90% of the agreements with Labor have been delivered by the Federal Government - Nigeria's Minister of State for Labor, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.

Nkeiruka Onyejeocha has said that the Federal Government reached around 90% of the agreements it had with the Organized Labor last October.

She asserted that the President Bola Tinubu administration prioritized economic growth and food security. She pleaded with Nigerians to exercise patience with the new administration, saying that it is still in the planting phase and will soon reap the rewards.

According to Onyejeocha, the Federal Government has completed around 90% of the 15-point Memorandum of Understanding that it signed on October 2, 2023, with Organized Labor. She claims that during a meeting on Sunday, Joe Ajaero, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, informed government representatives that the protest was about food inflation rather than the government’s commitment to the October agreement.

A few provisions of the deal are the payment of a N35,000 salary award to workers, the establishment of a minimum wage committee, and a six-month suspension of Value Added Tax (VAT) collection on diesel. The minister stated that money had been approved for the purchase of high capacity CNG buses for Nigerian mass transit, but added, “There are certain things you cannot control; you cannot control the number of days a shipment or a container will stay in the port.”

Nigeria is experiencing economic hardship due to the withdrawal of the petrol subsidy, rising food inflation, currency instability, rising inflation, and high living expenses, which have sparked protests in various parts of the nation. On Monday night, the NLC insisted that the protest would go on, so the presidency invited labor leaders to a last-minute meeting that resulted in deadlock.

As labor leader Ajaero stated that the protest was about hunger and not only a call for a revision of the minimum wage, the National Labor Congress (NLC) grounded economic activities nationwide on Tuesday, even if the Trade Union Congress (TUC) claimed it was not a part of the strike. Later on Tuesday night, following the first day of the protest, Labour called off the protest, stating that the first day of the march had accomplished the protest’s goals.