Claim: Reno Omokri on Twitter asserted that civil servants in Nigeria earn N18,000 as minimum wage.
Verdict: FALSE. The current minimum wage in Nigeria is N30,000, contrary to Reno Omokri’s N18,000 claim.
Full Text
Former Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan, and staunch supporter of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, stated that the minimum wage in Nigeria is currently N18,000.
On January 16, 2023, in an attempt to canvass votes for the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Mr Omokri, on his verified Twitter handle @renoomokri, taunted Nigeria civil servants on their choice of a Presidential Candidate in the coming 2023 General Election.
He asked if they could live on the N18,000 Minimum Wage they earn.
Twitter users in the comment section didn’t believe his assertion and mocked him for reducing himself.
One user, @Ruthlmelda8, said, “Lies,” while another user @COkekeOfficial wrote, “shame on you! You are worth nothing.”
Reno has become notorious for making spurious claims, and it is strange to say the minimum wage which has been reviewed is still N18,000. This prompted us to verify this claim.
Verification
A quick search showed that contrary to the N18,000 minimum wage assertion by Reno Omokri, the current minimum wage, according to the National Minimum Wage Act 2019, is N30,000.
The principle behind minimum wage is to ensure workers are not paid unduly low wages and to combat poverty and inequality, including gender disparity, amongst the working population.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), which Nigeria is a signatory to, 92% of its 186 Member States have adopted the minimum wage. This shows that a large majority of countries in the world use minimum wage to protect workers.
The history of minimum wage in Nigeria
A major game changer in minimum wage agitations in Nigeria was the National Minimum Wage Act of 2004. For the first time, workers had a real document to refer to. The Act then provided for a minimum wage of N5,500.
However, this increased in 2011, following an amendment to the Act (National Minimum Wage Act 2011) which provided for N18,000 as minimum wage.
Subsequently, in 2019 a new minimum wage of N30,000 monthly was approved, which is the current minimum.
In May 2022, workers in Nigeria began to advocate for a new minimum wage to cushion the effect of the economic hardship in the country. This was followed by a pronouncement in January 2023 by the spokesperson of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Emmanuel Njoku that the process of review of the National Minimum Wage will begin soon in line with the provisions of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, also assured workers at the 13th quadrennial delegates conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, held in Abuja that a new minimum wage will take effect come May 2024.
Furthermore, some political parties and presidential candidates have been making juicy promises of what amount they will pay workers if elected.
Amid this controversy, the question “will the minimum wage be increased from the current N30,000 monthly” and many others linger.
Factors that determine the minimum wage
The International Labor Organization, ILO, Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1971 (No. 131) encourage member states to create a system of minimum wages which:
- offers a broad scope of application and where exclusions made are kept to a minimum;
- establishes machinery to fix and adjust minimum wages from time to time;
- is based on the principle of full consultation with social partners;
- involves social partners on an equal footing, as well as independent experts in the design and operation of the system;
- sets minimum wage levels that take into account the needs of workers and their families, as well as economic factors;
- includes appropriate measures to ensure the effective application of minimum wages.”
Conclusion
The claim by Reno Omokri that the current minimum wage is N18,000 is false. The current minimum wage is N30,000.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the DUBAWA 2023 Kwame KariKari Fellowship partnership with Harmony FM to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.