Hardship: Is Tinubu’s new N70,000 transport allowance enough?

The federal government says it has approved a ₦70,000 monthly transport allowance for public service workers in its employ across all levels for six months. The approval came amid a cost-of-living crisis and runaway inflation that have rendered the income of many Nigerians at best insufficient and at worst worthless.

The approval, which will take effect from November, was one of the resolutions reached at a meeting between government officials and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Leadership met in Abuja on Tuesday, as both parties discussed workers’ welfare, the national minimum wage and outstanding allowances. Payment of peculiar allowance arrears, effective from 1 May 2026, in three equal monthly instalments beginning in November was also approved.

The approval of the loan came a day after the Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed that Nigeria now spends 120% of their income on food. The payment is also coming less than three months before the 2027 general elections, which then raises serious questions about the motive and objectives of the government and NLC. Is this a genuine attempt to cushion the crippling impact of inflation occasioned by the current administration’s brutal and haphazard neoliberal economic policies, or is it a Greek gift to calm frayed nerves and sway the impoverished workers to the side of the ruling party as it works frantically to convince Nigerians to vote for it again?

However, the major concern here is whether the allowance is enough to ameliorate the devastating cost of living crisis. Since the present administration came to power, prices of basic goods and services have doubled and tripled, with Nigerians now spending more of their entire income on just food and transport. While the transport allowance may bring a temporary reprieve to the workers, what happens after the six-month implementation window expires? And since it only covers federal civil servants, what happens to other much-tried, struggling and forlorn Nigerians who are not in the employ of the federal government? Or do they not deserve some form of social intervention?

An average federal civil servant earns between 150,000 and 200,000, and this is for those between the middle and high grades, and anyone at this level will likely have a family. If we add the 70,000 naira payment allowance to the 150,000 or 200,000 take-home, which has been eroded by inflation, that comes to about 220,000 or 270,000, so is this enough for a family to adequately cater to the needs of his family in a month without resorting to graft to make ends meet? Of course, it is clearly insufficient.

What is to be done?

The problem is that the government has continued to pay lip service and apply a fire brigade approach to taming inflation. It has continued to pretend that the problem has been comprehensively and sufficiently addressed, even when the reality of an average Nigerian paints an unsettling picture of lack and deprivation. The cost of living crisis and runaway inflation problem will not be convincingly tackled if those in power continue to act in a manner that does not recognise the enormity of the challenge, let alone acknowledge the existence of the problem.

There is only so much transport allowance or even an increment in the minimum wage can do when faced with the galloping inflation Nigerians are experiencing; in fact, in many cases, these measures become counterproductive and only worsen the problem they are designed to address.

It must be said here and now that the problem the government is now working assiduously to fix is caused by its policies, and such a challenge would not have surfaced if it had implemented these policies in the first place. The best way for the government to raise wages and standards of living is to tackle inflation and food inflation, and to do so, the federal government must show political will and act decisively to tackle the deepening security crisis in the country that has turned farmers into internally displaced persons. Other problems like post-harvest losses, logistics, and access to cheap credit, seedlings and fertiliser must also be holistically addressed in order to tackle food inflation and raise the purchasing power of the people.

Until the government tackles food inflation with the urgency and decisiveness it requires, every other measure to address the hardship and cost of living crisis will only bring fleeting respite and not an enduring solution to a national scourge.

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