The National Minimum Wage Act that came into force on 18 April 2019 prescribed a five-year review cycle. For that reason, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had the law on their side for the strike that paralysed the country on Monday. But even if some of us have issues with shutting down the national grid and closing the airspace, workers were not just seeking to fill a requirement of the law. The current socio-economic realities in Nigeria have rendered the N30,000 agreed upon in 2019 almost worthless. If living in extreme poverty, going by World Bank parameters, means living on less than $1.90 (almost N3000) per day, it is indeed very telling that few Nigerians can now afford what amounts to 10% of the current minimum wage. ‘Subsidy is gone’ and merging the exchange rates are at the heart of the inflationary crisis that is depleting incomes and savings, fuelling suffering and despair across the country. 

Today, millions of Nigerian families go to bed without any certainty as to where their next meal will come from. To compound their problem, prices of foodstuff are skyrocketing. Using a ‘cost of food basics’ analysis that compares the monthly minimum recommended spend on food per adult and average wage in 107 countries, a United Kingdom-based Institute of Development Studies, last year placed Nigeria as the second poorest country in the world in terms of food affordability. We don’t even have to seek external validation for the current suffering by most Nigerians. A recent and more comprehensive report on poverty by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimated that 133 million Nigerians were multi-dimensionally poor based on four indicators: food security, healthcare, education, and work.

With no conscious effort to cut down on the money spent on frills by political office holders at all levels, it is difficult to tell Labour that there is no money to pay whatever they demand as the minimum wage for workers. President Bola Tinubu, for instance, has a bloated cabinet of 45 ministers and the two budgets he has put forward in the past one year do not inspire anybody to believe he understands the gravity of the situation in the country. In the absence of concrete measures to tame food inflation, the obsession with all manner of revenue generating gambits that further pauperize the people makes it difficult to sympathise with the government. But there are still pertinent issues on minimum wage that should not be glossed over by critical stakeholders. An historical context may be important here.

In 1981, a minimum wage of N125 was agreed upon. Given the exchange rate at the time ($1.48 to a Naira), that translated to about $185 per month. Ten years later in 1991, the minimum wage was increased to N250. Going by the exchange rate of 8 Naira to a dollar at the time, that amounted to about $30. But that did not tell the whole story. As a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member in 1989/90, my monthly ‘allawee’ was N250 per month. Not only was it enough for my upkeep but I still had savings. That speaks to the Cost-of-Living Index (COLI) in the country and the purchasing power of the Naira at the time. In 2000 when the minimum wage was pegged at N5,500, the exchange rate was N84 to a dollar. Eleven years later in 2011, when the minimum wage was jarked up to N18,000, the exchange rate was N155 to a dollar. In 2019 when the new minimum wage became N30,000, the exchange rate was N305 to a dollar, but the COLI had started to go haywire. With the same exchange rate now about N1500 to a dollar, we can do the arithmetic to understand how hard things have become for the average Nigerian worker.

But what most people don’t understand is that the minimum wage is not about just government workers. It is meant for all workers in the formal sector except those on part time employment, or establishments with less than 25 persons. In a survey report titled ‘Labour Force Statistics’, released in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that about 92.3 percent of Nigerian workers are in informal employment as at the third quarter of 2023. The implication is that Labour is fighting for a tiny minority with their fixation on federal workers. So, this conversation is narrow and counterproductive.

Last week, the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN) defended the initial N60,000 on offer by the federal government. “While it is important to note that socio-economic conditions over the years have rendered the N30,000 minimum wage inadequate, the same conditions have incapacitated many businesses, fatally affecting their sustainability and ability to pay,” according to the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and OPSN spokesperson on the minimum wage negotiation, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde.

The OPSN is made up of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASME) and National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) and NECA. “The offer of N60,000, which is a 100 per cent increase in the current national minimum wage was sacrificial on the part of the organised private sector,” said Oyerinde who harped on the need to protect jobs and ensure sustained growth in the economy. “The demand by organised labour at this period has the potential to cripple small and medium enterprises and push many other businesses into comatose.”

To understand our national dilemma, here are facts that should compel sobriety. As of June 1980 (44 years ago), a barrel of oil was selling for $37.24 and we were pumping 2.2 million barrels into the international market daily. The population of the country at that time was 73.44 million. Today, the price of oil is $85, and we are pumping roughly 1.3 million barrels a day. Several times in recent years we were pumping less than a million barrels per day. The implication is that while our population (currently estimated to be 229,152,217) has more than tripled, our earnings have not changed because we still rely on oil to run our economy. And with a penchant by succeeding administrations to create bubble jobs, we have almost five times the number of workers in the public service today than we had at the time!

Meanwhile, the process by which the Ama Pepple-led national minimum wage tripartite committee arrived at the figure of N30,000 was perhaps the most rigorous of any such undertaking in recent years. When they began work in December 2018, labour was demanding N66,500 per month while the organised private sector proposed N25,000. Incidentally, of the six governors, each representing a geo-political zone, that were in the committee, only Abubakar Bagudu, then governor of Kebbi, who represented the North-west, took the assignment seriously by attending the sessions. Bagudu is now Minister of Budget and National Planning and is involved in the current negotiations. Aside the institutional memory that he brings to the table, Bagudu understands the economic dynamics at play. But he also knows that these issues go beyond what the federal government can offer its workers.

Shortly before he retired after 15 years of meritorious service as founding Director General of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), I sought to know from Mr Asishana Okauru the stand of governors on the minimum wage crisis. He gave me a highly revealing position paper prepared in January by the NGF secretariat. Market conditions, according to the NGF paper which relies heavily on figures from the NBS, “have become tougher amidst indications that the (federal) government did not have the fiscal headroom (the tripod of a robust external reserve balance, Excess Crude Account savings and revenue adequacy) to manage the fallouts of both policies (fuel subsidy removal and exchange rates merger) in the near term.”

Most countries, according to the NGF paper, set their national minimum wage “on the back of price movements such as inflation, cost of living, median earnings (average earnings of the middle half of earners) and the state of the economy.” With several graphs and charts, the paper then referenced the position of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that “in many of these countries, except where collective agreements cover over 90% of employees, the coverage of collective bargaining as a norm for wage fixing is insufficient to provide protection of minimum standards to a broad majority of workers.” The NGF paper advocates for a decentralised minimum wage system. “This debate has risen in the context of broader economic and social concerns about income inequality, cost of living, labour market flexibility and the fiscal capacity of each state government. In other jurisdictions where this has been applied, two wages still exist, and the higher minimum wage usually applies.”

Citing examples from the United States and the United Kingdom, the NGF paper highlights where the government and Labour get the entire conversation about minimum wage wrong before delving into the challenge of the 36 states. Quoting NLC reports, the NGF paper admits that “many States are yet to implement the 2019 wage review, reflecting indications that they did not have the fiscal headroom to comply with the recommendations of the 2019 NMW review, and that they may not be in a good position to adopt another review in 2024.” The paper added, “In addition to the non-implementation of the 2019 NMW review, new governments still face the burden of legacy salary and pension arrears which had accumulated to N672.6 billion in 2021. It is unclear what the present value of these debts amounts to, but it is estimated at 10% of the total recurrent revenues of States.”

Fiscal reprieve expected from the removal of PMS subsidies has not been sufficient to accommodate a new minimum wage, according to the paper. “The upside of the Naira devaluation has been a sharp growth in exchange gain from dollar denominated revenues, but overall transfers to states have not significantly outperformed records in the first half of 2023. The smoothening of Federation Account transfers to the three tiers of government by fiscal authorities may be attributed to a posture of money supply tightening given the current level of inflation in the country.”

For many States, according to the paper, “it would be unrealistic to expect a full implementation of a wage adjustment in 2024” because current circumstances require additional measures, including “a budget review to identify non-essential expenditures that can be deferred or reduced, debt restructuring to free up the fiscal space, a wage freeze for selected personnel, phased implementation for the new NMW, and the introduction of social safety nets to provide a cushion for workers where job cuts are necessary.”

Given the state of the economy, the paper concludes, a new minimum wage will worsen employment outcomes in the public and private sectors – both in terms of current workforce retention and the potential to make new hires. “A wage hike may lead to higher prices for goods and services and exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis. This is particularly concerning for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they are more sensitive to production cost increases. Of those employed, the NBS puts the number of workers in wage employment at 12% while the remaining 88% are self-employed.”

Following the suspension of the strike by Labour on Tuesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directed his Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Olawale Edun, to come up with the cost implications of an affordable, sustainable and realistic new minimum wage. But we all know that Edun’s assignment is strictly limited to federal government workers. While the 2020 data on IPPIS Platform revealed that there were 696 Federal Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with 1,139,633 workers, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, revealed last August that the federal government’s personnel cost had hit over N5 trillion, with 1.5 million workers on its payroll. Of course, we know that many of these would be ‘ghost workers’, but even at that, we are talking about far less than one percent of our population.

At a period, such as this, when most Nigerians are struggling to survive, it is difficult to fault the argument of Labour for a living wage. But outside the federal government that they can easily arm-twist with the shutdown of the national grid, they cannot enforce anything with the states or private sector. This, of course, is not an argument against minimum wage. It is to point out that no matter what Labour agrees with the federal government this week, most workers in the country will not earn it, and at the end, the people could be worse off. 

What the situation in Nigeria today demands is a comprehensive and bold economic policy that increases our productivity and helps create jobs for our young people. That cannot be done when you take one step forward and three steps backwards, as is now the case in Abuja. “At current rates, expenditure on fuel subsidy is projected to reach N5.4trillion by the end of 2024. This compares unfavourably with N3.6 trillion in 2023 and N2.0 trillion in 2022,” according to the latest Accelerated Stabilisation and Advancement Plan (ASAP) presented to the president by Edun which officially confirms that the ‘Subsidy is gone’ claim is audio, as they say on the street. We also need targeted social interventions that include population control. Subsidising healthcare and education as well as other welfare programmes for the most vulnerable of our society is equally important.

In essence, as much as we require a new national minimum wage law, nobody should be under any illusion that it is a solution to the challenge of daily living in today’s Nigeria.

Turning your pain into gain

  Your pain is becoming your testimony. You are being healed now! You are being located, rescued and restored. I said that you will not nurse those wounds again. You will no more pine away in that pain, hopelessness and regret. Our God specializes in turning wounds and pains into sweetness and greatness. Yes, pains, wounds and scars mark out generals. True. Show me a general and I will show you a man with scars and near-death experiences from battles.  Do you want to be great? Then you must be ready to accumulate scars, wounds, enemies, deprivations, betrayals and battle stars. Even Jesus went through them all. God gave him a name that is above all names in heaven, on earth and under the earth (the waters), but that was not without scars. He went through robbing, wounding, abandoning and ultimately was killed.  But he came back, rose again to become the sovereign, the indestructible, the immortal King of Kings and the Lord of lords. And today when you mention his name all things - principalities, powers, dominions, thrones, Satan, demons, situations, diseases, occult masters, and satanic agents bow. No scars no authority! In fact, the bible said that his wounds brought us healing - spiritually, emotionally and physically. And by his death, we have received life and victory! If he was not robbed, disgraced, bruised, betrayed and abandoned to die we would not have been saved and empowered today.

   Now, there are many in the bible that went through this experience, but we will just pick one or two because of time and space. Look at the hopelessness of the paralyzed man that was abandoned at the Pool of Bethesda. His good health was taken away. He could not walk or help himself and he did not have anybody to help. Even when he lay near the solution, there was nobody to rush him into the water when it was stirred by the visiting angel. And he was in this situation for 38 years. He was virtually left there to die. So he also had no friends or relations?  My God! Yes, friends and relations have a limit to what they can do for you at the time of trial. Don’t put your hope on people, trust God. Don’t trust things, rely on the creator. He is the one that will stay with you when everything has failed. He will stand with you when everyone is gone. The main problem of this man was that he had nobody to help him. As his situation got worse and complicated, everybody deserted him. Nobody, unless a God-sent will stand with you in such condition for 38 years. Nobody! Just few weeks every sympathizer is gone. And few more months, your relations and best friends will gradually start distancing from you. Only your children and a godly spouse, I repeat, a godly spouse will hang on with you when it gets too tough and too long. But I doubt if our friend here had kids and wife. Or they also abandoned him and vamoosed because it happens. It’s possible. Haven’t you seen such before? Human beings are unreliable and unpredictable. May you not over stay in that trial in the name of Jesus!

On the special occasion of World Environment Day marked every June 5, President Bola Tinubu calls for earnest effort and action by citizens, stakeholders, institutions, and development partners to safeguard the environment and ensure a win-win transition to a prosperous and clean economy future for all.

The World Environment Day, established by the United Nations during the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, is an important moment for raising awareness on environmental matters.

The theme of this year's occasion, 'Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience', is very significant, particularly for Nigeria, where the scourge of drought threatens parts of the country.

According to the projections of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, about 40 percent of our planet’s land is degraded, which directly impacts half of the world’s population. 

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification also says the number and duration of droughts have increased by 29 percent since 2000 and that without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world's population by 2050.

In his determined march towards Nigeria's aspiration to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, President Tinubu established the Presidential Committee on Climate Action and Green Economic Solutions, which he chairs, to oversee the nation's climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, as well as green economy initiatives.

The President also approved the establishment of Nigeria's first Green Industrial Zone, Evergreen City, which is poised to be the leading manufacturing hub in Africa for renewable energy technologies, green solutions, and climate-adaptation technologies.

The President restates his commitment to ensuring the planting of 25 million trees by 2030, not only to protect the environment but also to provide opportunities for Nigeria's youths within the green-economy value chain.

While calling for a more proactive approach to protect the land and ecosystem through afforestation, water conservation, and the cessation of indiscriminate felling of trees, President Tinubu emphasizes that to heal our world, we must begin by healing the land and its people.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

As a proud and unyielding advocate of the rights of all in our beloved realm, I find myself utterly perplexed and deeply saddened by the mere suggestion that our esteemed National Assembly would seek to stifle the hallowed right of workers to engage in lawful strike action. This notion, I must adamantly declare, is one that I simply cannot bring myself to believe.

The fundamental entitlement to strike, bestowed upon the noble laborers of our land, has been affirmed by our courts, local and international and it is a sacred cornerstone of our social fabric – a cornerstone that must be safeguarded with the utmost vigilance. To even contemplate the subversion of this legitimate process would constitute a most worrisome development, one that would grievously infringe upon the basic rights of our hardworking citizens.

Strikes, I must emphatically state, are a rightful and crucial tool for our valiant workforce to negotiate for improved working conditions, fair wages, and the social protections they so rightly deserve. These actions are not merely a privilege, but a fundamental human right, enshrined in the very ethos of social justice and the principles of collective bargaining. Any attempt to criminalize this time-honored practice would undoubtedly undermine the very foundations upon which the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has championed – the bedrocks of social dialogue, collective bargaining, and tripartism.

Should the National Assembly, in a moment of unthinkable transgression, pursue such an egregious course of action, it would undoubtedly exacerbate the already strained industrial relations in our beloved Nigeria. Such a move would inevitably lead to further unrest and social upheaval, shattering the fragile bonds of trust between workers and their elected representatives. Nay, they must instead focus their efforts on addressing the underlying issues driving the justifiable demands of our workers, including the provision of fair compensation, decent working environments, and adequate social safeguards.

Constructive dialogue with labor organizations and all relevant stakeholders is the only path forward. Only through such earnest and compassionate engagement can we hope to find solutions that promote true social justice, fair labor practices, and the sustainable development of our nation. For it is only through the harmonious collaboration of all stakeholders that we can forge a future of economic prosperity and social harmony, where the unalienable rights of the worker are safeguarded with unwavering commitment.

However, I must also express my grave concern over the reported instances of criminality that have at times accompanied strike actions. The tampering with our national grid, for example, is a most disturbing development that cannot be tolerated, for there are certain essential services that must remain uninterrupted, even in the face of legitimate worker protests. While I staunchly defend the right to strike, I cannot condone actions that jeopardize the well-being of the broader populace.

It is my fervent hope that our esteemed lawmakers will approach this delicate matter with the utmost wisdom, empathy, and an unwavering commitment to the well-being of all Nigerians. For only through such steadfast dedication can we forge a future where the rights of the worker are not merely enshrined in law, but honored with the reverence they so rightfully deserve.

-Dr Olukayode Ajulo, OON, SAN

President Bola Tinubu extends his congratulations to Her Excellency, Ms. Claudia Sheinbaum on her historic election as the first female President of the United Mexican States (Mexico).

Ms. Sheinbaum won the Mexican presidential election by a landslide, becoming the first female President in the country since its independence in 1821.

President Tinubu states that the election of President-elect Sheinbaum accents the voices of women in government, shatters political glass ceiling, and sends a reverberating message across the world that women must not only be participants but principal architects in shaping and implementing decisions affecting the lives of many.

On behalf of the government and people of Nigeria, the President congratulates the people of Mexico and calls for the strengthening of bilateral ties between both nations across areas of mutual interest.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

It was Freedom Day again in South Africa on April 27, a few weeks to the general elections held last week.

This year,  South Africans actually  celebrated a milestone: 30 years ago the first post-apartheid election was held and the  heroic symbol  of struggle for multi-racial democracy  in the country, Nelson Mandela, was elected president. A new constitution was also introduced on that day.

It also happened that on that day of the first election in 1994, a child was born in the household of Mr. Ernesto Ubisi and Mrs. Mariama Ubisi, both Mozambicans immigrants in a  poor  village called Lillyade in the Mpumalanga province of   South Africa.

The family of Ubisi elected  to name the new arrival Vote. At 30, Vote now works as a waiter in the South African tourist industry.

Mr. Vote Ubisi spoke  in a television interview on the Freedom Day  as  the campaigns were in full swing for the last week election. Vote  was excited that he would vote in the election. Remarkably, Vote was hopeful about the future of South Africa. On the one hand,  Vote  cherished the fact of being born into freedom. As he put it, he had no memory of the odious past of apartheid. On the hand he commented  that 30 years after apartheid  potable water was not still available in the village. That was Vote’s graphic  way of making the point that  the dream of an equitable society was  yet to be fully realised. For joblessness, inequality, violent crimes  and official corruption are still the defining features  of the South African society.

To be fair to  the country’s leadership in a statement to the nation on the Freedom Day, President Cyril Ramaphosa honestly  put the problems mentioned in the foregoing into a sharp focus.  

In many respects, Vote’s  views were representative of the electoral mood in the country. It was a mixture of a deep sense disappointment  in many constituencies and flickers of optimism  in several others.

Little surprise then that  this trend  was amply reflected in the results of the elections  announced  at the weekend. The African National Congress (ANC), the party of Mandela, lost the electoral majority for the first time in 30 years. The party that was once clearly dominant will now be compelled to go into a coalition to govern. Although the ANC still has the highest percentage of the votes, it is now in  its weakest position politically  in three decades.

The party needs 50% of the votes to form a government alone. Unfortunately, it scored only 40.2% as against   21.8% of the Democratic Alliance (DA); 14.9% of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party and the 9.5% of the youthful Economic Freedom Front (EFF). Both MK and EFF are breakaway political forces from the ANC. The MK is a political platform  hurriedly put together for former President Jacob Zuma to return to power while the EFF is more ideologically opposed to the socio-economic  policies of the ANC government.  The DA has been a long-standing opposition with a liberal agenda. It has its  provenance in the  old National Party of the apartheid era.

Critics of ANC had long  predicted this electoral decline of the great organisation which transformed most admirably  from a liberation  movement into a robust political party.

The failure of  the ANC  to tackle poverty decisively  despite the party’s past electoral fortunes is, perhaps, the major factor for the downward trend in its popularity. The issues of the elections were the surging crime rates, poor power supply, official corruption and widening inequality. All these problems have persisted despite South Africa being rated as the economy with the  largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Africa for years. For some time,  South Africa was the toast of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. As its economic managers embraced neo-liberal reforms, South Africa became a model of how to  get things right in economic terms. Now, the lesson is that the application of market forces alone cannot solve the problems of poverty and inequality. If anything, neo-liberal excesses  can only deepen poverty.  The allies of ANC in the days of th struggle for freedom – the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)  – warned against  this trend, which came to a  climax under Ramaphosa. Party leaders such as the  late Winnie Mandela pointed to the huge numbers of black people still in poverty and the increasing alienation of the ANC from a segment of its base. 

All told, the good news is that democracy has triumphed again  in South Africa despite Zuma’s criticisms of the results. The people’s will has prevailed and the election was conclusive.

As the ANC ponders its coalition options, it may need to also look ahead to correct the errors that produced the electoral mood of which Mr. Vote Ubisi ‘s commentary was a metaphor.

No fewer than 30 state governments of the federation have spent ₦986.64bn on recurrent expenditures, including refreshments, sitting allowances, travelling, utilities amongst others in the first three months of 2024.

The states’ budget implementation reports, which were obtained from Open Nigerian States, a website supported by BudgIT that acts as a repository for public budget data, were analysed for the first three quarters of the year.

Punch examined budget implementation data from thirty states. Data for six states were not available.

Benue, Imo, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto and Yobe States were the ones without Q 1, 2024 data.

According to the report, 30 states spent ₦5.1bn on refreshments for guests, ₦4.67bn on sitting allowances to government officials, ₦34.63bn on local and foreign travel expenses, and ₦5.64bn on utility bills, amounting to ₦50.02bn in the first three months of 2024.

The general utilities include electricity, internet, telephone charges, water rates, and sewerage charges, among others.

The sub-nationals also paid ₦405.77bn as salaries to their workers.

Other recurrent spending items covered in the report included the amount spent on foreign and domestic travel, internet access fees, entertainment, foodstuff, honorarium/sitting allowance, wardrobe allowances, telephone bills, electricity charges, stationery, anniversaries/special days, welfare, aircraft maintenance, and more.

In the first three months of 2024, Abia State spent ₦10.92bn on its recurrent expenditures, including ₦165.38m on refreshments and feeding, ₦39.26m on utilities, ₦214.57m on sitting allowances, ₦127.1m on local and foreign travels, among miscellaneous expenses.

During this period, Adamawa State expended ₦23.7bn on recurrent expenditures with ₦287.61m spent on refreshments and feeding, ₦109.62m on utilities, ₦79.57m on sitting allowances, ₦768.77m on local and foreign travels.

For Akwa Ibom State, recurrent expenditure gulped ₦46.85bn, which included N4.46m on refreshments and feeding, ₦223.32m on utilities, ₦6m on sitting allowances, ₦214.61m on local and foreign travel.

Anambra State disbursed N9.91bn for recurring expenses with ₦78.18m on refreshments and feeding, ₦32.52m on utilities, ₦42.09m on sitting allowances, ₦188.39m on local and foreign travel.

Also, recurrent expenditures cost Bauchi State Government ₦35.75bn with ₦397.58m going to utilities, ₦50.8m on refreshments, ₦287.11m on allowances, and ₦413.56m on trips.

Bayelsa State spent ₦35.1bn on recurrent expenditures, comprising ₦28.4m on utilities, ₦156.14m on refreshments and ₦279.99m on trips.

Similarly, Lagos State disbursed ₦189.62bn for recurrent expenditures, including ₦1.21m for refreshments, ₦383.12m for utilities, sitting allowances costing ₦52.79m and ₦633.37m on travels.

Borno spent ₦18.79bn, Cross Rivers (₦17.44bn), Delta (₦68.68bn), Ebonyi (₦14.95bn), Edo (₦32.32bn), Ekiti (₦32.8bn), Enugu (₦7.51bn) and Gombe with ₦20.89bn.

Within the same period, Jigawa State spent N15.52bn on the recurrent expenditures, Kaduna expended ₦34.69bn, Kano (₦34.41bn), Katsina (₦21.87bn), Kebbi (₦11.67bn), Kogi (₦37.4bn), Kwara (₦24.34bn), Nasarawa (₦18.61bn), Ogun (₦47.12bn), Ondo (₦31.12bn), Osun (₦24.39bn), Oyo (₦40.12bn), Plateau (₦24.70bn), Zamfara (₦13.46bn), and Taraba (₦20.93bn).

[NaijaNews]

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has frowned at the recent vandalism of structures on the second Niger bridge. 

 A statement by Orji Uchenna Orji, a lawyer and special adviser (media) to the minister, on Tuesday said the destruction of the joints used to absorb the thermal expansion of the bridge was a ‘cowardly’ act.

 “The minister condemns this ruthless destruction in strongest terms. It is a deliberate act of sabotage on a key national infrastructure that has immense socio-economic benefits to the contiguous states, and indeed, the entire country. It is saddening that a human being with the right senses could destroy such a critical and strategic treasure that catalyses Nigeria’s socio-economic advancement,” he said.

The minister assured the public that a more formidable security architecture was being activated to forestall further havoc on the facilities, while a technical team had been directed to inspect, evaluate  and reinstate the damaged parts of the superstructure. 

“The Federal Ministry of Works shall promptly and handsomely reward any person or group who nabs or gives useful information on the identities of perpetrators of the vandalism of facilities on the bridge or any of our road infrastructures nationwide. We shall ensure that such perpetrators face the full wrath of the law,” he added.

[DailyTrust]

The Nigeria Labour Congress has described the federal government’s silence on the April 3 electricity tariff hike as disappointing.

NLC disclosed this in its communique on Tuesday after its National Executive Council meeting where it suspended its indefinite strike for one week.

The development comes after the federal government in a meeting with organized labour on Monday agreed to pay minimum wage higher than N60,000.

However, the government has yet to say anything about the second part of labour’s demand, which is electricity tariff reversal.

NLC expressed disappointment over the government’s silence and lack of concrete action regarding the reversal of the electricity tariff hike and the abolition of the apartheid classification of electricity consumers into Bands.

“The NEC reaffirms that these issues are critical to alleviating the financial burden on Nigerian workers and the general populace. The electricity tariff hike and discriminatory Band classification remain unacceptable and must be addressed alongside the wage increase,” it stated.

Recall that on April 3, the NERC approved tariff increment of over N200 per kwh for customers getting 20-24 hours power supply.

The hike generated reactions among Nigerians.

In reaction, the government earlier announced a minor reduction of N18, bringing it down to N208.80kwh for band A customers.

However, unsatisfied with the reduction, the NLC, the Trade Union Congress and other organizations called for the complete reversal of the electricity tariff hike.

It was part of the demand presented to the federal government, alongside the issue of minimum wage.

[DailyPost]