•Nigerian workers and Tinubu
The Eagles Square was projected to be an arena for parades, but its podium witnessed a range of economic, social and political disagreement between the federal government and Organised Labour yesterday.
While President Bola Tinubu used the 2026 Workers’ Day to project progress on jobs, wages and social protection, his assurances landed against a stubborn rise in debt, rising fuel costs, inflation, widening poverty and persistent insecurity that continue to erode workers’ living standards, reports Saturday Guardian.
The president acknowledged that insecurity and poverty remain binding constraints on decent work, even as he outlined a slate of interventions he said are beginning to yield results.
Tinubu described insecurity as a drag on farms, factories and markets, insisting that his administration is treating the crisis as a national emergency, pointing to a mix of security deployments, infrastructure spending and social safety nets.
But workers were far from impressed by the president’s address, read by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mohammad Dingyadi.
They maintained that the headline numbers mask a harsher reality – low wages that lag prices, a cost-of-living squeeze that has thinned real incomes, and insecurity that still disrupts production and trade corridors.
It was earlier on Thursday reported on the harrowing experiences Nigerian workers are going through currently.
Organised Labour has repeatedly warned that without stronger purchasing power and credible enforcement, wage gains risk being neutralised by inflation.
While the government leans on infrastructure-led job creation and targeted transfers, both NLC and TUC argued that job quality, pay adequacy and workplace safety remain uneven, particularly in the informal economy where most Nigerians earn a living.
This line of argument was agreeable to the President, who cautioned against the flippant deployment of strike as the only viable option out of industrial disagreement.
“Strike should be the last resort, not the first. When we sit at the table, Nigerian workers win,” he said.
While calling for deeper social dialogue, President Tinubu charged employers to uphold fair wages, safe workplaces and collective bargaining.
Labour insisted that the entrenched system of kleptocracy and illicit financial flows (IFFs) is steadily draining the nation’s lifeblood and deepening the hardship faced by millions of workers.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, described official kleptocracy as dangerous and called for a coordinated campaign to tackle it, hence the launch of the ‘Stop The Bleeding’ campaign.
The labour movement noted that the country’s economic struggles, which range from weak wages to failing power and oil sectors, are directly tied to systemic financial leakages.
According to labour leaders, the magnitude of the crisis is staggering: Africa is estimated to lose about $90 billion yearly to illicit financial flows, with Nigeria accounting for roughly 79 per cent of these flows in West Africa. It added that across developing countries, losses are between $858.6 billion and $1.06 trillion over five years.
Historically, labour disclosed that the continent has haemorrhaged about $854 billion between 1970 and 2008, an amount that exceeds the total foreign aid received within the same period.
Citing Nigeria’s experience with fuel subsidy, labour revealed that more than ₦21 trillion is believed to have been spent on questionable fuel subsidy claims between 2006 and 2023.
“In addition, over $2.2 billion has reportedly been lost through trade mis-invoicing as the National Assembly raised alarm over an estimated ₦210 trillion in unaccounted funds linked to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).”
Labour leaders insist these figures point not to isolated acts of corruption but to a deeply rooted system that continuously siphons public wealth.
“Nigeria alone accounts for nearly 79 per cent of illicit financial flows in West Africa. Trade-related flows have been estimated at over $105 billion in a single year, with billions more lost annually in the extractive sector,” both Ajaero and Osifo said in a speech that was jointly read by the duo.
The labour leaders argued that the effects of illicit and financial inflows are evident in the deteriorating infrastructure, shrinking employment opportunities, and a growing exodus of skilled professionals.
“At the heart of the crisis are weak institutions and compromised governance systems. At the same time, procurement leakages are estimated to account for between 10 and 25 per cent of GDP, and contract values are often inflated by 200 to 300 per cent.”
Giving a ray of hope, labour leaders held that despite the grim outlook, the situation is not beyond redemption.
They pointed at the recent reform efforts, including the proposed Federal Audit Service Bill 2025, but stressed that stronger measures are urgently required.
They recommended enhanced whistleblower protections, full transparency in beneficial ownership structures, and the digitalisation of public procurement systems to curb fraud.
“The challenge before us is clear. Every stolen naira is a stolen future,” urging citizens to demand accountability and transparency from public institutions.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has increased workers’ salaries by N50,000 to cushion the economic hardship they are facing.
He announced this during his speech at the May Day celebration, urging workers to remain calm, as the state is working assiduously to improve their welfare.
But the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded a review of the minimum wage for Lagos State workers from N85,000 to N225,000.
Chairperson of the NLC, Agnes Sessi, said the amount was no longer sufficient to meet workers’ basic needs, given the prevailing economic realities and the high cost of living in Lagos.
According to Sessi, Lagos remains Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, where the costs of transportation, housing, and feeding are exceptionally high.
She urged the federal government and sub-nationals to urgently strengthen the country’s national security architecture, warning that no nation can prosper when its citizens live in fear.
In his speech, Chairman of Lagos TUC, Abiodun Aladetan, who commended the newly introduced policy direction at the federal level regarding the payment of gratuity to deserving workers after years of meritorious service, urged Sanwo-Olu also to embrace and implement the progressive policy.
