The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has warned that worsening poverty, rising inflation and government policies prioritising austerity over people are pushing Nigerian workers and their families to the brink.

TUC President-General, Festus Osifo, described the situation as a grave threat not only to livelihoods, but also to social stability and the unity of the labour movement.

Speaking at the First Quadrennial State Delegates’ Conference of the Oyo State Council, Osifo stressed that the hardship confronting workers had reached alarming levels and demanded urgent, people-centred responses from all levels of government.

Represented at the occasion by the Acting Deputy General Secretary, Olawunmi Jimoh, he cited World Bank statistics, which said that about 56 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line.

“Today, the average worker’s salary can no longer meet basic needs. Feeding, transportation, healthcare, rent and education have become luxuries rather than essentials,” he said.

He lamented further that insecurity, unemployment, and widening inequality were compounding the crisis for millions of households.

According to the TUC leader, these challenges reflected deeper structural problems in the national economy, including runaway inflation, food insecurity, unaffordable education, epileptic power supply, a weakened agricultural base, and an economy driven more by debt than productivity.

Calling on governments to act decisively and compassionately, Osifo urged a shift from policies that punish the poor to measures that protect livelihoods.

He appealed that subsidies cushioning the most vulnerable should not be replaced by harsh austerity programmes and that robust social protection schemes and effective wage review mechanisms must be urgently implemented to restore dignity to labour.

Osifo also criticised legislative moves to transfer labour matters to the concurrent legislative list, describing the proposal as “anti-worker, retrogressive and a direct threat to the unity and strength of the Nigerian labour movement.”

He announced that all state councils had been placed on “red alert” and warned that the TUC would resist the bill through all lawful means.

Reinforcing TUC’s stance, Prof. Omotoye Olorode, former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and veteran activist, warned that inflation, stagnant wages, and neo-liberal policies were steadily eroding the living standards of Nigerian workers, pensioners, and the unemployed.

Delivering a keynote address on ‘The Impact of Inflation on Workers’ Wages and Living Standards in Nigeria: The Intervention Point of Labour Movement and Government’, Olorode argued that inflation could not be understood merely as an economic phenomenon.

He described it as a product of political power, class relations and decades of International Monetary Fund (IMF)-and World Bank-inspired structural adjustment policies.

Citing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, he acknowledged that Nigeria’s inflation rate slowed to 16.05 per cent in October 2025, the lowest since March 2022, with food inflation at 13.12 per cent.

However, he stressed that the slow pace had not relieved working Nigerians, as wages remained grossly inadequate relative to the cost of living.

Olorode blamed recent inflationary pressures on currency devaluation, subsidy removal, and privatisation, which intensified unemployment, weakened purchasing power, and widened inequality.

Besides, he criticised the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024, which pegged the minimum wage at N70,000, describing it as both inadequate and exclusionary.

He noted that many small establishments, part-time and casual workers, and segments of the informal sector remained excluded from the wages.

He outlined an “Agenda for Tomorrow,” urging labour to campaign for state-led economic planning, public ownership of key sectors, reversal of privatisation, restoration of subsidies in education, healthcare, and agriculture, and recovery of public assets sold under privatisation.

Other speakers at the conference restated calls for unity.

Former TUC Oyo Chairman Emmanuel Ogundiran lauded the collaboration between the TUC and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), urging labour to reclaim its critical voice on government policies.

Olusola Olanipekun of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) also praised the synergy.

The Oyo State Head of Service, Olubunmi Oni, represented by Waheed Ajuwon, commended TUC’s role in workplace safety and pledged continued collaboration.

NLC Chairman, Kayode Martins, described Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State as “God-sent” for workers, highlighting industrial harmony in the state.

Governor Makinde, represented by his Special Adviser on Labour Matters, Bayo Titilola-Sodo, reaffirmed the state’s commitment to improving workers’ welfare through cooperation.