We are Heavily taxed by the government-Federal workers

Workers in Nigeria have raised alarm over the unfair taxation of their monthly salaries by the federal and state governments. The workers under the aegis of the Federal Workers Forum (FWF) raised this alarm in a letter titled PROTEST AGAINST EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS BY THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT, THE COMPROMISE OF LABOR UNIONS, AND NOTIFICATIONS FOR INDEFINITE PROTEST FROM 22ND APRIL 2025 BY FEDERAL WORKERS, addressed to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and signed by the National Coordinator (FWF), Comrade Andrew Emelieze, and Secretary General, Comrade Itoro Obong. "Federal workers" salaries and ALLOWANCES are equally heavily taxed, and no tax rebate or certificate is issued to the workers at the end of the year. Despite the poor national minimum wage, the federal government in Nigeria has continued to owe federal workers lots of arrears of allowances, promotion arrears, hazard allowances, duty tour allowance (DTA), etc. This we have seen leading to agitations among health sector workers, education sector workers, and many others. It will interest the ILO to note that the federal government of Nigeria has owed all federal government workers in Nigeria a five-month wage award worth 175,000 naira per worker since July 2024.'' ''The workers also lamented the deceitful implementation of the N70,000 new minimum wage by the government, saying, More painful is the fact that the last national minimum wage of 70,000 naira was implemented without an agreed table with the organized labor representatives, and in the end only a meager 40,000 naira was what was added to the salaries of all federal workers across all levels in Nigeria. More painful is the fact that our industrial unions and their labor centers of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) never at any instance queried the new national minimum wage table, nor did they query the federal government over the arrears of five months wage award balance payment to the federal workers or others being owed the federal workers. ''The President has been very unfair and hostile to the Nigerian workers. While salaries have remained abysmally poor, President Tinubu and his team have continued to attack workers through their anti-worker policies, as we have seen in hikes in the price of petroleum products, the deliberate devaluation of our national currency (the naira), and hikes in the price of everything in the face of double-digit inflation. President Tinubu is subjecting the Nigerian workers to hellish conditions, and he has shown a lack of interest in the well-being of the workers. The Nigerian government has also severely flouted the international conventions of the ILO cum UN aimed at promoting decent work conditions and fair pay for work done. The situation in Nigeria is an existential threat to the general populace in the country and a threat to world peace and security. ''They concluded.