By Lexan Ali

From inception, when it was passed into law in 2024, the N70,000 minimum wage was far from meeting workers’ expectations owing to the extremely high cost of living then as now,  brought about by the unpopular “subsidy is gone” policy of Tinubu’s regime.

This was immediately followed by other anti-poor policies such as the devaluation of the naira, hike in electricity tariffs, and the new tax reform laws, ensuring that even before taking off, the purchasing power and value of the minimum wage had been watered down and made valueless below the level of the previous #30,000 minimum wage.

While the initial minimum wage proposal and demand that was put forward by the organised Labour was 615,000 naira, which was arrived at based on findings and analysis of the minimal amount that will be required to meet the needs of an average Nigerian worker based on the prevailing cost of living index and inflationary trends in the country as at then, before the eventual compromise and settlement for N70,000 by the labour bureaucratic leaders without even a fight.

As such, it becomes evident that from inception, the N70,000 minimum wage has been a mere poverty wage that continues to impoverish Nigerian workers.

The recent ongoing war in the Middle East between the US and Israel against the Islamic regime in Iran has shocked the world economy and pushed global energy prices up. While this means more money in dollars accruing to the Nigerian government as the seventh largest oil producing nation in the world, it has meant that the Nigerian working masses and poor would have to pay more for fuel and, invariably, for all other commodities like food and transportation, etc., as the price of fuel has increased from #885 naira per litre to N1400.

This situation is a result of the failure of the neoliberal capitalist privatisation and deregulation policies pursued by successive capitalist governments in Nigeria since 1999, from the PDP to the current APC regime. These policies have ensured that none of the nation’s four existing refineries are functioning, despite trillions of naira in public funds spent on their refurbishment and turnaround maintenance. Meanwhile, the fuel importation business continues to thrive, criminally enriching a few self-serving and corrupt elites at the expense of the Nigerian masses.

Why Nigerian Workers Cannot Continue to Survive on the Current Minimum Wage.

It is clear from the facts and analysis above that, faced with the growing cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation in the country as a result of the hike in petrol prices, Nigerian workers can no longer continue to survive on the current minimum wage, which only amounts to more poverty and starvation for workers. A new minimum living wage for Nigerian workers above the 615 thousand naira initially proposed by the labour leaders during the last negotiation three years ago, have become more urgent and necessary at this critical time than any other time.

Beyond Mere Wage Award or Palliatives, Labour Leaders Must Demand a New Minimum Living Wage for Workers Now!

MSA is calling on rank-and-file workers in the trade unions, as well as their leadership, to immediately begin the clamour and agitation for a new national minimum living wage. The central trade union leaderships, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria—must go beyond mere demands for wage awards and palliatives, which are only conditional and temporary, to frontally demand a new national minimum living wage for workers. This wage should be far above the ₦615,000 proposal that was put forward during the last negotiation. Anything less, as seen in the last negotiation that produced the paltry ₦70,000 minimum wage, which has turned out to be one of the worst deals ever for workers, must not be accepted by the Nigerian working people and poor masses. Working people cannot continue to pay for the crisis created by the profit greed of a few corrupt and self-serving capitalist elites by accepting anything less.

Nigerian workers deserve better pay, a true living wage and the good life that bourgeois politicians already provide for themselves and their families. Workers are not asking for too much when compared to what senators, members of the House of Representatives, the president, and state governors earn and allocate to themselves as salaries, allowances, and other privileges.

Just recently, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, in February this year, approved a wage increment for already overpaid public office holders and corrupt politicians for the second time in less than three years of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.

Even before the onset of the current economic crisis, driven by global conflicts in the Middle East and compounded by the failure of neoliberal, anti-poor capitalist policies of the ruling party, the government had already moved to increase the pay of public office holders and corrupt politicians.