The Nigeria Labour Congress President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, on Friday called for a tax on the profits of technology giants and automated industries to fund comprehensive retraining and upskilling programmes for workers facing displacement in the era of artificial intelligence.
Speaking at the 2025 Conference of the Labour Writers Association of Nigeria in Ibadan, Ajaero warned that while AI is often presented as a marker of efficiency and progress, it is being deployed by corporations to deepen worker exploitation, erode rights, and increase inequality.
The conference, held at the Golden Tulip in Ibadan, focused on ‘The Future of Work in the Era of Artificial Intelligence’.
“We must bargain for comprehensive retraining and upskilling programmes, funded by a tax on the excessive profits of the tech giants and automated industries,” Ajaero remarked.
He added, “Our struggle is to socialise the benefits of AI and robotise the burdens, ensuring it leads to a society with more leisure, greater security, and shared prosperity for the working class.”
The NLC president described the rise of AI as “the modern face of the class struggle”, noting that workers risk being pushed into greater precarity as companies prioritise profit.
“They sell us a narrative of efficiency and progress, but we must see it for what it truly is: a tool for maximising profit by de-skilling jobs, casualising labour, and ultimately, weakening the collective power of the working people,” the labour leader stated
