By John Ikani
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has lamented that the nation’s minimum wage of N30, 000 passed into law in 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari had been reduced to nothing by inflation.
Aliyu Wabba, the congress President affirmed this while speaking during the 2021 Decent Work Round-Table discussion, to mark 2021 World Day for Decent Work with the theme: ‘The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health, Employment, Income, and Gender Equality.’
The NLC president who urged the Federal Government to adopt a National Employment Plan that will engender decent work in the country, added that the national employment plan was imperative in addressing the issue of peace and stability in the country.
What the labour president said:
“Today we know that the 30,000 minimum wage has been reduced to virtually nothing due to external effects of inflation in our system.”
“We also need jobs respect fundamental labour status, we need jobs that are sustainable. We need jobs that respect maximum working hours and jobs that can provide a decent minimum wage,” he submitted, adding that 70 percent of Nigerians had their livelihood in the informal sector.
“I must use this opportunity to call on our government at all levels to adopt a national employment plan and I think decent employment which is a recipe to addressing the issue of peace and stability. Because youths can certainly be a tool to the hands of the people who are manipulative and this can be very dangerous to the society.
“As a country, unemployment must come to the centre stage in our recovery for COVID-plan.”
