Tinubu’s aide counters NLC, says no minimum wage concessions were made over petrol price hike

Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, special assistant to President Bola Tinubu on print media, has countered a claim by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that the federal government made a minimum wage offer in exchange for a petrol price hike.

On Tuesday, TheCable observed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited increased the price of petrol across its retail outlets.

Reacting to the increment in a statement, Joe Ajaero, the NLC president, accused the federal government of betrayal.

The NLC said one of the reasons it accepted the N70,000 minimum wage proposal, although it was low, was the understanding that the petrol pump price would not be increased.

“We recall vividly when Mr. President gave us the devil’s alternatives to choose from: either N250,000 as minimum wage (subject to the rise of the pump price between N1,500 and N2,000) and N70,000 (at old pms rates), we opted for the latter because we could not bring ourselves to accept further punishment on Nigerians,” Ajaero said.

“It is both traumatic and nightmarish.”

However, in a post on X, Abdulaziz countered Ajaero’s claim, adding that the NLC president, was only playing “dirty politics”.

“I sat through the two meetings President Tinubu had with Labour leaders on minimum wage. At neither of the meetings was an offer made in exchange of fuel price hike,” he wrote.

“Ajaero is once again playing his dirty politics with the emotions of Nigerians.”