The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged journalists to hold politicians accountable for their plans to improve workers’ welfare ahead of the 2027 general elections, insisting that Nigeria needs a living wage rather than a statutory minimum wage that fails to meet basic needs.
The NLC Assistant Secretary, Chris Onyeka, made the call in a goodwill message delivered on Thursday at the third annual labour conference of the Labour Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria (LACAN) in Abuja.
The congress also urged LACAN to support the struggle for improved wages, job security and social protection, warning that economic reforms that suppress workers’ earnings in the name of stabilisation could worsen their living conditions.
“Minimum wage is not a charitable gesture; it is the price of labour power, and any economic reform that suppresses wages in the name of ‘stabilisation’ is a reform against the worker, not for the economy,” Onyeka said.
He described the forthcoming 2027 elections and negotiations for a new national minimum wage as critical opportunities to address the economic hardship facing Nigerian workers.
Onyeka urged labour correspondents to scrutinise political parties’ economic proposals and demand specific commitments on workers’ welfare rather than allowing campaign promises to go unchallenged.
He said journalists had an important role in ensuring that candidates and political parties explained how their policies would affect wages, job security and the living conditions of workers.
On the future of work, Onyeka warned that increasing casualisation, the expansion of the platform economy and the weakening of conventional employment arrangements could undermine workers’ rights and collective bargaining.
He said these developments risked leaving more workers underpaid and without adequate protection in an increasingly digital economy.
“The Nigerian worker is already living in a dystopian version of this future: casualised, underpaid, and increasingly invisible in a digital economy that extracts value while denying rights,” he said.
The NLC maintained that improving workers’ welfare required stronger protection of employment rights, better wages and social safeguards, alongside closer scrutiny of economic policies and political commitments ahead of the 2027 elections.
