Nigeria: “Growth on paper, not in pockets”

By Zuleihat Owuiye, Nigeria

Nigerian workers say the federal government’s latest GDP figures mean nothing to them because the cost of living continues to outpace any reported economic growth.

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, said on Wednesday that the growth announced by the government on Tuesday has not translated into better living conditions for citizens, especially civil servants.

ASCSN President, Shehu Mohammed, spoke at the association’s South West zonal workshop in Lagos with the theme “A Shift From Confrontation to Collaboration.”

While reacting to the GDP report, Mohammed said the numbers do not match reality on the ground.

“The reported growth is not reflected in the living condition of Nigerians, especially workers,” he said. “We are the engine room of the economy. We lubricate the economy but it is very unfortunate that what we are facing today is that we are lubricating, but we are drying.”

He argued that civil servants are bearing the brunt of inflation and poor wages, and warned that a weak workforce means a weak economy.

“When you empower civil servants economically, then the nation will have a change of movement,” Mohammed stated. “When civil servants are deprived of a befitting minimum wage and economic empowerment, then definitely, the economy of the country will also suffer.”

Mohammed also raised concerns over the current N70,000 minimum wage, saying its value was wiped out by inflation even before full implementation.

“It is not even about what is happening now,” he said. “This is what we have experienced in the two to three years of implementation of the minimum wage. Even before the full implementation of the minimum wage, the rate of inflation had already taken away the value of the N70,000.”

With that in mind, ASCSN is preparing for the next round of wage negotiations.

“By next year, we are going into negotiations for a new minimum wage,” Mohammed announced. “So, any moment from now, in the pre-negotiation session, we need to kick-start the process so we have our data across the table and can negotiate a better minimum wage for Nigerian workers.”

The ASCSN President also decried the rising price of petrol, which has now crossed the N1,000 per litre mark in many areas.

He blamed it directly on the removal of fuel subsidy and the continued failure of government refineries.

“It is the other side of subsidy removal,” he explained. “Upon the removal of subsidy, that means you are going to buy fuel at international market rates, despite the fact that we have refineries that are not functioning. So, that has caused fuel prices to escalate to this level of over N1,000.”

Speaking at a separate event, former President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, made a similar call for better pay.

Osifo, who is also President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, spoke at a reception organised by the TotalEnergies E&P branch of PENGASSAN to mark the end of his six-year tenure as PENGASSAN president.

He said worker remuneration in the oil and gas sector must reflect current inflation levels.

“Protecting jobs and ensuring that workers’ wages kept pace with inflation must remain central to the future of the oil and gas industry,” Osifo said.

The oil and gas industry is Nigeria’s main foreign exchange earner, yet union leaders say workers in the sector are also struggling with the same pressures of rising costs, currency devaluation, and eroded purchasing power.

Both ASCSN and TUC/PENGASSAN are pointing to the same problem: macroeconomic data is improving, but household data is not.

Government has repeatedly cited GDP growth and reforms like subsidy removal as necessary steps to reposition the economy. Labour, however, says those reforms have come with heavy costs and no immediate relief for workers.

With minimum wage negotiations set to begin next year and fuel prices still climbing, the pressure on government to show tangible results is increasing.

For now, labour’s message is clear: until workers feel the growth in their salaries and in the market, GDP figures will remain just numbers on paper.

“As I said earlier,” Mohammed concluded, “civil servants are really the ones suffering.