AS Nigeria commemorates Workers’ Day on May 1, millions of civil servants remain trapped in a painful cycle of “salary to waiting for next salary”, weighed down by debt from loan apps, family borrowings, and a cost of living that has outpaced every adjustment to the minimum wage.
“We are not living; we are surviving,” said a Grade Level 08 officer in the Federal Ministry of Education. “By the 10th of every month, I’m already borrowing from loan apps to feed my children. My salary finishes before I touch it. We are patriotic. We report to work daily. But our families are languishing in pain.”
However, the Federal Government has approved a 15% increase under the 2026 Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure, CONPSS, and is reviewing allowances such as Duty Tour Allowance, DTA, and Medical Allowance, MA. Yet workers insist the measures fall short of reality. Food inflation, transport fares, school fees, rent and medical bills have turned monthly pay into a countdown to the next alert, one already mortgaged to creditors.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, has restated government’s commitment to staff welfare under Pillar Six of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021–2025. A new Help Desk with the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, now seeks to fast-track compensation claims.
But labour leaders argue that what is needed is not another adjustment but a living wage, not just a minimum wage.
“A minimum wage keeps you alive at work. A living wage lets your family live with dignity after work,” said Comrade Adedayo Banjoko, a union leader with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
“When a worker’s entire salary cannot buy a bag of rice, pay rent, and transport him to work in the same month, then we are not paying wages; we are paying poverty,” he added.
*The May Day Ritual: Speeches and Camaraderie*
Despite the hardship, May Day remains a ritual for civil servants. From Eagle Square in Abuja to state secretariats, stadia and parade grounds across the 36 states and the FCT, workers will file out in union vests and banners to commemorate Workers’ Day.
It has become tradition. They come to listen to speeches and promises, often delivered by representatives, as Presidents and Governors are ironically usually too busy on this day. Many already know the script: pledges of better welfare, assurances of reform, and calls for patience to unconscious applause from the workers.
But for the average civil servant, the real draw lies elsewhere. There is joy in collecting the day’s stipends and packs of snacks from union leaders, which most times are not enough to go round their members, even though they have their numbers as union dues are deducted at source. This has led some to allege that union leaders see May Day as a means of padding their purse.
Besides these inadequacies, the allure and relief of meeting colleagues and staff separated by inter-ministerial transfers to form a rendezvous over a bottle after the parade is enticing.
From the parade grounds, groups peel off to familiar locations: gardens, joints, and open-air bars in state capitals and local government headquarters. There, over pepper soup, bush meat and cold drinks, the real May Day discourse begins. Politics dominates. The economy is dissected. And the stories are told.
Here, the tales of wicked Directors, high-handed Permanent Secretaries, Ministers and even Lawmakers are laid bare. Who sits on files. Who demands returns before signing. Who frustrated promotions. Who runs the ministry like a private estate. Names are mentioned. Laughter mixes with bitterness. For a few hours, the hierarchy dissolves and the rank-and-file speak freely.
“It’s our day,” said a senior officer from the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We endure all year. On May Day, we wear our uniforms, collect our packages, and say our truth where they can’t query us.”
For Mr. Godwin, a staff member with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “my coming to May Day is to meet friends and colleagues outside the official office diplomacy and to hang out to have fun and enjoy ourselves.”
Economists warn that without wages indexed to inflation, the EPIC agenda: Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible, Citizen-Centred, cannot be realised.
“You cannot expect efficiency from a hungry workforce,” said Dr. Halima Bello, a labour economist.
Allowances Up, But Trust Deficit Lingers
Labour leaders, however, struck a measured tone on the government’s latest reforms. While welcoming the upward review of nearly all allowances under the Public Service Rules and the new 100 per cent exit benefit for retirees from January 1, 2026, they insist that allowances are not a substitute for a living wage.
“Allowances are tied to duties and training. You don’t get DTA every month,” said Comrade Adedayo.
“What the average worker needs is a salary that can take him from the 1st to the 30th. Food inflation, rent, transport — that is the daily war.”
“So yes, we commend Walson-Jack and the Federal Executive Council. But we still demand a living wage indexed to inflation. Otherwise this relief will vanish at the market.”
Many workers expressed scepticism about implementation, pointing to past experiences where approved benefits were delayed or paid selectively. Till now, wage awards of N35,000 meant to cushion the effect of subsidy removal by the Tinubu Administration are still being owed to civil servants, heightening fear and eroding trust.
“Circular is not alert,” said Mr. Sikiru Adetunbi from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. “We’ve seen estacode approved on paper but you apply for three years and Accounts says there’s no money. Until we see it in our bank accounts, we won’t roll out drums.”
Others questioned the timing of the reforms, coming weeks before Workers’ Day on May 1 — a period typically marked by promises to labour.
“Every April, government remembers workers,” said a union member at the Federal Ministry of Environment. “Let this one be different. Let it not be May Day politics.”
The reforms, announced by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, include 100 per cent DTA for approved training regardless of location and the operationalisation of the Employee Compensation Scheme for job-related injuries and fatalities. The measures follow months of agitation by labour unions over declining purchasing power, with many civil servants trapped in debt from loan apps and family borrowings as the cost of living outpaced previous wage adjustments.
A Workers’ Day Appeal
Governments at all levels must move beyond annual speeches and token increments. The cost of governance can be cut. Revenue leakages can be blocked. But the cost of a worker’s life cannot be postponed.
A living wage, calculated against real market prices of food, housing, healthcare, education and transport, is no longer a union slogan. It is an economic necessity and a moral duty.
Until salaries can take a family from the first to the last day of the month without debt, or with minimal debt, the promise of Workers’ Day remains unfulfilled.
Today, May 1, the speeches were broadcast. The promises will raise hope and trend. And when the sun sets on parade grounds from Lagos to Lokoja, from Kano to Calabar, the civil servant will go home to children who still ask why there’s no meat in the soup, or why there isn’t enough milk, forcing families to resort to 3-in-1 chocolate drinks to cut cost.
For all the talk of reform, the workers know the truth: they came for a parade, stayed for a drink, and will return to work on May 4 after the May Day holiday to continue from where they left off.
Until that changes, Workers’ Day is not his day. It’s just another day he survived.
- Danjuma is a journalist and public affairs analyst based in Abuja. He writes on governance, politics, digital infrastructure, and public policy.