Editorial
Still On Minimum Wage Imbroglio
Again, the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and representatives of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), to resolve the controversy surrounding the N30,000 National Minimum Wage recommended by the Tripartite Committee ended in deadlock, last Monday.
Following the aborted planned nationwide industrial action by the organised labour, comprising Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the United Labour Congress (ULC), the President had summoned the meeting to chart a way forward over the thorny issue.
Making their position known in a joint statement signed by the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, TUC President, Bobboi Bala Kaigama and ULC President, Joe Ajaero in Abuja last Sunday, the labour leaders expressed anger over the government’s lackadaisical attitude towards the plight of Nigerian workers and its perceived unwillingness to concede to the organised labour and the organised private sector’s stance on the issue.
While briefing an emergency National Executive Council meeting of NLC in Abuja, recently on the conclusion of negotiations and the final majority report of the Tripartite Committee submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari, Wabba said that all steps had been taken to meet workers’ yearnings, and directed all the 36 state chapters and the FCT to gear up for “nationwide indefinite strike and industrial action, 2018; except government accepts and commences the process of perfecting the payment of N30,000 as the negotiated new national minimum wage.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had been pontificating with the proposal of N24,000 while the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has reluctantly suggested a paltry N22,500, just N4,500 higher than the current minimum wage approved by the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2010 which, by law, was supposed to have been reviewed upward in 2015. The organised labour’s threat is even more amplified by the OPS’s resolve not to engage in any further negotiations below the agreed N30,000 by majority of the parties in the tripartite committee.
Confirming their support for the organised labour’s position, the Director-General-designate, Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Timothy Olawale said, “We have concluded. We have a majority figure which was N30,000, which was what we all agreed on. However, there was a minority voice from the Federal Government that it would not be sustainable for government and they proposed N24,000. But we insisted that we were closing discussion, and we were leaving it at N30,000”.
The Tide is not surprised at the understanding and agreement by the organised labour and NECA to work in synergy to ameliorate the sufferings of the Nigerian worker by collectively submitting a majority report of the Tripartite Committee on new National Minimum Wage of N30,000 to President Buhari.
This is why we align with the majority position of the committee, and task the Buhari-led government to immediately do the needful so as to avert the consequences of any inaction on such sensitive issue as the implementation of an overdue new national minimum wage in the face of the harsh economic realities and the weakening purchasing power of the Nigerian worker.
We like to caution the Federal Government to make hay while the sun shines to avoid plunging the nation into a state of economic retrogression and political limbo ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The Tide is alarmed at the high level of insensitivity, cluelessness and lawlessness of the Buhari’s government, which ought to know better, given the exigencies of the moment, and in view of the fact that the lifespan of the current minimum wage expired three years ago. It is sad that a government which claims to be listening, functional and responsive to the stark realities on the ground, would delay this long in addressing the concerns of workers at this critical time in our national life. We fear that this government’s attitude exposes its lack of good faith in finding enduring and sustainable solution to the debilitating purchasing power facing the Nigerian worker in the face of skyrocketing inflation.
We think that deliberately creating confusion and applying delay tactics in concluding negotiations would not help the government. In fact, such strategy may only facilitate industrial disharmony and further threaten economic recovery and political as well as democratic stability in the country.
We, therefore, urge the Federal Government to move a step forward beyond the polemics and rhetorics, and present an Executive Bill on the New National Minimum Wage to the National Assembly for passage and the President’s assent. We give this charge because we think this is the only way to show seriousness and sincerity of purpose by the Buhari-led government in resolving the new minimum wage impasse.
Indeed, the Federal Government has no plausible option than accede to the majority position to avert another nationwide strike, which would not be in the interest of the nation. Let Buhari wake up from his slumber and act quickly. This is our humble advice.
The prolonged suffering of Rivers State pensioners who have remained unpaid since retiring in July 2025 demands urgent executive and legislative intervention. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rightly put its finger on the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as the root cause of this crisis. The state government must now bite the bullet, dismantle this failed experiment, and bring the pensioners’ protracted ordeal to an end.
Since July 2025, the affected retirees have been left high and dry, their monthly pensions unpaid, and their dignity worn away. The NLC, under the leadership of Comrade Alex Agwuanwon, has also linked this deplorable situation to the political storm that engulfed the state, while expressing cautious optimism that the prevailing calm will pave the way for the payment of outstanding arrears. The Tide shares that optimism. However, optimism alone will not put food on the table for men and women who gave the best years of their lives to the service of the state.
The genesis of this crisis is not shrouded in mystery. The CPS was introduced in Rivers State in 2012 under the administration of former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, pursuant to the Rivers State Pension Reform Law of that year. The scheme was ostensibly designed to bring the state into line with the federal Pension Reform Act of 2004, which had established a contributory framework for retirement benefits across the country. What was sold as a progressive reform has, in truth, become a millstone round the neck of the very workers it was meant to protect.
The CPS has failed in the state, and it has failed spectacularly. Its fundamental flaw lies in the government’s chronic inability, or unwillingness, to honour its counterpart funding obligations. The arrangement was meant to be a joint endeavour: employees contribute a portion of their salaries, and the employer matches it. But the state has consistently failed to keep its side of the bargain, leaving the pension fund anaemic and unable to meet its obligations. The result is as predictable as it is unconscionable. Retirees are left with only their own contributions to fall back on, a mere pittance that cannot see them through their twilight years.
The human cost of this institutional failure is staggering. Men and women who devoted decades to the civil service now find themselves cast adrift, their legitimate expectation of a secure retirement shattered. The psychological toll of such betrayal is beyond measure. A pension is not an act of charity. It is a contractual obligation, a deferred wage for services already rendered. To withhold it is to break a sacred trust. The authorities must understand that every delay in resolving this crisis costs lives, both in the literal sense as elderly retirees struggle to pay for healthcare and sustenance, and in the figurative sense as the social contract between the state and its workforce wears thinner with each passing month.
This development does not show the government in a favourable light. For a state to allow people who served it with dedication and integrity to languish in penury after retirement is morally indefensible. It sends a chilling message to serving civil servants that loyalty will be repaid with abandonment. This is precisely why organised labour must not rest on its oars. The NLC’s call for the termination of the CPS is not mere grandstanding. It is a necessary corrective. The scheme, as presently administered, is irredeemably broken and must be done away with.
The most damning indictment of the CPS since its inception is its one-sidedness. The government has failed to pay its counterpart funding, reducing the scheme to a hollow shell. Of what use is a contributory arrangement when only one party contributes? Retirees cannot be expected to live on the meagre sums they themselves set aside, sums which have been steadily eroded by inflation and administrative charges. Workers have been short-changed, left to carry the can while the government looked the other way. It is a quiet expropriation of their future.
The time to put this right is now in the interest of justice, equity, and fairness. The NLC should push harder for the swift implementation of its committee’s report to Governor Siminalayi Fubara. That report contains a sensible and pragmatic recommendation: that the CPS should apply only to those employed in the year it was enacted, thereby allowing existing civil servants to remain under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) to which they were originally entitled. This is not a radical proposal. It is a reasonable compromise that recognises the legitimate expectations of long-serving workers and rights the wrongs of the past.
The authorities must act with dispatch. Governor Fubara should, without further ado, send a draft amendment of the Pension Law to the House of Assembly for passage into law. With such legislative intervention, those who retired from July 2025 to date would be returned to the DBS, receiving pensions calculated on their terminal salaries and years of service rather than the paltry sums available under the failed contributory arrangement. The NLC, for its part, should keep its foot on the pedal through dialogue, advocacy, and, if necessary, peaceful protest. Pensioners deserve not just fine words but concrete action.
Rivers State cannot lay claim to be progressive while its retirees are forced to go cap in hand for their rightful entitlements. The measure of any civilised society is how it treats its elderly. By that yardstick, the present situation is a blot on the state’s escutcheon. The government must clear the backlog of arrears, scrap the CPS for the category of workers it should never have applied to, and restore the DBS in full. Nothing less will suffice.
The recent public health disaster in Ondo State, which claimed 48 lives and left 182 people severely ill, is a gloomy reminder of the dangers posed by unregulated beverages. According to NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the victims consumed contaminated local alcoholic and herbal drinks in communities in Odigbo Local Government Area. The drinks contained high levels of industrial methanol, while 11 of 15 samples also contained Cannabis indica. The substances were linked to organ failure, neurological deterioration, and permanent blindness. The tragedy should serve as a warning to the entire country.
The incident underscores the wider problem of unregulated and adulterated drinks across Nigeria. From roadside kiosks and motor parks to informal markets, unverified alcoholic and herbal products are readily available, often marketed as cheap alternatives or medicines. The World Health Organisation estimates that about 25 per cent of alcohol consumed globally is unrecorded. Such products operate outside formal regulatory control and may expose consumers to toxic substances and serious health risks.
The problem is compounded by deliberate evasion of regulatory requirements. Products under NAFDAC’s mandate must be registered and subjected to regulatory checks before manufacture, distribution, or sale. Yet some producers ignore these requirements for profit, while others falsify NAFDAC registration numbers and markings and use them on substandard products. Such practices deceive consumers and undermine public confidence in the regulatory system.
The reported arrest of 15 suspects linked to the Ondo distribution network is an important first step. Those found responsible should be prosecuted and, where convicted, appropriately punished. However, enforcement must go beyond responding to tragedies. NAFDAC should strengthen preventive measures through regular post-market surveillance, random testing at transit points, and intelligence-led inspections of informal production centres.
Consumers also have a responsibility to exercise caution. Economic hardship, high inflation, and declining purchasing power have created opportunities for unscrupulous producers to market cheaper but potentially dangerous products. Consumers should, therefore, avoid unlabelled drinks, suspiciously cheap products, and goods sold through unverified outlets. Public education and consumer vigilance can help deny unscrupulous traders the opportunity to put profit before human life.
The danger extends beyond alcoholic and herbal drinks to medicines. Counterfeit and substandard medicines have entered both formal and informal supply chains, causing treatment failure, poisoning, and avoidable deaths. The WHO estimates that at least one in 10 medicines in low and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, although the prevalence varies. Ensuring the safety and authenticity of medicines is essential to protecting lives and maintaining confidence in the healthcare system.
Food safety is another concern. Poor practices in food handling, processing, and preservation expose consumers to serious health risks, particularly when commercial interests override safety. Concerns over the improper use of chemical agents such as calcium carbide to accelerate the ripening of fruits further demonstrate the need for stronger monitoring throughout the food-supply chain.
These challenges expose weaknesses in Nigeria’s regulatory system and reinforce the need to strengthen it. NAFDAC faces the enormous task of monitoring products across all 774 local government areas. Meeting this challenge requires greater operational capacity, reduced bureaucratic delays, and modern systems capable of tracking regulated products from production to the point of sale.
Inadequate personnel, laboratory facilities, equipment, and logistics remain major obstacles. NAFDAC field offices, especially those serving remote communities, need modern testing equipment, reliable screening tools, and adequate transportation. The Federal Government should provide sustained funding to recruit specialised personnel, upgrade laboratories, and deploy technologies capable of rapidly detecting dangerous substances such as methanol.
Preventing the spread of adulterated products also requires coordinated action by federal and state governments. The Federal Ministry of Health, NAFDAC, and other relevant agencies should intensify operations to remove unregistered alcoholic and herbal products from motor parks, transit centres, and informal markets. The National Assembly should review existing laws and strengthen penalties for deliberately producing, falsifying, or distributing toxic and unregistered food, beverages, and medicines.
NAFDAC should expand its digital verification systems to enable consumers to confirm product registration before purchase. State ministries of health, local government councils, and community institutions should intensify grassroots education on the dangers of unlabelled drinks, unsafe food practices, and counterfeit medicines. Traditional, religious, and community leaders can also help identify and report illegal production and distribution activities.
The Ondo tragedy must not become another statistic that is quickly forgotten. The loss of 48 lives and the permanent blindness suffered by some survivors are devastating and unacceptable. Nigeria must respond by strengthening regulatory institutions, providing adequate funding, enforcing the law, and educating the public. A sustained, coordinated effort is essential to protect the nation’s food, beverage, and medicine supply chains and prevent another tragedy caused by products that should never have reached the market.