The Nigeria Labour Congress came in hot during the 2025 African Industrialisation Day, calling out the global heavyweights for choking Africa with debt, unfair trade systems, and structural disadvantages that feel older than our grandparents’ radios. According to the NLC, the continent is still dragging chains forged by toxic sovereign loans, a dangerous dependence on imported goods, broken logistics systems, and outdated tech that keeps us stuck in the economic basement.
Benson Upah, the Acting General Secretary, didn’t mince words. He said Africa’s potential keeps getting drained by the continuous extraction of critical minerals without real value being added here at home. It’s the same old story: we supply the raw gold, and someone else sells the jewelry.
The NLC is pushing for a different playbook — one rooted in regional cooperation, stronger local production, and firm respect for labour rights. They want African countries to stand on their own legs, not lean on foreign shoulders that have failed us time and time again. Upah even echoed Kwame Nkrumah’s classic warning: Africa must unite and drive its own industrial destiny instead of outsourcing its future.
The Congress also tied industrialisation to the global climate conversation. With world leaders heading to COP30 in Brazil, the NLC urged them to take the Belem Action Mechanism seriously — a framework linking climate goals, fair energy transitions, accessible power, and real industrial growth.
Their bottom line? Africa can’t level up without good governance, accountability, and a fierce commitment to real socio-economic change. And honestly… they’re right. The continent’s story won’t change until it starts writing the next chapter itself.
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