The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that it’s 2 years into President Bola Tinubu’s administration, and Nigerian workers have experienced only pain and misery. NLC recently shared that there has been nothing to celebrate since the current government came into power.
Speaking to the press, NLC President Joe Ajaero revealed that while Tinubu promised a new dawn when he assumed the role of president in 2023, he has completely failed to rescue the country from any of its challenges.
According to him, BAT has only managed to unleash more suffering and hardship with his bad policies that have only affected workers and ordinary Nigerians negatively.
Ajaero insisted that the current administration has only recycled the same failed methods of the past, which is further proof that the people are expecting a solution from the problem.
“When President Bola Tinubu took office on May 29, 2023, he promised a new dawn—bold economic reforms that would rescue Nigeria from fiscal instability and set it on a path to prosperity.
But two years later, the only thing bolder than his rhetoric is the magnitude of suffering and hardship his policies have inflicted on workers and ordinary Nigerians. Far from renewing hope, his administration has recycled the same failed neoliberal experiments of the past, proving once again that you cannot cure a patient by prescribing the poison that made them sick in the first place,” he said.
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The NLC president maintained that Nigerians are currently experiencing a kind of inflation that is making them skip meals and shut down their business, yet the government has done nothing to ease their pain.
He blasted President Tinubu for turning the nation into a bargain basement for neighbouring countries, while local industries crumble under the weight of imported inflation.
He concluded by saying that reforms that bring only pain to the people they are meant to benefit are not reforms at all.
“The sudden removal of the petrol subsidy sent shockwaves through an already fragile economy, causing fuel prices to skyrocket from N187 to over N600 per litre overnight. The government claimed it was a necessary sacrifice to free up funds for development—but where are the results?
Instead of reinvestment, Nigerians got inflation so vicious that families now skip meals, businesses shut down daily, and transport costs consume what little remains of workers’ wages. The naira, left to the so-called ‘market forces,’ has collapsed in value, turning Nigeria into a bargain basement for neighbouring countries, while local industries suffocate under the weight of imported inflation.
What makes this pain even more frustrating is that none of it is new. We’ve seen this script before—subsidy removals, devaluations, and IMF-approved austerity—each time sold as the bitter pill Nigeria must swallow for a brighter future. But when has it ever worked? These same policies under past administrations only widened inequality, enriched a few, and left the majority poorer. Tinubu’s version is no different—except the suffering is deeper, the anger louder, and the government’s response more brutal.
Nigerian workers have seen their real wages obliterated. Pensioners, SMEs (facing over 150 per cent inflation in inputs), and 150 million Nigerians are now multi-dimensionally poor. It has been two years of intimidation and harassment for Labour leaders and trade unions in Nigeria. Flagrant disregard for court orders and the criminalisation of union protests and actions have become the norm. Wage award arrears at the federal level remain unpaid, despite repeated promises.
The only notable effort is the provision of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses by the Federal Government to ease transportation for Nigerian workers—but this remains grossly inadequate, hampered by severe gas infrastructure deficits.
The truth is simple: reforms that bring only pain without gain are not reforms at all. They are deformations—deliberate assaults on the poor in service of a system that rewards the powerful. If this government truly wants to renew hope, it must abandon these cruel experiments, listen to the people, and chart a new course—one that puts Nigerians, not foreign creditors and profiteers, at the centre of policy. Anything less is a betrayal of public trust,” he added.
