The Socialist Workers League condemns the unbridled reign of terror by the Nigerian state, which has reached great heights under the APC regime. We did not fight so hard as a people to defeat military dictatorship only to have a civilian dictatorship that has been as brutal and insensitive as the military in repression of our democratic rights.
Five years ago, scores of young Nigerians were killed by the police and armed forces at the Lekki Tollgate and across several other locations in Lagos and other states in Nigeria. Their “crime” was to have demanded the proscription of the dreaded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The #EndSARS rebellion was drowned in blood. But the spirit of resistance lives on.
Today, the Nigerian state met peaceful demonstrations of activists demanding freedom for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) with high-handedness. The police brutally dispersed the protesters, led by Omoyele Sowore, the National Chairperson of the African Action Congress (AAC), with volleys of teargas. This is unacceptable. The continued detention of Mr Kanu since 2021 is little more than a denial of justice with its delay.
We demand as follows:
- Brutalisation of protesters and repression of peaceful demonstrations by the police and other security agencies run contrary to our constitutional rights. These must be stopped and criminalised. Officers who give orders for such actions must be prosecuted.
- The Nigerian state must take responsibility for its bloody repression of the EndSARS rebellion. An unambiguous apology must be tendered. Full compensation for all victims and to the families of those killed must be paid.
- The EndSARS rebellion must be recognised as a poignant moment in Nigeria’s history and a monument to those who paid the supreme sacrifice erected at the Lekki Tollgate where the most palpable massacre was carried out, on behalf of all those felled across the country.
- Nnamdi Kanu must be freed and negotiations commenced to curtail violence in the South East, which has been exacerbated by his continued detention as a reaction by armed non-state actors associated with his cause.
- Respect for the right of all nationalities in Nigeria, up to and including the right to secession. Thus, a referendum be organised to democratically distil out the will of the people in the Southeast on secession or not, and the same goes for any other region in the country.
- Without prejudice to the right of all nationalities to self-determination, we urge working-class people across the length and breadth of the country to stand united, across ethnic, regional and even possible new national lines of division, to fight against the ruling class of bosses who exploit us and for our revolutionary liberation to build a better society based on international socialism.
Sgd.
Jharmo TOWOLAWI
National Chairperson
Sgd.
Amara NWOSU
National Secretary
