The Federal Workers Forum has called on President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to urgently review the salaries of federal civil servants and increase the minimum wage from N70,000 to N300,000.
The demand was contained in a letter dated September 2, 2026, signed by the National Coordinator of the FWF, Andrew Emelieze, and the General Secretary, Ogundele Ayodele.
The letter was addressed to the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives through the Clerk of the National Assembly, while President Tinubu, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation were listed among the recipients.
The forum also proposed a maximum salary of N1.5m for Level 17 officers, arguing that the existing wage structure no longer reflects the economic realities facing federal workers.
“We call for justice and immediate wage review now, adjust the federal minimum wage to N300,000 and a maximum wage of N1.5m for the Level 17 officers,” the workers said.
The FWF said its demand was driven by what it described as the incomplete implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage approved in 2024.
The group claimed that federal workers had yet to receive the full consequential adjustment and associated allowances arising from the wage review.
“It will surprise you to hear that the Federal Government has not fully implemented the new national minimum wage since July 2024. We have been in the battle for full consequential adjustment of the new minimum wage,” the forum said.
According to the workers, the 2024 wage review raised the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 but resulted in what they described as a flat N40,000 increase across all levels of the federal civil service.
“Only N40,000 was added to the salaries of every federal worker across all levels,” they said.
The forum argued that the statutory three-year review period should not prevent the government from responding to what it described as an emergency deterioration in workers’ purchasing power.
“As a matter of fact, it is suicidal for the federal workers to continue in this ugly situation. Hence, based on the current cost-of-living crisis, it can only be a matter of justice that the federal wages be immediately reviewed to meet up with the current economic realities in Nigeria,” the group said.
The workers cited rising costs of food, transportation, accommodation, electricity, cooking gas and other basic necessities as reasons why the N70,000 minimum wage was no longer adequate.
“Federal workers have been enduring the situation, and everything has been frustrating and nauseating. We cannot cope again. Federal workers are dying in instalments; we are suffering in silence; our salary is too poor; it is not taking us home,” the letter stated.
The FWF further alleged that some federal workers had become heavily indebted to microfinance institutions and digital loan platforms to meet their daily needs.
“Federal workers are now heavily indebted to microfinances and, most times, federal workers resort to phone loan apps to get transportation to work,” it said.
The group also claimed that some workers had resorted to using firewood because they could no longer afford cooking gas.
It warned that the worsening financial situati