Chairman of the tripartite committee on a new minimum wage, Buka Goni Aji, that the new wage would be based on what prevails in the country’s West African neighbours.
He stated this as President Bola T urged members of the committee to engage in collective bargaining in good faith but was countered by president of Nigeria labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, who contended that negotiation would be based on prevailing cost of living.
Goni, in his remarks after inauguration of the committee by President Tinubu, said: “He (President Tinubu) wants us to move forward.
”We don’t have any figure in mind. We want a very, very realistic approach, based on certain conventions on the reality of the Nigerian economy, based also on what you have in our neighbouring West Africa.
”Nigerian worker, everyone, deserves a rise in his pay package. Honestly, we want a situation where Nigerian workers are sufficiently motivated they would do very well. Because they are productive, because they are creative, they are full of initiatives, human resource base.
”I want to believe and strongly too that is second to none in Africa. That is why we are here today to ensure that our actions are in line and conformity with the law and expectation and aspirations with the Nigerian worker.”
Inaugurating the 37-member committee at the council chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, President Tinubu, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, also told members of the committee, drawn from the government, organised labour and the private sector, to maintain the spirit of give and take.
He urged the members to “speedily” arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early as the current N30,000 minimum wage expires at the end of March 2024.
He urged them to take attendance to meeting seriously, adding that the minimum wage must be based on equity and social justice.
“This timely submission is crucial to ensure the emergence of a new minimum wage,” Tinubu said.
He also urged collective bargaining in good faith, emphasising contract adherence and encouraging consultations outside the committee.
Chairman of the Committee, Buka Goni Aji, in his remarks, said members of the committee shall make extensive consultation in order to arrive at a new national minimum wage that would be fair, practical, sustainable and implementable.
He affirmed that its members would come up with a “fair, practical, implementable and sustainable,” minimum wage.
Although President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero, was absent at the meeting, the labour centre was, however, represented by the Deputy President, Prince Adeyanju Adewale.
Tuesday’s inauguration followed months of agitation from the organised labour over the government’s failure to inaugurate the new national minimum wage committee as promised during negotiations last October.
Minimumwageabout cost of living—Ajaero
Meanwhile, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, has said the forthcoming minimum wage negotiations must be based on cost of living and not just about give and take as requested by the vice president.
While reacting to the vice president’s inauguration speech, Ajaero, who explained that he had left the country for a scheduled trade union engagement before the government’s invitation for the inauguration got to the NLC’s secretariat, said the essence of every negotiation was compromise.
“However, national minimum wage is a reflection of objective realities driven by existential issues, such as cost of food beverages, housing, clothing, transport, communication, education, health care etc.
”These and others are the factors that must determine the eventual outcome for it to have any meaning. You do not play give and take with the lives of workers and Nigerians.
“It must be based on what does it cost the average Nigerian worker to survive or exist as a human being? That is where the compromise must be worked around, anything less than that makes the outcome less humane and reinforces poverty. The outcome must renew the hopes of Nigerians and not sabotage or betray it.
“My absence at the inauguration should not be an issue. The inauguration was just ceremonial and all the relevant stakeholders, including NLC leaders, were well represented at the inauguration.
”Let Nigerians know that they should look forward to the actual meetings that would mark the beginning of the negotiation process where all the parties will be expected to seriously canvass their positions,” Ajaero said.
Bring down prices for minimum wage to have meaning, NACCIMA tells govt
Also speaking, the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Industry and Agriculture, NACCIMA, urged the government to ensure prices of commodities in the market were brought down for any minimum wage to make any meaning.
Humphrey Ngonadi, Life Vice President, NACCIMA, said: “Well, I thank God for this initiative that government is taking at this place. But I’m worried.
“We may remember some time ago, that an Udoji award was done. And that was the first time the salary of workers was increased and immediately after the increment, the commodity in the market ran up to meet it.”
”So while we are talking about minimum wage, I think the government on its own side, has to think on how to bring down the price of commodities in the market.”
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.
“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.
It said the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.
The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.
Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.
The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as labourers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.
“2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded on the Eastern migration route… with 922 people dead or missing — double the number from the previous year,” Tanja Pacifico, head of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, told AFP.
The majority of victims were from Ethiopia, the second most-populous country in Africa with more than 130 million people. It is plagued by multiple internal conflicts and deep poverty.
“IOM remains fully committed to working alongside the government of Djibouti to promote safe and dignified migration pathways, in order to prevent further tragedies,” said Pacifico.
Many migrants who cross the Red Sea find themselves stuck in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, which has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly a decade, and some even choose to return.
Rapid economic growth in Ethiopia — estimated to reach around 10 percent in 2026 — could encourage less migration, IOM says, but that is mitigated by high inflation, also around 10 percent in February.
Election workers recount ballots in the Marselisborg Hallen in Aarhus, Denmark on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) /
Denmark’s political parties began the thorny process of forming a government Wednesday, with the centrist Moderates as kingmaker after the prime minister’s Social Democrats scraped through a general election without a majority.
Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party member Naaja Nathanielsen (C) looks on in a polling station in Nuuk, on March 24, 2026, during the parliamentary election in Denmark (Photo by Oscar Scott Carl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT
Danes were braced for a weeks-long process as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks to consolidate power in the deeply splintered parliament after Tuesday’s snap vote.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen to inform the king about the election result one day after the parliamentary election on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
A left-wing bloc made up of five parties, including Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, won 84 seats; the right-wing and far-right claimed 77; and the Moderates won 14 in the election.
The Social Democrats posted their worst election score since 1903—though they remained Denmark’s largest single party, with 38 seats in the 179-seat parliament.
Chairwoman of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen attends a party leader debate hosted by Publicists’ Club one the day after the parliamentary election at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)
Frederiksen formally tendered her coalition government’s resignation to King Frederik on Wednesday, telling a televised party leader debate she wanted to try to form a centre-left government.
“The most realistic scenario” would be a coalition with the five parties on the left and the centre-right Moderates, she said.
But it is not certain the Moderates, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would agree to that.
“I don’t believe that Denmark needs policies aligned with” the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Lokke said.
Chairman of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen attends a party leader debate at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026, the day after the parliamentary election. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT
King Frederik was to meet party leaders individually later Wednesday to determine who should be asked to try to form the next government.
“My expectation is that Mette Frederiksen will become prime minister,” University of Copenhagen political science professor Rune Stubager told reporters.
“But I don’t know with the backing of which parties, like the left wing or the right wing,” he said.
He noted that Lokke, a two-time former prime minister, would likely vie for the position of prime minister, even though he has adamantly denied any interest in the job.
“Danes want me and not another prime minister. I still have the backing to be able to continue on behalf of the Danish people,” Frederiksen insisted during the debate.
Frederiksen has for the past four years headed an unprecedented left-right coalition made up of her Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals.
The Liberals have refused to continue in a Social Democrat-led government.
‘Too Hard To Say’
Danes are now prepared for long negotiations. After the 2022 election, the talks lasted six weeks.
“It’s a long process, which means the government won’t be formed and it will be quite difficult to pass laws during this period,” lamented Jesper Dyrfjeld Christensen, a 54-year-old engineer.
“It’s really too hard to say who will be part of the coalition,” admitted Stubager.
With 12 parties in parliament, the political landscape is jagged — though Denmark is accustomed to minority governments.
“To some extent, this is the way Danish politics works. You have a minority government in the centre which forms a majority with the left on some issues and with the right on others,” he explained.
The negotiations are expected to focus on economic and pension issues, pollution and immigration, he said.
The traditional far-right party, the Danish People’s Party, which has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s but slumped in the 2022 election, more than tripled its result to 9.1 per cent of votes.
The three anti-immigration groups together garnered 17 per cent, a stable figure for Denmark’s populist right over the past two decades.
“If negotiations take place in the left-wing bloc with the moderates, then there will be more focus on green issues than on immigration,” Stubager said.
“But if, instead, the Moderates negotiate with the parties on the right, then the central issue will be immigration.”
Four seats in Denmark’s parliament are held by its two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands.
While the Faroese renewed the mandates of the two outgoing lawmakers, with one for each bloc, Greenland overwhelmingly backed the left-wing party and Naleraq, which advocates rapid independence from Denmark.
