The NLC President, Aliyu Wabba, stated that inflation has lowered the wage, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) in 2019.

Wabba spoke at the 2021 Decent Work Round-Table discussion, which focused on the ‘Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health, Employment, Income, and Gender Equality,’ in honor of the 2021 World Day for Decent Work.

He urged the Federal Government to adopt a National Employment Plan that will engender decent work in the country.

The NLC President said, “Today we know that the 30,000 minimum wage has been reduced to virtually nothing due to external effects of inflation in our system.”

The national employment plan, according to Wabba, is critical in tackling the country’s peace and stability issues.

Governments at all levels, he said, should take serious action and put in place systems that will encourage Nigerians to work decently.

“We also need jobs to respect fundamental labor status, we need sustainable jobs. We need jobs that respect maximum working hours and jobs that can provide a decent minimum wage,” he submitted, adding that 70 percent of Nigerians had their livelihood in the informal sector.

The NLC President also stated that the casualization of labor is a problem, and that finding work has become perverse.

Wabba said, “I must use this opportunity to call on our government at all levels to adopt a national employment plan and I think decent employment which is a recipe to addressing the issue of peace and stability. Because youths can certainly be a tool to the hands of the people who are manipulative and this can be very dangerous to the society.

“As a country, unemployment must come to the center stage in our recovery for COVID-plan.”