NLC: Minimum wage will determine workers’ voting pattern

Peter Ozo-Eson, secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), says the national minimum wage will determine the voting pattern of Nigerian workers in the 2019 elections.

Ozo-Eson said this in an interview with NAN on Wednesday.

He wondered the reason for “the delay” by President Muhammadu Buhari to transmit an executive bill on the agreed N30,000 minimum wage to the national assembly to kick-start its implementation.

He said it is more than a month since the Ama Pepple-led tripartite committee submitted its recommendation to the president.

He advised workers to vote out the government that does not have their interest at heart.

“I want to say that if this is not addressed now, the minimum wage issue will become the major determinant of the 2019 general election,” he said.

“I think the government must ensure that it quickly takes this matter up on the table so that it does not get mixed up with the forthcoming general election in the country.

“We are already more than three weeks gone, since the submission of that recommendation of the tripartite committee to Mr President.

“Mr President had promised at the occasion that he will act quickly on it. We are disturbed that up till now he has not sent the bill to the national assembly.

“Therefore, our advice to workers is that those in government who have shown no interest in the welfare of workers, or have unleashed terror on workers, should be voted out. We urge our members to use their voting powers to vote such people out.”