By Oriental Africa News Room
ABUJA, NIGERIA — The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has officially rejected the Federal Government’s proposed ₦70,000 monthly transport allowance for public workers, choosing instead to demand a comprehensive, permanent base salary increase of up to ₦300,000 for the lowest-paid worker to battle the country's relentless inflation crisis.
The decision was finalized and declared on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at the TUC's National Administrative Council meeting in Abuja, just ahead of the government's planned November rollout of the allowance. Led by President Festus Osifo and Secretary-General Nuhu Toro, the TUC flatly rejected the temporary six-month subsidy package that the presidency had recently negotiated with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Union leaders argue that temporary wage awards are fundamentally unstable and ineffective. They pointed out that over 80% of states failed to implement similar temporary palliatives promised in 2023, leaving workers highly skeptical of fresh, short-term promises while hyperinflation eats away at basic purchasing power. To resolve the crisis, the TUC insists the executive branch must use its powers to immediately implement a permanent wage adjustment rather than waiting for slow-moving national minimum wage legislative reviews, stressing that there is no constitutional maximum limit on what the government can choose to pay its workforce.
Editorial
While administration officials point to signs of stabilizing foreign exchange reserves and rising economic growth as proof that the reforms are working, the TUC's aggressive pushback shows that the domestic cost-of-living crisis is moving faster than the government's reform benefits can materialize. The rejection forces a timeline bottleneck: President Tinubu must now either allocate substantial unbudgeted capital to permanent salary bumps or risk prolonged industrial friction that could slow down his administration's momentum
While administration officials point to signs of stabilizing foreign exchange reserves and rising economic growth as proof that the reforms are working, the TUC's aggressive pushback shows that the domestic cost-of-living crisis is moving faster than the government's reform benefits can materialize. The rejection forces a timeline bottleneck: President Tinubu must now either allocate substantial unbudgeted capital to permanent salary bumps or risk prolonged industrial friction that could slow down his administration's momentum
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