Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to raise Nigeria’s national minimum wage, saying the current amount no longer matches the cost of living.
Atiku made the call through a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communications of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council.
The former Vice President said Tinubu’s removal of the fuel subsidy had driven up the prices of essential goods and made life harder for many Nigerians.
He also backed the organised labour’s demand for a substantial increase in workers’ pay. Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of creating what he described as a ruthless economic squeeze, where workers earn more on paper but have less money to live on.
He said the current ₦70,000 minimum wage was not enough to meet the needs of Nigerian families. He also accused the government of celebrating a wage reform that, in his view, had become an insult to workers whose earnings disappear between the petrol station and the food market.
“The government pulled away the floor, offered workers a flimsy umbrella and now applauds itself while the rain beats down on them.
“Fuel, transport, food and rent have devoured their earnings. This is a callous way to govern people who work hard and ask only for the means to live.
“Tinubu asked Nigerians to make sacrifices and treated the suffering that followed as an afterthought. Those with the least have been made to carry the heaviest load. That is the cruel arithmetic of this cost-of-living crisis.”
Atiku pointed to the current petrol price as part of the problem. He said ₦70,000 could now buy only about 50 litres of petrol, leaving workers to worry about how to cover other basic needs.
He said the increase from ₦30,000 under the previous minimum wage to ₦70,000 had failed to restore Nigerians’ purchasing power.
According to the statement, the former ₦30,000 minimum wage could buy roughly 118 litres of petrol when the national average price was ₦254.06 per litre before the Tinubu administration.
“At ₦1,400 a litre, the entire ₦70,000 monthly minimum wage buys just 50 litres of petrol. What does the worker take home to feed the children? What pays the rent? What gets that worker back to work on Monday?
“The payslip has grown, but the fuel it can buy has more than halved. Tinubu has given workers a larger number and left them with a smaller life. That is hardship dressed up as a wage increase,” he said.
Atiku also compared Nigeria’s wage floor with those of other African and oil-producing countries.
The statement said that, based on exchange rates from 24 July 2026, Libya’s monthly minimum wage was worth about ₦213,000, while Algeria’s was ₦245,000. Equatorial Guinea’s stood at ₦302,000 and Gabon’s at ₦351,000. It added that Benin Republic’s minimum wage was also higher than Nigeria’s when converted using those exchange rates.
“Wage rules and living costs differ across countries, he said, but those differences cannot make ₦70,000 adequate for a Nigerian worker facing today’s prices.”
Atiku described Nigerian workers as the engine of the country’s productive life and said such an engine could not be expected to function without enough fuel.
He urged Tinubu to review workers’ salaries and reduce the cost of essential commodities to ease the pressure on families.
“The Nigerian worker is the engine of this country’s productive life, yet Tinubu expects that engine to run without fuel. A worker leaves home before dawn, gives the country a full day’s labour, then stands at a bus stop wondering whether the money left will pay the fare home or put food on the family table. That is a national disgrace. You cannot work people to exhaustion, pay them into poverty and lecture them about productivity. If a full month’s wage cannot sustain a worker’s family, government has failed the people who keep this country moving.
“Petrol does not stay at the pump. Its price follows the farmer to market, enters the baker’s oven and appears in the fare a parent pays to take a child to school. Government then announces a wage increase and watches those costs swallow it before the month has begun.”
Atiku called on Tinubu to immediately agree to a substantial minimum-wage increase that reflects what Nigerians now spend on food, transport, rent and power.
“If he has no intention of raising workers’ pay, he should say so plainly and stop stringing the Nigeria Labour Congress and other labour leaders along. Nigerian workers deserve an answer, not another round of meetings that ends where it began. I will begin the work of raising the wage floor from my first day in office,” Atiku said.
He said workers should not be expected to endure the current hardship for the remaining eight months of Tinubu’s term.
“Tinubu has eight months left in this term. Nigerian workers cannot be told to endure eight more months of hunger while his government debates whether their wages are enough.
“He must raise the wage floor and bring down the costs crushing families. From May 2027, my policies will protect the people: support Nigerian production, deliver relief at the pump and provide targeted help to those hit hardest by the cost-of-living crisis,” Atiku said.
He further argued that any effort to improve workers’ welfare must combine better pay with lower living costs.
“If we are serious about repairing the damage, better pay must be accompanied by lower living costs. Anything less leaves the Nigerian worker as the guinea pig in Tinubu’s economic experiment,” he said.
Atiku also explained that his proposed targeted production subsidy would support petroleum products refined in Nigeria and sold to Nigerians. He said the plan would operate under a firm spending limit, public accounting and independent audit.
He added that government support must lead to measurable relief at petrol stations. He also restated his commitment to realistic wage adjustments, targeted social protection and steps to stabilise the prices of essential goods and energy.
“Nigerians do not eat FAAC figures. A full treasury is no answer to an empty kitchen. The test of this government is whether the men and women who work all month can live on what they earn.
“A living wage must buy a living. It is not a privilege; it is a basic right. Tinubu has made life painfully expensive. I will make life affordable again,” Atiku said.
