The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: nlc

  • NLC Demands Petrol Price Cut, Wage Award As Workers Face Economic Hardship

    NLC Demands Petrol Price Cut, Wage Award As Workers Face Economic Hardship

    Precious Nwonu, Enugu

    The Nigeria Labour Congress has called for an immediate reduction in petrol prices, a nationwide wage award and the commencement of negotiations for a new national minimum wage, saying Nigerian workers are facing worsening economic hardship.

    The NLC made the demands in an Independence Day statement signed by its President, Joe Ajaero, on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.

    The labour centre said persistent inflation and rising costs of petrol and transportation had significantly reduced the purchasing power of workers, while driving up the prices of food, rent, education and other essential goods and services.

    The union described the situation as a “full-scale survival crisis”, noting that petrol was selling for about ₦1,430 per litre or higher in major cities and at even higher prices in some remote areas.

    The NLC also criticised the increase in petrol prices that followed the removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023, questioning how the savings from the policy had been utilised.

    According to the union, the Federal Government had promised that subsidy savings would be redirected towards infrastructure and social services, but Nigerians were yet to see the expected benefits.

    The labour centre also expressed concern over Nigeria’s continued dependence on imported refined petroleum products despite being one of the world’s major crude oil producers.

    It argued that dependence on imported fuel exposed workers and households to fluctuations in global oil prices and contributed to rising transportation costs.

    The NLC said reducing petrol prices should be an immediate priority because transportation costs affect the prices of goods and services across the economy.

    “Without cutting this chain, any effort to ease the suffering of the people is futile,” the union said.

    The labour body also demanded the immediate introduction of a nationwide wage award for workers employed by the federal, state and local governments.

    It described the wage award as an emergency measure to cushion the erosion of workers’ incomes rather than a permanent solution to the wage problem.

    “A wage award is not charity. It is an emergency intervention against the collapse of real income,” the NLC said.

    The union further demanded the implementation of tax relief measures agreed upon during the October 2023 negotiations between organised labour and the Federal Government.

    It said some of the tax incentives contained in the Memorandum of Understanding reached during the dialogue had yet to be implemented.

    On the minimum wage, the NLC called for the immediate constitution of a tripartite committee to negotiate and establish a new wage structure for 2027 before the end of the year.

    The labour centre argued that the current ₦70,000 minimum wage had already lost substantial purchasing power to inflation.

    It also called for a reduction in the cost of governance and greater transparency in public spending, saying government should demonstrate restraint while workers are being asked to cope with economic pressures.

    The NLC urged increased investment in roads, hospitals, schools and other public infrastructure, while calling for more opportunities for young Nigerians.

    On insecurity, the union said violence had compounded Nigeria’s economic challenges and undermined national stability.

    It claimed that nearly 2,000 Nigerians were killed in violent incidents during the first quarter of 2026 and said insecurity had disrupted the activities of farmers, teachers, doctors and other workers in some parts of the country.

    The NLC linked poverty, unemployment and inequality to insecurity and argued that addressing economic deprivation was necessary for sustainable improvements in national security.

    With political activities increasing ahead of the 2027 general elections, the labour centre warned political actors against manipulating elections, intimidating voters or using ethnic and religious sentiments to create divisions.

    The NLC said it would, at the appropriate time, use its Workers’ Charter to communicate the policies and political positions it considered relevant to the interests of the working class.

    However, it stressed that individual workers retained the right to make their own political choices.

    Ajaero said the NLC would continue to advocate decent wages, safe working conditions and improved living standards for Nigerian workers.

  • NLC Demands Wage Awards, Crude Allocation to Local Refiners as Petrol Price Rises

    NLC Demands Wage Awards, Crude Allocation to Local Refiners as Petrol Price Rises

    Precious Nwonu, Enugu

    The Nigeria Labour Congress has called on the Federal Government to introduce emergency measures to cushion workers and households from the impact of rising petrol prices.

    The NLC also urged the government to sell crude oil to local refineries in naira and expand the country’s petroleum storage capacity to strengthen energy security.

    The call was contained in a statement titled, “Save the Situation Now,” signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, on Wednesday.

    The labour union said the latest increase in petrol prices would further worsen the economic difficulties facing Nigerians, noting that the product now sells for about N1,430 per litre in major cities, with prices reportedly higher in less accessible areas.

    Ajaero warned that the increase would have wider economic consequences because higher transportation costs typically lead to increases in the prices of food, rent, school fees and other essential goods and services.

    The NLC questioned why the government would allow Nigerians to bear the full impact of rising fuel prices under the deregulation policy, particularly with the next general elections approaching.

    It argued that government intervention to cushion the effect of the increase should not be regarded as inappropriate, particularly during an emergency.

    According to the union, the latest surge in petrol prices came at a time when government efforts to persuade oil marketers to reduce pump prices in line with lower international crude prices were beginning to yield results.

    The NLC attributed the latest pressure on fuel prices to the resurgence of conflict in the Gulf but said Nigeria’s status as an oil-producing country and its local refining capacity should provide some protection against external shocks.

    Ajaero said the government should immediately introduce measures to shield workers, households and businesses from the impact of the higher fuel prices.

    He specifically called for the payment of reasonable wage awards to workers nationwide, the allocation of sufficient crude oil to local refineries in naira and the expansion of national petroleum storage capacity.

    The labour leader said the measures would not only cushion Nigerians from the immediate impact of higher fuel prices but could also create jobs, generate economic value and strengthen the country’s response to security challenges.

    The NLC maintained that government intervention through palliatives was justified in emergency situations, arguing that oil-producing countries had adopted various measures to protect their citizens from the effects of global energy shocks.

    Ajaero further said the government’s additional earnings from the international oil market provided room for intervention.

    He claimed that the government was currently earning between $35 and $40 more per barrel than the figure used in the budget, describing the difference as a windfall that should be used to support Nigerians during the current period of economic pressure.

  • Tinubu’s Democracy Day Broadcast: NLC says no agreement reached with FG on minimum wage

    Tinubu’s Democracy Day Broadcast: NLC says no agreement reached with FG on minimum wage

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s claims that an agreement has been reached on a new national minimum wage, insisting that its demand for a new national minimum wage remains N250,000.

    Speaking on Wednesday during his nationwide broadcast to mark Democracy Day, Tinubu said a consensus had been reached on the long-debated new minimum wage between the federal government and the organised labour.

    The president revealed that an executive bill would soon be sent to the National Assembly to formalise the new minimum wage agreement.

    He said, “In this spirit, we have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with organised labour on a new national minimum wage.

    “We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less.”

    But in a statement yesterday, the acting President of NLC, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, said there was no agreement reached by the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage at the time negotiations ended on Friday, June 7, 2024.

    He said, “Our demand still remains N250,000 only, and we have not been given any compelling reasons to change this position which we consider a great concession by Nigerian workers during the tripartite negotiation process.”

    NLC said it had to raise the point for President Tinubu, Nigerians and stakeholders to be aware because it appeared that those who briefed him on the outcome of the tripartite negotiation did not tell him the true situation.

    The statement reads in part: “We reiterate that it will be extremely difficult for Nigerian workers to accept any national minimum wage figure that approximates to a starvation wage. We cannot be working and yet remain in abject poverty.

    “While the president may have accurately recounted parts of our democratic journey’s history, it is evident that he has been misinformed regarding the outcome of the wage negotiation process.

    “The NLC would have expected that the advisers of the president would have told him that we neither reached any agreement with the federal government and the employers on the base figure for a national minimum wage nor on its other components.

    “We are, therefore, surprised at the submission of Mr President over a supposed agreement. We believe that he may have been misled into believing that there was an agreement with the NLC and TUC. There was none, and we must let the president, Nigerians and other national stakeholders understand this immediately to avoid a mix-up in the ongoing conversation around the national minimum wage. We have also not seen a copy of the document submitted to him and will not accept any doctored document.”

    Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the federal government would not accept a minimum wage that would lead to mass retrenchment of workers, undermine the economy and jeopardise the welfare of about 200 million Nigerians.

    Speaking yesterday in Abuja at the opening of the 2024 Synod of the Charismatic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, the minister said the government was not against an increase of wages for Nigerian workers, but that, “We keep on advocating for a realistic and sustainable wage system for the workers.

    “We want the labour unions to understand that the relief that Nigerians are expecting, and that they fully deserve, will not come only in the form of an increase in wages. It will also come as efforts to reduce the cost of living and to ensure that more money stays in the pockets of Nigerians.

    “And this is where programmes like the Presidential CNG Initiative come in. That programme alone, by replacing or complementing petrol usage with CNG, will cut transportation costs by as much as 50 per cent.”

    Daily Trust

  • NLC president engages in fight with civil servants, threatens to sack them

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, yesterday, engaged in fisticuffs with the chairman of NLC/TUC Good Homes Scheme, Chief Emeka Anuna, threatening to sack his wife from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), now known as International Trade Union Congress (ITUC).

    Anuna and a handful of federal civil servants had protested in front of the NLC headquarters in Abuja over their N1 billion investment in a housing scheme at Apo Mechanic Village in Abuja.

    According to Anuna, the civil servants had met all the requirements for the land but the Federal Government in conjunction with the NLC and an estate agent, known as Good Homes, refused to give them the houses.

    The chairman of NLC/TUC Good Homes told Daily Sun that some of the civil servants borrowed money from the banks and co-operative societies in their offices since 2012 to pay for the houses.

    He said that 10 years after the payment, they neither got the houses nor their money. While some had died without getting their houses, others had retired or posted out of Abuja without getting their houses.

    This, he said, was against the promise that they would get keys to their houses six months after a 10 per cent payment.

    “We were meant to key into a housing scheme at Apo Tafia (mechanic village) which is powered by the Federal Government and given to NLC and TUC. Most of our members have met all the financial requirements. The delivery period was for six months. This is 10 years and nothing has happened.

    “Some people paid the full financial obligations. Some paid N46 million. Some, N12 million, some paid N12. 4 million for three-bedroom house. Some paid 10 per cent of the total sum. The agreement was that if you pay 10 per cent, in six months you’ll get your keys. It was a virgin land and all interested civil servants bought into it” he said

    The workers had earlier protested at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister’s house between 8 am and 9 am before going to the NLC’s headquarters between 10 am and 11am.

    After staging their protest, the NLC president ran after them, held the workers’ chairman by the jugular and hotly engaged him in a fight.

    He later instructed his securitymen to bundle the chairman to his office but the other workers with him stoutly resisted the securitymen.

    While Ayuba Wabba and Anuna engaged in hot altercation the thugs on the side of the NLC were busy snatching and smashing journalists’ cameras and phones which the journalists used to record the event.

    (Sun)

  • 2023: NLC, TUC declare support for Peter Obi

    2023: NLC, TUC declare support for Peter Obi

    THE Organized labour, Tuesday said it would work for the Presidential candidate of Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi in the 2023 elections.

    The two labour centers, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), declared their support to campaign and do everything within their power to ensure that the Labour Party presidential candidate wins emerges victorious in the elections.

    They declared their support in a separate speech made by their Presidents at the 10th anniversary lecture in honour of the labour veteran, late Conrade Pascal Bayau in Abuja

    Delivering his speech, the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said that Mr Obi is among the finest Nigerian and the first presidential candidate of Labour Party to be recognized by the labour Centre.

    He however, declared NLC support for the Labour Party and her candidate, Peter Obi.

    He said that the NLC will fully mobilize to ensure the victory of the party come 2023 general elections.

    Wabba noted that it became pertinent for the organised labour to fully participate in campaigning to ensure that the candidate whose mantra will make life better for his members and Nigerians at large wins the election after the union realised that strikes and protests alone cannot change the narratives in Nigeria, especially as it conserns workers welfare and fair treatment to the working people.

    On his part, TUC President, Comrade Quadri Olaleye, said that all the labour unions are pleased and are ready to work with Peter Obi and that the entire labour movement has accepted, adopted and will support, and ensure workers vote massively for him in the 2023 presidential elections.

    While describing the party as one who has a formidable and widespread structure, he stressed that there is a worker and in most cases, members of either TUC and NLC in every family across Nigeria.

    He insisted that Labour Party is the only party for Nigerian workers.

    In his address, Mr Peter Obi, said his visit to the leadership of the two labour centres was not to campaign but for a courtesy call, to honour the Organised Labour on whose party and interest he is seeking Nigerians vote in the 2023 general elections.

    According to him, “My commitment is to move Nigeria from consumption to production and you can’t talk about production without labour. Labour is the engine of production, Capital and machine can do anything but labour is what makes it work. Because labour is the greatest contributor to production, it has to be properly remunerated.

    “I don’t need to tell you how bad things are in this country today. if you are on wages, today Nigerians spend 100 percent of their wages on just feeding. So many don’t even know where their next meal will come from. They pay to train their children only for them finish school and stay at home without work.

    “These are issues we need to discuss about. Nobody can be president without sitting down with the labour organisation to decide the future of Nigeria.

    “We can nolonger have a situation where the leaders are here and workers are there. They must sit on the same table and talk. That is the beginning of the solution, that is what is happening all over the world.

    “Nigeria is not a producing country. The collective effect of what we are suffering today is bad leadership. We have a leadership that concentrates on sharing. So you have to move from sharing formula to production formula.

    “This is a country of 200 million people sitting on 923,000 square kilometers of land. They can’t feed themselves, they can’t export anything.

    “Total Nigeria’s export including oil is under $2 billion for 200 million population. A similar country, not a first world country, one with the same tragectory with Nigeria in the year 2000, Vetnam, sitting on 331,000 square kilometers of land, a third of Nigeria’s land space and 100 million population, with half of Nigeria’s population, their total earnings last year was $ 312 billion.”

    He said that more than half of the country’s youths of productive age are unemployed. ” This is what the Labour Party is seeking to sit down to discuss for the future of our country.” He added.

    He went on to say that borrowing is not the problem of the country as other countries are also borrowing to support their economic development drive. However, he said; “If you borrow for consumption, you are in problem but if you borrow for production, you will progress.”

    (Vanguard)

  • NLC threatens to shut down activities if FG increases fuel price in 2022

     

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had after its organs’ meetings recently threatened to shut down activities nationwide should the Federal Government increase the pump price of petrol in 2022.

    Secretary General of the Association of Senior Civil Servant of Nigeria (ASCSN), Bashir Alade Lawal, in an interview with Daily Sun, yesterday,  vowed that the threat by labour would be enforced saying  it would be detrimental to the overall well-being of citizens to allow the government  have its way on the policy.

    He said an increase in pump price of petrol would exacerbate crime as petrol was like an exchange rate which affected every facet of life in the coun

    “Our response to the proposed fuel price increase? It should be spontaneous. We would not play to the gallery. We are already down and they want to add to the problem. Nobody is going to run out of the country. We are all going to be here to see the consequences of what they are planning,” he said.

    Lawal said labour does not believe in the government’s planned palliative of N5,000 to 40 million Nigerians to cushion the effect of the planned increase in price of petrol.

    “They are not going to give anybody anything. I can say it with every sense of responsibility. The last one they did, they set up a palliative committee in which I was a member.  Initially, what they told us was that there was N600 billion palliatives fund in the kitty which we are going to appropriate to different sectors of the economy to cushion the effect of COVID-19.

    “Our own memo, that is TUC, was about 50 something pages, while NLC was higher. The two of us met to harmonise it. After our second meeting at Bolton Hotel in Abuja, I stopped going for the meeting because I was dumbfounded when the NNPC man said nobody promised anything. Till now, nothing has come out of it.  They are just deceiving us with lies. They won’t give anybody any N5,000.”

    The labour leader said measures ought to have been on ground and running  for at least one year before the government could come up with this policy,  so that the effect would not negatively affact citizens.

    “But here, we don’t have anything like that. You see, it’s a normal thing to subsidise things because it happens globally. But now they have removed almost everything. So at the end of the day almost 70 per cent of the resources of the state that should have gone to all these areas, they now appropriate it to themselves. With that, they have more than enough to share and that is why they are misbehaving and people are suffering.”

    NLC at its meetings in Abuja penultimate Friday had scheduled a nationwide protest for January 27 and February 1, but with a clause that it would not wait till then should the announcement on fuel price hike come before the scheduled dates.

    The NLC charged the government to promote local capacity to refine petroleum products for domestic use.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • International Women’s Day: Labour and others discourages Gender Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH), leads campaign

    The Nigeria Labour congress (NLC) has raised alarm that the Nigerian government has not ratified or domesticated the Convention 190 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which discourages Gender Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH) in the world of work.

     

    The NLC Head of the Women and Youth Department, Comrade Rita Goyit said this during a virtual workshop with journalists, to commemorate the 2021 international women’s day celebration.

     

     

     

    She said despite making commitment to ratify the convention, the federal government is yet to keep its promise. The workshop was supported by the Solidarity Centre AFL-CIO.

     

    Comrade Goyit said adopting the convention 190 will make work places free from violence and harassment and will also boost productivity. She said it will put Nigeria on the list of countries that promote human rights.

     

    “In 2019, when the ILO Convention 190 was adopted in Geneva, the Nigerian government made a commitment that it will be among the first countries to ratify and also domesticate the Convention, but that is yet to be done,” she said.

     

     

     

    She went on to lament that by not ratifying it, most workers both in formal and informal economy who suffer gender based violence and harassment (GBVH) find it difficult to express themselves hence suffer in silence while the perpetrators walk free.

     

    Also speaking at the workshop, the Deputy Chairperson, National Women Commission, NLC , Hajia Salamatu Aliu sais NLC has been leading various campaigns to encourage women to speak up against GBVH and break the culture of silence society condones around GBVH.

    She shared that the campaign will be sustained until government and employers do the needful to protect women in Nigeria

     

    In his speech, the Country Program Director for Solidarity Centre AFL-CIO, Mr Sonny Ogbuehi, commended the media for their partnership and asked that they join their voices in the campaign against GBVH. According to him, the media has a critical role to play in ensuring that issues of Gender Based Violence and Harassment at work places are brought to the front burner.

     

    The Senior Program Officer, Solidarity Center AFL-CIO, Nkechi Odinukwe also shared how gender based violence and harassment is affected and often worsened by cultural, economic, ideological, political, social, environmental and health factors like displacement, armed conflict, terrorism, migration and increased globalization of economic activities. She particularly mentioned that COVID 19 pandemic is another factor that has worsened GBVH in the world of work since it broke.

     

    “Within the COVID-19 pandemic period, gender based violence especially rape and domestic violence against women workers have risen to exponential levels as women who could get away from abusive partners before the pandemic now find they have to forcefully stay in same spaces with their abuser due to social distancing restrictions. We have seen a lot of women workers abused at home this period than ever before. These women workers come to work dealing with a lot of issues linked to abuse they face at home,” she said.

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • Labour calls for a reduction in electricity bill by 40 percent

     

     

     

    There is a stalemate in the push for electricity tariffs reversal championed by Organised Labour.

     

    Labour is pushing for a 40 per cent reduction following September’s increase by the Federal Government.

     

    Labour’s argument is based on findings that gas, a major component of the Distribution Companies (Discos), should not be sold in dollars.

     

    According to Organised Labour, the product should be sold to Discos at $1.50, as against $2.50, even if it is to be sold in foreign currency.

     

    Organised Labour found that the Discos consume 70 per cent of the gas generated in the country, wondering why the government has to always increase tariff.

     

    A source close to the seven-man committee set up by the Federal Government faulted the continuous sale of gas to Discos in dollars.

     

    After an increase in electricity tariff in September last year, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayubba Wabba and that of the Trade Union Congress, Quadri Olaleye, threatened to embark on strike.

    After several hours of horse-trading, the proposed strike was suspended, with Labour and the Federal Government agreeing to set up a committee to review the increase.

    The committee submitted an interim report, which recommended a temporary suspension of the tariff.

     

    In January, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) issued an order to DisCos – signalling an increase in electricity tariff, but the move was suspended.

     

    However, a source close to the committee, who pleaded anonymity, said NERC has not stopped in its plans to push for an increase in tariff.

     

    The source, who is a Labour chieftain, accused the regulator of being in bed with both the DisCos and Generating Companies in the push for an increase in electricity tariff.

     

    The source said: “These guys are unanimous in the increase in tariff. NERC is supporting them (Discos and Gencos) but we are after NERC because the indices for the review are actually faulty and you can’t get a perfect tariff review based on a faulty premium.

     

    “By the time you dollarise gas, you are giving them (discos and gencos) gas at one dollar fifty cents and then electricity that consumes 70 per cent of gas generated in the country, instead of theirs to be down, they are giving them at two dollars fifty cents. That is what we discovered.

     

    “Even if you are to insist on giving it in dollars; which is wrong since our currency is naira, it should be brought down to industry standard – which is one dollar fifty cents. We are taking one dollar from it and that will constitute over 40 per cent reduction in tariff.

     

    “Even at that, for using 70 per cent (of the gas produced in the country), theirs should be lower because they consume the bulk of the gas we produce.”

    The source added: “Our position is that tariff should reduce. Labour is insisting on a minimum of one dollar fifty cents for gas; that is what we are selling to other gas users in the country.

    “Labour presented a minimum of one dollar fifty cents to the Federal Government team from our findings. If you do that you will have a further reduction of electricity by over 40 per cent.

     

    “We equally insisted that inflation and foreign exchange should be reviewed. Because if you don’t do that, all these things will change next month; there will be inflation next month (February) because they would want to equally increase.”

     

    Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who is the Chairman of the committee, said the committee was still working and its outcome will be made public when it is ready.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.thenationonlineng.net