Prematurely ending emergency food imports will trigger a catastrophic surge in food prices, pushing basic staples out of the reach of millions of working-class Nigerians, organized labor warned on Tuesday.
​Speaking during a media briefing on Tuesday morning, August 11, 2026, at the TUC National Secretariat in Abuja, the President-General of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Festus Osifo, cautioned that halting import waivers before stabilizing local farm yields could drive the cost of a 50kg bag of rice back up to ₦120,000.
​Addressing reporters, Osifo stressed that persistent banditry and rural insecurity continue to block farmers from cultivating their fields, making immediate reliance on domestic farm output unrealistic.
​”When supply is limited and demand remains constant or increases, the price is bound to increase,” Osifo warned. “We don’t want a bag of rice to go back again to ₦100,000 or ₦120,000. Even where it is today, we still believe it is relatively high.”
​He urged the Federal Government to maintain zero-duty food import windows as a temporary bridge while military and security agencies work to restore safety across the nation’s food production zones.
​The TUC chief also outlined several broader policy recommendations to stabilize the macroeconomy and protect worker purchasing power:
Osifo called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take decisive measures to strengthen the domestic currency toward a target exchange rate of ₦900–₦1,000/, down from current market rates around ₦1,380/.
The labor union backed ongoing constitutional amendment efforts to establish state police forces, citing localized policing as crucial to ending farm-level attacks.
Osifo advocated restructuring state-owned petroleum refineries using the public-private ownership framework of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company to guarantee operational efficiency.
​Osifo concluded that policy decisions on food trade must be grounded in verified agricultural harvest metrics rather than hasty administrative deadlines.
