Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticised the N70,000 new minimum wage approved for workers by President Bola Tinubu, describing it as grossly inadequate to cover workers’ basic needs, including transportation, food, and housing.

The former President accused labour leaders of betraying workers by prioritising personal interests over collective welfare.

“That is the situation in Nigeria in the third decade of the 21st century.

“The minimum wage does not even cover transportation costs for some workers, let alone food, housing, and family upkeep,” Obasanjo wrote in his newly released book, “Nigeria: Past and Future”.

In Chapter 17 of the book, Obasanjo accused labour leader of neglecting leaders while pursuing personal interests.

“Workers need more attention than they are getting. It is their right, and they have been denied it for too long. They have become victims of those meant to protect their interests.

“How did it happen that a trade union leader, while in office, was negotiating with a political party to be adopted as a gubernatorial candidate?

“Because of their political ambitions, most union leaders are ineffective compared to the founding fathers’ expectations.

“The workers thereby become victims of selfish leaders who use their positions to achieve political heights.

“Rather than negotiate in the interest of the workers, they do sabre-rattling and they are called into the room and money in large amounts is stuffed into their hands and they keep quiet.

“That has been the case since 2015. And, if anything, it is going from bad to worse.”

Obasanjo also criticised government officials who openly admitted to paying off labour leaders to stop agitation.

“How do we explain a senior official close to the President saying, ‘We have paid them to keep quiet and stop agitating’?

“What contributions are such labour leaders and their unions making to the country’s progress? You do not get the best from a frustrated and depressed worker.”

While acknowledging that anyone has the right to pursue politics, Obasanjo argued that it was unethical for labour leaders to use their unions as platforms for political advancement, as it creates a conflict of interest.

He proposed a law requiring labour leaders to wait at least five years after leaving office before participating in politics.

On July 29, 2024, Tinubu signed the N70,000 minimum wage into law after negotiations with organised labour and the private sector were finalised on July 18, 2024.

This concluded months-long talks in which Tinubu reduced labour’s initial N250,000/month demand to N70,000/month.

Before this, the country’s minimum wage stood at N33,000, signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari on April 18, 2019.

With talks about coalition brewing ahead of the 2027 election, former Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign spokesman Kenneth Okonkwo says he will support a fresh southerner or northerner who is willing to vacate office after a four-year single tenure.

He hinged his decision on equity and fairness to both northern and southern regions of the country, in line with the unwritten rule of rotational presidency.

“Everybody should come together. It is something that can be discussed. Who is going to do four years is going to influence who I am going to support because I still believe in equity and justice,” Okonkwo said on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

The lawyer, who dumped the Labour Party in February 2025, said he is open to joining the coalescing coalition to trounce President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next poll.

Talks about a coalition have been gaining momentum of late and were heightened by the defection of former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai from the APC to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

El-Rufai has been pictured with the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, amongst other powerbrokers in the opposition. Like El-Rufai, Okonkwo recently met with Atiku, saying Nigeria needs cooperation to defeat the ruling APC in the next poll.

Okonkwo described the APC government as incompetent, saying the opposition must put up a formidable front to wrest power from the incumbent in the next election.

He said, “My game plan is simple. If the opposition is serious about wresting power from this incompetent government, they must all come together and act like one because that was what APC did in 2013 and that was what helped them to wrest power in 2015.

“I believe in coalition. When I was leaving, I said I am open to discussions with every group to consolidate the opposition so that we can take out this government.”

The lawyer described the 2027 election as complicated and complex but said the coalition could discuss the modalities for victory in the poll.

Okonkwo said, “2027 is one of the most complicated and complex times in the political history of Nigeria because we have this gentleman’s agreement – eight years in the South, eight years in the North.

“Now, when an incumbent is not doing well, and in the middle of his tenure, it is a very difficult thing to change or to project what will happen.

“Would you say you want to get a fresh person from the South? The North will say that means he will do another eight years. They will be scared, and politicians are not very good at being trusted.

“Would you allow an incompetent government to continue just because you want to sacrifice the whole of Nigeria? Just because you want to leave an incumbent government to finish eight years?

“Would you say let it go to the North when it has just been four years in the South? The South would say you are short-changing us. So, it is a very complicated thing.

“The best thing if politicians were to be trusted is to have a free, fair primary where every qualified person, whether South or North, would partake in it. And whoever would emerge would agree to do four years, whether from the South or the North.

“If he [northerner) does four years, it would have been shared between North and South – four years each, and then it returns to the South.

“Then if a Southern person, a fresh person wins, he will do only four years to complete the eight years. Then, it will go to the north, where it will spend eight years.

“So, if the north agrees that the person there now is not doing well but it is not yet our turn but we can do four years – if the person emerges from the free and fair elections because if you begin to regiment it and say he won’t do primary, then it will be a selective thing, not democratic.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has waded into the trending issue of a corps member who allegedly got threatened by officials of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for criticising the President Bola Tinubu administration.

TUC President, Festus Osifo, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said that the corps member spoke out of frustration, advising the government not to go after her but to be tolerant of critics.

The Lagos-based NYSC member, Ushie Uguamaye, had taken to TikTok to criticise Tinubu’s government over hardship Nigerians face as a result of the administration’s economic reforms.

Her video went viral and got the attention on NYSC officials whom she later accused of calling her and issuing a threat to her to delete the video. NYSC is yet to release an official statement regarding the issue.

But the TUC boss said, “They (government) have to develop this resilience to understand that people are frustrated, people are hungry, people are tired. So, if they decide to vent, I strongly believe that the government should not personalise it and come after such individuals.

“Imagine a young lady carrying out her NYSC function, what does she really have to do to bring down government? So, it is about personal frustration that she has aired.

“So, I think that the government has to persevere much more, they have to be more tolerant, and they have to have this deep level of patient with Nigerians because people are passing through a lot as it stands today.”

The TUC boss, however, advised critics to always criticise the government within the expected norm and with some level of decorum.

In a statement released earlier on Sunday, Amnesty International also condemned the alleged threats and intimidation being faced by Lagos-based corps member.

It said that the Federal Government must stop threatening individuals and groups who criticise the current administration.

“The Nigerian authorities must stop responding with violence and threats to individuals and groups who express dissenting opinions — in utter disregard for Nigerian constitution and international law. Holding and voicing dissenting views is not a crime,” the organisation in a statement on its X handle.