PRESS RELEASE
24TH OF DECEMBER, 2025
IN THIS SEASON: OUR HOPE LIES IN OUR COLLECTIVE ACTION, NOT IN OCCASIONAL PLATITUDES
As we gather with our families and communities to mark the 2025 Christmas and festive season, we at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) extends our very warm fraternal greetings and wishes of peace, joy, and rejuvenation to each and every one of you; the Nigerian workers and masses. This season, rooted in hope, love, and the promise of a new dawn, speaks deeply to our current national reality. A reality that may seem to overwhelm us with the unrelenting assault on our various pillars of survival as workers and citizens but for which fortunately, presents an opportunity.
We acknowledge that for millions of our members and compatriots, life and living have been profoundly challenging if not completely unbearable. The weight of economic hardship, policies that inflict suffering, and forces that press our nation into the morass of servitude and hardship can make the present seem bleak. Yet, the eternal message of this season is one of hope emerging from hardship. It is that which speaks to the fact that no matter how dark the night may seem, there is always a flicker of light. A dot of light glowing in our hearts, in our bodies and in our voices.
Our hope of a revival is not passive and it is not a mere wish. It is built on a concrete foundation: our collective power and the action that it can potentiate. We are the many; the workers, the farmers, the traders, the teachers, the nurses, the builders of our nation. Our hope rests on our capacity to unite, to organise, and to deploy our numbers as a force for our own rescue and the redemption of our beloved country.
This Christmas, we are reminded that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. But we must become that light without fear and direct it to shine consciously. We must not allow the forces that oppress us to divide us by tribe, religion, or region. Our strength lies in our unity. Let us forge a coalition of the righteous; a mighty, indivisible movement of the people; committed to building a nation that is truly egalitarian, a nation that caters for the majority, not a privileged few.
In the spirit of this season of love, we must first demonstrate love to ourselves. This self-love is not selfish; it is strategic. It is shown in our determination to build ourselves into a strong, disciplined collective to protect our interests, our wages, our pensions, and our dignity. From this foundation of collective love and strength, we can then let the light of love shine throughout Nigeria. This means resolutely chasing all forces of darkness; corruption, exploitation, injustice, insecurity and bad governance; out of our country. This is the most credible, sustainable celebration we can undertake.
Together, in this season and beyond, we must insist on Tax Justice where the rich pay their fair share and all forms of regressive taxation are removed. It therefore our responsibility to once again remind the Government that any Tax system that does not include workers in its formulation and passage into Law remains an unjust Tax. Any Tax system that is mired in apparent distortion and outright forgery is unacceptable and should therefore be rejected by all. It is better to patiently craft a law that is broadly crafted and owned than rush into one filled with serious errors and outright political manipulations.
We must insist on Social Justice where all citizens have access to dignity, good healthcare, and quality education; greater Equity for Workers where labour is justly rewarded and rights are respected and infact A safe and secure nation where lives and properties are guaranteed and the people move about their businesses without fear and intimidations.
Nigeria Labour Congress assures you that we are the many and our power is inherent in our numbers and our solidarity. Only when we mobilise these numbers can we successfully resist policies that afflict us with suffering and pain. It neither pays us nor protects us when we allow them use us to call ourselves names in other to continue dividing us so that we cannot speak with one voice and stop the exploitation. Let this festive period be a time of re-dedication to this cause. It is a time to organize more beginning from wherever we are in our communities and in our various locations. Let us be sensitive to the fact that it is only our own collective action that can guarantee the hope that we have for our dear nation. No one else can!
May the hope of Christmas inspire us. May the promise of a new year energise our resolve. Let us move into 2026 with a renewed commitment to unity, organisation, and collective action. Together, we will build the Nigeria of our dreams.
Happy Christmas and best of this season!
Comrade Joe Ajaero
President