Towards a realistic, sustainable minimum wage

The Federal Government is right to reopen the minimum-wage question, because no wage can be called fair if it is continually outrun by inflation and the rising cost of survival. The N70,000 minimum wage was agreed in 2024 at the outset of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms. Nigerians were asked to absorb painful shocks in the hope of a more stable future. Two years on, that hope has been strained by the harsh realities of a reform programme that has yet to translate into broad