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ABUJA – Femi Falana, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on Tuesday, criticised labour unions in Nigeria for seeking regular improvements in minimum wage, describing the actions as a misplaced priority in the face of economic uncertainties.
He advised labour leaders to engage the government on ways to effect review on the National Housing Act, the Pension Act, among others, to provide mass housing for teeming Nigerians.
Falana said available statistics by government authorities place 28 million Nigerians as lacking houses, while about N30 trillion is domiciled in the National Pension Fund, and the federal and state governments are scrambling on how to borrow from such funds to inject into other sectors.
The legal icon made the submissions on Tuesday in Abuja, while speaking at the 2nd symposium in honour of Dr. Segun Osoba. Dr. Samuel Olusegun Osoba (January 9, 1935 – May 14, 2026) was a towering Marxist radical historian, Obafemi Awolowo University OAU academic, and principled national activist who famously rejected a professorship in protest against systemic institutional corruption.
He taught in the Department of History at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) from 1967 until his retirement in 1991, where he pioneered a socioeconomic and class-based analysis of African history, steering scholarly focus away from standard “great men” narratives.
Falana argued that the elite rob the masses of social justice because most of them are ignorant of their rights even in the face of constitutional provisions.
He said, “For labour, rather than asking for minimum wage, we have tried to insist that beyond asking for improvement, labour should also insist that the National Housing Act which allows the state to deduct 3 percent from the monthly wages of workers to fund the Federal Mortgage Bank to provide affordable houses for workers.
“Today, government claims that 28 million Nigerians have no accommodation. I am sure you are also aware of the Pension Reform Act, that one is also important, many people are dying queuing for pensions, as of today, pension fund is about N30 trillion, workers are not demanding that these money be invested, the Federal Government goes to take loans from time to time, state governors are also insisting to take loans too”.
Professor Jibril Ibrahim, while making a presentation at the Second Memorial Symposium in honour of Segun Osoba, said his death has been a traumatic event for the Nigerian progressive community.
He described Osoba as a comrade, mentor, friend, guide and teacher, who was deeply patriotic, committed to Nigeria and had a clear socialist ideological orientation.
Prof. Ibrahim said Osoba had a long and fulfilled life and was 92 years old when he passed on peacefully at his Ijebu-Ode residence in May this year.
