The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has given Nigeria’s federal government two weeks from October 9, 2026, to begin new minimum-wage negotiations and reduce petrol prices to their level when the current wage agreement was signed in 2024.
Update, October 9, 2026: This report, first published on October 1, has been updated with the NLC’s new ultimatum. The union has not announced a nationwide strike date.
The ultimatum appears in a communiqué published on October 8 and signed by NLC President Joe Ajaero. It followed a joint meeting of the union’s National Executive Council and Central Working Committee in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on October 7.
The communiqué announced no nationwide strike date. Okay News reports that it warned of “remedial steps as would be directed by the relevant Organs” if the demands were not met.
The new deadline follows the congress’s September 30 Independence Day statement, which sought an immediate wage award for workers in federal, state and local governments and a tripartite committee to negotiate a new minimum-wage standard for 2027.
That earlier statement called for legislation before the end of 2026, tax relief, lower governance costs and greater transparency in public spending.
“A wage award is not charity. It is an emergency intervention against the collapse of real income,” the September 30 statement said.
