Some stakeholders in the labour sector have commended President Bola Tinubu for his broadcast on the country’s current economic challenges but urged him to stop giving piecemeal handouts to Nigerians.

The stakeholders gave the commendation in separate interviews on Tuesday in Lagos.

While some welcomed the president’s plans for businesses in the country to grow, others urged him to constitute a national minimum wage-fixing committee to midwife the process of salary increases for workers.

In his speech, the president urged Nigerians to look beyond the present challenging situations and focus on the larger picture, adding that his administration would not disappoint them.

Adewale Oyerinde, director-general of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), said the president’s outlined plans for businesses in the formal and informal sectors were welcome.

“Also, we further request the reversal of the Value Added Tax on Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), the suspension of the planned electricity tariff, and the urgent appointment of competent ministers to drive the implementation of the various plans,” he said.

Speaking on the plan for what he described as the overdue wage increase, the NECA boss said that the government must respect International Labour Organisation Convention 131 on setting the national minimum wage.

“The government must constitute the national minimum wage-fixing committee to midwife the process. Any arbitrary fixing of wages by the government will not be binding on the Organised Private Sector,” Mr Oyerinde explained.

The general secretary of the Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria, Gbenga Komolafe, said rather than cash transfers, the government should complement informal sector savings into the micro pension scheme ostensibly designed for the informal sector.

Under universal healthcare coverage, he urged the government to support health insurance for people over 60 and pregnant women. He stated that these groups are excluded from the basic plans of most health maintenance organisations, which are all profit-making private health organisations.

“There must be government support for the treatment of diseases such as hypertension, eye problems, diabetes, and chronic diseases, which most informal and poor workers cannot afford at present,” Mr Komolafe explained. “We need organic social protection programmes to cover informal sectors and not piecemeal dole-outs, which do not reach the target beneficiaries anywhere.”

The national deputy president of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Tommy Okon, said the meeting between organised labour and the government was ongoing.

He, however, said negotiation on the minimum wage was a constitutional matter and tripartite. Mr Okon was reacting to the president’s statement about collaborating with the labour unions to introduce a new national minimum wage for workers.

(NAN)