The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration on the midpoint of its tenure, accusing the federal government of presiding over a interval marked by {economic} hardship, damaged guarantees, and deepening poverty for the Nigerian individuals.
In a press release commemorating the second anniversary of Tinubu’s presidency, NLC President Joe Ajaero stated the {economic} reforms launched since Might 29, 2023, delivered “struggling somewhat than reduction.”
“When President Bola Tinubu took workplace on Might 29, 2023, he promised a brand new daybreak, daring {economic} reforms that may rescue Nigeria from fiscal instability and set it on a path to prosperity,” Ajaero acknowledged. “However two years later, the one factor bolder than his rhetoric is the magnitude of struggling and hardship his insurance policies have inflicted on staff and strange Nigerians.”
The Labour chief condemned the controversial removing of the petrol subsidy, describing it as a transfer that triggered a wave of {economic} hardship with out ample measures to guard susceptible residents.
“The sudden removing of the petrol subsidy despatched shockwaves by way of an already fragile economic system, inflicting gasoline costs to skyrocket from N187 to over N600 per litre in a single day,” Ajaero stated. “The federal government claimed it was a crucial sacrifice to release funds for growth, however the place are the outcomes?”
Based on the NLC, the implications have been dire: meals inflation has surged, transport prices have soared, companies are shutting down, and the naira has depreciated sharply, additional straining an economic system closely reliant on imports. Ajaero accused the administration of recycling “failed neoliberal experiments” which have traditionally widened inequality and entrenched poverty.
“These identical insurance policies underneath previous administrations solely widened inequality, enriched a couple of, and left the bulk poorer. Tinubu’s model isn’t any totally different, besides the struggling is deeper, the anger louder, and the federal government’s response extra brutal,” he remarked.
On the plight of staff, the union chief stated actual incomes have collapsed, with pensioners and small companies among the many hardest hit. He famous that wage award arrears stay unpaid and that inflation in production inputs has risen by over 150 %.
“Nigerian staff have seen their actual wages obliterated…150 million Nigerians are actually multi-dimensionally poor,” Ajaero lamented.
The NLC additionally decried what it described as an erosion of labour rights underneath the present administration. It accused the federal government of responding to peaceable union protests with repression and of abandoning promised dialogue in favour of intimidation.
“Promised dialogue with Labour unions has been changed with intimidation and violence. Employees demanding a residing wage are met with batons and threats, whereas the federal government wallows in luxurious,” the assertion learn. “The identical officers who preach sacrifice journey in convoys, feast on bloated budgets, and deal with public funds like private piggy banks.”
The union additional warned that the continuing {economic} disaster is compounded by a deteriorating safety state of affairs throughout the nation. Ajaero pointed to the rising threat of mass kidnappings, banditry, and insurgency, which he stated had rendered coverage conversations “nearly absurd.”
“In any case, within the surreal panorama of a nation grappling with escalating insecurity, discussing the intricacies of {economic} coverage appears akin to debating the color of curtains in a burning home,” Ajaero acknowledged. “Our nation is at struggle.”
The NLC president referred to as for an pressing shift in coverage route, warning that continued adherence to present {economic} methods would solely deepen the struggling of the lots.
“The reality is easy: reforms that convey solely ache with out achieve will not be reforms in any respect. They’re deformations—deliberate assaults on the poor in service of a system that rewards the highly effective,” Ajaero stated. “If this authorities really desires to resume hope, it should abandon these merciless experiments, take heed to the individuals, and chart a brand new course.”