Nigeria’s main labour unions have launched an indefinite strike against the government’s failure to agree on a minimum wage, shut down the national electricity grid, disrupted airline services and blocked entrances to parliament.
A minimum wage of 30,000 naira (£15) per month, agreed in 2019, expired in April this year. Trade unions are calling for an increase to 494,000 naira (£257) per month.
Monday’s strike marks the fourth by Nigeria’s two largest labour unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), since President Bola Tinubu took office in May 2023.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said the national grid was shut down at 2:19 a.m. (1:19 a.m. GMT) after union members chased away workers from the country’s power control rooms and shut down at least six substations. As of Monday afternoon, the grid remained down.
Local newspaper Daily Trust reported that the NLC’s local branch in parliament had cut off electricity and water to both houses of parliament, while there were also reports of banks and hospitals being closed in several states.
Nigerian airline Ibom Air said it would suspend operations until further notice due to the strike, while United Nigeria said airports across the country had been closed and striking workers had not allowed all its flights to operate.
Power and aviation industry trade unions said on Monday they had instructed workers to withdraw services following an indefinite strike.
“The Labour Party [the opposition Nigerian Labour party, supported by the NLC and TUC] “This level of extremeness is possible, but it should not come as a surprise to anyone with insight,” presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said. I said it with X“The Labour Party is harming the Nigerian people they claim to be fighting for… It is clear that the issues they claim to be fighting for cannot be resolved through intimidation and sabotage.”
Since taking office, Tinubu has announced a series of reforms that have pushed inflation to its highest level in three decades and exacerbated a cost-of-living crisis in Africa’s most populous country. He has come under pressure from trade unions to provide relief to households and small businesses after keeping fuel prices low while scrapping petrol subsidies that cost the government $10 billion (£7.9 billion) last year.
Trade unions declared an indefinite strike on Friday after talks on a new minimum wage to cushion the impact of the reforms collapsed. The unions said the strike would continue until the new minimum wage was introduced.
“Since we held nationwide protests against the recent electricity tariff hike, there has been no request for consultations from government officials,” TUC president Festus Osifo was quoted as saying on Friday. “Even the Minister of Power does not think it is appropriate to convene us for consultations.”
TCN said it was working to restore and stabilise the national power grid but that labour unions were obstructing grid restoration across the country.
As the government tries to wean the economy off subsidies, unions are demanding a rollback of electricity tariff increases introduced last month for wealthier consumers who use the most electricity.
Nigeria’s privatization agency said on Thursday the country has secured a $500 million loan from the World Bank for its power sector.
