This year May Day held at a period when many workers and the poor are facing serious economic hardship compounded by the anti-poor capitalist policies of the Bola Tinubu government. Another feature of the government which will reach a midterm mark on May 29 is a ceaseless attack on democratic rights aimed at stifling resistance against its anti-poor policies.

Therefore, ordinarily the theme for this year’s May Day in Nigeria, ‘Reclaiming the Civic Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship’, is apt. However, the problem is that the Labour leaders who formulated such a fitting theme have not demonstrated any serious resolve to reclaim the civic space with a view to organizing and mobilizing mass resistance against the policies that breed the economic hardship. In other words, the Tinubu government is having a field day with its attacks on the living standards and democratic rights of the working people and youth because the leadership of labour have refused to initiate a serious fight back.

In their May Day speeches, the national leaderships of both the NLC and TUC did not lack correct words to describe the current situation. The problem remains translating them into concrete action. For instance, the NLC President Joe Ajaero did not just lament the fact that many states and private sector employers have not implemented the new minimum wage, he strongly asserted that “the [minimum wage] law must be obeyed. We must begin a fresh push for not just compliance, but also for a comprehensive wage review to mitigate the hardship faced by Nigerian workers.” Good speech. But unfortunately, it may end up as another hot air unless workers and trade union activists mount a serious pressure on the labour leadership to walk the talk.

 

However, while in Abuja at the national rally, the labour leaders spoke radically, even if it was braggadocio, in many states as usual it was shameless praise singing and pat on the back for the governors. For instance, in Osun, the state chair of the TUC sponsored a big banner campaigning for governor’s second term. In Ogun state, labour leaders commended the state governor for the prompt payment of pension for retirees. However, this is half-truth and misleading. The state owes over N50 billion unpaid gratuities and has not remitted over N40 billion contributory pension funds which have been already deducted from workers’ salaries. However, in Oyo while the labour leaders commended the state governor for approving N80,000 as the minimum wage, they also noted that the implementation had not been extended to workers in the judiciary sector and state-owned tertiary institutions.

In Lagos, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives NANNM boycotted the May Day rally but instead held a separate event at the union’s Secretariat. This was in protest against the reduction in the salaries of health workers in the state. We are of the opinion this was not a correct method. They should have taken the protest to the main rally. Instructively, the state chair of the NLC Funmi Sessi, incidentally a nurse by profession, did not mention the plight of the nurses and midwives in her speech at the rally which had in attendance the state governor.

 

Members of the Democratic Socialist Movement participated actively at the international workers’ day rallies in Abuja, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos with the May/June 2025 edition of the Socialist Democracy (SD), our paper and different special leaflets which articulated what workers and trade unions should do in response to various capitalist attacks by the government at all levels. 416 copies of the SD were sold and about 8,000 copies of leaflets were circulated. Some rally participants wished to stay in contact with the DSM.