The Presidency, on Sunday, insisted that the N250,000 minimum wage clamour by Organised Labour is unsustainable, warning that the Federal Government cannot channeled all its resources to meet such a demand.

The warning comes two days after the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria raised concerns over the N62,000 being proposed by the FG.

The ALGON said if approved, the wage may put a strain on the councils’ financial burden.

On Tuesday, May 28, talks between the Federal Government and Organised Labour broke down after the government and the Organised Private Sector raised their offers to N62,000.

But the labour unions described the proposal as an insult to the intelligence of the average Nigerian worker, which deserves far better than what the government offered

Speaking, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed that unless the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress were selfish, they should consider that the resources meant for the entire Nigerians could not be channeled to only the benefit of their members who are not more than 10 per cent of the entire population.

He said, “That is why we keep telling labour to be realistic because the government cannot use all its resources to pay workers. They have other things to do. The workers we are even talking about are not up to 10 per cent of the population. Many people are self-employed or engaged in the private sector, who are not members of Labour, and are not affected by this demand.

“This is even more reason why labour has to reconsider their decision critically instead of always striving to shut down the system. What the FG did was in consultation with the private sector and others. Only Labour, which appears to be in the minority, kept saying they won’t accept N62,000. They are not even employers but employees.

“Let us wait and hear what they are going to say after their return from the ILO conference. But they have to be realistic.”

Tinubu had disclosed during his Democracy Day that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers would be sent to the National Assembly.

When quizzed on when he plans to transmit the bill, Onanuga said though he could not give a particular date, he sees it happening after the Sallah break.

The presidential media aide also said the Federal Government might not meet the Labour leaders again unless something cogent turned up.

“I am not certain when he plans to do it (Bill). May be after Sallah. But I am not sure whether the FG is meeting with them or whether its position on the minimum wage has changed. Don’t forget the current amount on the table was arrived at by the committee that also has the private sector where the NECA and NACIMMA were also represented.

“That was the figure the FG delegation, sub-nationals, employers, NECA and other sectors agreed on. So, the FG cannot just decide on any other amount of money on its own without carrying these people along. And the government cannot just decide anything without ensuring that the state and local governments are able to pay,” he said.

Meanwhile, the tripartite committee established by the Federal Government to review the minimum wage has urged labour unions to reassess their wage demands.

Speaking on Sunday, the committee’s chairman, Bukar Aji, asked labour to reconsider their position based on economic factors and the non-monetary incentives provided by the government.

Aji highlighted several incentives of the government, including the N35,000 wage award for all treasury-paid federal workers, N100bn for gas-fuelled buses and gas kit conversions, a N125bn conditional grant, financial inclusion for small and medium enterprises, and a N25,000 monthly stipend for 15 million households over three months.

He also listed the N185bn in palliative loans to states to mitigate the effects of petrol subsidy removal, N200bn to boost agricultural production, N75bn to strengthen the manufacturing sector, and N1tn for student loans, among other interventions.

Aji called on the labour unions to consider accepting the N62,000 minimum wage offered by the Federal Government.

He said the committee was trying to avert a situation where the minimum wage would lead to further job losses, especially as many businesses are already struggling.

1. Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, has called on governments at all levels to do more to address the current hardship in the country. In his Sallah sermon shortly after observing the two units Eid prayer at the Fakon Idi, the monarch said Nigeria is grappling with a lot of challenges, while its citizens are facing untold hardship.

2. The Presidency has said the present economic crisis being experienced by Nigerians is caused by previous administrations, and not the Present government. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, said this in a statement issued in reaction to a piece on the Nigerian economy published by the New York Times.

3. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday said Nigeria needs sacrificing citizens to fulfil the dreams of its founding fathers. The President stated this while addressing journalists after observing the Eid-el-Kabir prayers at Dodan Barracks, Lagos.

4. A Special account with a $2.9 billion deposit has been created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stabilise the foreign exchange (forex) market. The apex bank, which identified the special account as Gazelle Funding Account, dropped the hint during the last Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.

5. Lagos State Police Command has begun an investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of a businessman, Onyejekwe Izuchukwu, whose remains were found in a hotel room in the Ikoyi area of the state. It was gathered that Izuchukwu, who was based in Texas, USA, returned to Nigeria for some business dealings when the tragedy that claimed his life struck on June 9, 2024.

6. Ondo State Police Command on Sunday said it had begun an investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of a man and his girlfriend in the state. A middle-aged man identified as Eric and his yet-to-be-identified girlfriend were reportedly found dead at a new apartment located in the Ayeyemi area of Ondo State, on Thursday.

7. The Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos State, has sentenced two men, Ugwu Chijioke and Ibrahim Adekunle, to 46 years combined jail term for impersonating operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and executing a fake court order. This is according to a statement by the EFCC on its Facebook page on Sunday.

8. No fewer than six persons have been reportedly killed with more than 100 persons also abducted as suspected gunmen attacked a community in Sokoto State in the early hours of Sunday. The police in Sokoto, through their spokesman, Ahmed Rufai, confirmed the killing of over six persons and abduction of scores of residents at Tudun Doki, Gwadabawa Local Government Area of Sokoto.

9. Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested two siblings in Abia, recovering cocaine and methamphetamine consignments worth over N4.1bn. The siblings identified as Kelechi Nwaobasi and Chinwe Nwaobasi were arrested during a special investigation conducted between June 13 and 14, 2024.

10. The police in the FCT have arrested a man, Muhammad Kabir, for allegedly trying to kidnap his neighbour, Abdulwahab Yusuf, at the Shagari Quarters in Zuba in Gwagwalada Area Council. It was gathered that the suspect came to the area from Kogi State some months ago and along with three others was squatting in the community’s central mosque with no specific work apart from soliciting alms.

The Presidency has reacted to a report published in the New York Times criticising the Nigerian economy as facing the worst trajectory in a generation.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, responded on Sunday to the report by Ruth Maclean and Ismail Auwal.

According to the Presidency, the feature story, titled ‘Nigeria Confronts Its Worst Economic Crisis in a Generation’ and published on June 11, reflected the typical predetermined, reductionist, derogatory, and denigrating way foreign media establishments have reported on African countries for decades.

Onanuga stated that due to the ‘misleading’ slant of the report, the government needed to clear up some misconceptions conveyed by the reporters regarding the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, which took office at the end of May 2023.

He noted that the report painted a dire picture of some Nigerians’ experiences amid the inflationary spiral of the last year and unfairly blamed it all on the new administration’s policies.

He argued that the report, based on several interviews, is at best jaundiced, portraying all gloom and doom without mentioning the positive aspects of the economy or the amelioration policies being implemented by the central and state governments.

Onanuga emphasized that Tinubu did not create the economic problems Nigeria faces today but inherited them.

“As a respected economist in our country once put it, Tinubu inherited a dead economy.

“The economy was bleeding and needed quick surgery to avoid being plunged into the abyss, as happened in Zimbabwe and Venezuela,” he noted.

He explained that this context led to the policy direction taken by the government in May/June 2023, including the abrogation of the fuel subsidy regime and the unification of the multiple exchange rates.

Onanuga highlighted that Nigeria had maintained a fuel subsidy regime for decades, which consumed $84.39 billion between 2005 and 2022 from the public treasury, in a country with significant infrastructural deficits and a high need for better social services.

He also alleged that the state oil firm, NNPCL, had accumulated trillions of Naira in debts due to unsustainable subsidy payments.

He noted that when Tinubu took office, no provision was made for fuel subsidy payments in the national budget beyond June 2023.

“The budget itself had a striking feature: it planned to spend 97 per cent of revenue servicing debt, with little left for recurrent or capital expenditure. The previous government had resorted to massive borrowing to cover such costs.”

Onanuga further explained that like oil, the exchange rate was also subsidized by the government, with an estimated $1.5 billion spent monthly by the CBN to defend the currency against the unquenchable demand for the dollar.

“This low rate led to arbitrage and failures to fulfil remittance obligations to airlines and other foreign businesses, drying up foreign direct investment and investments in the oil sector.

“To address these issues, Tinubu rolled back the subsidy regime and floated the naira on his first day”, Onanuga said.

Despite initial challenges, Onanuga noted that some stability is being restored, with the exchange rate now below N1500 to the dollar and prospects for further appreciation.

He cited a trade surplus of N6.52 trillion in Q1, as opposed to a deficit of N1.4 trillion in Q4 of 2023, and renewed interest from portfolio investors as indicators of improving economic confidence. Loans from the World Bank, AfDB, and Afreximbank are also contributing to Nigeria’s renewed bankability.

Onanuga highlighted efforts to control inflation, especially food inflation, through increased agricultural production and state-led initiatives to sell food at lower prices.

“The Tinubu administration has invested heavily in dry-season farming and provided incentives to farmers.”

He concluded by comparing Nigeria’s economic challenges with those faced by the USA and Europe, emphasizing that the Tinubu administration is working hard to overcome these difficulties.

“Our country faced economic difficulties in the past, an experience captured in folk songs. Just like we overcame then, we shall overcome our present difficulties very soon.”