The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has threatened a nationwide strike should the Federal Government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu implement a plan to impose a 5 percent tax on petroleum products.
Serving the warning in a Press statement issued in Lagos on Monday, the alternative trade union umbrella body rejected the Federal Government’s planned 5 percent tax on petroleum products, saying it amounted to “economic wickedness” against already overburdened Nigerians.
The Federal Government’s impending surcharge on petrol and diesel sales features in the newly signed Nigeria Tax Administration Act, one of four tax reform bills signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on June 26, 2025.
The regulation requires that the surcharge be applied to every supply or sale of refined fossil fuel products in Nigeria, whether locally produced or imported, with the money collected at the point of sale.
It exempts cleaner fuels such as renewables, household kerosene, cooking gas and compressed natural gas.
Already, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, said the law would force large numbers of its members to close shop.
Stakeholders have noted that with the average national pump price of petrol at N950 per litre, about 382 percent from N197 per litre when President Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023, Nigerians will be impoverished further.
In the statement, TUC’s National President, Comrade Festus Osifo, and its Secretary General, Comrade Nuhu Toro, noted that Nigerian workers currently undergoing pains from the removal of fuel subsidy will not be allowed to suffer higher “pains” from the new tax rule.
TUC said: “Let it be clear: workers and citizens are still reeling from the pains of subsidy removal, skyrocketing fuel prices, food inflation, and a collapsing naira.
“To now introduce another levy on petroleum products is to deliberately compound suffering, cripple businesses, and push millions of citizens deeper into poverty.
“The government cannot continue to use Nigerians as sacrificial lambs for its economic experiments. Instead of offering relief, jobs, and solutions, it has chosen to further squeeze citizens dry. This is unacceptable!
“The TUC hereby urges the Federal Government to immediately stop this anti-people’s plan in its entirety. Failure to do so will leave us with no option but to mobilise Nigerian workers and the masses for a total nationwide resistance. Strike action is firmly on the table if the government dares to ignore this warning and go ahead to implement this policy.
“Accordingly, the TUC directs all its state councils, affiliates, and structures nationwide to remain vigilant, watchful and wait for further communication that may culminate in a decisive action should the government dare to further ignore the collective will of the people.
“We also call on our allies, civil society organisations, professional bodies, student unions, market associations, faith leaders, and all patriotic Nigerians to stand in solidarity with us in this struggle.
“Together, we must resist policies that seek to further impoverish citizens and mortgage our future.
“Enough is enough. Nigerians deserve economic justice, not endless punishment.”
