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The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has delivered a scathing assessment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s two-year tenure, characterising the administration as one that has intensified economic difficulties and failed to deliver on campaign pledges.
NLC President Joe Ajaero, in a statement released to mark the second anniversary of Tinubu’s presidency, argues that the government’s economic policies have caused more harm than good since taking office.
“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,” Ajaero stated. “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.”
The labour organisation particularly criticised the elimination of petrol subsidies, which Ajaero described as a policy that unleashed widespread economic pain without adequate protection for citizens.
“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,” Ajaero said. “The government claimed it was a necessary sacrifice to free up funds for development, but where are the results?”
The NLC outlined what it considers devastating economic consequences, including rising food costs, increased transportation expenses, business closures, and currency devaluation that has particularly affected Nigeria’s import-dependent economy. Ajaero characterised these policies as recycled approaches that have historically failed to address inequality.
“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,” he remarked.
The union leader highlighted the impact on workers, noting that purchasing power has been severely eroded, with pensioners and small enterprises bearing significant burdens. He cited unpaid wage awards and production cost increases exceeding 150 per cent.
“Nigerian workers have seen their real wages obliterated…150 million Nigerians are now multi-dimensionally poor,” Ajaero lamented.
The NLC also accused the government of undermining workers’ rights through aggressive responses to peaceful demonstrations, while officials maintain lavish lifestyles.
“Promised dialogue with Labour unions has been replaced with intimidation and violence. Workers demanding a living wage are met with batons and threats, while the government wallows in luxury,” the statement read. “The same officials who preach sacrifice travel in convoys, feast on bloated budgets, and treat public funds like personal piggy banks.”
Ajaero linked economic challenges to deteriorating security conditions, suggesting that policy discussions seem irrelevant amid widespread violence and instability.
“In any case, in the surreal landscape of a nation grappling with escalating insecurity, discussing the intricacies of economic policy seems akin to debating the colour of curtains in a burning house,” Ajaero stated. “Our nation is at war.”
The labour leader demanded immediate policy changes, warning that current approaches would only worsen conditions for ordinary Nigerians.
“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,” Ajaero said. “If this government truly wants to renew hope, it must abandon these cruel experiments, listen to the people, and chart a new course.”
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