LAGOS – As Nigerians are divided over the proposed August 1 to August 10 nationwide protests, Sunday Independent has gathered that nothing will stop the young activists from holding the mass action.
The federal and several state governments, agencies, some religious and traditional rulers are being mobilised against the peaceful mass protests, which they fear could be cashed in by thugs to cause violence, looting and destruction of properties.
Police and even the Military have also warned against the peaceful protest, even as they recognized the right of Nigerians to protest.
A source who spoke to Sunday Independent, said the masses have democratically come together to say “We are done with all the lies, hunger, pain, and generally economic hardship”, which they placed at the door steps of the current administration.
According to the source who pleaded anonymity, “The masses from the North to the South have passed a vote of no confidence in the Tinubu administration and have said that starting from July 29 till August 10, and even beyond, we will be holding a massive mass action.”
Although he said he would not disclose his names, he maintained that the security agencies know all of them who are behind the protest and their identities.
According to the source, a young Leftist activist, the protesters articulated what he termed ‘15 non-negotiable demands’.
According to him, top of the list, “Scrap the 1999 Constitution and replace it with a People-made Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to be immediately followed by a National Referendum.”
Second on the list, is for the Senate arm of the Nigerian Legislative System, to be dumped, leaving only the House of Representatives (HOR) to be making laws on a part-time basis.
The source also said that the third demand is for the adoption of N250,000 as the Nigerian workers’ minimum wage monthly.
He continued: “The fourth is for the government to invest heavily in education and give Nigerian students grants, not loans. Aggressively pursue free and compulsory education for children across Nigeria.
“Sixth, release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally and demilitarise the South East as well as the release of all ENDSARS victims.
“Renationalise publicly owned enterprises sold to government officials and cronies. Reinstate a corruption-free subsidy regime to reduce hunger, starvation and multidimensional poverty.
“Probe past and present Nigerian leaders who had looted the treasury, recover their loot, and deposit it in a special account to fund education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
“Restructure Nigeria to accommodate Nigeria’s diversity, resource control, decentralisation and regional development.
“There should be reformation of security agencies to stop continuous human rights violations and duplication of security agencies and enhance the physical security of Nigerian citizens.
“Establish a Special Energy Fund immediately to drive massive, corruption-free power sector development.
“Immediate reconstitution of the Nigerian Electoral body, INEC, to remove corrupt individuals and partisan hacks appointed to manipulate elections.
“Massive investment in public works and industrialisation will help employ Nigeria’s teeming youths.
“Let there be a massive shake-up in the Nigerian judiciary to remove cabals of corrupt generations of judges and judicial officers that continue denying everyday citizens access to real justice. Let there be provision for diaspora voting.”
Concluding, he said: “No amount of bags of rice or a slave wage of N70,000, which is equivalent to $43 (down from what used to be $75), will demobilise us. The only way to stop us is to meet our demands. The Tinubu administration has from now till July 28.”
Interestingly, in a statement made available to Sunday Independent, the Youth Rights Campaign (YRC), have expressed support for the nationwide protest.
It called on all Nigeria youths, workers and oppressed masses to reject neoliberal capitalist policies of the current All Progressives Congress (APC) administration
The Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) welcomed the planned August nationwide #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest and called on those who are dissatisfied with the prevailing condition of hunger and hardship in Nigeria to join.
It stressed: “The Tinubu administration cannot subject the Nigerian working people and youth to unprecedented level of starvation and hardship while expecting them not to react.
“Nigerian people are not slaves. To this extent, we warn the police and other security agencies to abort any sinister agenda to thwart the planned peaceful protest through arrest, intimidation and violent crackdown.
“We also urge all those who are preparing to come out for protest in August not to be afraid due to the threat by the security agencies. Protest is a fundamental human right.
“If this right was not conceded during the dark days of military authoritarianism, definitely it will not be conceded now.”
According to the group, the last one year of the Tinubu administration has been a traumatic period for the working class and poor, including the youth, who have suffered back to back neo-liberal attacks that have further worsened their living conditions.
“Even layers of the middle class are not left out of the mindless attacks on living conditions that have led to horrific levels of starvation. In this desperate condition, only mass struggle can begin to resolve the situation.
“To this extent, we urge all genuine pro-working people organisations, youth groups and trade unions to support the planned protest.
“Specifically, we task the NLC and TUC leadership not to take a position of neutrality on this protest. We take cognisance of a public statement by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, affirming the right to peaceful protest, urging the Federal Government to meet with protest leaders with a view to meeting the demands.
“As a matter of urgency, NLC and TUC need to publicly back the protest and begin immediate mobilisation of members nationwide to down tools and join. We also call for the setting up of democratically constituted protest coordinating committees across states and local governments in the country to ensure proper coordination of the protest.”
It said the protest has become necessary “because we cannot take it anymore. For example, youth unemployment has risen to 35%, with most youths working as casual workers in factories earning less than $1 dollar a day.
“Feeding has become practically difficult, which means many have to depend on family and friends for support or in the worst case resort to crime or prostitution to survive the harsh economic conditions.
Food inflation jumped to 38% in February 2024, and by April, 2024 it already stood at 40.53%, and by May 2024, the Naira became the worst performing currency globally.
It stated that poor Nigerians are dying daily due to hunger, revealing that in February 2024, not less than seven lives were lost and several others hospitalised when a stampede occurred during the sale of subsidised 25kg rice for N10, 000 at the Nigeria Custom Service office, Yaba, Lagos.
“Also, on Sunday 24 March, we had the death of a 14-year old Aisha Usman alongside six other women and an eight-year-old child in a community in Bauchi State. They died in a stampede during a food sharing event.
“Similarly, two days before the Bauchi tragedy was the avoidable death of two female students of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Rose Michael – Psychology Department 400L and Grace Danladi Enupe – Computer Science Department, 200L, who were trampled to death during a crowd surge when the state government embarked on grain distribution on campus, alongside 22 other students who were hospitalised.
“These avoidable tragedies were triggered by the anti-poor capitalist policies of the Tinubu APC administration, which have thrown many more Nigerians into poverty. “These neo-liberal policies include fuel subsidy removal, commercialisation of education and floating of Naira, and increase in electricity tariff all of which have led to job losses amidst several other devastating consequences.”
The group stated: “It is bizarre that Nigeria being the largest crude oil producer in Africa and does not have working refineries, cast such responsibility on the profit-first driven, Dangote Refinery.
“The truth is that if public refineries are working optimally and more were built, there will not be a need for either importation or subsidy. Instead of fixing the public refineries and taking the oil and gas industry under public and democratic control, so that the problem can be solved once and for all.
“President Tinubu chose to instead remove the subsidy and devalue the naira, thereby opening the valve for mindless increase in pump price of petroleum products to the detriment of the working class and poor.
He said: “Similarly, the devaluation of naira in an import-dependent economy as Nigeria has contributed to the continuous rising of goods and services.
“It is worrisome that agriculture, which used to be the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s no longer attracts serious public investments.
For example, the over 20 farm settlements and five established in 1960 by the then Western Region under Obafemi Awolowo, have completely been abandoned or left in ruins
“Yet, Nigeria spends about N7.9 trillion annually on food importation. Such a whopping amount and more, if invested in democratically controlled public large farms can make it possible for Nigeria to become food self-sufficient, especially since our country has the largest arable land in Africa, with 34 million hectares.
“As a matter of urgency, the YRC called on the youth and working people to demand that Tinubu government reverses these anti-poor policies, build new refineries and revamp the existing ones, invest heavily in agriculture with the view of creating massive employment through agriculture and surplus food production that will not only cater for Nigeria’s growing population, but for export purpose.
“We demand that the price of fuel be reversed to the pre-May 29, 2023 price. We also demand that all political office holders be placed on the same salary scheme as Nigerian workers.”
“By and large, in view of the continuous waste and mismanagement of public funds by the administration most recently is the purchase and rebranding of a presidential jet worth about $150 million, purchase of SUVs for National Assembly members and political office holders, renovation of VP quarters with billions of naira, rather than investing such in establishment of factories to create jobs.
“It is clear that only a mass movement can force the administration to listen to the people. This is why the YRC always argues for the necessity of linking every struggle against attacks on living conditions to the need to build a mass movement to end capitalism and enthrone a Socialist Nigeria.”
Also, a political pressure group, Eastern Union (EU), titled ‘#End Wickedness and Inhuman Governance in Nigeria’, stated that the masses protest is a call for Nigerians to take back their country.
The group, in a statement signed by Hon. Charles Anike, the EU National President, stated, “The political bandits from across the country have taken undue advantage to plundered the country and that must stop now.”
It stressed that Nigerians have been enslaved for too long in their own country, “and we have been reduced to nothing by those evil men and women that crookedly sneaked their way to political powers since 1999.
“This is the worst democracy ever since the history of Nigeria. Things got worse in 2015 when the more desperate and power mongering daredevil- APC bandits hijacked power from the lesser evil, their PDP counterparts.
“This is not the time to begin to apportion blame or point fingers, or give excuses but this is the time for positive actions, because we must unite to take back our country.
“The event that took place on February 25, 2023 and subsequent judicial manoeuvrings that followed, points to the fact that these set of political actors on our present political scene are irredeemable.
“The Nigerian politicians of this era have not only gone haywire but have gotten to the last point of satanism. Everything they think and do is evil and they have all continued to progress in errors until almost all of them have become evil geniuses.
“They enjoys and celebrate the sufferings of poor, hence they continue to openly mock the poor by living and wasting our common wealth, while their fellow citizens are committing suicides daily due to hardship.
“They send their wives and children abroad to live and enjoy a good life and they stay behind to fight for the national cake.
“Nigeria is almost the most blessed and the most endowed country on the earth, but has become the poverty capital of the World because of greedy and shortsighted leaders.
“They mindlessly and heartlessly loot treasuries in hard currencies and prefer to save and invest the stolen monies in foreign countries.”
The group said the people can no longer fold their hands and watch less capable and incompetent people hold over 200 million Nigerians to ransom and waste our lives.
It said: “The point is that we are all going to join the protest, not only to see the end of bad governance, but also to take back our country and, like our Kenyan counterparts, chase away the operators of bad government.”
It advised protesters from the South East “to participate in the protest, but not to be at the forefront, since we have it on record and proven over time that they are always the scapegoats and usually the targets of the blood sucking leaders.
“While arrests were usually ordered in other places, shooting and killings were usually the case in the East.”
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