NLC President Ajaero Tackles TUC Over Rejection Of Tinubu Govt’s N70,000 Transport Allowance | Sahara Reporters

The Federal Government had on Tuesday approved a N70,000 monthly transport intervention for public service workers across all levels for six months, beginning November 2026, following a conciliation meeting with the NLC in Abuja.

President Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, has publicly rebuked the Trade Union Congress (TUC) for rejecting the Nigerian Government’s proposed N70,000 monthly transport allowance, demanding to know why the sister labour congress was opposing a deal it never negotiated.

Ajaero, speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme monitored by SaharaReporters on Thursday, also warned that a N1 million minimum wage would collapse the Nigerian economy, arguing that the real battle was not nominal wage increases but the restoration of the naira’s purchasing power amid a cost-of-living crisis that has pushed food inflation to 19.59 per cent and petrol prices to N1,369 per litre and above.

“Why is TUC challenging what was gotten for the workers when we stated clearly that NLC was acting alone?” Ajaero asked. “The agreement was not signed by TUC, and you don’t kick against something that you didn’t negotiate, you never asked for.”

The Federal Government had on Tuesday approved a N70,000 monthly transport intervention for public service workers across all levels for six months, beginning November 2026, following a conciliation meeting with the NLC in Abuja.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by Tanimu Yakubu, Director-General of the Budget Office; Ajaero; Garba Abdul, Permanent Secretary of the Service Welfare Office; and Muhammad Dingyadi, Minister of Labour and Employment.

But the TUC, led by Festus Osifo, rejected the deal within 24 hours, demanding an immediate salary increase for workers and the implementation of outstanding agreements with the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).

The TUC argued that temporary wage awards are unsustainable and far-reaching, pointing to the fate of the N40,000 wage award agreed in October 2023, which was never fully implemented.

The congress proposed raising the salary of the lowest-paid federal worker from N70,000 to N300,000, with consequential adjustments across other grades, insisting that no law required the government to negotiate a new minimum wage before increasing pay.

Ajaero said the split was not new. According to him, the TUC had distanced itself from the negotiations from the outset, after its leadership insisted that the next minimum wage review was not due until August 2027. The NLC disagreed, arguing that position was inconsistent with the law, and proceeded with its own engagement with the government.

“When we started the first meeting, the media reported that NLC and TUC had a meeting. They threatened us and said they are not part of it,” Ajaero said. “We came out with a statement that NLC is on this alone; we are not with TUC. So I would be surprised why TUC would be challenging what was gotten for the workers.”

He said he would have preferred a scenario where both labour centres pushed competing demands, allowing the government to harmonise them.

“I would have preferred a situation whereby if NLC was asking for one naira, TUC would be asking for 10 naira, and probably the government would harmonise it,” he said.

Ajaero also pushed back on the TUC’s demand for an immediate salary increase outside the minimum wage process.

“Does the government dash wage increase? There must be a process put in place,” he said.

Beyond the inter-union squabble, Ajaero delivered a stark warning about the limits of wage increases in an economy where the naira has lost nearly 90 per cent of its dollar value between 2015 and 2024, and where headline inflation peaked at 34.8 per cent in December 2024 before easing to 14.63 per cent in September 2026.

“N1,000,000 minimum wage will collapse the Nigerian economy,” Ajaero stated, stressing that the government must first address the underlying drivers of the high cost of living and strengthen the purchasing power of the currency.

His comments echo his earlier position in April 2026, when he said a N1million salary would be worthless without a stable naira. “Even if Nigerian workers earn ₦1 million, it will not be meaningful if the naira has no value,” he had said then.

The labour dispute is unfolding against a backdrop of unrelenting hardship for Nigerian households. Food inflation stood at 19.59 per cent year-on-year in September 2026, while the average cost of cooking a pot of jollof rice for a family of five climbed to N30,435 in March, a 19.4 per cent increase from the previous year.

Petrol prices, which were N195 per litre at the beginning of 2023, have risen to N1,369 per litre at NNPC retail stations, with independent marketers selling as high as N1,430 per litre in major cities.

Diesel prices have climbed to as high as N2,300 per litre at some filling stations, while cooking gas rose by 25 per cent to between N1,500 and N1,600 per kilogramme.

The NLC had warned in September that rising petrol prices would worsen transportation costs and trigger further increases in food, rent, school fees and other essential goods and services.

“There is nothing wrong with government subsidising the needs of citizens, especially in emergency situations like this,” Ajaero said at the time.

The proposed N70,000 transport allowance, if fully implemented across the 1.1 million employee records on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, could cost the government an estimated N465.7 billion over six months, a sum economists say underscores the scale of the crisis but does little to address its structural roots.

The public spat between the NLC and TUC is not the first time Nigeria’s two labour centres have found themselves at odds. In 2024, both unions had jointly accepted the N70,000 minimum wage offered by the Tinubu government, a decision that drew criticism from the Democratic Socialist Movement, which accused them of abandoning the struggle for a living wage.

More recently, in August 2026, the two centres had jointly demanded a N500,000 minimum wage, before the TUC’s decision to go it alone on the transport allowance rejection exposed fresh fractures.

For now, the N70,000 allowance is scheduled to begin in November 2026, but with the TUC refusing to endorse it and the NLC insisting it never needed TUC’s signature, the question of whether Nigerian workers will see any relief — and who speaks for them — remains unresolved.

As Ajaero put it: “I have been worried for some time now, why you say you reject something that was not given to you.”