The “no gree for anybody this year” meme has become a nationwide slogan on the streets in Nigeria over the last few weeks. And it is making the ruling class quake with fear already. The Nigeria Police Force attested to this with a cautionary statement in the second week of January.
According to Muyiwa Adejobi, the NPF spokesperson “the new slogan for 2024…’no dey gree for anybody’ is being seen as just normal talk.” But for the “security community” it is “seen as a very dangerous slogan that can trigger crises.”
He and the class of exploiters ruling us who have made our lives hell on earth these past few years, and whom the police protect, have cause to fear. But it is not because of a conspiracy by some faceless “retributionary sector” (whatever that means). It is because we, the poor masses and youth are fed up, and will no longer take the suffering again.
The slogan reflects an emerging social psychology of disobedience against the oppressive order of the government and the ruling class that it represents.
By the beginning of 2023, 63% of the population, that is 133 million people, lived in multidimensional poverty and found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. But a handful of people who constitute less than 1% were getting richer, stealing the wealth our labour creates and the natural resources of our land.
An already terrible situation became acutely worse in 2023. The sharp rise in fuel pump prices drove virtually everything out of the rich of the vast majority of Nigerians. Food prices which were already very high in 2022 further increased by up to 50% last year. Now, over 150 million Nigerians cannot afford two daily meals.
Tuition fees have been raised by upwards of 200% leading to tens of thousands of students from working-class homes dropping from school or schooling under the most inhumane conditions in a bid to go to school at any cost.
While life is being made unbearable for us, billions continue to be stolen by the rich oppressors. Those in government continue to allocate billions of naira to themselves that could have been used to ease our pains and provide social services for us.
The only way we can rectify the situation is through revolution. It is when we stand up to make it clear that we no go gree again! As Oscar Wilde said, “it is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”
This year, we must unite and fight to overthrow this class of exploiters to liberate ourselves. We need a new, revolutionary alternative that replaces their oppressive system with a grassroots democracy in our workplaces, communities, and schools.
by Baba AYE
