•LASG backs workers’ welfare, urges Nigerian embassies to drive FDI

Sunday Ehigiator

The President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo, has accused Nigeria’s political leaders of “laziness” and overdependence on crude oil, urging a shift to agriculture-led growth, stronger productivity, and structural reforms.

This is just as the Lagos State Government pledged continued support for workers’ welfare and called on Nigerian embassies abroad to actively drive economic growth and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.

They made this call yesterday at the TUC’s South-West Labour Summit 2025 in Lagos, themed ‘Collaborate to Transform: Building Capacity for Regional Excellence and Workers’ Welfare’.

According to Osifo, “Nigeria as a country is very poor, but we have a huge potential to be wealthy. Nigeria has a budget of slightly above N50 trillion. We should never allow the trillions of Naira to keep confusing us. Because across the world, there is a common denominator with which we carry out our comparisons. And that is the U.S. Dollar.

“Just go online, check what the value of our budget has been in the U.S. dollar terms in the last 10 years. Just check. The value of our budget in the U.S. dollar terms in the last 10 years, we are going to realise that it is somewhere about $13-35 billion.

“Nigeria as a country, we have huge potential. We stated over and over again that sometime in 2013, a study was done, that to construct the entire federal road in Nigeria is going to take us $120 billion.

“So, if to construct our entire roads in Nigeria, will cost $120 billion, and the size of our budget for one year is about $30 billion, that means we are going to need four times of our budget to construct our roads without paying salaries, without attending to education, without looking at healthcare, without paying pensions.

“Four times our budget is what we need to construct our roads alone. That is the size of some universities abroad; their endowment fund in a university. A tiny piece of a university like Harvard, for example, has an endowment fund of about $50 billion; Stanford, over $35 billion, more than our budget as a country.

“So, why would we have that size of budget? It is because our political leaders are relatively lazy. I mean, that is the reality, because we are largely dependent on crude oil production.

“So, most of the governments, not all, but the majority of them, fold their arms. If you go to some local government, you will not even see the governing chairman until the 20th, 22nd, or 23rd day of the month, where allocations will be shared. So, we live in a country where we have vast potential resources, where we have resources, but they are not being harnessed.

“We have fertile land in Niger, Borno and across the country wasting away,” he said. “The Netherlands makes twice Nigeria’s crude earnings from agriculture on far less land. Why can’t we?

“God has given us huge resources like that, but we have failed to cultivate such resources, to harness and improve our revenue. If we don’t grow our revenue, we will keep shifting all the problems to tomorrow. It will never be solved. That is the reality, because if you don’t have revenue, you cannot solve problems. You keep borrowing.

“And it will get to a point; you will not be able to service your debt. Like what happened in Ghana a few years ago. So, that is why the topic that was chosen, as you see, agriculture was given preeminence, and that is how it should be.

“Nigerian governments today should all be the leaders in pushing people to go back to farming, by creating the enabling environment, not just peace and farming, but commercial farming, because that is the tool that will easily trigger growth in Nigeria.”

Representing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, said Nigeria’s embassies must “buckle up” to promote exports, woo investors, and support FDI inflows.

He reaffirmed Lagos’s commitment to fair pay, safe workplaces, and joint action with labour to address inflation, cost of living, and economic diversification.

His words: “Lagos State is proud to partner with all labour unions, employers and stakeholders in this important mission. We understand just how crucial workers are to the heartbeat of our economy. Your hard work, skills and determination are the pillars upon which our progress rests.

“That is why the Lagos State Government is devoted to ensuring that every worker is treated with dignity, fairness and respect that they deserve, stand by our commitment to timely salary payments for living wages and secure workplaces for everyone.

“The call for collaboration at this summit to build capacity and excellence truly resonates with our vision for Lagos. Real regional transformation happens through partnership, not just between the government and labour, but across all sectors of society.”

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