Hardship: Civil Servants Write Tinubu, Demand Fuel Price At N500/Litre or 500,000 Minimum Wage

MOUTHPIECE NGR reports that Civil servants under the aegis of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), Trade Union Side, have written to President Bola Tinubu seeking urgent intervention over the worsening economic hardship facing workers.

The workers, in a letter addressed to the President, urged the Federal Government to stabilise petrol price at N500 per litre, approve an immediate Wage Award, and upwardly review salaries and allowances across the public service.

They also demanded the immediate constitution of a committee to negotiate a new National Minimum Wage ahead of January 2027.

According to the council, the recent increase in petrol price to N1,430 per litre and above in some locations has further worsened the cost-of-living crisis.

The workers gave the Federal Government until Wednesday, September 30, 2026, to act on their demands, warning that the prevailing hardship was creating palpable tension among workers and Nigerians.

They noted that the removal of fuel subsidy three years ago triggered astronomical increases in fuel prices with multiplier effects on essential commodities.

The JNPSNC said the situation has made life increasingly unbearable for workers, adding that provision of food palliatives is not a sustainable solution.

“It has dawned on Nigerian workers that the provision of palliatives such as bags of rice, Indomie, vegetable oil, garri, among other edible foods, is as good as weaponising Nigerians with poverty because it is a Pyrrhic intervention which is unsustainable, inaccessible to the majority of Nigerians and limited to political cronies,” the workers said.

They stressed that a more sustainable intervention would be to reduce fuel price to N500 per litre, stating that the measure would have a positive multiplier effect across the economy.