This year’s Workers’ Day hasn’t really served its purpose judging by the title and the sadness that workers seeing distortions with their job and income feel. The way they are marking the 2024 May Day anniversary with widespread fuel scarcity, for instance, has been pushing the scale to far extreme heights. So, what is in it for these professionals?

Under President Bola Tinubu, workers are seeing motions, conversations between their trade union leaders and policy makers but no decisions reached in their favour.

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All around the country today, there will be stadium matches by the state labour unions. While the crowd listens to the speeches, cheer at a parade and sometimes shout slogans, before they retreat back home, here are a few things that await their return home after their May Day celebration.

Yesterday, Head of Press, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) Emmanuel Njoku, confirmed in a statement that a 25 percent to 35 percent salary increment for six Consolidated Salary Structures.

They are the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS), Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS), Consolidated Paramilitary Salary Structure (CONPASS), Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS), and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).

But all these structures have always been favourites to receiving benefits. They are the default staging ground for any new idea the Federal Government has about improving welfare in the public service and that is why labour representatives want the privileges to go round to the average Nigerian worker.

Nigeria Labour Congress’s Head of Information and Publicity, Comrade Benson Upah had this thought in an Arise News report the day the increase was announced.

He said that, I am yet to see the details of the statement, but from what I heard, those affected by the pay rise are from the specialised services.

These categories of workers are already in the privileged sector but we expect it to be extended also to other categories of civil servants who are in lower cadre and are vulnerable.

According to the salary commission statement, the recent wage increment even though just announced, will run as having started on 1 January.

Unrelenting PMS scarcity

How come May Day feels like a distress call has been especially for the long, sluggish lines of automobiles queuing to get a dose of premium motor spirit for their movement.

It is not just vehicles that need petrol to power to function, the generators that run midsize enterprises in the inner districts of Nigeria are also wanting a share yet getting PMS has been hard and leading to fistfights.

Some gbas gbos between two adults triggered by scarcity fuel
pic.twitter.com/qjIVCbDDXs

— Instablog9ja (@instablog9ja) April 30, 2024

Petroleum product marketers and their associations last week had to improvise by loaning each other petrol to cover up the gaps that open up when a filling station of one of their own empties out. Factors like inadequate electricity supply despite the rainy season beginning, has been pushing up demand for petrol, both for households and businesses.

Patriotism by the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) has had its members in the port neighbourhood Apapa and other Lagos districts taking product from 8 vessels this week with over 300 million litres of PMS, well above our normal levels,” says a press statement the group released yesterday.

We are actively coordinating with our member companies through swaps and other supply arrangements to ensure member stations remain stocked.

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Naira still rolling dice

As at 1 May, 2024, the Naira was exchanging for ₦1,390 to $1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market. That is a ₦29 appreciation from two days ago when the value pegged ₦1,419, when matched with the United States currency.

It was like facing a reversal of fortunes back to March when it seemed that the local currency had truly commenced a recovery.

Dollar supply in the official foreign exchange market, according to Punch News, reached a substantial sum of $7.3billion in the months of March and April, and this is what is believed to have improved Naira’s standing early this week.

It is ₦1,390 to a dollar on the official market but fairly lesser for Malam Yahu, a trader who viewed it as that the naira remained as it was on Monday, trading at N1,340. We buy at N1, 310 and our profit is just N30.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.