Nigeria, Aug. 1 -- Once the roaring lion of worker advocacy, Nigeria's labour unions have grown alarmingly quiet and reduced to shadows of their former selves. Once feared and respected, they now struggle to be heard in the national discourse, even as workers across the country face some of the harshest economic and workplace conditions in recent memory.

This silence is not merely symbolic. It represents a collapse of representation and a tragic betrayal of the very people the labour movement was designed to protect.

In decades past, the names of labour leaders were etched into the fabric of national history. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were once titanic forces, halting policies, paralyzing corru...