Onyebuchi Ezigbo takes a look at various demands and position of the two Labour Centres – Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress – over the biting cost of living in the country. While NLC is demanding outright reduction of the pump price of petrol to about N668 per litre, TUC, on its part, is seeking a revaluation of the Naira to exchange at N800 to a dollar so as to trigger reduction of fuel price to about N600 per litre.
When organised labour speaks, government usually listens with one ear open for the sound of strike drums.
But this October, the sound coming from Labour House is not a single beat. It is two different rhythms for same destination – bringing down the cost of living facing Nigerian workers.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which is the more militant of the two centres, drawing more of it’s members from average and low income earners has bluntly demanded an outright reduction in the pump price of petrol to at least half of it’s current cost. Bring petrol back to N668.30 per litre, it said. That was the price when President Bola Tinubu signed the N70,000 minimum wage into law in July 2024.
On the other side, the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in a more technocratic posturing said: Don’t just slash pump price, fix the exchange rate of Naira to N800 to one Dollar and the pump price will fall to N600 on its own.
Two Labour Centres, one pain, two prescriptions. At the same time the federal government appears to be torn in between two difficult choices of abandoning it’s professed policy of total removal of subsidy, floating of national currency and restoring the subsidy and intervening to shore up the Naira value.
NLC’s Ultimatum: Return To 2024 Fuel Price Level:
The NLC fired first. On October 7, 2026, after its National Executive Council and Central Working Committee converged at the Olaitan Oyerinde Hall at Labour House, Abuja. The atmosphere, according to communiqué signed by President Comrade Joe Ajaero, was sombre.
“The joint meeting-in-session notes with profound alarm the deepening misery inflicted on the Nigerian working class… Inflation continues to soar unabated, the Naira remains traumatised, wages have been rendered worthless, and the cost of living has become unbearable,” the communique reads.
Its resolution was direct. A two-week ultimatum beginning Friday, October 9, for government to: reduce petrol price to what it was at signing of current minimum wage in 2024; commence renegotiation of a new national minimum wage; implement February 5, 2026 Terms of Settlement with it’s affiliate – the Joint Health Workers Union (JOHESU); and implement demands of Joint Public Sector Negotiating Council or it will be compelled to take remedial steps.
For NLC, the argument is moral and mathematical. as at mid 2024, when minimum wage was fixed at N70,000, petrol was N668.30 per litre. Today petrol hovers above N1,400 in many cities. That means the wage has lost over 40 percent of its energy purchasing power before food and transport are even considered. In NLC ‘s view, bringing petrol back to N668 will only restore the original bargain.
NLC also demanded tax relief and wage awards, insisting government “cannot continue to demand sacrifice from workers while not offering any relief.”
However, for TUC the diagnosis of the present energy crisis and it’s biting impact on the populace should be tackled by first identifying it’s causative factors which Is the exchange rate debacle.
Before it’s latest recommendation on the revaluation of the Naira, TUC had earlier urged the government to see if it can plough back part of the extra profit or windfall from unbudgeted higher crude oil prices to subsidize local refineries to cause a reduction in the cost of their product for domestic market.
In 2024, TUC had presented a 15-point demand with exchange rate as central. It has not shifted. Last week, TUC President, Comrade Festus Osifo mounted the podium after the Congress NEC meeting to further demand that Federal government upgrades the value of the Naira which in the union’s view has been grossly undervalued.
“High exchange rate of Naira to a Dollar is central to rising cost of goods including the pump price of petrol,” he said.
Osifo acknowledged improvements: macroeconomics picking up, inflation achieving some stability, exchange rate gaining strength.
While commending the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, he, however, said N1,300 to $1 official rate is still a failure.
“We still believe that Naira should be somewhere between seven to 800 Naira to $1. At 400 it was overvalued. At 1,300 it is undervalued. It is not trading at the strength it should,” Osifo argued, citing local and international think tanks.
This is the TUC path. Nigeria imports refined fuel, even with Dangote Refinery and Port Harcourt running, pricing remains import-parity linked. Every Dollar rise adds to pump price. Strengthen Naira to N800/$, you cut import bill by almost 40 percent, you cut petrol to about N600, you also cut cost of drugs, school fees linked to Dollar, spare parts and food imports. It is not just fuel, it is everything.
On wages, TUC is more patient. It expects formal minimum wage talks by February 2027, six months to expiration of Minimum Wage Act, but wants immediate talks on allowances and wage awards. It also backed warning strike by Joint National Council of federal workers and pledged to escalate if unresolved, and waded into JOHESU health dispute and the Niger tragedy where about 30 minors reportedly died in NSCDC custody, demanding culprits be punished.
From all indications, it appears that the Labour Centres are adopting different tactics to drive home the demand of the workers for better living conditions in the face of harsh economic situation in the country.
The difference is not just economic; it is strategic. NLC wants an immediate, administratively determined relief – government should order NNPCL and marketers to drop price, even if it means subsidy or price modulation. Quick win for workers, but with fiscal cost.
On the other hand, TUC wants a market-correcting structural fix – monetary policy that makes Naira truly reflect its value, which will naturally drag down petrol and general inflation, but requires CBN reforms, improved dollar supply, oil production and investor confidence.
Labour watchers say both NLC and TUC may be right but incomplete in their submissions. A stronger Naira to N800 would indeed crash petrol below N600 without subsidy, but can CBN sustain N800 without burning reserves? A forced price cut to N668 would instantly relieve workers, but without Forex reform, queues and scarcity may return.
What unites them is urgency. The current minimum wage, which looked like victory in 2024, now buys less Garri than it did then. Organised Labour, which has been relatively quiet in 2026, is smelling the 2027 pre-election air where government is more likely to concede. For President Tinubu’s government, the clock is ticking away. NLC ultimatum lapses on October 23, 2026. TUC has not given a date but its warning on escalation of federal workers’ strike adds weight. If government ignores the two labour unions, it risks a joint action – NLC shutting down economic activity, TUC also crippling oil sector expertise led by PENGASSAN, its affiliate body headed by Osifo himself. That combination grounded Nigeria in 2012 and 2024. The question now is whether Abuja will choose NLC’s quick cut, TUC’s strong Naira, or, as often happens, a middle road that satisfies neither of the two parties.