Fixes April 22 for indefinite protest
Two labour leaders, Andrew Emelieze and Itoro Obong, have written a letter to the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) over the alleged exploitation of workers by the Nigerian government.

Emelieze is a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Oyo State, while Obong is the vice chairman of the Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State chapter.

The two are the leaders of the Federal Workers’ Forum (FWF), under which platform they wrote the letter.

The letter, signed by Emelieze and Obong, was made available to The Guardian in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

They also notified the public and ILO of their plan to organise an indefinite protest over the Nigerian state’s alleged sub-optimal treatment of workers, disclosing that the protest would begin on April 22, 2025.

The letter reads: “We are members of the Federal Workers Forum, a labour movement and an advocacy group of the federal workforce in Nigeria. Our membership covers all sectors of the federal public service in Nigeria except the political office holders.

“We are writing to bring to your attention the age-long exploitation of the Nigerian workers by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Over the years, our governments, across all levels, have been playing lip service to the welfare of the Nigerian workers.

“The executive branch has been very harsh on workers through their ugly policies, and our legislature, the National Assembly, and other regional assembly have never legislated in support of a decent work/wage, nor has our judiciary ensured justice for the Nigerian workers. The current government in Nigeria has not proven different from the past administration in Nigeria. Workers don’t count to them, and they have treated them with disdain and so much disrespect.”

It added: “The current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been very unfair and hostile to the Nigerian workers. While salaries have remained abysmally poor, President Tinubu and his team have continued to attack workers through their anti-workers policies, as we have seen in hikes in the price of petroleum products, the deliberate devaluation of our national currency (the naira) and hikes in the price of everything in the face of double digits inflation. President Tinubu is subjecting the Nigerian workers to hellish conditions, and he has shown a lack of interest in the wellbeing of the workers.”