The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and civil servants, on Monday, represented by the Trade Union Side of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), called for a new minimum wage of N500,000 and a cut in the petrol price to N500 per litre, in a bid to ease the deepening economic hardship confronting workers and their dependents.
In a letter addressed to President Bola Tinubu, Olowoyo Gbenga, the National Secretary of the JNPSNC (Trade Union Side), revealed that the workers were also pressing for the immediate setting up of a committee to negotiate a new national minimum wage, ahead of January 2027.
The NLC termed this demand realistic and legitimate. According to the workers, the recent rise in fuel prices to N1,430 per litre and above in certain areas had deepened the cost-of-living crisis even further. They issued the government a deadline of Wednesday, September 30, 2026, to act on their demands, cautioning that the ongoing hardship is generating evident tension among workers and Nigerians.
The JNPSNC, whose members include the Nigerian Civil Service Union; Medical and Health Workers Union; Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria; National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives; and others, stated that the fuel subsidy removal three years ago had caused a steep rise in fuel prices, which in turn produced ripple effects on the cost of essential commodities across the economy.
Other unions within the council are the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations; Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees, AUPCTRE; Nigeria Union of Public Service, Reportorial, Secretarial, Data Processors and Allied Workers, NUPSRAW; National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers, NUPPPPROW; and National Union of Agriculture and Allied Employees, NUAEE.
The council noted that the situation has made life ever more unbearable for workers and added that supplying food palliatives is not a lasting answer to the economic crisis.
It said, “It has dawned on Nigerian workers that the provision of palliatives, such as bags of rice, Indomie, vegetable oil, and garri, among other edible foods, is as good as weaponizing Nigerians with poverty because it is a pyrrhic intervention that is unsustainable, inaccessible to the majority of Nigeria’s population, and also limited to political cronies.”
The workers contended that a more sustainable solution would be to lower the price of fuel to N500 per liter, noting that this step would have a multiplier effect on the economy.
“Consequent upon the above, it is preferable that the Federal Government provide an intervention that will trickle down to all Nigerians by making fuel available at an affordable amount, as low as N500 (five hundred Naira),” they said.
The council cited the restoration of workers’ purchasing power, enhanced productivity and service delivery, the promotion of integrity and accountability, and the strengthening of trust and industrial peace as key reasons behind its call for better remuneration.
Regarding fuel prices, the workers urged the government to “look inward and stabilize the prices of fuel to an affordable minimum,” contending that fuel is an essential commodity with major consequences for the Nigerian economy.
“As a matter of reality, the current hardship being faced by the hapless Nigerian workers is caused by the astronomical increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit to as much as N1,430.00, or more per one liter (this is a killing amount),” the council stated.
It also urged the creation of an intervention fund for those involved in the oil sector, aimed at stabilizing fuel prices and ultimately lowering the pump price to N500 per liter.
The council further noted that the government could use a different name for the intervention if the phrase “fuel subsidy” was deemed unacceptable.
“The fuel intervention fund will give the opportunity to every Nigerian to benefit from the intervention fund because it will have a multiplier effect on the life of every Nigerian and will naturally trickle down to the downtrodden and all the remotest parts of the country,” it said.
The council likewise backed a stance credited to the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, regarding steps to tackle the fuel crisis.
Ajaero was quoted as saying that “Nigeria, as an oil-producing country, has sufficient local refining capacity, even as this substantially resides with the private sector.”
He also said, “As a nation, and as a people endowed with enormous fossil resources, we are deserving of a certain level of protection or buffer against the gales from the Gulf and, indeed, other gales.”
According to the NLC position cited by the council, “As part of the process of creating this buffer, the government should sell sufficient crude in naira to our local refineries and expand our national storage capacity in pursuance of meeting energy emergencies and security.” These measures will create jobs and economic value as well as deal with mutating security challenges.”
The statement also said, “There is nothing wrong with government subsidizing the needs of citizens, especially in emergency situations like this. At the moment, there is no oil-producing country we know of that has not intervened or come up with sustainable palliatives in one way or the other in these perilous times.”
The NLC position also noted, “The government is making extra money in the international spot market (of between USD35 and 40 per barrel above the budgeted figure).” This translates to trillions of Naira a month.
“On a long-term basis, we are equally concerned that local refineries are importing crude. This is unreasonable and unacceptable and defeats the logic and purpose of local capacity.”
Speaking on wages, the council demanded immediate introduction of a wage award covering federal, state, and local government workers.
“Wage awards as an urgent intervention and upward review of salaries and allowances of all serving public servants in the Nigerian public service should be provided with immediate effect to cut across all federal, state, and local government workers,” it said.
The JNPSNC put forward a proposal that, under the 2027 salary template, the minimum monthly pay for an officer at Grade Level 01, Step 1, ought to be N500,000.
The council further pushed for uniform wages throughout ministries, departments, and agencies, MDAs, and encouraged that the review be taken up at the state and local government levels as well.
The JNPSNC called on the president to instruct the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, NSIWC, to open talks with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC; JNPSNC; and other relevant stakeholders regarding the wage award and an upward review of salaries and allowances.
Backing the civil servants, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) described their demands as highly realistic and legitimate and pressed the government to act on them without delay.
Acting General Secretary Benson Upah, who discussed the demands with the press yesterday, stated, “The demand for a wage award and reduction in the pump price of fuel is very realistic and long overdue.
‘’Workers’ wages have remained static while inflation has continued to rise and erode the value of their earnings. Most workers cannot even afford to go to work, let alone feed their families as they do today.
“Therefore, workers need urgent and major intervention, which the government can easily afford. It is common knowledge that once the price of fuel goes up, it affects virtually everything, including essential commodities, transportation, and school fees, among others.
“It is not only workers who are affected, but also other Nigerians, especially the less privileged. Nigerians need urgent and major intervention to cope with the biting socio-economic situation. Therefore, the demands of the civil servants are very realistic and legitimate and should be addressed.
