The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the South-West has asked President Bola Tinubu to listen to the organised labour unions by implementing their new demand on the national minimum wage.
This came as the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) proposed N497,000 as the new minimum wage, but the federal government is pushing for N57,000.
The NUP made the demand at the end of its quarterly meeting, attended by executives from Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Lagos, and Ondo states in Akure on Thursday.
Olusegun Abatan, spokesman for the pensioners in the South-West zone, said the senior citizens were not happy with Mr Tinubu’s government over the nation’s economic condition.
He said the way Mr Tinubu and the state governors negotiated the new minimum wage amid economic hardship was not in the best interest of the workers.
“The demands of NLC and TUC are not out of place if we factor the economic problem and the amount of money the political holders are collecting monthly in this country.
“In Nigeria, the situation is so dynamic that what you’re earning five years ago with the current situation of buying and selling commodities, services now, you will see that it is different.
“We want him (Tinubu) to go back and see what he can do; he should go back and do what he was saying during the time of NADECO. He should do what he said then that Nigeria should have a better life because things are getting worse every day,” he said.
While observing that the organised labour leaders are not asking for too much with the high cost of essential commodities in the country, Mr Abatan said Mr Tinubu should approve the new minimum wage that is acceptable to the Nigerian workers.
However, he advised the organised labour leaders to press for a bill by the National Assembly requiring the federal government to review the minimum wage during an economic meltdown.
“So what we are saying, in essence, is that we should go back to our memory lane, while the NLC and TUC should send a bill to the National Assembly for the enactment of a law that will compel the government to review minimum wage whenever there is an economic problem.
“The salary increase should be based according to the dictates of the socio-economic situation of the country, not until it reaches five years,” Mr Abatan added.