By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — THE  Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, has sounded a dire warning that Nigerian workers’ rights are under an escalating and coordinated assault by relentless agents of capital and a ruling class bent on total control of institutions meant to protect workers.

Speaking on Monday at the opening of the 2025 Harmattan School in Abuja, Ajaero described the event as more than an academic gathering.

He called it “a conclave of the conscious vanguard of the Nigerian working people,” welcoming participants with a deep sense of responsibility and unwavering solidarity.

He emphasized that the Harmattan School demands serious attention amid worsening challenges facing workers.

“In a world clouded by a deepening global economic crisis and rapid technological change, we come together to sharpen our tools of analysis and weapons of struggle,” he said.

The School’s theme, “Workers’ Rights in the Context of Global Economic Crises and Technological Advancement,” is not only timely but a strategic imperative for workers’ survival and progress.

Ajaero warned of a “dual assault” targeting workers: intensifying exploitation at workplaces and growing political alienation from their rights.

He explained that the capitalist system, caught in a perpetual crisis of over-accumulation, is deploying new tactics to boost profits at workers’ expense.

“The onslaught against Nigerian workers and the masses continues on all fronts,” he declared.Highlighting the abuses of “monopoly capital,”

Ajaero singled out the Dangote Group and the NLNG Train 7 project as emblematic of a broader pattern of repression. “These entities function as states within a state, crushing trade union rights and treating workers as disposable resources in a vast profit-driven machine,” he said.

He condemned efforts to legitimize such practices through “Special Economic Zones” and “Industrial Enclaves” as the legal codification of class warfare.

The NLC leader also accused the government of trying to seize control of key national social security institutions.

“The bourgeois state is relentlessly pushing to dominate our tripartite institutions,” he asserted. Attempts to undermine the democratic structures of the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and the Pension Commission (PENCOM) amount to a plot to erode collective worker ownership and voice, turning workers’ savings into a slush fund for the ruling elite.

Regarding Nigeria’s mounting security crisis, Ajaero linked the violence to global technological shifts and competition for mineral resources. Kidnappings, banditry, and mass displacement reflect a frantic scramble to control large parts of the country rich in minerals vital to emerging technologies.

“This is not random banditry; it is primitive accumulation for the 21st century, masked by chaos, terror, and depopulation to clear land for capital’s plunder,” he said.

He identified states such as Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, and Plateau as epicenters of entrenched insecurity driven by the treasure beneath their soils. The recent kidnappings in Kebbi and Niger states have been “devastating and personal” for workers, Ajaero said, viewing them as consequences of a system that commodifies even human life.While inflation, unemployment, and insecurity batter ordinary workers, he lamented that the leaders “wallow in unbridled consumption.”

He challenged participants to consider whether Nigeria will endure continued suffering or rise to decisive action.Urging renewed organization, vigilance, and resistance,

Ajaero called on participants to use the Harmattan School to chart a path to defend workers’ rights and reclaim the nation.

“We must develop strategies to confront and defeat legal and political assaults on our right to organize and bargain collectively,” he said.

He stressed that the working class, allied with poor peasants and the progressive intelligentsia, remains the only social force capable of national transformation.

“Let us leave here as educated comrades and seasoned cadres ready to lead the working people in the critical struggles ahead.”Ajaero praised the School’s organizers and speakers for their efforts and expressed confidence in the program’s impact.

He concluded with a rallying cry: “A people united can never be defeated! Workers united can never be defeated!”