The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has expressed support for organised labour’s demand for a substantial increase in the minimum wage.
In a statement issued by the Director of Strategic Communications of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, on Sunday, Atiku accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over what he described as a ruthless economic squeeze in which workers are paid more on paper but are condemned to live on less.
He asserted that the administration’s self-congratulatory narrative about economic reforms had become an insult to Nigerians whose wages disappear between the filling station and the food market.
Atiku stated that Tinubu’s removal of the petrol subsidy sent prices soaring before adequate protection was put in place for working families.
“The government pulled away the floor, offered workers a flimsy umbrella and now applauds itself while the rain beats down on them. Fuel, transport, food and rent have devoured their earnings. This is a callous way to govern people who work hard and ask only for the means to live.
“Tinubu asked Nigerians to make sacrifices and treated the suffering that followed as an afterthought. Those with the least have been made to carry the heaviest load. That is the cruel arithmetic of this cost-of-living crisis,” he said.
“At ₦1,400 a litre, the entire ₦70,000 monthly minimum wage buys just 50 litres of petrol. What does the worker take home to feed the children? What pays the rent? What gets that worker back to work on Monday?”
The former Vice President stressed that the increase in the minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000 had failed to restore workers’ purchasing power.
He recalled that, at the April 2023 national average petrol price of ₦254.06 per litre, ₦30,000 could buy roughly 118 litres of petrol.
“Today, ₦70,000 buys only 50 litres at ₦1,400 per litre. The payslip has grown, but the fuel it can buy has more than halved. Tinubu has given workers a larger number and left them with a smaller life. That is hardship dressed up as a wage increase,” he decried.
Atiku also noted that Nigeria’s wage floor compared poorly with those of several oil-producing and African countries.
According to him, using exchange rates from July 24, 2026, Libya’s monthly minimum wage was worth approximately ₦213,000; Algeria’s, ₦245,000; Equatorial Guinea’s, ₦302,000; and Gabon’s, ₦351,000.
He added that the minimum wage in Benin Republic was also higher than Nigeria’s when converted at the same exchange rates.
While acknowledging that wage structures and living costs differ across countries, Atiku explained that such differences could not make ₦70,000 adequate for a Nigerian worker facing current prices.
“The Nigerian worker is the engine of this country’s productive life, yet Tinubu expects that engine to run without fuel. A worker leaves home before dawn, gives the country a full day’s labour, then stands at a bus stop wondering whether the money left will pay the fare home or put food on the family table,” he lamented.
He described the situation as a national disgrace, saying “you cannot work people to exhaustion, pay them into poverty, and lecture them about productivity.”
Atiku argued that if a full month’s wage cannot sustain a worker’s family, government has failed the people who keep the country moving.
He emphasised that the impact of rising petrol prices extended far beyond the filling station.
“Petrol does not stay at the pump. Its price follows the farmer to market, enters the baker’s oven and appears in the fare a parent pays to take a child to school. Government then announces a wage increase and watches those costs swallow it before the month has begun,” he remarked.
He challenged President Tinubu to immediately agree to a substantial increase in the minimum wage that reflects the actual cost of food, transportation, rent, and power.
Atiku mentioned that if the President had no intention of raising workers’ pay, he should say so plainly and stop what he described as “stringing the Nigeria Labour Congress and other labour leaders along.”
He said that Nigerian workers deserved an answer rather than another round of meetings that ended without a resolution, pledging to begin the process of raising the wage floor from his first day in office if elected.
“Tinubu has eight months left in this term. Nigerian workers cannot be told to endure eight more months of hunger while his government debates whether their wages are enough.
“He must raise the wage floor and bring down the costs crushing families. From May 2027, my policies will protect the people: support Nigerian production, deliver relief at the pump, and provide targeted help to those hit hardest by the cost-of-living crisis,” he pledged.
He stated that if Nigeria was serious about repairing the damage caused by the economic crisis, better pay must be accompanied by lower living costs. Anything less, he argued, would leave Nigerian workers as “the guinea pig in Tinubu’s economic experiment.”
Atiku further declared that his plan for a targeted production subsidy would support petroleum products refined in Nigeria and sold to Nigerians, subject to a firm spending cap, public accounting, and independent audit.
He noted that government support must produce measurable relief at the pump, while reaffirming his commitment to realistic wage adjustments, targeted social protection, and measures to stabilise the cost of essential goods and energy.
“Nigerians do not eat FAAC figures. A full treasury is no answer to an empty kitchen. The test of this government is whether the men and women who work all month can live on what they earn,” he argued.
Atiku maintained that a living wage must be sufficient to provide workers with a decent standard of living, describing it as a basic right rather than a privilege.
He added that while Tinubu had made life “painfully expensive,” he would work to make life affordable again.
