Nigeria’s Labour Act in 2025: Why a 1971 Law Cannot Protect a Modern Worker

By P.L. Osakwe

■ Introduction

There is something deeply tragic about Nigeria in 2025: a country where oil has flowed for decades, where billions vanish daily into private pockets, yet where the law that governs the average worker’s sweat and dignity is still frozen in 1971. We are living in the twenty-first century, in the era of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, remote work, and global economic interconnection, but our labour law remains tied to the same philosophy that guided our colonial overlords and the military men who succeeded them.

Think about it. The Labour Act, 1971 (Cap L1 LFN 2004), a law crafted when one naira was worth more than one U.S. dollar, is still the primary law regulating contracts of employment, wages, and working conditions in Nigeria. Today, in 2025, one naira is barely worth the ink used to print it. Workers are caught in a daily struggle between survival and despair. Yet our law insists on pretending that the realities of 1971 still apply.

This is not just a legal issue. It is a moral crisis, an economic death sentence, and a betrayal of the very people who keep this nation alive through their labour. When a law is so outdated that it no longer protects but rather enslaves, then it ceases to be law in the true sense, it becomes an instrument of oppression. That is where Nigeria finds herself.

■ The Historical Background of the Labour Act.

The Labour Act was enacted in 1971, barely a year after the end of the Nigerian Civil War. The country was under military rule, and the economy was still fragile but hopeful. The Act was designed primarily to regulate employment relations, particularly in manual and unskilled labour. It laid down provisions on contracts of employment, protection of wages, working hours, rest periods, and the employment of women and children.

By 2004, when the laws of the federation were recompiled, the Labour Act was codified as Cap L1 LFN 2004. No new content was added; it was simply consolidated. In effect, the law Nigeria uses today to regulate labour is still the same 1971 law, dusted up and reprinted in 2004.

At the time of its creation, the Act may have been adequate. In 1971, Nigeria’s minimum wage could sustain a family. A bag of rice was ₦10. The government still employed vast numbers of workers, and the oil boom was on the horizon. But laws must evolve with society. A law that once made sense can become a curse if it is left behind by economic and social change.

■ The Harsh Reality of 2025

Fast-forward to 2025. Nigeria’s economy is in perpetual crisis. Inflation eats into every paycheck like a wild fire. The naira has collapsed against the dollar. The minimum wage is a joke compared to the cost of living. Workers spend half their income on transportation alone.

In the 1970s, ₦1 could buy enough food for a family’s dinner. In 2025, ₦100 cannot buy a loaf of bread. Yet our labour standards are still anchored to that era.

The average Nigerian worker today is fighting multiple battles:

1. Inflation: Prices of goods rise daily, while wages remain stagnant.
2. Unemployment: Millions of young graduates roam the streets jobless.
3. Casualisation: Companies avoid responsibility by hiring workers as “casuals” without benefits.
4. Gig Economy Exploitation: Delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers, and online freelancers work without any legal recognition or protection.
Technological Disruption: Artificial intelligence and automation are replacing jobs faster than they are being created.

Yet the Labour Act of 1971/2004 says nothing about any of these realities. It is as if the Nigerian worker has been abandoned to fate.

■ The Flaws of the Labour Act in Today’s Economy

The Labour Act’s weaknesses are glaring in 2025:
1. Wage Protection Is Illusory
The Act provides for the payment of wages, but it does not guarantee a living wage. It speaks of “minimum wage,” but does not address how such wage should adjust to inflation or economic crises. So workers are left at the mercy of politicians who fix minimum wage figures without reference to real living costs.
2. No Recognition of Modern Work
Remote jobs, gig work, freelance contracts, and digital platforms dominate employment today. Yet the Labour Act speaks only of “contracts of service” between “master and servant.” The law is blind to Uber drivers, Bolt riders, software engineers working remotely, and delivery men risking their lives daily.
3. Silence on Inflation
In a country where inflation averages 20–30% yearly, the law makes no provision for wage adjustments. Workers are stuck with salaries that lose value before payday.
4. Weak Enforcement
Even the protections that exist on paper are poorly enforced. Labour inspectors are underfunded, courts are slow, and unions are often compromised.
5. Outdated Provisions
The Act still uses colonial language like “servant,” and still treats women and children’s employment in terms that belong to another age.

In effect, the Labour Act in 2025 does not protect workers, it protects employers from responsibility.

■ Comparative Perspectives

Other countries have long moved forward.

South Africa has a progressive Labour Relations Act (1995) and Basic Conditions of Employment Act, which guarantee fair treatment, regulate working hours, and adjust wages.

Kenya revised its Employment Act in 2007 to reflect modern realities, including provisions for maternity leave, discrimination, and redundancy.

Ghana enacted the Labour Act, 2003, which consolidated and modernized employment law to fit a new century.

Meanwhile, Nigeria remains stuck in 1971. The refusal to reform is not an accident. It is a deliberate political choice, because an outdated labour law benefits the ruling elite and business class. It allows cheap exploitation of labour without legal consequences.

■ The Human Cost

Behind every outdated law are broken human lives. The Nigerian worker in 2025 is not just poor; he is exhausted, humiliated, and invisible.

Families are torn apart as breadwinners migrate abroad in search of better wages.
Workers collapse from stress and malnutrition because their salaries cannot cover healthcare or basic food.
Youths, unable to find decent work, are drawn into crime, fraud, or dangerous migration routes.
Women face double exploitation, paid less than men, yet expected to carry the burden of unpaid domestic work.
In the meantime, politicians and lawmakers enjoy obscene allowances, travel in convoys, and send their children to schools abroad. The gap between the ruling elite and the working majority is not just wide, it is immoral.

■ Why Labour Reform is Urgent

Labour reform is not a luxury. It is a necessity for survival.

1. Moral Grounds: A nation that refuses to protect the dignity of its workers has lost its conscience. Labour is not slavery; it is a partnership between human effort and social progress.
2. Economic Grounds: Productivity is tied to worker welfare. Hungry workers cannot build a prosperous economy. Fair wages create consumer demand, which drives growth.
3. Political Grounds: Discontented workers are the seeds of unrest. A nation that silences its workforce with poverty is building a time bomb.

● Proposals for Reform

If Nigeria is serious, it must urgently:

1. Enact a New Labour Standards Act fit for the 21st century.
2. Index wages to inflation, so that salaries rise automatically with the cost of living.
3. Recognize gig economy workers and extend protections to them.
4. Strengthen unions to bargain effectively without government interference.
5. Empower labour courts and inspectors to enforce rights swiftly.
6. Protect women and vulnerable workers with modern anti-discrimination provisions.
7. Introduce social security schemes for unemployed and retired workers.

■ Conclusion

Nigeria in 2025 is a nation in crisis. But that crisis is not just about oil theft, political corruption, or insecurity. It is also about the silent enslavement of workers under a law written in 1971 and lazily recopied in 2004. A law that fails to reflect reality is no longer law, it is oppression codified.

It is time to ask ourselves: What kind of country governs its workers with a 1971 law in 2025? The answer is simple: a country that does not care about its people.

But we cannot continue like this. The dignity of labour is the dignity of the nation. If we persist in treating workers as disposable, Nigeria itself will remain disposable in the eyes of history.

The time for reform is now. The Nigerian worker deserves a law of 2025, not a relic of 1971.