Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has lamented the worsening economic hardship Nigerian workers face under President Bola Tinubu’s watch. 

Mr Abubakar also said Mr Tinubu’s campaign mantra of ‘Renewed Hope’ has failed to translate into tangible relief for Nigeria’s citizens.

In a message on Friday to mark Workers’ Day, Mr Abubakar said, “Every first day of May, nations across the world pause to honour the dignity of labour and the men and women whose sweat and toil sustain civilisation. In Nigeria, Workers’ Day has always carried a particular poignancy, a moment to celebrate the resilience of a workforce that endures much and receives little.

“But as we mark this year’s commemoration, I write not with celebration in my heart, but with grief. Grief for the Nigerian worker who was promised renewed hope and received instead renewed hardship.” 

The former vice-president added, “The Nigerian worker, the teacher, the nurse, the factory hand, the civil servant, the artisan, has been the primary victim of an administration that, by all observable evidence, is far more interested in increasing the revenue at its disposal than in improving the lives of the citizens it governs.”

However, he acknowledged that the removal of fuel subsidy by Mr Tinubu was a necessary reform but faulted the manner in which the policy was implemented.

“A responsible government would have spent the preceding months preparing Nigerians for this transition, establishing social safety nets, empowering the most vulnerable, and ensuring that the pain of reform was shared equitably. This administration did none of that. It simply removed the subsidy and left the Nigerian worker to drown,” the opposition figure explained. 

Mr Abubakar called on the government to prioritise policies that directly improve the welfare of Nigerian workers, including social safety nets, wage adjustments, and targeted economic interventions, pointing out that the Nigerian worker “deserves genuine renewal, not the Orwellian version. A renewal that is tangible, measurable and real. Not as a slogan. But as a lived reality.”