The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has rejected the N48,000 proposed by the Federal Government as the new minimum wage, saying it does not make any sense.

The TUC President, Festus Osifo berated the FG’s proposal while speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.

Osifo said the federal government was not being serious in the negotiation with the workers.

According to Osifo, the least federal workers are already earning up to N77,000, saying proposing N48,000 at the moment is ‘abysmal.’

He said, “Before President Muhammadu Buhari left office, the last person in the federal ministry was actually earning N42,000.

“If you now factor in the wage award of N35,000 that was given, N42,000 plus N35,000 will give us N77,000, so as of today what the least federal government worker earns is N77,000.

“So, the question that we now ask is that if the least federal government worker is earning N77,000, why are you now coming to present N48,000? It does not just make any sense,” he said.

Osifor challenged the Federal Government to come forward with data backing the N48,000 proposal and convince the union members on how that amount reflect the reality of the average Nigerian worker.

Recall that earlier on Wednesday, the labour unions walked out of the ongoing minimum wage negotiations with the government and the Organised Private Sector following what the union leaders described as a ridiculous offer by the government.

The TUC leader said that at the meeting, the labour unions proposed a N615,000 minimum wage which they gave a breakdown of how it was arrived at.

He said that the government on its part presented N48,000 with no breakdown of how it can cater for the needs of the Nigerian workers.

According to Osifo, failure to back the N48,000 proposal up with data shows unpreparedness on the part of the government which was why the union leaders walked out of the meeting.

He said that the union members still maintain that all conversations around a new national minimum wage must be concluded by the end of May.

1. A family dispute over the sharing of inheritance has led to grief and death in the quiet community of Larabar-Albasawa on the outskirts of Gezawa, headquarters of Gezawa Local Government Area of Kano State. Eight people were confirmed dead and more than 20 are now at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano, after 38-year-old Shafiu Abubakar set a mosque on fire while worshippers were observing the early morning prayer.

2. The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress on Wednesday dumped the minimum wage negotiation after the Federal Government offered to pay N48,000, a figure far below the N615,00 the unions were demanding as the new national minimum wage.

3. The average price of imported food commodities to Nigeria rose to its highest level, reaching 34 per cent in one year between April 2023 and April 2024. This represents an increase of 200 basis points from 32 per cent recorded in March 2024, according to an analysis of the Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

4. The Federal Government is set to tackle the power challenges in Nigeria with an additional 500 million standard cubic feet of gas in the domestic market. The government said it would also enhance industrialisation and create more jobs with more gas supply into the nation’s economy.

5. The result of the autopsy conducted on the body of the late singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, aka Mohbad, is said to have been unable to ascertain the cause of his death. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Wahab Shittu, disclosed this while addressing the press at the coroner’s inquest held in Lagos State on Wednesday.

6. An official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Uduo Achu, on Wednesday, narrated to the Federal High Court in Lagos how a convicted drug baron, Steve Adigwe, also known as Isioma Obobo, received huge sums of money from the illicit trade and laundered the same. Achu said that the convict attempted to disguise the origin of the said money which is over N400m.

7. The process for nationwide deployment of Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, vehicles has commenced. Not less than 530 buses are to be deployed by the end of the month in six pioneering states. These are Oyo, Lagos, Kwara, Kogi, Kaduna, Nasarawa, and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Abuja.

8. Five loyalists of Nyesom Wike, Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have resigned from the cabinet of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. They were among those who rejoined the cabinet after President Bola Tinubu brokered a peace deal that eventually collapsed.

9. The FCT Department of Development Control has commenced the demolition of over 500 illegal structures at the popular Karmo market in the territory. The assistant director of sector monitor in the Department of Development Control, Tpl Garba Jibrin, said the administration decided to demolish the market because the area has been encountering lots of bottlenecks because of the market since inception of Abuja.

10. The Federal Government is working to reconstitute the governing councils of its universities across the country, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki, has said. He said the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, had constituted a panel to work on the list of the people who would be on the councils.

A fresh wave of mass resignations has hit the Rivers State Government headed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara after five more commissioners, who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, have resigned from the governor’s cabinet.

Those who resigned are Chinedu Mmom (from the Ministry of Education), Gift Worlu (from the Ministry of Housing) and Jacobson Nbina (from the Ministry of Transport).

Inime Aguma resigned as the Commissioner for Social Welfare and Rehabilitation saying “there is no room for progressional development in the work place”.

Austin Ben-Chioma also resigned as the Commissioner for Environment “due to the political crisis befalling our dear Rivers State and other personal reasons”.

Mmom and Worlu cited a toxic working environment as the main reason for their exit while Nbina cited “unresolved political crisis” in the state as his reason for exit.

The five persons were among the commissioners who first resigned from the governor’s cabinet last December in the wake of the political crisis in the state but were readmitted into Fubara’s cabinet following President Bola Tinubu’s intervention.

Earlier, three commissioners, Zacchaeus Adangor, Emeka Woke and Alabo George-Kelly also resigned from the Ministries of Justice, Special Projects and Works respectively.

Governor Fubara recently announced a plan by his administration to set up a panel of inquiry to probe the governance of the state under the Wike administration.

The governor accused his opponents of deliberately sabotaging his administration while he was hoping that the issue in the state would be resolved amicably.

The move was the latest twist in the political crisis rocking the oil-rich state. The development has seen a deepening of the feud between Fubara and the state House of Assembly.

Last week, lawmakers loyal to the governor elected a new speaker. Fubara had also issued an executive order relocating the sitting venue of the Rivers State House of Assembly to the Government House, citing safety concerns.

The feud is due to the fallout between Fubara and his predecessor and current Minister of the FCT Nyesom Wike. President Tinubu had waded into the crisis last year but the imbroglio appears to be far from over.