THE new minimum wage talks between the Federal Government and Organised Labour are expected to end on Monday (today) as the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress leaders await President Bola Tinubu’s decision on their N250,000 offer. The labour leaders had given a Monday deadline for the conclusion of talks on the new minimum wage. Last Friday, the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage concluded its meetings where the Federal Government and the Organized Private Sector agreed on N62,000 while Labour demanded N250,000. However, the Nigeria Governors Forum in a statement said any minimum wage higher than N57,000…
Author: Abdullahi Maitama Sani
STATE governments are getting set to eliminate electricity subsidies in their territories as more states gear up to join others in running their different power markets under their own laws. In a document put together by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, titled, ‘Development of the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan Policy Recommendations by State Governments to the Federal Ministry of Power,’ the states also stated that they would implement different electricity tariffs in their domains. They made this recommendations based on the enactment of the Electricity Act 2023. The Electricity Act 2023 is a federal law which repeals…
IN accordance with his commitment to actualize Nigeria’s green industrial vision, boost investor confidence, and unlock sustainable economic value through various climate finance instruments, President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Dr. Nkiruka Maduekwe as the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) in interim capacity, pending the confirmation of her appointment by the NCCC Supervisory Council. The President has also approved that Dr. Maduekwe, 39, who holds a Bachelor of Law degree; a Master’s degree in Environmental Law & Policy from the University of Dundee (UK), and a Doctorate degree in Law from the…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has urged stakeholders in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to pursue compensation, and not litigation to resolve land disputes in the nation’s capital. The President stated this when he commissioned the Guzape Lot II Infrastructure Project in Abuja on Saturday. He said the completion of the project was testament to what could be achieved through “diligent planning, collaboration and shared commitment to excellence”. The President said commended the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, for delivering on the infrastructure renewal promises of the Federal Government to the people of the FCT. The President also…
FOLLOWING several hours of meeting on Friday, the Federal Government and the organised private sector have increased their offer for the new minimum wage to N62,000 from the earlier N60,000. However, the organised labour is proposing N250,000 which is a shift from its earlier N494,000. This brings to and end the deliberations on the new minimum wage by the tripartite committee set up by the the Federal Government after several months. The recommendations will be forwarded to President Tinubu, who is expected to send an executive bill to the National Assembly for legislative action. With the work of the tripartite…
THE governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, says the Tripartite Committee on the minimum wage is close to agreeing a new national minimum wage. He disclosed this after emerging from the meeting of the committee on Friday which lasted for over 12 hours. “We had a very fruitful deliberation and of course you know it is a technical subcommittee of a committee. “And at the level of the committee, we have reached near consensus and by the time we go to the plenary we will have a complete agreement and maybe from there the media can start their job. As…
THE 36 state governors who make up the Nigeria Governors’ Forum have said that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government is not sustainable and cannot fly. A statement by the Acting Director, Media Affairs and Public Relations of the Forum, Mrs Halima Ahmed, noted that if allowed to fly, many states will use all their monthly allocations from the federation account to pay workers’ salaries. The governors appealed to members of the tripartite committee to agree on a minimum wage that would be fair and sustainable. Recall that the organised labour had rejected the N60,000 proposal and…
IMO State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, says the Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage will arrive at a figure by Friday (today). Uzodimma, who is the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), stated this after the committee’s five-hour meeting on Thursday. Addressing the press after the meeting, Uzodimma said the committee would arrive at a figure when the committee reconvenes by 11am on Friday. On the rumours making the rounds that a figure of N105,000 has been agreed, the governor said no such decision has been reached but assured workers in the country that…
THE Presidency has described as false the news making the rounds that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, has proposed N105,000 in the new minimum wage template. The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this on his X account on Thursday. The presidential aide wrote, “The Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, has not proposed N105,000 minimum wage. “The contrary story being disseminated is false.” Edun had earlier in the day presented the template to President Bola Tinubu, meeting the 48-hour deadline.…
THE Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage adjourned its meeting on Wednesday to allow the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to meet the 48-hour deadline for presenting the cost implications of the proposed wage increase. A source close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak on the matter, told The Nation that the committee, comprising representatives of the Federal Government, organised labour, and the private sector, discussed general matters details of which were not disclosed. The meeting was adjourned on Wednesday, to give…
THE Senate, on Wednesday, sought an increase in the penalty paid by parents who fail to enrol their children in school. Lawmakers in the upper chamber want the penalty paid by defaulting parents raised from N2,500 to N250,000. The Senate also passed a Bill for an Act to amend the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act through second reading. The bill moved by Senator Idiat Adebule sought to review the law to ensure that a key provision in the UBE Act that empowers the Local Education Authority within the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory to prosecute…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to present the cost implications for a new minimum wage within two days. Tinubu gave the order at a meeting with the government negotiation team led by the Secretary to Government of the Federation, George Akume, at the presidential villa in Abuja. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this in an interview with correspondents after the closed-door meeting on Tuesday. Idris said the President had a meeting with the representatives of the Federal Government in the negotiation with the labour on the minimum wage. He…
THE country has been thrown into a fresh round of blackouts over the shutdown of the national grid by aggrieved members of the labour unions. The national grid system dropped to zero megawatts on Monday as a result of the complete disruption of power supply to all eleven electricity distribution companies in the country. A Monday statement from Transmission Company of Nigeria’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said the nationwide blackout was due to staff of the TCN, under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE), completely shutting down all power substations across the country at…
AFTER a four-hour meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on Sunday evening in Abuja, the leadership of the Organised Labour says there is no going back on the nationwide industrial action slated to start on Monday, June 3, 2024. “For now, we don’t have the power to call off the strike, tomorrow (Monday) morning, the strike will kick off as we take their (NASS) plea asking us to call off the strike to our various organs,” said Festus Osifo after the meeting with NASS leadership. Earlier, Osifo, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC); and his counterpart…
THE leadership of the National Assembly, on Sunday evening, arrived at a meeting with the leadership of the Organised Labour in Abuja as part of last-minute efforts to persuade aggrieved workers to shelve their planned industrial action for a new minimum wage. The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero; and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Festus Osifo; are at the meeting with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas. in Abuja. The National Assembly said the meeting was to “avert the impending industrial action” to commence on Monday, June 3,…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has vowed to clamp down on non-state actors, describing the recent killing of five soldiers in Abia State as a “treasonable offence” which must not be tolerated. “I want to make it clear that the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the armed forces have the capacity to crush violent non-state actors, making our communities unsafe,” he said in a statement on Saturday. Gunmen had stormed a military unit at Obikabia Junction, Ogbor Hill area of Aba, Abia State, and killed five soldiers and six civilians. They also burnt the unit as well as a…
THE Branch Controller (Ekiti), West Africa Examinations Council, Mrs T.A.Y. Lawson has said that the nationwide strike scheduled to begin on Monday will not disrupt examinations nationwide. She alerted Principals and school heads in Ekiti State in a letter titled, “Notice of Commencement of Indefinite Strike by NLC and TUC” with reference number EK/BC/SC/EXAM/07/Vol.1/89 late Friday. This newspaper reports that the Nigeria timetable for the examination began Tuesday, April 30 and will end Thursday, June 20, 2024. The letter read, “The attention of Management has been drawn to a notice of the Commencement of Indefinite Strike by NLC and TUC…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has justified the reintroduction of the old national anthem ‘Nigeria, we Hail thee,’ saying it was a priority for him. Tinubu had signed a bill bringing back the old national anthem in a move that triggered criticisms from several quarters. But during a meeting with the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Tinubu dismissed the critics, insisting the reintroduction of the old anthem is not a misplaced priority as some have argued. “Let me allude to something that happened yesterday. The change of national anthem, ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’,” President Tinubu says at…
A FORMER Health Minister, Isaac Adewole, has urged politicians to invest in human capital development such as education and healthcare as much as they build roads, hospitals, and bridges. Adewole, a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, was a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television monitored by News Point Nigeria on Friday. The former minister lamented that there has been “undue emphasis on infrastructure” without commensurate human capital development. He said politicians build flyovers for exhibitionism because they want to have something to show to the people at the end…
THE Economic and Financial Crime Commission is probing a former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, over alleged N2.5bn pension fraud, this newspaper has learnt. Our correspondent gathered that Kwankwaso was invited and had been grilled by EFCC interrogators over the development. A source in the anti-graft agency familiar with the matter but had no authourisation to speak, said, “The commission invited Kwankwaso over the alleged N2.5bn Kano pension funds. We have grilled Kwankwaso over the matter, and he has provided some details to interrogators.” Another source noted, “Former Kano governor, Kwankwaso has been invited by the commission. He has been…