FORMER Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Thursday criticised the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying his government pushed Nigerians into deeper hardship.
In separate Workers’ Day messages, on Friday, May 1, both opposition figures said the government’s reforms, especially the removal of fuel subsidy, worsened living conditions for workers across the country.
In a statement titled “Broken Promises, Shattered Hopes: The Nigerian Worker’s Burden Under the Tinubu Administration,” Abubakar said this year’s Workers’ Day should be a moment of grief rather than celebration.
He argued that the “Renewed Hope” slogan of the government had translated into “renewed hardship” for citizens, adding that Nigerian workers, including teachers, nurses, civil servants, artisans and factory workers, had borne the brunt of economic reforms without adequate protection.
Abubakar acknowledged that the removal of fuel subsidy was, in principle, a necessary reform but faulted the manner of its implementation, describing it as “reckless and callous.”
He said the policy was introduced without proper planning, social safety nets or cushioning measures, leading to a sudden spike in transport, food and living costs.
According to him, while the government claimed to have saved trillions of naira from the subsidy removal, ordinary Nigerians have yet to feel its benefits.
He alleged that instead, the funds were largely shared among tiers of government and directed toward projects such as the controversial Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which he claimed lacked competitive bidding and due process.
“While the Nigerian workers pay more to transport themselves to and from work, more to eat, more to keep their children in school, the administration is signing off on an $11 billion contract that bypassed every safeguard of transparency and accountability that should protect the public purse,” he wrote.
He added that “increasing taxes during an economic crisis, when citizens are already struggling to survive, is not fiscal responsibility. It is an act of cruelty masquerading as policy.
“What makes this administration’s economic record even more alarming is that, alongside all the new revenues generated, from subsidy savings, from a floating exchange rate that boosted naira receipts on dollar-denominated revenues, and from aggressive taxation, government borrowing has also increased dramatically. Nigeria’s debt profile has worsened. And, yet, for two consecutive years, the government has been unable to fully fund its own budget. Nigerians are owed a full and transparent account of where all this money has gone.”
In his remarks, Obi described workers as “the backbone of every nation,” but lamented that Nigerian workers are increasingly unable to survive on their wages due to rising inflation and cost of living.
He said the minimum wage could no longer guarantee a decent standard of living, stressing that no country could develop beyond the strength and welfare of its workforce.
“It is deeply painful that those who wake up every day to teach, heal, build, farm, produce, transport, protect, and serve our nation are still denied the dignity and fair reward their labour deserves. In today’s Nigeria, the minimum wage can no longer guarantee even the most modest standard of living, as inflation, rising food prices, transportation costs, and economic hardship continue to erode the value of honest work.
“No nation can truly develop beyond the strength, productivity, and wellbeing of its workforce. The progress of any society rests on the quality of its human capital, the skill of its people, and the commitment of its workers. When workers suffer, the nation suffers. When workers are empowered, the nation prospers,” he wrote.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M