'₦1 million is the realistic figure' — NLC spokesman rejects governors' proposed ₦100,000 minimum wage

• NLC spokesperson Benson Upah argued that ₦1 million per month is a more realistic figure due to inflation, fuel prices, electricity tariffs, and naira depreciation.

• The comments came in response to Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq's indication that governors are considering a ₦100,000 minimum wage.

Nigeria's organised labour has pushed back against a proposed ₦100,000 national minimum wage, with the Nigeria Labour Congress saying the figure bears no relationship to what workers actually need to get by in today's economy.

Speaking in an interview, NLC spokesperson Benson Upah said the conversation around a wage review was welcome, but the number on the table was nowhere near sufficient. His counter is ₦1 million monthly.

"We consider it thoughtful of the Kwara State governor to propose this, but certainly, ₦100,000 falls far below the realistic figure," he said.

The proposal Upah was responding to came from Kwara Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who chairs the Nigeria Governors' Forum.

AbdulRazaq had posted on Facebook over the weekend indicating that governors were actively weighing a new minimum wage of ₦100,000, framing it as a response to the financial strain Nigerian workers have been under.

Upah's argument rests on the accumulation of economic shocks Nigerians have absorbed over the past two years, including a weaker naira, climbing fuel costs, steeper electricity bills, and a tax regime that has added further pressure to household budgets. Taken together, he said, they point to only one conclusion.

"Given the realities around the exchange rate, inflation, raised tariffs, the surge in the pump price of petrol and associated costs, the decline in the purchasing power of the average worker, and the effects of the new tax regime on our cost of living, the realistic figure, subject to status quo maintenance, would be ₦1 million," he stated.

He also turned attention to government revenues, arguing that the state of public finances makes a higher wage bill manageable rather than burdensome. He pointed specifically to FAAC allocations and what he described as a N5 trillion windfall linked to the Middle East conflict.

"In light of the earnings by governments, this should not be a big issue," he said.

This is not the first time organised labour and government have found themselves far apart on wages. The ₦70,000 minimum wage approved in July 2024 was itself the product of difficult negotiations, and labour has maintained since then that inflation eroded its value almost immediately after it was signed into law.

The governors' forum is yet to table any formal proposal before the Federal Government or labour unions, meaning the distance between ₦100,000 and ₦1 million remains, for now, the defining gap in a conversation that will only continue to come up.

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