President Tinubu is suggesting that the protests against the excessive costs of living and other hardships in Minna and Kano are inspired by the opposition parties. The president is simply beating about the bush and finding excuses. Nigerians will rise quite more significantly in the coming periods, as the Nigerian people reach our endurance limits in regards to the messy situations into which this administration continues to plunge the country.
The Naira has depreciated in value by over 50% since March 2023, while food prices have skyrocketed. A bag of rice is about #60k and a sachet of drinkable water is now #25. Nigerians have endured enough and will not take government excuses anymore.
Tinubu’s presidency has simply run out of ideas to address the consequences of his catastrophic neoliberal policies, as such, he believes that the old method of blaming the past and churning out tons of excuses will buy him time. This will work this time! The experiences of the January Uprising against fuel subsidy removal in 2012 and the EndSARS protests in 2020 have taught the Nigerian masses that only through mass revolts will things change for the better.
The use of “force” against both the Minna and Kano protests will soon become ineffective because the Nigerian people simply have nothing else to lose but their chains. The mass protests will soon take on a more national quality which the military and police *will find difficult to stop*. It is an idea whose time has come!
The Socialist Workers League (SWL) calls on all organizations of the oppressed to start networking robustly and prepare for the new uprisings against the effects of neoliberal policies of this anti-people’s government. Nigerians will rise en masse and they need revolutionaries to organize them to take power away from the ruinous ruling class whose larger-than-life existence makes them oblivious to our sufferings.
Minna and Kano are flashes of actions to come. It’s time to hone their potential to result in revolutionary liberty through organisational leadership from the left.
Kunle Wizeman AJAYI (National Chairperson), Amara NWOSU (National Secretary)
7 February 2024
