By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has raised the alarm over the unbearable hardship caused by high petrol prices due to the US-Israel-Iran war and has called on the government to save Nigerian workers from further pauperisation.
The NLC told the government not to foreclose any action that would offer succour and demanded immediate intervention to salvage the situation.
“We demand immediate intervention. It is the duty of the state to act to prevent the agony of its citizens and not wring its hands in hopelessness, mouthing the Middle East war,” it stated in a statement issued by NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero.
It lamented that petrol prices are rocketing to N1,170–N1,300 per litre, making life difficult for workers and average Nigerians.
“This is no accident, it’s a brutal assault on our people, fuelled by sabotaged public refineries and a monopoly-driven scam,” the NLC noted, ripping the veil off Nigeria’s fragile downstream sector.
The labour movement said that while bombs rain in the Middle East, Nigerian families choke on hunger and poverty at home. It stressed that the Dangote Refinery’s price hikes, mirroring global volatility, shatter illusions of self-sufficiency, chaining workers to speculators and imperial wars.
“We’ve warned against refinery sabotage for monopoly profits. No nation wins freedom by exporting jobs and importing misery,” the NLC declared.
The NLC lamented that transportation strangles workers, food inflation devours wages, and starvation stipends mock survival. Workers cannot reach jobs or feed families; the economy grinds to a halt, and society explodes.
The statement, titled “Save Nigerians from Shock: An urgent relief has become necessary,” read: “The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) voices the collective anguish of millions of Nigerian workers bearing the brutal cost of a global capitalist crisis they did not create.
“The military escalation involving the US, Israel, and Iran has sent shockwaves through global oil markets. Consequently, petrol prices in Nigeria have skyrocketed to between N1,170 and N1,300 per litre.
“This is a direct assault on the Nigerian people. While imperialist rivalries play out with bombs abroad, our working class is bombarded with poverty and hunger because we have refused to ensure our public refineries are operational.
“This crisis has brutally exposed the fragility of Nigeria’s downstream sector, tearing off the mask of those who claimed local refining made us immune.
“The Dangote Refinery has adjusted its prices in lockstep with global volatility, passing the burden directly to the masses and making a lie of narratives about meeting domestic demand.
“As long as we remain dependent on a market-driven pricing structure tied to global vicissitudes and refuse to bring our public assets to life, we will remain hostages to wars and speculators.
“The NLC warned of the danger of sabotaging our refineries to create a monopoly. This is a wake-up call for the managers of our economy. No nation achieves economic freedom by exporting jobs and importing prices.
“The government must immediately halt the vandalism of the public sector and bring the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries back on stream—not as a favour, but as a right of the Nigerian people to cushion themselves from a hostile global order.
“The cost of PMS and AGO has made transportation a noose around workers’ necks. Food inflation is galloping, and this induced scarcity is swallowing meagre wages. When a worker cannot afford to go to work, the economy grinds to a halt. When a family cannot afford three meals a day, society sits on a keg of gunpowder.”
Continuing, it said, “The government cannot foreclose any action that would offer succour. Latest forecasts by the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) show that Nigeria stands to reap about N30trn (Thirty Trillion Naira) oil windfall from the Middle East crisis.”
*Demands immediate wage award, cost-of-living allowance
“The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) subsequently demands: An immediate wage award and cost-of-living allowance (COLA) for all workers to cushion the high cost of living. Current wages are starvation stipends.
An expansion and overhaul of cash transfers to ensure transparency and reach the most vulnerable, with increased value to match inflation. Immediate tax relief for workers and a stoppage of all regressive taxes on low-income earners, including the proposed tax on the informal economy. Taxing the minimum wage is extortion.
“A timeline for the full-scale operationalisation of all public refineries. The Nigerian state must be held accountable for the billions spent on turnaround maintenance.
“Nigerian workers are being pauperised and massively suffering. We are not a statistic; we are the engine of this nation. When the engine overheats, the entire vehicle crashes.
“The about N30trn oil windfall expected from the current Middle East war must not grow wings like the Gulf Oil windfall but should be invested in the Nigerian people to cushion the crisis’s negative effects.
“The government must engage in sincere social dialogue with Nigerian workers and the broader citizenry. Using the Middle East war as an excuse to impoverish Nigerians further is unacceptable. The primary duty of the government is to ensure the welfare of the citizenry. We demand action. We demand justice. We demand survival.”
