President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said his administration negotiated with Labour in faith concerning the new minimum wage.
Tinubu said this during his broadcast on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, to mark Democracy Day.
According to the President, his administration settled for cooperation rather than applying dictatorial means of going after workers after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) ordered their members to go on a nationwide strike.
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“As we continue to reform the economy, I shall always listen to the people and will never turn my back on you,” he said in his broadcast. “In this spirit, we have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with organised labour on a new national minimum wage.
“We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less.In the face of labour’s call for a national strike, we did not seek to oppress or crack down on the workers as a dictatorial government would have done.
“We chose the path of cooperation over conflict. No one was arrested or threatened. Instead, the labour leadership was invited to break bread and negotiate toward a good-faith resolution.
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He added that reasoned discussion and principled compromise are hallmarks of democracy and these themes shall continue to animate his policies and interaction with the constituent parts of Nigeria’s political economy.
