Minimum Wage: MAN DG Tells Labour, Walking Out of Discussions, Strike Won’t Solve Problem

In response to the tripartite committee’s failure to reach a consensus on a new minimum wage, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, the director general of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has urged organized labor to reevaluate its decision to go on a statewide strike starting on June 3.

Friday in Abuja, during a joint press conference with the NLC leadership, Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Festus Osifo declared the strike.

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After withdrawing from the negotiations, organized labor turned down two proposals from the Federal Government, the most recent of which was for N60,000. They demand a minimum wage of N497,000.

Ajayi-Kadir, who is on the part of the organised private sector in the tripartite committee, said he does not believe that the labour walking out of discussions and declaring strike would help matters.

“We cannot afford to cripple the economy when all we needed to do was continue to build it. I think President Tinubu was very clear when he emerged as president that these are not going to be easy times and I think we needed to tighten our belts to deliver on economy that we know has been seriously battered,” Ajayi-Kadir said on Channels Television’s Sunrise programme on Saturday.

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“Of course, government on its own side has to demonstrate leadership, sensitivity and sense of and sense of mind as well as sense of occasion of the period that we are in.

“So, government expenditure, government choices of what needed to be done, how much to be spent, the cost of governance itself, all of it has to come to the table.

“I think what labour is actually worried about is that they appear to be the ones on the brunt of it but we needed to be able to engage, walking out on the process and declaring strike, I do not think that that is what is going to solve this issue.”