By: John Bassey, Zamfara.

The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC have decried untold hardship caused by high cost of food items, increase in house rents, transport fairs and the deliberate delay in the payment of pensioners in Zamfara state.

They made the displeasure during 2026 Workers Day celebration conducted on Trade Fair grounds, Bye Pass Road, Lalan Area of Gusau the state capital.

The NLC/TUC expressed dissatisfaction over the sudden rise in fuel prices, transport fairs, increase in house rents and high cost of food items that has turned the 70% minimum wage into survival challenge for civil servants, public servants and business owners in the state.

They based their vexations on two major dispositions they described as two monsters devouring the dignity of labour within the state which are “Insecurity and Poverty”.

In his words, the NLC Chairman Comrade Sani Halliru said, we cannot celebrate the dignity of labour without confronting the two monsters devouring that dignity which are Insecurity and Poverty noted to remain the bane of decent work within Zamfara in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

Insecurity displaces farmers from their fields, shuts down markets, scares away investors and turns work places into zones of fear and death. While its twin the poverty strips work of meaning when a full monthly wage cannot buy food, pay rents or guarantees healthcare. He said.

When a worker toils but cannot live, that is not decent work, rather, it is survival under duress, he stressed.

Also speaking, the TUC Chairman, Comrade Rabiu Sabo maintained that insecurity has become the single threat to decent work, where farmers can no longer go to their fields, our traders cannot travel to market, our teachers, health workers and civil servants live in fear even within the state capital.

When work places are not safe, jobs are lost, investment flee and hunger takes over. No worker can be productive with occasional threats of sounds of gunshots as the morning or evening alarm.
They called on government at all levels to intervene.