been long we experienced such.
The truth is Nigerians felt very insulted.
The government has on several occasions proven that it does not rate the country’s workforce.
How can a worker not be able to comfortably afford a bag of rice?
What even pained Nigerians the most was the way the government was pricing minimum wage like garri.
The Negotiation
After four good years of paying ₦30,000 as minimum wage, the Nigerian government deemed it fit to add ₦18,000 to the minimum wage to make it ₦48,000.
That is how they rate the country’s workforce.
The 48,000 naira offered received outright rejection from the Organised Labour.
That was when Nigerians received the greatest shock of their lives.
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The federal government said it would add ₦6,000 to the wage to make it ₦54,000.
At this point, we cannot help but imagine what the look on the faces of the union members would have been like.
Again, it was a no.
The Minimum Wage Strike
Another meeting was called and union members once again turned up with high hopes only for the government to offer to add another ₦6,000 to the wage to make it ₦60,000.
That was when it became clear to the unions as well as Nigerians, that the government does not rate them at all.
This was what pushed the union to declare the strike which left the entire nation in total shutdown.
However, the Organised Labour called off the strike after a meeting with the government.
Now, Nigerians wait in anxiety for what is to come.
