The Solidarity Network for Workers’ Rights (SNWR) salutes all Nigerian workers on the occasion of this year’s Workers’ Day celebration. This year’s theme, “Reclaiming the Civic Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship,” rightly captures the urgency and the task ahead for the working class. At a time when the corrupt, anti-poor capitalist policies of the Tinubu regime are driving millions into deeper poverty, workers must rise to defend their rights and their future.

We commend the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) for recognising the need for workers to reclaim political space. However, we urge that this must go beyond rhetoric. The time has come for labour to genuinely reposition the Labour Party (LP), which was originally formed in 2006 by trade unions but has since been abandoned and taken over by corrupt political opportunists—mainly those who failed to secure tickets in the major capitalist parties.

Since the return to civil rule in 1999, Nigerian workers have faced relentless attacks from successive governments—all united in their devotion to neoliberal capitalist policies dictated by the IMF and World Bank. These policies—privatisation, commercialisation, and deregulation—have failed the working class and only succeeded in enriching a few at the top. Today, Nigerian workers are among the lowest paid in the world, forced to survive under inhumane conditions while politicians reward themselves with outrageous wages and luxurious lifestyles.

Even the recently signed ₦70,000 minimum wage, which falls short of the actual cost of living, is yet to be implemented in many states. Governors continue to drag their feet while claiming there’s no money—yet the same governments spend billions on cars, estacodes, and bloated allowances for political office holders.

This level of disregard for the dignity of Nigerian workers must be met with resistance. Workers must be prepared to organise, mobilise, and call for a National Day of Action against these exploitative policies and the system that keeps the majority in perpetual hardship.

It is clear that capitalist solutions have only deepened the crisis. The way forward lies in building an independent, mass-based political platform of the working class—one that fights for a socialist alternative, puts public needs over private profit, and guarantees decent wages, working conditions, and democratic rights for all.

For a Planned Economy and a Socialist Nigeria

Only a socialist alternative, where the capitalist pursuit of profit and imperialist lust for power is broken, provides the basis to redistribute resources from the billionaire class and the arms factories to the real needs of food, housing, health care, education, and other basic needs for the entire population of the world. In a socialist economy, the economy and trade are based on public ownership of the means of production and key levers of the economy, and the democratic planning of production.

Amidst the crisis and chaos of capitalism, the need for a socialist alternative becomes clearer. Humanity has never been better placed to live a life of prosperity without poverty, war and oppression. With a planned use of resources and production and distribution according to need, we could see a real “liberation day” for all humanity. This requires the united and international struggle of the working class to overthrow the whole parasitic capitalist system.

Signed

Lateef Adams

Secretary, SNWR 08032251