TUC Slams Nigerian Leadership, Calls for Agriculture-driven GDP Growth

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.”

Speaking, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said Nigeria’s embassies must “buckle up” to promote exports, woo investors, and support FDI inflows.

Represented by the Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, He reaffirmed Lagos’s commitment to fair pay, safe workplaces, and joint action with labour to address inflation, cost of living, and economic diversification.

He said, “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.”