President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has opened up about a tense negotiation with President Bola Tinubu over fuel prices and minimum wage during an interview with Arise Television. Ajaero disclosed that at one point, President Tinubu offered a ₦250,000 minimum wage in exchange for the removal of fuel subsidies, citing fuel prices in neighbouring West African countries as justification. However, the NLC rejected the offer, citing the far-reaching economic implications for Nigerian workers.
At some point during the interview, Ajaero stated that “given that period, I will say there was no regret, but between that period and now, a lot has happened. Given the pump price of petroleum products, one of the reasons why we accepted N70,000 was that we had a disagreement with the president, and he said, I will bring money, and you people will travel to all West African countries and find out the cost of PMS.”
He went on to further state that “President Tinubu was given statistics that a country is selling for N2000 and another is selling for N1900 and whatever. He said, If you allow me to increase, I am ready to pay you N250,000. We said we will think it over. He said, I am going to give you one hour or two hours. We said, no, we can’t take decisions in your office. When we came back, we said to him that it won’t be possible because we know the implications.
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