The Country Labour Congress has called on the Federal Government to recover a $22bn, which the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative claimed was not remitted by multinational organisations to the federation account.
The President of the congress, Wabba Ayuba, while speaking at the National Executive Council meeting of the congress on Friday, urged the government to use the recovered funds as a substitute for the money it wanted to borrow.
Commenting on the new minimum wage, he noted that the current National Minimum Wage Act had elapsed and the proposal for a new one submitted to the government had not been attended to.
Wabba lamented that the refusal of the government to take action on a new wage was causing untold hardships on workers and pensioners, and urged the government to treat it with urgency.
“We have long submitted our proposal for a review but government seems not to be in a haste to recognise the urgency in attending to our demands. The Nigerian workers and pensioners are important to the growth of the economy and must not be allowed to continue to suffer further hardship. We, therefore, reiterate our call on the government to treat the review of the minimum wage and pension with the utmost urgency they deserve,” he said.
The NLC president also called on the government to ensure a downward review of the pump price of petroleum products as ordered by the court ruling and should not accept a 200 per cent increase in the tariff that had been canvassed by power distribution companies.
Wabba said, “In fact, the 45 per cent increase in electricity tariff has been declared illegal by a court of competent jurisdiction and the operators have since been ordered its reversal. Rather than obey the order of the court, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, an umbrella body for the discos has been canvassing 200 per cent increase in the tariff.”