Key points

• The Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council has written to Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele demanding implementation of the 40% peculiar allowance, due since May 1, and payment of promotion arrears for batches seven and nine.
• At an Aug. 5 meeting, Oyedele pledged to fund the allowance through a supplementary budget and the government said the arrears were resolved; the wage award was paid on time, the rest was not.
• The council said “spontaneous reactions are building up” among workers and that money is available, though it stopped short of issuing a new ultimatum.

Federal civil servants have warned Minister of Finance Taiwo Oyedele that the 40% peculiar allowance he pledged to fund six weeks ago is still unpaid and that patience in the public service is wearing thin.

In a letter signed by its national secretary, Olowoyo Gbenga, the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Trade Union Side, urged the minister to implement the allowance and clear promotion arrears for batches seven and nine, closing with a pointed reminder that “a stitch in time saves nine.”

The council was careful to give credit first. It thanked Oyedele for “walking the talk” after their Aug. 5 meeting, at which the government agreed to pay two months of outstanding wage award by Aug. 15. That money arrived on time, the letter said.

A promise made in August

The allowance was the other half of that meeting. Oyedele told union leaders the government would finance the 40% peculiar allowance through a supplementary budget, with the Finance Ministry and Budget Office to secure the funding, according to accounts of the meeting at the time.

Officials also said the payment process for batches seven and nine promotion arrears had been sorted out.

The council now says both remain stuck. The allowance rests on a circular signed by Eyo Nta, then executive chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, with effect from May 1, 2026, and must reflect the N70,000 national minimum wage, the letter said.

The arrears, it added, are “currently hanging in the process of payment.”

Workers rejected any suggestion that money is the problem. “The Federal Government can implement this circular without a pinch of excuse(s) because resources are adequately available,” the council wrote, asking Oyedele to push it through “without any administrative red-tape blockade.”

No ultimatum, but a clear warning

The tone is softer than in July, when the council gave Oyedele an Aug. 11 deadline to meet or face “the wrath of Nigerian workers.”

This time it leaned on what it called the trust built at that meeting and said it hoped the allowance could be implemented “without attracting any ultimatum.”

Still, the warning was unmistakable. “Potential spontaneous reactions are building up among workers due to restiveness on this subject matter,” the letter said.

The letter lands as labor pressure on the government intensifies on other fronts. The Nigeria Labour Congress this week demanded emergency palliatives after petrol prices climbed toward N1,500 a liter in parts of the country.

Oyedele, who took over the ministry from Wale Edun in April and is leading a six-week review of the 2025 tax reforms, has not publicly responded to the latest letter.