NEW MINIMUM WAGE: Labour Must be Prepared for Mass Actions to Win Living Wage

Given the current inflation and high cost of living, it is impossible for an average family to live for a month on N70,000, which is the current national minimum wage. Food prices, house rent and costs of transportation and other basic needs have gone through the roof since 2023 when the Bola Tinubu government removed the petrol subsidy and devalued the naira, worsening the pre-existing economic hardship for the vast majority. Not done, the government also increased electricity tariffs and imposed other neo-liberal capitalist attacks. The monstrous inflationary pressure triggered by these anti-poor capitalist policies eroded the value of N70,000 minimum wage even immediately it was passed into law in July 2024.  Under the current government, it has been a severe battle for survival for many working-class homes.

By Davy Fidel

A new national minimum wage is due to come into effect in July 2027 given a three-year cycle for review according to the minimum wage law.  We welcome the declaration of the leaderships of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) during a press briefing at this year’s ILO meeting held in Geneva Switzerland in June that the renegotiation of new minimum wage would commence by July 2026 and that they would immediately write to the government demanding the start of the process. However, from experience the labour leadership must be prepared to mount pressure on the government to force them to begin the renegotiation given that they may not wish to do so before the 2027 elections or drag out the process until after the elections before a serious engagement. Unfortunately, the current labour leadership have only demonstrated the capacity to bark, but not bite. So, the government does not take seriously any pro-worker engagement or threat from them.

Already, there is indication that the government itself has acknowledged the need for a review going by a statement of the Chief of Staff of the President Femi Gbajabiamila at a function that the minimum wage “must be honestly reassessed against today’s realities.”

However, he ‘‘urged organised labour to sustain dialogue with government, stressing that cooperation rather than confrontation would deliver better outcomes for workers and the economy.’’ (Vanguard June 25).

So clearly, the Tinubu government is already canvassing labour leadership not to call for mass actions. That achieving a new minimum wage can only be realised through ‘‘cooperation’’ rather than mobilising workers to organise mass action. Obviously, the government doesn’t want anything that may disrupt the 2027 general elections. So, they are doing everything to talk the labour leaders out of any ‘‘confrontation.’’ Workers and trade union activists must agitate from workplaces and within organs of trade unions for labour leaders to develop a program of mass actions that could make it possible for a desirable minimum wage to be won.

Labour leaders were also reported to have noted at the said media briefing in Geneva that inflation, currency depreciation and rising costs have significantly eroded workers’ purchasing power, insisting that wage negotiations must focus on protecting real incomes rather than merely increasing nominal pay (THE WILL June 17). This is correct. But what the labour leaders have failed to admit is that they were also complicit in enabling the condition leading to the erosion of workers’ purchasing power. This is because they failed to mobilise workers and the working people in Nigeria for serious mass actions against fuel subsidy removal, the devaluation of the naira, electricity tariff hikes and other anti-poor policies which trigger the inflation and rising costs. Rather, they were comfortable asking for palliatives and a new minimum wage. The lesson has to be learned. In addition to fighting for a decent minimum wage, labour leadership must be prepared to mobilise for mass resistance against all anti-poor policies. Otherwise, as it happened with the current minimum wage whatever new wage that is won would be again eroded by high inflation triggered by the policies they refused to fight.

Workers have to realise that the ruling elite as defenders and beneficiaries of the iniquitous system of capitalist especially in line with the dictates of the IMF and World Bank agenda are, despite election time speeches, not interested in implementing policies that will improve the living condition of workers and the oppressed. It would require a serious mass struggle to force them to grant some concessions. This is what labour leaders must realise rather than running away from their historic duty. Any labour leader who is not prepared to consistently fight for better condition for workers should quit their position or be removed.

We call on the NLC and TUC to come out, after a thorough process, with a clear harmonised figure for a new the minimum wage which must meet the basic needs of the working people and begin to mobilise workers and the public to support it.  Already, the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, JNPSNC, Trade Union Side has called on the federal government and state governments to approve and implement a 400 per cent increase in the current N70,000 national minimum wage. A data analysis by the Guardian newspaper posits that no Nigerian worker should earn less than N215,997 as minimum wage using $156.52, which was equivalent of N18,000 minimum wage in 2011, as the baseline (Guardian June 13,2026). Recently, the NLC spokesperson Benson Upah said that “a realistic wage for a Nigerian family now approaches N1 million monthly” (This Day June 24, 2026)

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has proposed N100,000, something which is far below what the current economic realities dictate. Benson Upah reported that “the NLC, however, has dismissed this N100,000 proposal as fundamentally detached from reality”. But that the governors have proposed the figure underscores the fact that the organised labour has to prepare for a serious fight to win a decent wage.  Even as of today, many state governors have not fully implemented the current N70,000 minimum wage, which has already been eroded, two years after it has become a law. Again, the labour leaders have failed to mobilise workers to force the hand of the errant governors. Sadly, the threat to hold street protests on this year’s May Day in the states which were defaulting was not carried out. Workers and trade union activists have to seriously embark on internal struggle in the trade unions to force labour leaders to fight and act in the interest of workers.

A program of mass actions to win living wage that we have called on workers and genuine trade union activists to demand from the labour leaders should include a series of symposia, mass meetings, rallies, mass leafleting, mass protests and 48-hour warning general strike as a first step. The demands of such activities must also include the reversal of all anti-poor policies of the Tinubu government.  Such a plan is necessary in order to win the support of the masses in general towards the demand of workers and to organise workers themselves, in workplaces and communities, for action in order to force the government to grant a decent minimum wage.

Also importantly, workers and trade unions must understand that no gain can be sustained under capitalism which has proved incapable of developing the country. Therefore, we reiterate our call on trade unions and mass organisations to commence the process of building a mass working peoples’ political party on a socialist program that constantly mobilises the working masses and young people to fight against anti-poor policies and struggle to wrest political power from the thieving capitalist elite. This is with a view of forming a government which on the basis of socialist plan will mobilise and use the human and material resources of the country for the benefit of the vast majority.