President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of maintaining an aloof relationship with organised labour, saying repeated efforts by the congress to engage the Federal Government on workers’ concerns have often gone unanswered until protests or other industrial actions are announced.
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Ajaero made the remarks during the latest episode of Mic On Podcast, where he revisited the events surrounding the NLC’s nationwide protest of December 17, 2025 and the relationship between the labour movement and the Federal Government since then.
According to the NLC president, the problem is not simply disagreement between the two sides but what he described as the government’s reluctance to maintain regular dialogue with labour.
“For the past two to three years, it’s not government that is engaging. This government doesn’t engage,” Ajaero said.
“It’s only when people engage; they now say A, B, C, D. So they are aloof.”
He said the NLC had written repeatedly to President Tinubu between May and December 2025 without receiving the response it expected, leaving the congress with little option but to announce that it would take to the streets.
“By December 17, 2025, we pulled out that we were going to the streets. After writing a letter from May to December to the president and there was no response, we fixed that date that we were going to the streets,” he said.
The December demonstration was called principally over worsening insecurity across the country, including kidnappings and attacks affecting workers, schools and communities.
The NLC had formally declared December 17 a nationwide day of protest after its National Executive Committee expressed concern over what it called the “degenerating security situation” and directed affiliates and state councils to mobilise nationwide.
Ajaero said it was only after the protest had been fixed that some governors intervened and a meeting eventually took place.
“And after that, some governors intervened, and we had an interface. So some governors met with us, and since that time, we have talked once or twice,” he said.
He added that many of the issues raised at the time remained unresolved.
“And those issues, from December last year to now, they are just doing their business. Everybody is their enemy,” the NLC president said.
His account of the December events is partly reflected in reports from the period. On the eve of the protest, Tinubu met Ajaero and other labour leaders at the State House in Abuja in a last-minute effort to address the union’s concerns.
The meeting was also attended by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris, Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo and Minister of State for Labour and Employment Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
After the presidential engagement, labour leaders also met a Federal Government team led by Uzodimma, who is Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum. Ajaero subsequently said Tinubu had assured the union that additional steps were being taken to address insecurity.
The intervention, however, did not prevent the demonstration from going ahead. NLC members still marched in Abuja, Lagos and several other states on December 17 to demand stronger government action on insecurity and other concerns affecting workers.
Ajaero’s latest criticism comes as labour tensions are again rising over the cost of living, petrol prices and wages.
Public servants operating under the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council commenced a three-day warning strike on October 2 after the Federal Government failed to meet demands that included a reduction in the price of petrol to ₦500 per litre, a new wage award and the commencement of negotiations for a new national minimum wage.
Before the strike, the council said it had written Tinubu on September 21 and given the government until the end of September to respond.
Among its demands was the establishment of a tripartite committee to begin negotiations for a new national minimum wage of not less than ₦500,000 from 2027.
The public-sector unions also asked the government to approve a wage award to cushion workers against the rising cost of living and take steps to reduce petrol prices.
The council had warned that failure to address the demands by September 30 would trigger the three-day industrial action.
The current warning strike is being prosecuted by the JNPSNC rather than the NLC itself, but it adds to the broader pressure confronting the Federal Government over workers’ welfare and the economic impact of fuel prices.
The council said the prevailing economic conditions had placed workers, their dependants and vulnerable Nigerians under severe pressure, arguing that the cost of transportation and other basic necessities had become increasingly difficult for many households to bear.
Ajaero’s criticism therefore revives a recurring dispute between organised labour and the Tinubu administration over not only the substance of economic and social policies but also the process through which government engages workers before disputes escalate.
The relationship has experienced repeated confrontation since the removal of petrol subsidy in 2023, with labour demanding greater protections for workers against increases in transportation, food, electricity and other living costs.
There have nevertheless been engagements between the two sides over the period. Federal Government officials have previously met NLC and Trade Union Congress leaders on petrol pricing, wages and economic policies, while Tinubu personally participated in the December 2025 engagement cited by Ajaero.
The NLC president’s complaint is therefore centred on what he considers the absence of sustained, proactive dialogue rather than a claim that no meeting has ever taken place between labour and the administration.
His contention is that government tends to engage after labour has announced protests or other actions instead of maintaining a continuous mechanism through which concerns can be addressed before they develop into industrial disputes.
That argument is again being tested as public servants press their demands over petrol prices and wages.
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