NLC to FG: Happy 66th, Please Can We Also Eat?

So while Baba was busy declaring we've crossed into the "age of prosperity," NLC quietly released their own Independence Day message titled "Our Hope Depends on the Choices We Make and the Actions We Take," which, translated from Labour-speak, basically means "we heard the speech, and no, we are not okay."

Joe Ajaero and the NLC came out swinging with three very simple requests: bring down petrol price, give workers a wage award, and please, for the love of garri, let's talk about a new minimum wage. Because apparently, petrol is now sitting at ₦1,430 per litre or more in major cities, and when fuel goes up, everything else just follows it like an obedient agbero behind a danfo conductor.

Here's the part that really hits different: the ₦70,000 minimum wage, the one government approved back in 2024 like it was a whole achievement, NLC is saying inflation had already eaten it alive before workers even collected the first alert. That's not a wage getting weak over time, that's a wage arriving to the fight already knocked out.

So now labour wants a tripartite committee, negotiations, a brand new wage standard for 2027, all finished and signed before this year packs up and leaves. Basically: "we are not asking you to hurry, we are asking you to not still be talking about this in 2028."

And the timing, chai, the timing. Government is out here saying "prosperity don land," and on the very same Independence Day, workers are out here saying "which prosperity? We're still calculating transport fare like it's WAEC maths." Two completely different group chats, apparently.

Oh, and somewhere in the background, public sector workers are already whispering about a possible three-day warning strike starting October 2nd if nothing changes. So barely one day into the "age of prosperity," and there's already a strike threat warming up on the bench.

Happy Independence Day, sha. Two messages dropped on the same day: one says we've arrived, the other says, please, we haven't even left the departure lounge.