Last week could not have ended any better for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it was like his mojo had all the supernatural elements cooperating, achieving closure on multiple fronts. We might not know about everything that happened for him during the week, but we definitely could not have missed the two most celebrated events of the week.
In one week, he safely set an idea he has always thought of institutionalising in Nigeria sailing; a student loan scheme, known as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), went live, officially, on Wednesday, July 17. As if that was not enough, he finally, and successfully too, closed the deal on a new national minimum wage, a discuss that has threatened the peace and stability of the country since it became a topic between the Tinubu administration and the organised Labour in the wake of fuel subsidy removal.
However, by all standards, the agreement on the new national minimum wage, which had remained a thorn in the flesh of the state for the longer part of the current administration and which had sustained dread in the public, trumped all other events for not just President Tinubu and his lieutenants, but for all Nigerians, most of who had dreaded a failure to achieve concord through the negotiations and ‘discussions’.
The long-drawn process to a new minimum wage ended on Thursday at the end of a twin-meeting (started on Thursday July 11 and closed next Thursday, July 18) at the State House, Abuja. At the end of the meeting this week, both government and the organised Labour briefed journalists, announcing that they both had agreed to a N70,000 minimum wage for the Nigerian worker. While taking turns to talk, the journalists they were addressing could see the change in moods from what it was a week before. For a reason, you could see the relief in the faces and composure of even the Labour leaders, who have been the ones to mount the sandbags all along.
Between N30,000 and N70,000 there was a journey, a journey that saw threats of nationwide strike and an actual nationwide, a journey that saw the constitution of an elaborate 37-man committee, which went through proper negotiations, negotiations that broke down and picked up again. The Bukar Goni-Aji-led Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage, with representatives from the federal and state governments, the organised private sector (OPS) and the organised Labour, did its task and submitted its proposals to the President.
All along its negotiations, the committee was almost a bazaar with the employers’ side doing a real life haggling with the representatives of the employees. While the negotiations lasted, the employers’ side (federal/sub-national governments/OPS) offered varying amounts, starting with N48,000 to N54,000 to N57,000 to N60,000 to N62,000 and finally to the agreed N70,000. On the side of the workers’ representatives, negotiations started with a demand for ₦615,000 then lowered to N500,000 to N497,000 to N250,000 and finally agreed to N70,000.
There were those who had concluded that had the meeting with the President failed to achieve an understanding, there would have been no imagining the hit that the economy and the livelihoods of the ordinary Nigerians, who ought to be the initial beneficiaries of the struggle, would have taken. As is the style of Labour anywhere in the world, they already had charged the atmosphere up with threats of strike.
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Even without the threats, people already knew there are elements within the Labour ranks who can only be characterized as anarchist in leaning, such who would have been praying for a wrong move from the government’s side, so there will be a pretext for shutting the economy down, just like they shut the national grid down on June 3, during a strike, in an attempt to enforce total compliance to the industrial strike.
Like many other compatriots who watched how the journey of this last salaries negotiation went, I initially wondered how President Tinubu maneuvered the talks to get N250,000 to come settle down at N70,000. After studying his appeal and his target in negotiation, I concluded that we have a class act as President. He always seems to know what appeals to whoever he is reaching out to. I have always known it, especially from the process leading to him winning the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) presidential ticket, last Thursday sealed that view of him for me.
In this case, he got the Labour leaders to see the situation, right from the onset, from his standpoint by appealing to their kinder nature, so much that they had to agree that it is better to settle for what is realistic than sticking to a gun that is certain to backfire. Like he told them the previous Thursday, his solidarity and genuine sympathy is with the working Nigerian and it is within their due to be waged handsomely, yet realistically. His consistency in his plea, and how it rings true to all the realities in the immediate environment across the country, actually achieved the almost elusive agreement.
The deal breaker for Labour was a new idea President Tinubu thought up. Okay, instead of us to press ourselves to death, reaching for what is obviously not reachable at the moment, why not adjust our timetable to a more convenient timetable (instead of setting minimum wage review timetable to a whole long shot of five years, why not a three year review cycle?). He threw in the first compromise card and the Labour responded in like tone
“I have heard all your presentations. You came here with the intention to get something on behalf of your members. It has been tough globally and if you review my track record, I have never been found wanting in ameliorating the problems of workers. I belong to the people and to all of you in leadership. Without you, this job is not interesting. You challenged the thinking faculty of leadership, and we have reviewed the position. I have consulted widely, and when the tripartite committee submitted their reports, I reviewed them again and started to think and rethink.
“Last week, I brought the workload to you because we have a timeline. We have a problem, and we recognize that you have a problem too. We are in the same economy. We are in the same country. We may have different rooms, different addresses, and different houses; we are just members of one family that must care for each other. We must look at the parameters of things. Here, I have a speed limit, and I must pay attention to traffic warnings; slippery when wet, curved roads, and be careful not to have an accident. That is why I went as far as having this meeting today.
“We are driving this economy together. Let us look at the tenure of review. Let us agree on that, and affirm three years. Two years is too short. We affirm three years. We will review. I am going to move from the tripartite committee. I am going to edge a little bit forward, looking at the review that we have done. Yes, no one in the federal establishment should earn less than N70,000. So, we are going to benchmark at N70,000”, the President said.
I must also point my utmost respect for the leaders of the organised Labour out. Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Comrade Festus Usifo (who look seems more like that of a pastor to me), President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were really matured in their final reading of the whole situation. They could have gone for broke, they have the number, but they had to consider the certain impact of going reckless with naked power, on the people. Giving a brief of the reason for Labour’s decision to settle for President Tinubu’s proposal of N70,000, the NLC President, Ajaero said “accepting N70,000 was the best way to make sure that we save Nigerians from further hardship.
“At the last meeting, the President brought a proposal that ‘I will give you guys N250,000, if you allow me to equally increase the pump price of petroleum products’ and we said no, that we need to go and consult. Today, we went there to tell him ‘no’ and that the labour movement can make sacrifices without allowing Nigerians to suffer further on the increase of pump price of petroleum products”, the Labour leader said.
Before that victory for the Nigerian worker and the triumph of the President’s negotiating skill on Thursday, there was Wednesday, the day he performed the presidential launch of the NELFUND and handed out symbolic student loans to institutions and individual student beneficiaries. Before the historic event of the NELFUND Presidential launch, there was the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, after which some of the efforts of the President to take comfort to Nigerians were disclosed, because they featured in Council. For instance, the decision to introduce an amendment to the 2024 Budget, for the sake of some exigencies, including the new minimum wage; the distribution of 740 trucks of rice to all the states of the federation, among others issues came out.
It was also the birth week of one of his close associates, Professor Olatunji Dare and he did not miss the opportunity to celebrate the renowned scholar/journalist. He also held a security meeting with heads of security outfits on Friday, just before leaving for Ghana yesterday for the African Union (AU) Sixth Mid-Year meeting. He also met with a delegation from oil giant, ENI, led by the Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi, and the management of the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), led by its Chairman, Alexey Arnautov, in separate meetings at the Villa.
He is starting the week in Ghana, on behalf of Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which he chairs, but that will not deplete his activities. We will have to wait to see what the week brings. Hang on.
