NLC Backs Workers’ Demand for ₦500 Petrol Price and ₦500,000 Minimum Wage Amid Rising Hardship

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has thrown its full weight behind public service workers, endorsing an urgent demand for the Federal Government to crash the pump price of petrol to ₦500 per litre and approve a new monthly minimum wage of ₦500,000.

The demands were officially communicated to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through a formal petition filed by the Trade Union Side of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC). Giving the government an ultimatum until September 30, 2026, to act, labor warned that the biting cost-of-living crisis fuelled by petrol prices scaling past ₦1,430 per litre has created palpable tension among workers and citizens alike.

Speaking on behalf of the congress, NLC Acting General Secretary Benson Upah described the demands as entirely realistic and long overdue. He noted that static wages coupled with hyperinflation have left most workers unable to afford basic transportation to their offices or provide adequate meals for their families.

“The demand for a wage award and reduction in the pump price of fuel is very realistic and long overdue,” Upah stated. “Workers’ wages have remained static while inflation has continued to rise and erode the value of their earnings. It is common knowledge that once the price of fuel goes up, it affects virtually everything, including essential commodities, transportation, and school fees.”

The workers rejected the distribution of temporary food palliatives, categorizing them as an unsustainable approach that fails to tackle systemic poverty. Instead, they urged the government to establish an intervention fund to stabilize petroleum prices down to ₦500 per litre the baseline cost when the subsidy regime was initially altered arguing that broad energy price relief would generate a positive multiplier effect across the entire economy.

Additionally, the council pressed for an immediate interim wage award across federal, state, and local government tiers as a precursor to the substantive minimum wage framework slated to take effect in January 2027, proposing that entry-level civil servants on Grade Level 01 begin receiving ₦500,000 monthly. With the ultimatum fast approaching, all eyes are on the administration to see how it responds to the swelling pressure from organized labor.