On Thursday, President Bola Tinubu convened a meeting at the State House with key members of his economic team, including Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, and Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu. This meeting is seen as a significant move towards resolving the ongoing impasse between the government and labour unions over a new national minimum wage.
Earlier in the week, President Tinubu directed Minister Edun to develop a financially viable new minimum wage proposal that would satisfy all stakeholders involved in the Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage. This directive emerged from a meeting chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, where it was emphasized that the President aims to establish a minimum wage higher than ₦60,000.
Negotiations reached a stalemate on Wednesday when the government team failed to present new wage figures during the tripartite committee meeting. Following Thursday’s meeting, Minister Edun addressed the press, reassuring the public, “There is no cause for alarm,” implying that progress may have been made towards finalizing the wage proposal.
While it is unconfirmed whether the new figures were formally presented to President Tinubu, sources suggest that the meeting likely addressed the financial implications of the proposed wage adjustments, following recent consultations with a World Bank team.
A source told The Nation, “It looks like it because they held a separate meeting after the visit of the World Bank team and from all available indications, the next thing on the table that the Finance Minister should be discussing with the President should be the submission of the figures as instructed by the President. He was clear when he instructed on Tuesday, he said either that day or the next day, which was yesterday, Wednesday. So from what I can deduce, he must have submitted his report. Let’s just wait to hear details later.”
The outcome of this meeting is anticipated to be pivotal in moving the discussions forward and potentially concluding the wage negotiations, which have been a point of contention amid rising living costs in Nigeria.