On August 8th, members of Sol (CWI Germany) in Berlin gathered in front of the Nigerian embassy to protest for the immediate release of Adaramoye Michael, Babatunde Oluajo and Mosiu Sodiq.
During protests against the price increases and the prevailing hunger, two members of the Democratic Socialist Movement Nigeria (DSM), the sister organization of the Sol in Nigeria, and a relative of one of the activists, were arrested by police in their homes in Abuja on the night of August 5. They were not allowed to call a lawyer and have been in custody without justification. We protested against this police and state repression in front of the embassy with speeches, signs and the handing over of a letter of protest. We called on the representatives of the embassy to work for the immediate and unconditional release of Adaramoye Michael, Babatunde Oluajo and Mosiu Sodiq. During the conversation with Embassy representatives, they agreed to pass on our demand to the authorities in Nigeria and to inform them about our protest. Since the protests Babatunde Oluajo has been freed but Adaramoye Michael is still being detained somewhere in Abuja. We, and other comrades of the Committee for a Workers’ International, will continue to protest throughout Germany and internationally until Adaramoye Michael and Mosiu Sodiqhe, along with all other detained protesters, are also released.
Under the motto #endbadgovernanceinnigeria, protests began throughout the country at the beginning of August in response to these conditions and widespread corruption. They were also inspired by the previous mass protests in Kenya. Just as “7 days of rage” were proclaimed in Kenya, the protests in Nigeria were called “10 days of rage”. Members of the DSM were involved in the protests and one of the detainees, Adaramoye Michael, held a press conference ten hours before his home was stormed, in which he criticized the government and its neoliberal measures and called for peaceful protests.
The Nigerian police took violent action against the initially peaceful protests and at least 13 people were killed by the police. According to reports, they used not only tear gas but also firearms against the demonstrators. Curfews have been imposed in some states. In addition, there are over 400 arrests, including those of Adaramoye Michael, Babatunde Oluajo and Mosiu Sodiq. This repression is part of a whole series of repressive surveillance measures and invasions of the privacy of political activists like Adaramoye Michael.
We demand the immediate and unconditional release of our comrades and their relatives as well as all political prisoners! The protests are legitimate and necessary!
The protests in Nigeria are an expression of the catastrophic living conditions for workers, poor and youth in the country. They are the result of an economic crisis driven by neoliberal policies. The neoliberal austerity dictates of institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are consistently implemented by the pro-capitalist corrupt politicians in the Nigerian government, which is steadily worsening the situation. Fuel subsidies have been withdrawn and taxes have been increased, which, for example, will result in a sharp increase in the price of gasoline. Basic foodstuffs are experiencing sharp price increases and people are rightly angry that they cannot afford food. The inflation rate in June was 34.19 percent, higher than in the last thirty years.
DSM writes about this in a leaflet they are distributing at the protests:
“Bad government is nothing new in Nigeria. Sadly, it’s getting worse and worse. Many Nigerians had believed that the mass suffering under the government of Muhammadu Buhari, which was a monumental failure, could not be surpassed. But the Tinubu government has proven the opposite in just one year. This is because the capitalist policies of deregulation and devaluation implemented by the Buhari government, which were responsible for the high cost of living at the time, have now been intensified by Tinubu – with a much greater commitment to the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the presidential candidates of the other major parties in the last elections, such as Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi, advocated the same neoliberal policy of abolishing the so-called fuel subsidy and devaluing the naira. Nigeria would therefore experience the same economic hardship if Atiku or Obi were president. You can’t do things the same way and expect a different result. Therefore, the struggle against the cost of living crisis, the high prices, the attacks on public education and health care, corruption, etc., must also be linked to the need for a genuine mass party of working people with an alternative economic programme that ensures that the enormous human and material resources that Nigeria is equipped with are used for the benefit of the vast majority and not for the greed of a few. This alternative program is socialism, collective ownership and a truly democratic control over the main sectors of the economy so that the country’s resources are used for the majority. This is what we need to end the bad governance in Nigeria.”
Demands of the protesters and the Democratic Socialist Movement also include price controls and the reversal of previous price increases, price limits for oil products, an end to police violence, democratic rights and free elections, a new and higher minimum wage and the automatic adjustment of wages to inflation, unemployment benefits for young people who cannot find a job and an end to neoliberal policies.
As Sol (CWI Germany), we stand in solidarity behind the protests and these demands and will continue to protest until the release of the activists and detainees and draw attention to state repression and this scandal. But even after that, we will continue to fight for a world in which no one has to go hungry anymore, in which no small minority rules over the majority and in which this misery of capitalism has come to an end.
