Workers’ Day: Tinubu declares insecurity, poverty national emergency

President Bola Tinubu, on Friday, declared insecurity and poverty as national emergencies, warning that both crises continue to threaten workers’ welfare, productivity and economic growth across Nigeria. This is just as the former Vice President and a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar declared that Nigerian workers are getting renewed hardship instead of […]

President Bola Tinubu, on Friday, declared insecurity and poverty as national emergencies, warning that both crises continue to threaten workers’ welfare, productivity and economic growth across Nigeria.

This is just as the former Vice President and a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar declared that Nigerian workers are getting renewed hardship instead of the Renewed Hope promised by the present administration.

Speaking during the 2026 May Day celebration at Eagle Square, Abuja, Tinubu said decent work could not thrive in an atmosphere where citizens live in fear and wages no longer sustain families.

Weekend Trust reports that the global Workers’ Day theme focused on the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work Agenda.

Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, the President admitted that insecurity and widespread poverty remain major obstacles to national development but assured workers that his administration was responding with deliberate and sustained measures.

“There cannot be decent work where workers fear for their lives, where wages cannot feed a family, or where insecurity disrupts farms, factories and markets,” he stated.

Tinubu said the federal government had launched several interventions under the Renewed Hope Agenda to address the challenges.

He disclosed that the Community Protection Guards Initiative had already recruited about 45,000 young Nigerians to strengthen community security while creating employment opportunities.

According to him, social protection programmes, including expanded cash transfers, now reach about 15 million vulnerable households, with government estimates indicating that nearly 7.5 million Nigerians have been lifted out of poverty.

The President also highlighted ongoing infrastructure projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas Pipeline, noting that both initiatives have generated more than 600,000 jobs nationwide.

On workers’ welfare, Tinubu said his administration had implemented a new national minimum wage, cleared pension arrears and reactivated gratuity payments effective January 2026.

He added that over 800,000 informal sector workers had been enrolled in the micro pension scheme, while small businesses continued to benefit from a N200 billion MSME intervention fund.

The President further outlined government efforts in agriculture, mechanisation, dry season farming and farmer protection through the deployment of 10,000 Agro-Rangers across 19 states.

He urged labour unions, including the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, to prioritise dialogue over industrial action, insisting that “strike should be the last resort, not the first.”

But reacting to Tinubu’s May Day message, Atiku maintained that Nigerian workers are getting renewed hardship instead of the Renewed Hope promised by Tinubu.

Atiku said as workers in Nigeria mark this year’s commemoration, he writes not with celebration but with grief.

“Grief for the Nigerian worker who was promised renewed hope and received instead renewed hardship,” he said.

According to him, nearly three years on “it is painfully clear that what was renewed was not hope, but hardship. What was refreshed was not the fortunes of the Nigerian people, but the pockets of those in power.”

Atiku lamented that the Nigerian worker, the teacher, the nurse, the factory hand, the civil servant, the artisan, has been the primary victim of an administration that, by all observable evidence, is “far more interested in increasing the revenue at its disposal than in improving the lives of the citizens it governs.

The opposition leader said while the removal of the fuel subsidy was, in principle, a policy that many, including himself, had long advocated, but “the manner in which the present administration executed this policy was irresponsible and callous.”

Meanwhile, Local government workers protested the non-implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage by the Borno State Government.

The workers organized the protest with support of leaders of the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union of Nigeria, to mark the occasion of 2026 International Workers Day.

The NLC chairman, Comrade Yusuf Inuwa, who spoke to newsmen on the street of Maiduguri, said it’s a law for all states to pay minimum wage.

“We all know the situation of Nigerian workers. We are the poorest citizens in this country. So, we chose to celebrate our Workers’ Day on the street.

“Last two years, the national leadership of organised labour negotiated the N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers, which makes it a law for all states to pay their workers,” he said.

He admitted that the NLC has negotiated the minimum wage with the state government but the implementation is yet to trickle down to the local government workers.

“The teachers’ and primary healthcare workers’ minimum wage has been covered, but the Local government status is the main issue we faced in Borno State,” he said.

He urged the state government to implement the minimum wage for local government workers to help them improve their purchasing power.

“Their salary cannot even sustain them for one week. We go to the same market with them; hardship and inflation are affecting us all. We say enough is enough,” he said.

The state government has consistently attributed non-payment of minimum wage to an over-bloated payroll of workers.

Addressing the 27 local government chairmen in Borno recently, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum directed them to return to their localities and engage with relevant stakeholders on a workable solution to the salary problem.

Zulum also warned against retrenchment of staff at the local government level, stating that “We are not in support of staff retrenchment at the local government level as I direct you to institute a mechanism that will lead to the implementation of the minimum wage.”

“All local government chairpersons should go back to their localities, engage with relevant stakeholders and come up with a workable solution to the salary problem at the local government levels.

“I want to stress that the payment of N72,000 minimum wage has been fully implemented for state civil servants and all primary school teachers in Borno, ” Zulum said.