Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar yesterday said that President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remove petrol subsidy on his first day in office triggered widespread economic hardship across the country.
In a statement shared via his X handle on Sunday, Atiku said the move was “hasty and thoughtless”, adding that it has “buried the average Nigerian under the weight of inflation, hunger, and despair.”
He accused the Tinubu-led administration of breaking its promise to cushion the impact of the subsidy removal through a temporary wage award for federal civil servants.
“In a bid to manage the self-inflicted crisis, the administration promised to pay a wage award to federal civil servants as a temporary cushion pending the conclusion of negotiations on a new national minimum wage,” he said.

“That promise, like many others under this government, has become a broken covenant.”
Atiku noted that it took the government 10 months to agree on a new minimum wage, during which the wage award was to serve as a stopgap.
“By implication, the federal government owes 10 months of wage award arrears to federal workers. Yet, only six months have been paid – and that too after a series of unfulfilled assurances and avoidable delays,” he said.
He said each worker is owed N35,000 monthly for four months, amounting to N140,000 per person.
Atiku praised some state governments for handling labour issues responsibly but criticised the federal government for showing “callous indifference and utter disdain for workers’ welfare”.

He also condemned the continued detention of Andrew Uche Emelieze, a labour activist, arrested nearly two weeks ago for attempting to organise a peaceful protest over the unpaid wage awards.
“Instead of engaging in dialogue or fulfilling its promises, the government has now resorted to tyranny and suppression of free speech,” he said.

“His only ‘crime’ was speaking up for workers abandoned by the state.”
Atiku called for Emelieze’s immediate and unconditional release, saying his detention “is an affront to democracy, a slap in the face of every Nigerian worker, and a chilling reminder of the authoritarian drift of the Tinubu administration”.
“Let it be known: Nigerian workers will not be silenced, intimidated, or forgotten. The economic hardship is real, the hunger is biting, and the government has a duty to act, not repress,” he added.

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