President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero, has alleged that Nigeria is sliding dangerously towards authoritarian and tyrannical rule under President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Ajaero made the claim at the opening ceremony of the 21st Rain School of the NLC, with the theme “Labour and Human Rights in a Shrinking Democratic Space,”held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
According to him, the country’s democratic space continues to shrink and workers’ rights come under sustained assault.
Mr Ajaero alleged that the ongoing clampdown on civic freedoms and union activities is a calculated effort to silence the voices of Nigerian workers ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He claimed that the federal government and state governors were systematically crushing dissent, weakening democratic institutions, and unlawfully seizing workers’ contributions, which it described as stealing workers’ sweat.
Speaking further, the labour leader said, “it is clear that governance has been abandoned for 2027 politicking’.
“We are all on our own. Leaders who should be working to alleviate suffering are instead consumed by power games – leaving workers and ordinary Nigerians to bear the brunt of economic hardship and burgeoning insecurity, all results of their own policies.
“In a healthy democracy, this would be politically suicidal—because robust engagement would hold such leaders accountable.”
Mr Ajaero added that this year is a time when the socio-economic framework is riddled with suspicion, saying that governance continues to produce negative results for the citizenry.
“We are gathered at a time when Nigeria is ranked as one of the ten worst countries in the world for workers’ rights violations.
“There is always an inverse relationship between the abuse of human and workers’ rights and the state of a nation’s democratic space. As the democratic space expands, abuse of human and workers’ rights contracts increases—but as the democratic space shrinks, abuse of rights expands.
“Should we be concerned about the democratic space as workers and trade unionists? Yes, we should. A shrinking democratic space is a threat to workers, to the masses, and to our nation,” he said.