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00:00:00headlines from politics to entertainment to relationships, because we
00:00:04of know that every story
00:00:06of actually has two sides, two sides with Riya
00:00:09Abdul, different perspectives, deeper
00:00:13conversations.
00:00:18of
00:00:26of
00:00:43Hello and welcome to labor lent. I am Sharony Jason. On this week edition
00:00:47of of the program will be focusing on the demand for new national minimum wage
00:00:51by walkers. We also have new stories for you. We will be
00:00:55right
00:00:55back.
00:01:03Tensions are escalating between organized labor and the federal
00:01:07government. The Nijan labor Congress has issued a street two week
00:01:11ultimatum, demanding immediate reduction in petrol prices and the
00:01:14swift renegotiation
00:01:16of the national minimum wage. The directive comes on the heals
00:01:19of a joint eye stake meeting
00:01:21of the NLC National Executive Council and Central Working
00:01:25Committee at labor house in Abuja. The communix signed by
00:01:29NLC. President Joe
00:01:30of Jairo, the Congress declared that the ultimatum takes immediate
00:01:34effects.
00:01:35in Labor leaders sites what they describe as the rapidly wasn't economic and survivor
00:01:39crisis confronting millions of Nigerian workers. The
00:01:43Congress is now putting all state affiliator and progressive allies on
00:01:46Ireland, ording them to prepare for
00:01:49of decisive actions should the federal government fail to yield to their demand
00:01:52within the 14 day
00:01:54window.
00:02:01of marking world day for
00:02:04of decent work, Nigerian liberal leaders called for
00:02:07enhance workplace protections and greater economic
00:02:11opportunities for young workers. Isaac
00:02:14Adeshino, acting national president of AsbiF framed
00:02:18in descents work as a fundamental human rights a
00:02:22players to end exploitative practices such as
00:02:26casual and contract labor and advocated for young workers.
00:02:30right to unionize and meet rising youth unemployment.
00:02:33Accoding this continents, Rufos Olusherson, National
00:02:37President
00:02:38in of in Para demanded immediate end to worker
00:02:42casualization and called for comprehensive social
00:02:45safety, net, job security and fair
00:02:49representation. Both leaders emphasized that sustainable economic
00:02:52of growth of requires young people's active participation and
00:02:56all government, employers
00:02:58of and unions to collaborate. on structural labor
00:03:01reforms.
00:03:03Albife has made it a practice to commeorate the world day for decent work annually on
00:03:07the 7th of October of every year, to remind our
00:03:10employers that decent work is our right as workers, that
00:03:14workers are not sleeves, that is what motivates and improves
00:03:18performance and productivity, that is what sustains
00:03:22of industrial peace and harmony and as well
00:03:25remind the workers themselves that trade unionism gives us strength.
00:03:30and the unity that are greater than
00:03:32in any force the capitalist employers may deploy
00:03:36and in the same reinforce the strength in unity and
00:03:40the power to refuse every manner of
00:03:43of oppression, we use this day to
00:03:46reflect and dedicate ourselves to the objectives of decent
00:03:49work. this years free, young workers organizing
00:03:53for the future is very out. the future of work is
00:03:57now in Nigeria Statistic shows us
00:04:01that Nigeria's population consists of about 70%
00:04:05youths and while government maintains that youth on employment
00:04:08rate stands at about 6%,
00:04:116.5%. The unions disagreed with that
00:04:14figure arguing that youth unemployment has exceeded
00:04:1860%, millions of able bodies youth
00:04:21lost unemployed, while the
00:04:24of few of are employed are largely
00:04:26of underemployed in the informal sector and as casual or'.
00:04:30track staffers in the organized privacy sectors, they are denight the
00:04:34right to organize
00:04:35of and fight for their rights, the laws are
00:04:38not helping matters as management is not exploiting the
00:04:42provision of voluntarism to deprive any workers
00:04:45of the right to join unions, this is not decent work,
00:04:49decent
00:04:50of work is becoming more acute in Nigeria
00:04:54and the supply we are
00:04:56experiencing
00:04:59that the... exploitation, long hours in the
00:05:03guitar economy without job position, and
00:05:07yet your workers are not just
00:05:10victims, we are organ. organizing the are
00:05:13living froms in computer
00:05:17village at to fs
00:05:21in cabin from castle to construction
00:05:24sites young medias and demanding just simple
00:05:27thing descent work what is
00:05:31descent works us is
00:05:35it is work that is one productive and
00:05:38delivers fair income security.
00:05:43two secure and safe, three,
00:05:46with social protection, four, where workers are
00:05:50have democratic right to organize and have a
00:05:54voice, as a union, our message
00:05:58today is clear, the government
00:06:02one in invest in skills, not
00:06:04just make the economy work for the
00:06:08young, implement policies that create stable
00:06:11jobs, not just
00:06:13paliative to to the
00:06:16employers, stop the casualization of young
00:06:19workers, young workers or a three months
00:06:23contract renew for five years is not a
00:06:26worker, he is industrial sleep
00:06:30being potally exploited to young workers
00:06:34themselves, organize and apply for today and your
00:06:38push, the only security you have is your solution.
00:06:57On the profile interview segment this week I'll be speaking with the national president the
00:07:01Nigerian Labor Congress come Joe Ajero. It brings us up to
00:07:05speed on why Nigerian workers are demanding for a 500
00:07:08thousand minimum wage while also justifying why.
00:07:12and workers deserve earning living
00:07:23lot has been happening in the world of work and most
00:07:26especially there's a debate as regards the need for
00:07:30new national minimum wage which many have argued must
00:07:34be living wage. now there's
00:07:37this conversation that average Nigerian should earn
00:07:3950000
00:07:41nar as de minimum wage, you have supported this
00:07:44claim, but the governments and organized private
00:07:48sector have said that that is actually too
00:07:51much, so if I may ask you, what is the
00:07:55minimum that you think average Nigerian should earn
00:07:58in 2026? well, I don't
00:08:02think the argument of
00:08:06500,000 is for or
00:08:09against. what does 500
00:08:13thousand translate in real terms? it's about
00:08:17$300. is that what Nigeria wants
00:08:21to pay their citizens?
00:08:23$300. averagely in the
00:08:27US where wages are calculated per
00:08:30hour, in states where you
00:08:34calculate $20 per
00:08:36hour, for 10 hours people can
00:08:39make
00:08:42a uh... about 200 a
00:08:44day, so and then we are now talking of
00:08:48500, the main issue
00:08:52is controlling the value the
00:08:55currency, if you can even
00:08:59peg the n to the dollar at
00:09:03even 10, 10,
00:09:0710 n per dollar, we call for
00:09:11wage freeze. I will be here and say let us remain
00:09:15at 70000, let us have,
00:09:18but the private sector can be comfortable with the current
00:09:22devaluation, they can be comfortable
00:09:25with the issue of inflation,
00:09:29you know, so I don't understand the private sector
00:09:32saying 500 thous
00:09:34is too much, if 500,000 is too much, give
00:09:38it real value, and I think that's what is at the heart of our dis'.
00:09:42now the value of 50000 in comparison to other
00:09:46currencies the world, where does it leave you? you,
00:09:50Nigeria is selling crude at dollar
00:09:53rate, so can can Nigeria
00:09:57equally agree for just $500 as
00:10:00minimum wage, which you know countries the world are not
00:10:03paying, so can they peg the anir to
00:10:07dollar, and it's not a question, because time is
00:10:11coming when... 1 million will not be enough
00:10:15for anybody to feed with, unless something is done and
00:10:18critically soon, and then so long as you
00:10:22don't check it, you won't stop us from collecting. what will keep
00:10:25us alive? i think that's what is our stake now and that
00:10:29brings us to living wage. living wage is not in terms of
00:10:32quantum. it's not in terms of 500, it's not
00:10:36in terms of 1 million, because if 1 million could
00:10:40not keep family of four till the end the month is not a living
00:10:44wage. so whether you call it 1 million or 500 thous as far
00:10:48as is not able to take care of your needs till the end the month,
00:10:52it's still not a minimum wage. so i think the issue is that... "you know
00:10:55the economic formulators of this country should look
00:10:59at those things that destroyed our economy, that devalued our
00:11:03currency,
00:11:05no uh, should we be where we are today if they didn't say subsidy is
00:11:09gone, that's the question, they may touching
00:11:12the pump price of petroleum products without
00:11:16getting alternative, whether it is electric motor,
00:11:20whether it is CNG, whatever, is at the heart of it,
00:11:24so if..." touch it again like they have touched it now to maybe
00:11:271004, the transporter will touch his
00:11:31own, the landlord will touch his own, the person selling r will touch
00:11:35his own, next tomorrow you still touch it, and by the time you brought
00:11:39it to a state that the state cannot regulate
00:11:42it, you are leaving it to market forces, it then means if it goes up
00:11:46you increase salary, it time it goes up increase
00:11:50salary, so I've never seen a market, that is not
00:11:53regulated. but since they say you
00:11:57know it's open market then is open market our
00:12:01way should be in open market we should be free to demand what we
00:12:05want you know because you can't you can't keep wage
00:12:08constant and other variables continue to go up
00:12:12that's not that's economics you oh the workers cannot ask for
00:12:16500 thous but they can buy rs
00:12:19anything they can pay any amount so so while while the
00:12:23government is still working at getting it right in terms in terms the
00:12:26economics uh whether we like it or not we there
00:12:30has to be negotiation in some few weeks or some few months
00:12:33and whatever impact of whatever economic decision
00:12:37may not reflect in the next few months so what is
00:12:41the realistic wage a way that probably to
00:12:45not affect companies to lay of
00:12:48workers you see the there are variables
00:12:52and there are variables. "i
00:12:56have looked at the issue of even a kind of
00:13:00interventionist policies like weg award and
00:13:04all that, but they are not enough
00:13:08and there's no good faith, the one we
00:13:11discussed last time about two three years now, you know of
00:13:1535, in some establishments have not been
00:13:18implemented, so is that the purpose it was meant
00:13:22for, now let us have agree that the..." problem in the middle
00:13:25east is the cause for the increase in pump price of petroleum products,
00:13:29let's assume without conciding to them and that the budget
00:13:33was
00:13:34you know structured based on 60
00:13:3770 dollar a
00:13:39barrel and now that they are selling 100
00:13:43and 710 now and that the government is making
00:13:47extra $30 whatever you can use whatever is coming
00:13:51there to cousion the effects it has created.
00:13:55but ordinarily, if Nigeria was
00:13:58prepared, the the fluctuation in
00:14:02the international market will not affect us, but because
00:14:06we have to import crude, and if you
00:14:08are importing crude, you have to buy crude and international
00:14:12price and then come back here to convert,
00:14:15so as an inter
00:14:18measure, today, tomorrow, whatever, yeah,
00:14:22we can discuss. and then as
00:14:26a lasting measure you can look at some of other
00:14:30things that can last, but however the situation would
00:14:33have been worst if we didn't reduce you the cycle
00:14:37from five years to three years, now assume that we
00:14:41will have to wait for the next two years or three years to negotiate this, then there will have
00:14:45been crisis, so I think we still push for further reduction to
00:14:49two years or index wage based on
00:14:53inflation, inflationary trends. so it will be self-adjusted or
00:14:57insist on cost of living index
00:14:59you know whichever way that you know, but the culture of
00:15:03debate is gone, as we talk now, no government
00:15:07uh official will be ready to engage us i don't
00:15:11tv debate or any debate for us to see the best way to solve this
00:15:14problem, it's either take it or not, you can write letter for the next three
00:15:18months, they will not reply, if they reply you there will be no commitment in
00:15:22it, like the ones the national public service. uh
00:15:25negotiating council have been backing them today, they told them
00:15:29they are going to look into it, they're going to look it when somebody can go to work, somebody
00:15:33can't eat, so those are issues, and then maybe
00:15:37what i waiting is for labor to you know to start to call for action, must you
00:15:40do that countries the world, i'm not aware of any the six
00:15:44major oil producing countries where workers had to go on strike before an
00:15:48intervention was made, it has to be, you have to be
00:15:52proactive to take care of this, you know, but in Nigeria what
00:15:56they are waiting for is maybe one or two or three days nationwide strike
00:16:00before we can talk, that shouldn't be the case, hope that is addressed
00:16:03in good time, but while we still at this conversation, you spoke about
00:16:07petroleum prices and the cost of leaving and recently there
00:16:11was a press statement that um you released or your
00:16:15office release saying tagged save the situation
00:16:18now is NLC proposing that
00:16:22government should go back to subsidizing petroleum that
00:16:26logic of subsidizing petroleum you
00:16:30know i've been wondering what anybody is
00:16:33subsidizing in terms of petroleum i think the...
00:16:37problem is that
00:16:38you know we are not refining, if we are
00:16:42refining we won't have challenges, but by the time
00:16:46you have to sell crude you finish
00:16:49product. now if Nigeria, the refineries are
00:16:53working, or even the private refinery, we are made to
00:16:57understand is working, and they have a way of
00:17:01getting creod here, without that same private refinery
00:17:04buying crude from abroad. you can't call a
00:17:08subsidy, if they refined crude here
00:17:12within Nigeria without carrying sheep and come back, the price of
00:17:16petroleum product may be at 500, so that
00:17:20one you call it subsidy because is refined here,
00:17:23you know, where the issue of subsidy comes in is where
00:17:27when they bring it the difference of 500, the government will not pay
00:17:31it, government will not have cost to pay difference of 500 if he is
00:17:35refined here, because the landing cost. taking it off,
00:17:38bringing it back, will no longer be there, so and I think that's what we should concern
00:17:42ourselves with, are we going to give the
00:17:46refineries here, local refineries crude, yeah, without
00:17:50asking them to buy it at international rate, if they buy it at international
00:17:54rate, they will still bring it back to make profit, and that will create lot of
00:17:57problem, but I let me repeat this, because I challenge the group managing
00:18:01director of NMPC once,
00:18:03you know, that allow these guys that are refining in the Niger.
00:18:07delta to refine the local way,
00:18:10yes, but you visited the refineries one time a
00:18:14and you gave a a
00:18:18portar, yes, that's when they started you know
00:18:21to revive turn around maintenance and the capacity was
00:18:25picking up, you know, they they had not reached half
00:18:29capacity, but I said that, oh, work is in
00:18:32progress here, that if they can complete this work,
00:18:35we won't have cause to import you know - finish products, that's
00:18:39what we say, but there are guys in the deta they are refining, and they told me that
00:18:43those, yes, apart from local method is not rocket
00:18:46science, over 13 or 15 universities
00:18:50in Nigeria offering courses in petrochemical engineering, you
00:18:54know, and I could remember even the Denf Republic of
00:18:57Bafra, within three months the war, they were refining
00:19:01locally, so but the point I'm making is that you
00:19:05can bring all measures, to test the quality of
00:19:09what they are producing, you can create them in in
00:19:13cooperatives and get regulatory
00:19:16agencies to test what they are refining, the guys there
00:19:20are not parks, guys doing this local refining, and if you give them
00:19:24even crude, you can give them loan, you
00:19:27can register them, you can legalize what they are doing, and
00:19:31then we see how it helps us locally, those ones are not saying we
00:19:35send crude there, we bring crude there. 'if you don't give them crude, you now say they are stealing
00:19:39crude, so if we want to solve
00:19:42this problem, there are ways of solving it, the Nigerian way, practical way, yes,
00:19:46there are to use the eye transportation cost, the federal
00:19:50government promis to rule out CNG buses and also to provide
00:19:53conversion centers where workers and citizens can
00:19:57go to convert their vehicles, what's your
00:20:01observation as regards this process, would you say it has been successful, do you
00:20:05think more needs to be done to that there are
00:20:08options, well I think that uh exercise
00:20:12didn't work, especially on the
00:20:16CNG buses, for instance, I think the Nigerian
00:20:19Level Congress got about between 60 and
00:20:2390 CNG buses,
00:20:27and we tried to send about uh
00:20:3010 per zone, six geopolitical zones
00:20:33and uh the labor seat transport.
00:20:38you know oppress the oters, i don't know
00:20:42what 10 buses could do to a zone that has
00:20:45about seven states or eight states,
00:20:49i can't tell you. what they will do, but they functioning, the function
00:20:53as far as then is concerned, the rose be seen the you,
00:20:57but you can look at one state, if you deploy those 90
00:21:00buses in one states, the impact won't even be known
00:21:03clearly, however
00:21:07those buses are
00:21:11still operating on PMS, buse
00:21:14infrastructure is not there, so it doesn't make
00:21:17sense if you have equally use. pms, whereas the essence
00:21:21is to use CNG, ordinarily, if you have
00:21:24enough stations where you can go and refill, that
00:21:28would have helped us for those one that are CNG, now the
00:21:32second leg is that you know they there should have been
00:21:36conversion kits for vehicles, you
00:21:39know, so that they can equally, if you convert
00:21:42now, can you buy the
00:21:45CNG, you the keys, we can't see them,
00:21:49so for almost yes now that exercise has been
00:21:52neither here or there, so it didn't work, if it was viable
00:21:56alternative, as you all know, CNG where
00:22:00people are loading for 10, 100, CNG could be loading
00:22:04for 500 or 300, because it's cheaper,
00:22:08and this eco friendly, so that exercise didn't work, it
00:22:12was we suggested that as an alternative so that the
00:22:15emphasis on PMS will be reduced, because every time we on
00:22:19strike on PMS. Okay, let there be another alternative, so if
00:22:23you don't want
00:22:23to use PMS, you use CNG, now
00:22:27nobody, nobody is in charge, as you talk today, who do you hold
00:22:31responsible for the
00:22:32CNG agreement,
00:22:36it's not there, so it died like any other
00:22:39project, but they would like to tell you that is working, even the issue
00:22:43of electric
00:22:47vehicles,
00:22:48you know, that area has not been explored. so that's a problem, so
00:22:51transportation will still be at the center the challenge we are
00:22:55having, if you if you have to
00:22:58settle transportation challenge, then our
00:23:02problem would be a bit reduced, because the artisans,
00:23:05you the mechanic, the brickler have to move from the
00:23:09the position they are to where they are going to work, talking about
00:23:13artisans, there's a green number of informal workers in
00:23:17Nigeria, what plans does NLC they have for this group
00:23:21of people? well, i think the challenge we have now is that uh
00:23:25NSC is now being asked to provide for
00:23:27Nigerians. i should have asked you
00:23:31know transmiting from other informality to
00:23:34formality or these people are informal
00:23:38workers where you have almost 90% you know of
00:23:42nigerians at the informal sector. what
00:23:46is the policy directive the state that will?
00:23:50benefit them, if Nigerian government addresses the issue
00:23:53of you know petroleum product, the formal workers will
00:23:57benefit, but that is what is causing the the money to
00:24:01move from one point to the other. In our own case, if I
00:24:05get wage awards or increase in salary now,
00:24:09it's for the former, those are unpaid employment, so the
00:24:13other ones that are not unpaid employment is through these policies, now the
00:24:16policy of cash transfer they were talking of,
00:24:19you know, up to now i don't know the people that are beneficiaries, how many people
00:24:23have been paid, where is the account number?
00:24:26you know, and they said is people that are multidimensionally poor, so who are the
00:24:30people? these are challenges that you should come
00:24:33up with policies, do they have incentives, if you want to provide
00:24:36loan, you know, to them, it's not NLC that provide
00:24:40loan, if you want to provide employment, it's not NLC that, if
00:24:44you want to look at social safety nets, it's not the NLC, if
00:24:48you have you know health. free
00:24:50health uh for the people if you want
00:24:54to have accommodation whatever you want to do is not see that
00:24:58provides so I think the state has lot of job to
00:25:01do
00:25:02you know uh in his welfare policies including for the
00:25:05aged you see most people old people 70
00:25:0980 to move from one point to the other some them don't have pension those
00:25:13in the formal sector the economy majority them don't have pension so
00:25:17what happens as the as the age and no policy, there's no old
00:25:21men's benefit that you have, no health policy
00:25:25for them, no insurance policy for them, so how would they survive? those are
00:25:29not the responsibility of NLC to pr, but we can articulate
00:25:33this as we are conversing for it. on the final notes
00:25:36congratulations on your recent international
00:25:39recognition, which includes the or
00:25:43steven's price for trade union rights, this
00:25:46happened some few months ago in Europe, how... does this
00:25:50translate to better working conditions for Nigerians? It
00:25:54shows that the reward for hard work is more
00:25:58work, and the monetary value of
00:26:01it is.
00:26:04you know uh, it was
00:26:06split into two, why the beneficiary, the award winner will get
00:26:09half, the other half is to be used for trading or work, so
00:26:13there was even the monetary aspect, yeah there was and i was not informed,
00:26:16well that was is there, is there is
00:26:20public domain every beneficial, so i'm listening to the breakd, every
00:26:24yeah, i've told you it's 50/50, okay, so and
00:26:28workers will receive some out of it, some will
00:26:31be used for trading on work, i have gotten
00:26:35mine, you know uh, which is half of it, the other
00:26:38half,
00:26:39you know, we are we are working with the uh, the
00:26:43people that instituted the award on how to release
00:26:46it for the other job which is for nigerian
00:26:49workers, so i think it shows that people are
00:26:53watching, what we are doing here, because
00:26:57some of us didn't hear of that word uh that there is such because no
00:27:01nigerian had benefit. from it, so for them to now
00:27:04articulate our activities for a long time and say, hey, you are
00:27:08the 2026, you know, uh, at of
00:27:12Stevenson Lauret so to say, and this is
00:27:15the amount,
00:27:17you know, and then being the first Nigerian that got it
00:27:20is, is motivation, you know,
00:27:24and and I knew some countries like America and others, you know,
00:27:27came close to winning the award, so it
00:27:31will... show you part the global world that whatever you
00:27:35are doing here inside room a faraway
00:27:38nigeria people are observing it and we should pay more attention to
00:27:42it. is there any particular course that you're passionate
00:27:46about that probably you're looking forward to them giving approval for
00:27:50such. the basic ideology for any trading union leader
00:27:54is may be social democracy. before now it used to be
00:27:57between the left and the extreme right
00:28:00you know so you must have something. believe in,
00:28:04yes, before you move, you can't see a union is
00:28:07supporting liberalization, privatization,
00:28:11commercialization, so we bring them back, especially the
00:28:14call ones,
00:28:16you know, who in the next 10 or five years be able to be
00:28:20leaders, because some of us by one reason or the
00:28:24other, we are trained by the first generation general secretaries and
00:28:28presidents, who impacted, and we discover that there's a gap
00:28:31now, you know we'll
00:28:33see how far we can try, even if it's 20 or 10
00:28:36trade union is that benefit from this process,
00:28:40those ones will be exceptional in the next you
00:28:44know 10 or 8 years, so
00:28:52today's edition the program, join
00:28:56i am sharon jason,
00:30:48tough stories this are more than 40 e swap fighters killed in a fresh
00:30:52air strike a terrorist enclave in Bolon News
00:30:54state
00:30:59independent