{"id":72858,"date":"2025-08-12T11:54:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=72858"},"modified":"2025-08-12T11:54:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T11:54:02","slug":"tuc-boss-warns-of-looming-economic-crisis-without-agricultural-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/12\/tuc-boss-warns-of-looming-economic-crisis-without-agricultural-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"TUC Boss Warns of Looming Economic Crisis Without Agricultural Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo, has accused Nigerian leaders of \u201claziness\u201d and overdependence on crude oil, warning that without urgent diversification into agriculture and improved productivity, the economy will remain fragile.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the TUC South West Labour Summit 2025 in Lagos, themed \u201cCollaborate to Transform: Building Capacity for Regional Excellence and Workers\u2019 Welfare\u201d, Osifo lamented that Nigeria\u2019s budget, pegged at just over \u20a650 trillion, is worth only $13 to $35 billion in dollar terms over the past decade far below the amount needed for basic infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo construct the entire federal road network will cost $120 billion; four times our annual budget without touching salaries, education, or health,\u201d he said, comparing Nigeria\u2019s finances to universities like Harvard and Stanford, whose endowments exceed the country\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n<p>Osifo decried the underutilisation of fertile lands in states like Niger and Borno, noting that smaller nations such as the Netherlands generate twice Nigeria\u2019s crude oil revenue from agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t grow our revenue, we will keep shifting problems to tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Government must take the lead in pushing people back to commercial farming,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Representing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Afolabi Ayantayo, urged Nigerian embassies to \u201cbuckle up\u201d in attracting exports, investors, and foreign direct investment.<\/p>\n<p>He reaffirmed Lagos State\u2019s commitment to timely salaries, fair pay, safe workplaces, and partnerships with labour to tackle inflation, high living costs, and economic diversification.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLagos State is proud to partner with all labour unions, employers, and stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Real regional transformation happens through collaboration, not just between government and labour, but across all sectors of society,\u201d Ayantayo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo, has accused Nigerian leaders of \u201claziness\u201d and overdependence on crude oil, warning that without urgent diversification into agriculture and improved productivity, the economy will remain fragile. Speaking at the TUC South West Labour Summit 2025 in Lagos, themed \u201cCollaborate to Transform: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":72859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1740,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72860,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72858\/revisions\/72860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}