Atiku says Tinubu made life painfully expensive, backs wage increase - The Guardian Nigeria News

African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has backed the demand by organised labour for a substantial increase in the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, called on Nigerians to uphold peace and unity as the country prepares for the 2027 general elections.

Atiku accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over a “ruthless economic squeeze in which workers are paid more on paper and condemned to live on less”.

The ADC candidate, in a statement by the Director of Strategic Communications of the party’s presidential campaign council, Phrank Shaibu, added that the Tinubu administration’s self-congratulatory talk of reform had become an insult to Nigerians whose wages vanished between the filling station and the food market.

He stated that Tinubu’s “reckless” removal of the petrol subsidy sent prices soaring before any credible protection for working families.

“The government pulled away the floor, offered workers a flimsy umbrella and now applauds itself while the rain beats down on them,” he was quoted as saying. “Fuel, transport, food and rent have devoured their earnings. This is a callous way to govern people who work hard and ask only for the means to live.”

According to him, Tinubu asked Nigerians to make sacrifices and treated the suffering that followed as an afterthought.

AKUME, at the National Church Service organised as part of activities marking Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary at the National Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, urged Nigerians to approach the 2027 elections with hope, saying votes should not be cast along lines that promote division.

In his vote of thanks at the service, the SGF said democracy could only be sustained when citizens prioritised peace and unity.

“As we look toward the 2027 elections ahead, let us remember that democracy is sustained by peace and unity,” Akume said. “Our votes must be cast not in division, but in hope. Let us choose dialogue over discord and unity over separation, so that our electoral process truly reflects the will of a united people.”

The SGF said Nigeria’s 66-year journey had been marked by sacrifices, challenges and achievements, noting that the country had also recorded two and a half decades of uninterrupted democratic rule since 1999.