President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Festus Osifo said labour and the Federal Government were in talks before the bill on a new national minimum wage was forwarded to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu.

Osifo confirmed that labour has had meetings with the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and other government officials to ensure that the new minimum wage would “cater to the needs of the poorest of the poor.”

He spoke at the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Women Commission maiden Annual Convention in Abuja on Tuesday with the theme: “The Dynamic Woman: Navigating Challenges in a Constantly Evolving World.”

Talks on a new national minimum wage have stalled following the decision of President Tinubu to consult with stakeholders before send the bill to the NASS.

While the Federal Government and Organised Private Sector (OPS) agreed on N62, 000 as the new minimum wage, labour insisted on N250, 000.

Osifo said some level of “internal work” was ongoing before the bill would be submitted in “earnest.”

“So that what will be submitted to the National Assembly will actually be a minimum wage that will cater for the poorest of the poor, so for the fact that in the media we are not shouting, we are doing some level of internal work so that this bill will be submitted in earnest soon.

“We still insist on the N250,000 benchmark as idea minimum wage,” he added.

Osifo also said the country would continue to experience fuel scarcity until some logistics problems are addressed.

“We must be able to deepen the facilities of the oil and gas logistics because if we don’t do that, perennially we would have these challenges. Last year we had the whole of Lokoja cut off, so for tanks coming from Lagos, Calabar, Abeokuta, Port Harcourt where are they going to pass, it will be difficult so we must be able to sit down and define our distribution value chain in the oil and gas sector,” he asserted.

National Chairperson of PENGASSAN Women Commission, Comrade Ada Mbanaso said the commission had positively impacting the lives of many women and children in various communities.

“Initiatives such as ‘Back-to-School’ projects, donations to orphanages and old people’s homes, empowerment of widows and small-scale business owners, celebration of boy/girl child on children’s day, skills acquisition programs for women in rural areas, and menstrual hygiene/mental health campaign, exemplify the commission’s commitment to social responsibility and community development,” she said. (The Nation)

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