The Great Betrayal: How Nigeria’s Labour ‘Old Guard’ Sold The Future For A Loaf Of Bread

By Oto’ Drama, PhD.

SINCE May 29, 2023, the Nigerian psyche has been subjected to a relentless, arithmetic assault. When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu uttered the infamous four words, “The fuel subsidy is gone,” the nation braced for impact.

But few could have predicted the sheer velocity of the fall. In less than three years, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) has transitioned from a subsidized ₦185 to a staggering ₦1,600 per litre in March 2026—a predatory increase of over 800%.

Yet, as the pumps bleed the pockets of the common man dry, a more sinister silence has filled the air. It is the silence of the graveyard, orchestrated by the very unions sworn to protect the Nigerian worker.

*The Nunc Dimittis of Organized Labour*

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the two oil sector giants unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, have effectively sung their Nunc Dimittis. Historically the “vanguard of the masses,” these institutions have morphed into hollow shells of their former selves. Where there should be fire, there is only the cold ash of compromise.

The leadership of these unions has traded the collective bargaining power of over 200 million people for the bread and butter of backroom deals and governmental patronage. They have been silenced not by logic, but by a tyrannical intimidation that uses poverty as a leash. When a union leader’s stomach is full while the members’ cupboards are bare, the struggle is not just lost—it is sold.

*The Pauperization Strategy*
The current administration’s economic playbook is as clear as it is cruel: governance by exhaustion. By systematically devaluing the Naira and allowing fuel prices to hike six times in rapid succession, the state has induced a level of pauperization that functions as a political sedative in a country that is the largest oil producing nation on the African continent and the sixteenth producer of crude oil globally!

Following the subsidy removal in 2023, the government spent over N11.35 trillion on Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) over the past decade, with significant funds allocated to these facilities since 2021, with a hollow promise by President Tinubu to make petroleum products cheap and affordable.

When a father is forced to spend 70% of his income just to transport himself to a job that can no longer feed his family, he loses the luxury of demanding his fundamental rights. He is too busy chasing the next meal to chase the tyrants. This is not “market forces” at work; this is the deliberate shrinking of the Nigerian citizen’s dignity until they are too small to stand up.

*The Gen Z Mandate: 67% of the Soul of a Nation*

To the Nigerian Gen Z—the digital natives, the Soro Soke generation, and the demographic powerhouse making up nearly 67% of our population, the burden of history has fallen on your shoulders. The “Old Guard” of labour has failed you. They are entangled in the cobwebs of 20th-century corruption and “bribe-taking” theatrics.

You cannot wait for a compromised NLC to declare a strike that will only be “suspended” forty-eight hours later after a closed-door meeting at the Villa. Taking Back the Country Posturing for “posterity” is no longer enough. The national interest is currently being auctioned to the highest bidder while you are told to resile and sacrifice.

At this point, the GenZ must know that the unions no longer speak for the street; the street must speak for itself. Using your 67% majority not just for trends, but for a coordinated, peaceful, and intellectual reclamation of your country should be the ultimate goal.

If the Dangote Refinery and the NNPC cannot provide local relief despite the “deregulation” promises, then the policy is a failure, and the policymakers must answer.

The “straw that breaks the camel’s back” has already landed. The camel is kneeling in the dust of ₦1,600 fuel. The only question remains: will the youth of Nigeria watch the country be buried in that dust, or will they rise and take the country back?
The time for bread-and-butter unionism is over. The era of the citizen is here.

_Dr. Drama, PhD Counterterrorism contributed this piece via: Nigeriandrama@gmail.com_