THE MINISTER of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, announced last week – Thursday, July 31, 2025 – that the Federal Government had approved a new National Industrial Relations Policy (NIRP) 2025, with the primary objective of mitigating the incidence of industrial actions.
Idris, without providing specific details, further stated that NIRP 2025 establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework for the conduct of trade unions. He asserted that the policy is designed to ensure uninterrupted workflow, foster effective social dialogue, and promote tripartite cooperation among the government, employers, and workers.
“This policy,” Idris said “is essential for regulating the conduct of the various trade unions within the industrial relations space in the country. This is due to frequent industrial actions over the years caused by the lack of a comprehensive national policy. FEC looked at that and came up with approval for this policy, brought up by the Minister of Labour and Employment.”
National Record is firmly convinced that the primary motive behind NIRP 2025, as succinctly articulated by the Honourable Minister, is not to establish a progressive framework for labour harmony but rather to introduce a thinly veiled authoritarian instrument aimed at suppressing workers’ fundamental rights and democratic freedoms.
Based on observations over the past two years, it is evident that the Tinubu administration is preoccupied with suppressing strikes rather than addressing the systemic failures that provoke them. The government’s failure to engage in the requisite tripartite process in formulating this policy exposes its disdain for democratic labour relations and its preference for coercion over dialogue.
While the Honourable Minister touted NIRP 2025 as a means to “promote social dialogue and tripartite cooperation among government, employers, and workers, and also align Nigeria’s industrial relations practices with global standards, including those set by the International Labour Organisation,” his emphasis on curtailing “frequent industrial actions” reveals the government’s true intent. In essence, the government, through NIRP 2025, seeks to criminalise the right to strike, freedom of association, and other inalienable labour rights, while evading accountability for its repeated breaches of labour agreements.
It must be emphasised that Nigeria has ratified key ILO conventions, including Convention 87 (Freedom of Association) and Convention 98 (Right to Collective Bargaining). These treaties explicitly recognise workers’ right to strike as a legitimate means of dispute resolution. Yet, the government’s rhetoric suggests a deliberate misrepresentation of these standards.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is justified in condemning the policy’s singular focus on strikes while disregarding the root causes of industrial unrest – wage theft, unpaid salaries, egregious violations of Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs), and the reckless implementation of neoliberal policies that have precipitated hikes in petroleum prices, electricity tariffs, and the devaluation of the naira. These factors have collectively fuelled inflation, plunging Nigeria into one of the most severe cost-of-living crises in the world.
The Tinubu administration, like its predecessors, has consistently reneged on agreements with labour across all sectors – education, healthcare, the federal civil service, amongst others. Despite promises of wage awards, decent wages, and pension reforms, the government has not only failed to fulfil these commitments but has also deployed security operatives to intimidate activists who demand accountability.
When nurses, doctors, lecturers, electricity workers, or workers in any sector, resort to industrial action, they do so because the government refuses to honour its contractual obligations. Rather than addressing these breaches, the Tinubu administration seeks to legislate away the consequences of its failures. This is not governance; it is tyranny by policy.
The Federal Government is fully aware that any policy seeking to criminalise strikes is unconstitutional, directly violating Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution (freedom of association) and the Trade Unions Act (as amended). If the Tinubu Administration believes it can govern by decree, it must remember that Nigeria is no longer under military dictatorship. Workers, and indeed Nigerians, will resist any attempt to enslave them through forced labour.
National Record unequivocally condemns and rejects NIRP 2025, as it is not only anti-worker but fundamentally draconian. We therefore call on the Federal Government to engage in meaningful dialogue with relevant stakeholders to expunge all clauses criminalising strikes and to align the policy with existing labour laws, CBAs, and ILO conventions.
We further urge the National Assembly to hold the Tinubu administration accountable before it plunges Nigeria back into an era of labour repression. Similarly, we call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to mobilise their affiliates and civil society allies to resist this assault through all available legal and industrial means.
While the NLC is correct in denouncing the policy as “reprehensible,” we must also assert that its increasingly passive approach – limited to issuing press statements when decisive action is required – constitutes an abdication of responsibility. The NLC leadership must recognise that the organisation, once a formidable force that even military dictators feared, is now perceived as ineffective by many Nigerians.
A revival is not only possible but urgently necessary. This is the moment for the NLC to reclaim its historic role. Well-meaning activists within the broader labour movement, including veterans, must rally behind the NLC – swiftly and decisively – to ensure that this draconian NIRP 2025 is defeated.
The resistance must extend beyond mere opposition to the policy; it must encompass advocacy for broader economic and social justice, including implementation of National Minimum Wage all over the country, the payment of wage arrears and owed pensions, the restoration of workers’ purchasing power amid crippling inflation, the institutionalisation of genuine social dialogue, and the enforcement of labour laws at all levels of government.
If the Tinubu administration genuinely seeks industrial peace, it must honour existing agreements, respect labour rights, and engage in good-faith tripartite negotiations. Any alternative approach will only exacerbate unrest.
Enough is enough!
