Editorial
As the world observes Workers’ Day today, Nigeria joins in marking a tradition rooted in sacrifice, struggle, and the enduring pursuit of dignity in labour.
While other countries reflect on meaningful gains for their workforce, Nigeria continues to mark May 1 with symbolic gestures, empty declarations, and ceremonies that betray the deeper suffering of its working population.
Over the past years, Nigerian workers have faced mounting hardship—rising inflation, inconsistent power supply, deteriorating infrastructure, and the suffocating weight of economic reforms poorly executed. The removal of fuel subsidies, the floating of the naira, and the introduction of new taxation regimes may have been intended as fiscal solutions, but for the average worker, these have translated into unbearable costs and little to no state support.
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Yet, the government persists in treating its workforce as a collateral damage in its policy experiments. Productivity, innovation, and enterprise cannot thrive in an environment where workers are perpetually demoralised, uncertain of their earnings, and disconnected from the benefits of national progress.
Across ministries and sectors, the consequences of erratic policymaking have been dire. Sudden tax hikes on small and medium-scale businesses—without corresponding support for credit access or infrastructure—have shuttered thousands of informal jobs. Policies meant to “digitize” the civil service have been marred by lack of training, poor equipment, and opaque procurement processes. Even educational and health workers, who form the spine of national development, are forced to operate in conditions that insult their professional dignity.
A sobering example lies in Akwa Ibom State, where former Governor Udom Emmanuel’s eight-year tenure—from 2015 to 2023—was marked by consistent disregard for workers’ welfare. Under his administration, local government workers and primary school teachers were owed years of promotion arrears and gratuities. Retired workers were denied timely pensions, while many civil servants endured career stagnation due to unimplemented promotions. Despite flaunting infrastructural achievements, Mr. Emmanuel’s government routinely ignored protests and demands for redress by labour unions in the state. For many workers, his legacy remains one of economic suffocations cloaked in public relations gloss.
When creativity is punished by bureaucracy, when diligence is met with delayed salaries, and when innovation is throttled by outdated regulations, the state becomes the greatest enemy of its own workforce.
Nigerian workers deserve more than rhetorical support. A living wage is not a favour—it is a constitutional and moral obligation. The ongoing minimum wage negotiations are an opportunity to restore trust, but past experiences have taught workers to expect little. Implementation has often been the Achilles’ heel of even the most modest agreements.
In this environment, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) cannot be shielded from criticisms. Once a formidable voice for the oppressed, the NLC has in recent years become synonymous with performative protests, indecisive strikes, and cozy alignments with political power. Workers have been left disillusioned by a labour movement that too often retreats when it matters most.
If the NLC is to reclaim its moral authority, it must return to principled, strategic activism—free of patronage, compromise, or personal ambition.
The country also faces a new frontier of labour: the gig economy, where young Nigerians work as coders, dispatch riders, digital assistants, and online tutors. Yet, these workers—arguably the most dynamic in today’s economy—exist in a legal and institutional void. There is no framework for their protection, no safety nets, no health insurance. The failure of the government and labour bodies to integrate this growing workforce into formal advocacy structures is a glaring oversight.
Empty praise must end. To truly honour the Nigerian worker, the state must enact policies that support innovation, reward productivity, and create room for economic dignity. That means better infrastructure, prompt wages, merit-based promotion, functional healthcare, and real investments in skills development.
To the Nigerian workers: your labour keeps the economy alive. Your ideas, your creativity, your resilience are the country’s greatest untapped resources. May this Workers’ Day ignite not just celebration, but a demand for real change—from government, from labour leaders, and from society at large.
Workers’ Day 2025 must not be remembered for the noise it made, but for the justice it began.
