According to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, the party’s president, is the reason why gas prices aren’t N1,500 a liter for Nigerians.
The NLC’s Head of Information and Public Affairs, Comrade Benson Upah, made clear in an interview with Vanguard that the government has been forced to be cautious when hiking gas prices due to Comrade Ajaero’s strong leadership.
Upah also highlighted the NLC’s dedication to making sure that the future national minimum wage appropriately meets workers’ demands and praised the Ajaero-led leadership for securing the pay hike to N35,000.
He also underlined President Ajaero’s strong involvement in facilitating prompt negotiations to address the nation’s economic issues and inflation for the benefit of workers.
As a result, his main concern is making sure that the minimum wage talks are finished in the allotted amount of time,” he said.
In response to a query concerning the benefits that workers have seen during Ajaero’s roughly one-year term as NLC President, Upah said, “The wage increase is the primary benefit, but there are other significant gains as well.”
“We have two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) inked with President Bola Tinubu’s current administration. The first one happened on June 5, 2023, while the second one happened on October 2, or maybe October 3, 2023.
The salary raise and the government’s decision to reinstate or agree to pay the withheld salaries of the four university-based unions—NASU, NAAT, SSANU, and ASUU—are included in these memorandums of understanding, if you look through their contents.
I want to underline that Nigerians would probably be paying much more for gasoline by now—possibly N1,500 instead of N700 or N800—had it not been for the NLC’s unwavering stand under Ajaero’s leadership. The administration is being cautious, though, when it crosses that line.
It is aware that if it does, the NLC will organize protests and gather people in opposition to it. As a result, we are forced to continue operating at the present six hundred and thirty naira and N700 price.”
