Colourfully dressed. Waving flags. Singing. Wriggling waists. Exchanging banters. Backslapping. Workers danced at various venues on Friday, commemorating the 2026 May Day. Their smiling faces camouflaged their pains. But their banners and placards revealed their inner thoughts.
Their collective speeches tell stories of hunger, government failures, demands, ultimatum and a determination to go beyond the march past; marching through battles to a new life. The twin labour centres, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, in the presence of the country’s political leaders and ambassadors of pro-labour countries as witnesses, spoke jointly, expressing determination to change the state of the working people.
They looked ahead to the 2027 general elections and declared that the Nigerian worker must have a better future built on democracy and social justice. They stated a fundamental truth; that workers are at the heart of every industry, economy, and success story.
Paraphrasing the International, they argued that without workers, no wheel can turn and no nation can be built. So, the May Day marks the very essence of nation-building itself. It is the celebration of the women and men who rise: “before dawn and return home at dusk, exhausted yet unbroken; those who create immense wealth yet receive only a fraction of it; those who endure exploitation and subjugation yet refuse to bend; those whose labour feeds the profits declared by multinational corporations, banks, and financial institutions, but who see little or none of that prosperity reflected in their own lives; those who continue to work harder every single day even as poverty tightens its grip around them.”
This, they said is what workers are; people standing not in defeat, but in the victory of their resilience despite unremitting adversity. The May Day theme: “Insecurity, Poverty – Bane of Decent Work,” they said, is at the heart of the harsh realities Nigerians are facing.
Labour argued that there is an undisputable connection between insecurity, poverty, and decent work. Its logic is that as insecurity and poverty rise, the prospects of decent work diminishes. Inversely, as they fall, the dignity in labour is restored. They contend that the four foundations of decent work, employment creation, rights at work, social protection, and social dialogue, cannot be built on fear and deprivation.
The poverty rate of 65 percent in a 200 million population, they argued, can only increase in frightening proportions if insecurity continues. They are therefore not surprised that the Nigerian workers’ quality of life has deteriorated to its lowest ebb, because insecurity fuels poverty and poverty deepens insecurity, resulting in a vicious and self-reinforcing cycle.
Speaking directly to President Bola Tinubu, the workers said: “Mr. President, we recall your words when soldiers were killed in Shiroro; you described it rightly as an attack on the nation. We remember your firm assurance after the Anguwan Rukuba massacre that such tragedy would not be repeated. Yet today, Nigerians continue to lose their lives across Kwara, Borno, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Nasarawa, and Benue States, as communities are ravaged, families displaced, and countless citizens left to live in fear. Generals, colonels, officers, and thousands of ordinary Nigerians have made the ultimate sacrifice, while many others have been kidnapped and entire communities abandoned… Millions have been displaced, with about 4 million Nigerians or more now living in Internally Displaced Persons camps, while entire communities have been overrun and abandoned. Insecurity has reached such alarming levels that even public officials are unable to safely return to their constituencies, and concerns are being raised internationally about safety within our borders.” Given this reality, they warned that workers may no longer go to work and that the unions might advice their members to limit their movement across the country.
The unions told the government that the time for decisive action is now, positing that the country is at war, even if the political leaders fail to so acknowledge. They added that Nigeria has become one of most dangerous places to live in the universe. Some of the causes of the sorry state of the country, they argued, are weak governance frameworks, weakened democratic institutions, and the erosion of the separation of powers and the rule of law. They pointed out that the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly have been transformed into a circus, thereby making a mockery of democracy. Labour noted that about 10,000 Nigerians are pushed into poverty daily, millions are in need of food, while thousands of internally displaced persons’ camps now house millions of citizens forced from their homes.
Also worrying, they said, is the fact that several state governments have refused to pay the N70,000 monthly National Minimum Wage Act, which became law two years ago. They warned that the voices of opposition must be protected adding that in a country with over 300 languages, multiple faith and cultures, multiparty democracy is an absolute necessity. Governance, they warned, risks becoming an extractive enterprise with an economy that serves only the top 1 percent while leaving the 99 percent. They pointed out that over N10 trillion public funds have been transferred into the electricity sector, whose assets were sold for about N400 billion, yet without delivering stable electricity. They demanded a reversal of the electricity privatization programme.
The workers argued that with the Iran-US War resulting in about $50 per barrel increase, Nigeria in approximately 60 days, should have raked in nearly $6 billion additional income which if properly managed, could have been used to cushion the economic impact of the war on Nigerians and make lives better. Using slogans like “Stop taxing the Minimum Wage! Stop taxing the Poor! Grant tax reliefs to cushion the effects of the Iran-USA/Israel conflict.” they demanded: “Free, liberatory education from cradle to career.” Vowing to hold the three arms of government accountable, the labour centres declared a “Stop the Bleeding” campaign to mobilize all workers. In declaring that peace remains preferable to war, they demanded an end to the Ukrainian and Iran-US wars, the return of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife from US captivity, independence of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, SADR, better known as Western Sahara from Moroccan occupation and, an end to the illegal and criminal US embargo against Cuba.
The Nigerian workforce said the common denominator behind the strikes on Tehran, the missiles in Ukraine, the blockade of Cuba, and the events in Caracas is neo-liberalism, which has become overstretched and is in a decaying phase. They explained this phenomenon as the situation where some powers, unable to resolve internal fiscal imbalances, employ war as a means of maintaining influence. The labour unions in the country having diagnosed the problems and proffered solutions, now require the needed political will to act.
