A human rights activist lawyer, Maduabuchi Idam, has said President Bola Tinubu has not shown enough interest in the welfare of Nigerian workers, stressing that the minimum wage should be N100,000.

Idam said offering N62,000 as the new national minimum wage shows that Tinubu is not interested in the welfare of workers.

Negotiations between the Nigerian government and organized labor are still ongoing.

While the Nigerian government offered N62,000, labor reduced its initial demand from N494,000 to N250,000.

Amid the negotiations, Tinubu had promised to send a minimum wage bill to the National Assembly.

However, speaking with the DAILY POST, Idam said: “Mr. President has not demonstrated the character of a leader who is interested in the welfare of his workers. You can see the demand made by labor and that made by the government; they are worlds apart. Mr. President is offering N62,000, while labor cut down from N494,000 to N250,000. I expected Mr. President to meet them halfway. I expected Mr. President to be talking about N100,000 and above, not N62,000.

“I understand that state governors are actually creating a bottleneck by saying their allocations can’t sustain the demand, but this is the time for Mr. President to show leadership and that he desires workers to do well in his administration.

“I do not think Mr. President has demonstrated the character of a leader interested in the welfare of his workers because if he did, he should be working with labor and engaging the unemployed youths of Nigeria, trying to see how to alleviate the problem.”