Over the last two years, crises of immense proportions reinforced by the fundamentalist neoliberal policies of the APC-led government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu have enveloped Nigeria. These policies, championed by the IMF and World Bank, have spared no sector of the country’s economy. From the removal of fuel subsidies, to the hiking of electricity tariffs and university tuition fees, and the floating of the national currency, working-class people in Nigeria have been forced deeper into mass poverty, leading to starvation and worsening insecurity. Over a third of children in the country are living in severe food poverty and Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world at 18.3 million children, most of them girls. Over 7 million micro, small and medium-scale enterprises have been forced to shut down, while the Banks, TelCos and the other big businesses declare record profits.
While children are being denied their fundamental right to an education, while insecurity worsens, while 65% of Nigerians are unable to afford nutritious food according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the Tinubu regime touts its success in making the rich richer. The Nigerian Stock Market gaining N18 trillion in 11 months, foreign direct investment hitting a two-year high, net FX reserves surging to more than $23B, and so on.
The Socialist Workers League reiterates that we the people, who wear the shoe, know exactly where and how much it pinches. The poor working people gave no mandate for this misrule. In the 2023 presidential elections, marked by fraud, political intimidation and violence, the APC was declared victorious with about 36% of the vote in a process which was boycotted by 73% of the Nigerian electorate. Since then nationwide protests have continued to demonstrate the people’s dissent. Despite brutal crackdowns, the August 2023 NLC/TUC-led protests, the #EndHunger protests of February and June 2024, the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests, and the #FearlessInOctober protests all saw nationwide participation. It is a sign that the Nigerian masses are fed up.
The Socialist Workers League calls on Nigerian workers and youth to continue to resist despair, and ignore the pomp and pageantry that the ruling class continues to enact through its control of the corporate media and its ability to mobilise a show of support we know from our everyday lives to be a sham. We must fight until we secure a liberated future for ourselves and generations to come. Only our determination and unity can stop them and win us our freedom.
Signed: Jamiu TOWOLAWI (Nat. Chairperson) & Amara NWOSU (Nat. Secretary)
