As Nigeria marks International Workers’ Day 2026 on Friday, May 1, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on all tiers of government to move beyond symbolic gestures and confront the worsening socioeconomic realities confronting the country’s workers.
In a statement issued Thursday, CAPPA said this year’s commemoration comes at a time when workers across the country are grappling with soaring living costs, stagnant wages, and deteriorating social protections, conditions that continue to erode dignity, productivity, and quality of life.
“May Day should not be reduced to ceremonial speeches,” CAPPA’s Executive Director Akinbode Oluwafemi said. “It must be a moment of reckoning. For millions of Nigerian workers, survival has become a daily negotiation with inflation, rising rents, and shrinking real incomes.”
CAPPA highlighted the deepening housing crisis in major urban centres such as Lagos, Abuja, and Rivers State, where the cost of accommodation has surged beyond the reach of average earners, who are now being priced out of cities.
The organisation expressed particular concern over media reports of university lecturers and other public sector workers resorting to sleeping in offices and on campuses, unable to afford rent close to their workplaces.
“That Nigeria’s educators, entrusted with shaping the nation’s future, are compelled to sleep in their offices is an indictment of our economic priorities,” Oluwafemi said. “It underscores a broader housing emergency that demands urgent, coordinated intervention.”
Furthermore, CAPPA called out the Federal Government’s decision to approve land allocation to political appointees, who are yet to even serve the country.
“Ambassadors and High Commissioners-designate are part of the political and administrative elite. Providing them with land allocations, most likely in prime areas of Abuja – raises questions about who benefits from public assets,” CAPPA stated. “In a period defined by acute housing stress for ordinary Nigerians, government decisions on land use must visibly prioritise broad public need over elite benefit. Anything less risks deepening public distrust.”
While acknowledging recent efforts to review the national minimum wage, CAPPA noted that wage adjustments alone are insufficient without parallel measures to tame inflation, regulate housing costs, and expand access to essential services.
“An increase in wages that is immediately swallowed by rent hikes, transport costs, and food inflation offers little real relief,” the statement said. “What workers need is a comprehensive framework that aligns income with the actual cost of living.”
CAPPA also drew attention to the declining state of public services, including healthcare, education, and transportation, which places additional financial burdens on workers forced to seek private alternatives.
The group warned that the continued commercialisation of basic services risks widening inequality and pushing more Nigerians into precarious living conditions.
To address these challenges, CAPPA called for a national housing strategy that prioritises affordable rental schemes and curbs speculative practices in urban property markets.
The group demanded stronger labour protections and enforcement of fair wage standards across both public and private sectors, targeted social investments in healthcare, education, and public transport to ease the cost burden on workers and fiscal policies that prioritise public welfare, including health-promoting taxes and reinvestment of revenues into social services.
“Workers are the backbone of any economy. When they are pushed to the margins, the entire system weakens,” the group added.
Furthermore, CAPPA urged labour unions, civil society, and policymakers to use May Day as an opportunity to reassert the rights of workers and demand accountability from those in positions of power.
“This is not just about commemoration; it is about commitment,” the organisation said. “Nigeria must choose whether it will continue on a path where workers are overburdened and undervalued, or one where their welfare is placed at the centre of national development.”
Reaffirming its solidarity with Nigerian workers, the group called for urgent, sustained action to reverse the current trajectory.
“A nation that neglects its workers undermines its own future,” the statement concluded.