Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded an immediate upward review of the national minimum wage, accusing President Bola Tinubu of driving millions of working citizens into acute destitution through unchecked market reforms. A statement released on Sunday by his campaign communications chief, Phrank Shaibu, warned that galloping inflation has made the statutory 70,000 naira base wage functionally worthless. Nominal pay rises mean nothing when petrol, food, and transport costs swallow entire salaries within days of disbursement. The arithmetic of daily survival breaks down completely across working-class homes.
The arithmetic of petrol prices illustrates the scale of this quiet economic squeeze. When the federal minimum stood at 30,000 naira in early 2023, that monthly pay packet bought 118 litres of fuel at the prevailing pump rate of 254 naira per litre. The current 70,000 naira wage buys barely 50 litres from retail forecourts that now charge upwards of 1,400 naira. Workers receive bigger figures on paper while enduring significantly smaller lives.
The opposition flagbearer targeted the administration’s sudden abolition of fuel subsidies as the chief trigger of this widespread misery. Federal planners pulled away the economic floor without putting basic social protections in place to shield vulnerable wage earners. Cash-strapped civil servants cannot eat glowing balance sheets from the federation account allocation committee while kitchen cupboards sit bare. Official claims of fiscal success ring hollow to hungry workers.
The political battle lines for the 2027 general election are already taking clear shape around this deepening cost of living crisis. Atiku promised to raise the national wage floor on his first day in office if voters hand him the presidency. Higher baseline wages alone cannot salvage household finances unless authorities stabilise electricity tariffs, energy rates, and staple food prices. Pumping more paper notes into an economy without fixing supply chains simply accelerates currency debasement.
The presidency opted for pious appeals to civic patience rather than answering the opposition’s wage demands directly. Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume used Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary church service in Abuja to urge citizens to choose national unity over divisive votes ahead of the 2027 polls. Platitudes about unity offer thin comfort to families that skip meals to cover basic bus fares. Empty stomachs ignore sermons on national cohesion.