For the country to achieve real development as planned, the government must pursue a quantum leap in growth.
Nigeria must also make efforts to address its challenge of over-dependence on oil revenue as a critical step to reducing its rising public debt profile.
Trade Union Congress (TUC) President-General, Festus Osifo, stated these during the TUC Southwest Summit 2025 in Lagos, with the theme: “Collaborate to transform: Building capacity for regional excellence and workers’ welfare”.
He said the country must not be looking for moderate growth; instead it needs a quantum leap; a growth rate that is much higher than population growth rate.
Osifo said unless Nigeria’s leaders adopt more proactive and resourceful approaches, the country would remain trapped in a cycle of inadequate budgets, deteriorating infrastructure, and wasted opportunities.
Rather than depending on crude oil production as the mainstay, Osifo urged the government and political leaders to harness or cultivate the nation’s enormous natural resources for improved revenue for national development.
He bemoaned this year’s N50 trillion national budget, describing it as too low – below $30 billion, when converted to the United States dollar (USD), and compared to budgets of other nations abroad.
He blamed the inability to harness the nation’s potential natural resources to improve the revenue on laziness of the political leaders.
Osifo stressed that Nigeria is a country with vast potential natural resources but left unharnessed.
He cited Netherlands, a country with smaller landmasses and fewer natural resources, saying that despite being an island with small size, it generated more money from agriculture, 10 times the money Nigeria generated from crude production
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He said: “Nigeria has a budget of slightly above N50 trillion. We should never allow the trillions of Naira to keep confusing us, because across the world.There is a common denominator with which we carry our currency, and that is the USD.
“The value of our budget in USD terms in the last 10 years is somewhere around $35 billion.
“So, why are we really concerned about this? In Nigeria, we have huge potential. We have no business of having a low budget of $30 to $35 billion.
“But the reason we have that size of budget is because we are largely dependent on crude production.Most of the governments, not all, but the majority of them fold their arms. If you go to some rural local government areas, you will not even see the local government chairman until 20th to 23rd of the month when allocations will be shared.’’.
He stated that the country would need an estimated $120billion to construct its federal road network, a sum that is roughly four times the size of its yearly budget.
The union leader described the gap between Nigeria’s infrastructure needs and available resources as alarming, accusing much of the political leadership of lacking the vision and innovation required to revive the economy.
“We stated over and over again that sometime in 2013, that a study was done that if we construct the entire federal roads in Nigeria, it’s going to cost $120 billion.
So, if we construct our entire roads at the cost of $120 billion, and the size of our budget one year is about $30 billion. That means we are going to need four times our budget to construct our road without paying salaries, without attending to education, without looking at healthcare, without paying pension.
“Four times our budget is what we need to construct our road alone,” he said.
He criticised successive governments for failing to diversify the economy in any meaningful way despite Nigeria’s vast opportunities in agriculture and solid minerals.
According to him, the chronic underfunding of infrastructure is not only due to low revenue generation but also stems from weak political leadership.
“Most of our political heads are relatively lazy. In some rural councils, you will not see the chairman until allocations arrive. We cannot continue with leaders who wait for monthly allocations before doing anything. They must think beyond the obvious and work for the people,” he added.
He said the theme of the conference was apt, urging members of TUC to take each topic seriously.
“We believe in learning, we believe in unlearning, and we believe in relearning, because that is the only way, as humans, we can grow. That is why, since we came on board, one of the things we’ve done is a strong partnership with Lagos Business School, where we have trained our head members. Almost all of them attended the training.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said Nigeria’s embassies must “buckle up” to promote exports, woo investors, and support FDI inflows.
Represented by the Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, he reaffirmed Lagos’ commitment to fair pay, safe workplaces, and joint action with labour to address inflation, cost of living, and economic diversification.
He said: “Lagos State is proud to partner labour unions, employers and stakeholders in this important mission. We understand just how crucial workers are to the heartbeat of our economy. Your hard work, skills and determination are the pillars upon which our progress rests.”
“Collaboration is key. We must invest in skills development, fair wages, and policies that address inflation and the rising cost of living.
“In Lagos, we are committed to workers’ welfare and timely salary payments, but we also recognise the need to push productivity and innovation.”
