e Union Congress have been talking with the federal government. NLC subsequently engaged in a three-day warning strike. TUC was not part of the warning strike, but both bodies gave notice to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if they were unable to reach an agreement with the government.
That is outside my focus today, but any state that cannot pay N35,000 minimum wage does not deserve to exist. The state governor, legislators and other government officials should resign and the state should be merged with a viable neighbouring state. It is wrong to love the glamour of statehood and hate the grind of statehood.
Another agreement is the federal government acceptance to vote N100 billion for the provision of high-capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria. Provisions are also to be made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an auto gas conversion programme, whilst work is ongoing on state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide. The rollout aims to commence by November with pilots across 10 campuses nationwide. This will definitely help low-income earners if it is well implemented.
I am also happy with the federal government commitment to pay N25,000 per month for three months starting from October 2023 to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners. I am totally in support of this palliative as long as it is transparent. As I said in a previous article, N25,000 over three months is not chicken feed for low-income earners and vulnerable families.