Olusegun Adeyemo
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a stern warning of a nationwide mass action in response to the worsening cost-of-living crisis, rising insecurity, and what it described as orchestrated assaults on workers’ rights across the country.
Rising from its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting held over the weekend at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, the NLC declared that the suffering of Nigerian workers and the general populace has become unbearable and that urgent corrective measures are necessary to avert a national crisis.
“Nigerian workers will no longer sit idly by while our economy and democracy collapse. The current hardship is intolerable,” the CWC resolved in a communique issued at the end of the meeting.
The labour body also rejected moves by the National Assembly to transfer labour matters—including the national minimum wage—from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List, a move that would allow individual states to determine their wage structures.
Speaking at the National Administrative Council (NAC) meeting of the Central Working Committee in Abeokuta, NLC President Joe Ajaero described the legislative proposal as an attempt to “bastardise” the current national wage structure.
“This is an exercise in futility. Globally, issues like the minimum wage are treated as national matters, in line with International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions,” Ajaero said.
He warned that allowing states to determine wages independently would undermine collective bargaining, weaken labour institutions, and violate international labour standards, particularly ILO conventions which treat member nations as single entities, not fragmented sub-national units.
“If the National Assembly insists on this dangerous path, then lawmakers should also be prepared to have their salaries determined by their individual states,” Ajaero added.
According to the NLC, the plan also includes proposals to create state-level industrial courts, which would independently adjudicate wage and labour disputes—a move Ajaero says is both divisive and unconstitutional.
Labour leaders view these proposals as a calculated attempt to weaken national labour protections, reduce the power of unions, and undermine decades of progress in collective labour rights.
The NLC leadership warned that unless the Federal Government and National Assembly reverse anti-labour policies and address the deepening economic hardship, Nigerian workers would be mobilised for mass protests nationwide.
With inflation soaring, food prices rising, and insecurity deepening in many parts of the country, the NLC says the government has failed to meet the basic expectations of governance.
“Workers are no longer safe, they are no longer earning a living wage, and the country is becoming increasingly unlivable,” the labour body said.
The Congress called on civil society groups, students, market women, and other citizens to join in defending democracy, dignity, and the rights of the working class.
As tensions grow and the national mood worsens, all eyes are now on the Federal Government’s response to what could become another wave of nationwide strikes and protests.