Arthur Svensson Award is ‘fuel for the fire’ of labour struggle, says Ajaero
Ajaero receiving his Arthur Svensson Award
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Joe Ajaero on Wednesday dedicated the 2026 Arthur Svensson International Award to millions of Nigerian workers, using the occasion to recount what he described as years of harassment, intimidation and persecution of labour activists in Nigeria.
Speaking at the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, Ajaero said the honour was not a personal achievement but recognition of the struggles of workers across Nigeria.
“I stand before you today not as a man, but as a symbol, a true symbol of millions of Nigerian workers who wake up every morning not just to the smell of tear gas, the sound of sirens, and the cold silence of a state that preys on its own people but who go to work hungry and come back hungrier more emasculated than before they left for work,” he said.
The NLC president said he received the Arthur Svensson International Award “not as a trophy” but as “a weapon.”
“I receive this Arthur Svensson International Award; not as a trophy, not as a ribbon to hang on a lapel. Not at all. I receive it as a weapon, a weapon forged in the memory of a great Norwegian militant, Arthur Svensson, a man who knew that trade union rights are human rights, and that international solidarity is the only shield against the whip of rampaging multinational capital,” he said.
Ajaero praised the Arthur Svensson Foundation for recognising labour struggles in developing countries, saying the award demonstrated solidarity with workers in Nigeria and other parts of the Global South.
“I want to thank the Arthur Svensson Foundation from the depths of my scarred lungs. Thank you for your thoughtfulness! Thank you for refusing to look away from the Global South!”
“In a world where capital moves at the speed of light while workers crawl under the weight of debt, you have chosen to spotlight those who fight in the trenches in the forgotten corners of the world,” he said.
Ajaero added, “You have reminded us that the international working class is not a metaphor; it is a family. And tonight, that family has wrapped its arms around Nigeria. And, we can feel the warmth!”
The labour leader said he was surprised that events in Nigeria had attracted the attention of the foundation’s trustees.
“However, let me be honest with you, comrades, I had no idea that the Trustees of the Arthur Svensson Foundation were taking note of what was happening in Nigeria,” he said.
Ajaero accused the Nigerian state of treating labour activism as a crime and alleged that he and other union leaders had been subjected to repeated arrests and investigations.
The NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero at a dinner organised by his Norwich colleagues in his honour in Oslo, Norway
“In Nigeria today, to defend a living wage is to become a target of the state. To demand that a worker should not die of hunger in a country swimming in crude oil is to be labelled an enemy of the state,” he said.
“I and my comrades have been arrested like common criminals. I have been dragged before state agencies for questioning on trumped-up charges; charges of terrorism financing, Cybercrime, criminal conspiracy, Subversion and treasonable felony, of all things!”
Rejecting the allegations, he declared: “Me, a trade unionist, financing terror? No! The only terror we finance is the terror that grips the heart of every exploiter when workers unite.”
The NLC president went on to detail what he described as a difficult period since 2023.
“Our journey since 2023 has been harrowing; my home in Lagos was visited by unknown fire which razed the building down with all my personal belongings; I was abducted, detained and brutalized by the government for insisting on the implementation of an agreement that protects the rights of workers.”
He further alleged that he was prevented from attending a conference in Britain and had remained under surveillance.
“I was harassed and arrested while on my way to Britain to attend a TUC UK conference to stop me from telling the world what we were going through in Nigeria.”
“I have been invited for questioning repeatedly and just few weeks back, I was once again an unwilling guest of the nation’s secret Police and I have been placed on constant surveillance both passively and electronically,” he said.
Ajaero also claimed that labour protests and union activities had faced heavy-handed responses from security agencies.
“Our picket lines have been broken by security forces armed to the teeth. Our offices were raided on the 7th of August, 2024 while a detachment of security personnel was left to occupy our national secretariat forcing an evacuation of the offices by staff members.”
“Our members have been sacked for demanding a minimum wage in the midst of hyperinflation,” he said.
Despite these challenges, he insisted that workers remained a powerful force.
“They have the jails, the guns, and the instruments of fear. However, we have the power; the power to stop the world, because we move the world. We create wealth! We are workers!” he said.
Ajaero said the strength of organised labour came from collective action rather than individual leaders.
“Yet, here I stand and not because I am strong! But because the working class is invincible, walking and working together.”
“Every time they silence one voice, ten thousand rise. Every time they tear down a picket line, two more appear. That is the law of labour. That is the dialectic of struggle.”
The labour leader said the award should serve as encouragement to workers across Nigeria.
“This award is not an end, it is a launchpad. It tells every driver, every teacher, every health worker, every woman selling tomatoes by the roadside under the scorching sun; your suffering is not in vain and can never be mute. Your resistance is not invisible. The world is watching. And more than watching, the world is ready to act in solidarity.”
He also criticised multinational corporations, international financial institutions and Nigerian political leaders.
“Let me be clear to the multinational corporations sucking the blood of our export processing zones, to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank whose loans are chains, to the Nigerian politicians already scheming for 2027, Nigerian workers are watching.”
“Accolades do not pacify us but, they propel us. This award is not water on the flames; it is fuel for the fire,” he said.
Dedicating the honour to workers who have suffered for defending labour rights, Ajaero said, “We accept this honour on behalf of every Nigerian worker who has been tear-gassed, every union activist who has been victimised, every Nigerian worker who becomes poorer the more he works.”
He also remembered victims of insecurity, including “that teacher who was kidnapped and beheaded in Oyo Forest and all the children in terrorists’ captivity with their teachers.”
Looking ahead, the NLC president pledged that the congress would intensify its organising efforts and continue resisting policies it considers anti-worker.
“We will not rest; the Nigeria Labour Congress will not rest. We will deepen our organising among informal economy workers, platform economy workers, and the unemployed.”
“We will resist every anti-labour law. We will expose every violation of ILO conventions. And we will win; because history is on our side.”
Quoting Karl Marx at the conclusion of his speech, Ajaero said, “The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves.”
The labour leader ended with a rallying call to labour activists around the world: “Let us organise. Let us struggle. Let us win.”
“Comrades, the struggle continues; and now, it continues with a new weapon; the Arthur Svensson Award in one hand, and the unbreakable solidarity of the global working class in the other,” he said.
