Press Release
DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS WITH COURAGE AND DIGNITY
The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) issues this joint statement in total, unwavering, and combative solidarity with the workers of the Federal Capital Territory who are presently under siege, victims of the authoritarian arrogance of the Minister of the FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike, and a judicial ambush executed through a lopsided and politically convenient ruling of the Abuja National Industrial Court, cynically designed to crush lawful resistance and enslave workers indefinitely.
This ruling, dripping with bias, was never meant to resolve the dispute. It was meant to terrorise workers, break their will, and hand absolute power to an employer who refuses dialogue. Even within this deeply flawed decision, the Minister was afforded a window to retreat from confrontation and embrace negotiation. He rejected that path and instead chose boastful threats, intimidation, and reckless grandstanding against defenseless workers.
Let it be made abundantly clear: the crimes committed against FCT workers are intolerable. To compound them with harassment, insults, and coercion is an act of deliberate provocation. Organised labour will not be spectators while workers are humiliated and brutalised.
Nigerian workers are not slaves. Not in Abuja. Not anywhere. This country does not belong to Ministers, strongmen, or political bullies. It belongs to the people whose labour sustains it. We stand unshakably for the rule of law, not the rule of intimidation masquerading as authority.
We therefore declare our total backing for this industrial action and call on all FCT workers to stand firm, defiant, and united. Do not be intimidated. Do not be divided. Do not retreat.
For the avoidance of doubt, the so-called injunction obtained by the Minister is a hollow and desperate manoeuvre. It targets two individual union leaders, not the unions themselves. The strike remains legal, valid, and in full force.
Workers are urged to defend their rights boldly, collectively, and without apology.
We must also speak plainly to the judiciary. We salute the few courageous judges who still dispense justice with integrity. However, we place on notice the merchants of injunctions, the cash-and-carry judges whose courts have become tools of oppression. History will not be kind to those who convert justice into a commodity. They cannot escape responsibility for the social chaos they help manufacture. They will be remembered, named, and judged, by the people, by history, and by God.
Let it also be clearly understood: this struggle will not end by decree, threats, or court papers procured in darkness. It will end only when the Minister of the FCT abandons arrogance, submits to reason, and sits at the negotiating table with the workers.
Until then, the strike continues.
Workers, remain steadfast.
Power concedes nothing without struggle.
It is better to fall standing than to live kneeling.
SOLIDARITY!
SOLIDARITY!!
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!!!
SIGNED:
Comrade General N. A Toro. Ph.D mni, Comrade Benson Upah
Secretary General (TUC) Ag. General Secretary (NLC)