President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba has assured Nigerian workers that ongoing negotiations for a new national minimum wage will be concluded before the end of August, expressing the hope however that implementation will begin immediately.

Wabba also said that despite claims by government that the country has exited recession, Nigerians were yet to see the results of the exit as the social and economic situations of average Nigerians are daily becoming bleaker than before.

The Congress also said that the numerous problems facing the country and its people are signs of bad governance and bad leadership which has characterized the nation’s democracy since 1999.
The Congress and other stakeholders are still meeting on the issues of minimum wage and hopefully will round up by August 2018. With Minimum wage as one of the most important ways of motivating workers to provide effective service, it is envisaged that, its implementation will engender growth not only among the public sector workers but also among the workers in the private and informal sectors of the economy.

In Addition, the financial benefits associated with the minimum wage would trickle down to the whole society. It is instructive to state that the Congress will continue to pursue its goal of ensuring Labour participation in politics using its structures and programmes.

• Excerpted from The Nation report