Ajaero: We Will Continue Fighting Oppression

Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), declared that organised labour will persist in confronting employer injustice and exposing any breaches of International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions by the government.

Ajaero delivered the statement at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, where he received the 2026 Arthur Svensson International Award. He said the award would act as a springboard for a more vigorous campaign for workers’ welfare in Nigeria.

He stated, “Let me make this clear and let it resonate in every corner of this hall and in boardrooms worldwide; the ruling class does not grant you freedom.”

“You must seize it—blood‑knuckled, lungs filled with tear gas, hearts ablaze with rage. The cries and suffering of oppressed Nigerian workers remain in our minds. We leave here with a promise: we will not rest; the Nigeria Labour Congress will not rest.”

“We will strengthen our organising among informal economy workers, platform economy workers, and the unemployed. We will oppose every anti‑labour law, expose every violation of ILO conventions, and we will win, because history is on our side.”

Reflecting on his experience as a union leader, Ajaero said his journey since 2023 has been harrowing, noting that he has been “abducted, detained and brutalised by the government for insisting on the implementation of an agreement that protects the rights of workers.”

He added, “I stand before you today not as an individual, but as a symbol—a true emblem of millions of Nigerian workers who wake each morning to the smell of tear gas, the sound of sirens, and the chilling silence of a state that preys on its own people, yet go to work hungry and return even more deprived.”

“I receive this Arthur Svensson International Award not as a trophy or a lapel ribbon, but as a weapon forged in the memory of a great Norwegian militant, Arthur Svensson, who understood that trade union rights are human rights and that international solidarity is the only shield against the lash of rampaging multinational capital.”