Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Tinubu at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The minister said a memo on the report of the new minimum wage was presented to the council but noted that it was stepped down, being a national matter that had to do with the governors and the organized private sector.
He said it was after wider consultations with the relevant stakeholders that the President, with informed knowledge, would then forward a figure that would be the national minimum wage.
Recall that at the end of the tripartite committee meeting on the new national minimum wage, the government team and organized private sector offered N62,000 from the current N30,000 but Labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, demanded N250,000 living wage.
The decision of the President to consult the relevant stakeholders is coming on the heels of a statement by the President of the NLC, . Joe Ajaero, that Labour had expected the President to reach out to members of the tripartite committee to harmonize the figure.
Ajaero had hinged his position on the fact that there was a stalemate at the end of the tripartite committee meetings.
Reacting to the president’s decision , the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which spoke on behalf of organised labour, said the Federal Government has the right to consult whoever it wants to consult, saying what was clear is the fact that the era of paying slave wage is gone.
NLC’s General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, said they are waiting for them adding that is the era of paying slave wages is gone.