The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the federal and state governments to urgently implement the Wage Award and Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for all workers, warning that millions of Nigerians are bearing the brunt of rising living costs linked to global crises.
In a statement signed by NLC President Joe Ajaero, the labour centre expressed concern over soaring petrol prices, which now range between N1,170 and N1,300 per litre, and rising food inflation.
The NLC described current wages as “mere stipends of starvation,” urging immediate interventions to protect workers and vulnerable populations.
The NLC outlined several demands, including immediate Wage Award and COLA for all workers to cushion the high cost of living, expansion and overhaul of Cash Transfers, ensuring transparency and increased value to match inflation for the most vulnerable, immediate tax relief for workers, including the elimination of regressive taxes on low-income earners and the proposed tax on the informal economy, which the NLC condemned as extortion.
The labour body also pressed the government to accelerate the full-scale operationalisation of all public refineries, warning against creating monopolies that could exacerbate imported price shocks.
“No country achieves economic freedom by exporting jobs and importing prices,” the statement noted.
Citing the ongoing United States–Israeli war against Iran, the NLC highlighted Nigeria’s potential to reap an estimated N30 trillion oil windfall.
The labour union stressed that these revenues should be invested in the Nigerian people rather than squandered, drawing parallels with the largely unaccounted Gulf Oil windfall.
“When a worker cannot afford to go to work, the economy stops. When a family cannot afford three meals a day, society sits on a keg of gunpowder,” the NLC said.
It urged the government to engage in genuine social dialogue and warned that using the Middle East war as an excuse to further impoverish citizens is unacceptable.
“The Nigeria state must be held accountable for billions spent on turnaround maintenance.
”We are not a statistic; we are the engine of this nation. When the engine overheats, the entire vehicle crashes.
”The expected oil windfall must be used to cushion the negative effects of the crisis for Nigerians,” the statement said.
