The five days ultimatum given to the President Bola Tinubu-led government by the Organised Labour is fast coming to an end.

Sadly, the government is yet to present a new minimum wage template.

Perhaps, members of the Organised Labour are not familiar with the game of chess.

If they were familiar with this game of strategy, then they would have known long before now that the Federal Government had checkmated the game.

Now, after five days with no improvement, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has charged the government to present a new minimum wage template.

Orders From Mr. President

It was on Tuesday that President Tinubu directed the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage to speed up the process.

The president also directed the committee to compute the figures and send them to him.

Tinubu had also said he was committed to a wage above ₦60,000, while the TUC and the NLC said they weren’t fixated on their ₦494,000 demand.

Following the president’s directives, Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy gave Nigerians an assurance.

He assured Nigerians that “there is no cause for alarm”.

The template 

This came after a crucial meeting with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.

However, after meeting with the committee on Thursday, the labour union revealed that the Federal Government failed to present a new minimum wage template days after calling for an indefinite strike.
The president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, spoke on the development.

Also Read: Minimum Wage Saga: How President Tinubu Checkmated NLC

He said: “Nothing has been presented yet.
The minister of finance said they are still working on the template that the president mandated them to work on.
“All we were discussing were the principles behind some of these issues, but they have not presented anything beyond what was presented earlier.
“We hope when we come back tomorrow, we will have something to relate to.”

Showing Working 

NLC, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), charged the Federal Government to act on the minimum wage, which had expired since April rather than keep saying things that are unfavourable to them.

The union shared a video of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.

In that video, Onyyejeocha was addressing the press on the outcome of yesterday’s meeting.

The video was captioned: “One Week Ultimatum. They have not presented any different thing yet.

FG show Workings ooO! No be to dey yarn cho! cho! cho! One week is around the corner already. #We DEMAND A LIVING WAGE NOW!”