NLC: Tinubu Offered Us N250k Minimum Wage To Accept N1,500 Petrol Price, But We Rejected It—Ajaero

Joe Ajaero, the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, has said that organised labour accepted a ₦70,000 minimum wage instead of a ₦250,000 offer from President Bola Tinubu tied to allowing a higher pump price of petrol.

According to a video posted on the official YouTube channel of Mic On Podcast on Saturday, October 3, 2026, while speaking on workers hardship and the 2023 agreement with the government, Ajaero recounted a meeting with President Tinubu.

Ajaero said President Tinubu told labour leaders they were holding him down, and that a payment of ₦250,000 would follow if the union allowed the proposed price increase, citing developments in nearby countries to support his case.

During the interview, he stated, “I could remember in a meeting our executive had with Mr. President, he said, ‘Ah, you are the person that is holding me down; if you allow me to increase this price,’ then he was talking about ₦1,500 or so, ‘I will pay you guys ₦250,000,’ and he gave an analysis of what was happening in nearby countries.”

Continuing, “we told him, ‘Look, sir, we prefer to take even ₦70,000 than for you to increase the pump price around ₦1,500, because it is not only the labour force that will suffer from this effect.’”

The programme host noted that the ₦70,000 minimum wage, signed into law by President Tinubu in July 2024 at a 133 percent increase from ₦30,000, is due for its next statutory review in 2027 under a three-year cycle.

In his concluding remarks, Ajaero said that accepting ₦250,000 for a higher pump price would have amounted to selfishness on the part of labour, because Nigeria is bigger than working people alone, so the union settled for ₦70,000.

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