Two labour leaders, Andrew Emelieze and Itoro Obong, have written a letter to the Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) over the alleged exploitation of workers by President Bola Tinubu.

Emelieze is a former Chairman of the Trade Union Congress [TUC] in Oyo State, while Obong is the Vice Chairman of the Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State chapter.

The duo are the leaders of the Federal Workers’ Forum (FWF), under which platform they wrote the letter.

They also notified the public and ILO of their plan to organise an indefinite protest over the alleged sub-optimal treatment of workers by the Nigerian state, disclosing that the protest would begin on April 22, 2025.

“The executive has been very harsh on workers through their ugly policies and our legislature, the National Assembly, and other regional Assemblies have never legislated in support of a decent work/wage neither has our judiciary ensured justice for the Nigerian workers,” they said.

“The current government in Nigeria has not proven different from the past administration in Nigeria. Workers don’t count on them and they have been treating workers with disdain and so much disrespect.

”The current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been very unfair and hostile to the Nigerian workers. While salaries have remained abysmally poor, President Tinubu and his team have continued to attack workers through their anti-workers policies as we have seen in hikes in the price of petroleum products, the deliberate devaluation of our national currency the (naira) and hikes in the price of everything in the face of double digits inflation.

”The Nigerian government has also severally flouted the international conventions of the ILO cum UN aimed at promoting decent work conditions and fair pay for work done.

“The situation in Nigeria is an existential threat to the general populace in the country and a threat to world peace and security. Perhaps one of the reasons Nigeria is coming tops in deadly migrants’ desperate journey on dangerous waters, across the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe.

“We are also calling for appropriate queries and sanctions on the Nigerian government and the NLC/TUC on the ill-treatment of workers.” (The Guardian)