‘We are in real crisis’, TUC bemoans workers’ plight in Nigeria

The Trade Union Congress (TUC), has bemoaned the plight of the Nigerian worker as the country continues to battle currency devaluation and rising inflation which has led to a rise in the prices of goods and services.

This was disclosed by President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo on Monday, during an interview on ChannelsTV program, Sunrise Daily.

Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 22.04% — third consecutive increase in 2023. The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services, rose to 22.04 percent in March 2023, up from 21.91 percent in the previous month.

In his reaction in commemoration of May Day, Osifo said the various levels of difficulties and hardship faced by workers in the last year, made it quite uninteresting.

Osifo argued that the minimum wage which currently stands at N30,000; has lost its value when compared to 2019 when the law to increase the wage was put into place.

Read Also:TUC threatens legal action against Nigerian govt over naira scarcity

He explained that because the nation consumes mostly things produced from beyond its shores, one would have to weigh the minimum wage against the value of the dollar today, as to fully comprehend the hardship that the average Nigerian worker has gone through, especially within the last year.

“If you check that 30,000 naira as at then (2019), if you check the value, thirty thousand could give you like 2, 3, 4 bags of rice, but today, where are we relating to that?

“We spend naira but literally every thing we consume, we import, so when you check the value of that 30,000 naira as at then when the dollar was somewhere between 300 and 350, if you check it then the minimum wage was approximately $100. But today, if you marry that viz-a-viz what is happening in the parallel market, then it is somewhere around $50, so what this means is that the exchange rate has actually affected the value of the naira which literally determines the purchasing power in the market.

“Today we are in real crisis,” Osifo buttressed.

The TUC President further clarified that the purchasing power of the average Nigerian worker has plummeted, while noting that this was part of the agitations for a review in minimum wage.

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