For a 24-Hour General Strike and Mass Protest to Reject President Tinubu’s Civilian Dictatorship
Free Michael Lenin, Mosiu Sodiq, Eleojo Opaluwa and all unjustly detained over #EndBadGovernance protest
The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) condemns the continued brazen attack on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) by the Bola Tinubu government, something which has been recently intensified. Not done with its criminal raid on the Secretariat of the NLC, purportedly in search for a foreign national, the government through the Police has doubled down with the invitation of the NLC President Joe Ajaero for a criminal investigation that is essentially meant to rope him in with terrorism financing, treasonable felony and cybercrime among others.
Though the NLC leadership have been very desperate in trying to dissociate the organisation from the #EndBadGovernance protests in all their statements, the Tinubu government is not prepared to leave them out of its ongoing crackdown on the organisers and perceived supporters of the August nationwide protest. Fearful of growing population discontent the Tinubu government is trying to use a combination of force and intimidation to prevent a wider popular movement of the sort seen in other countries. This should be a lesson to the labour leadership that they cannot sit on the fence or act as an arbiter in the struggle over mass hunger and economic hardship. Against their wish, Tinubu has put them where they should belong along with ordinary people. They should take up the gauntlet and provide a serious leadership to the movement which has developed in opposition to Tinubu’s anti-people, neo-liberal offensive
The challenge is that the most labour leaders have capitulated to neo-liberal capitalist program or do not believe there is alternative to it and therefore cannot seriously fight against it. The result is enormous suffering which can produce a social explosion without a clear direction. Therefore, we reiterate our call on workers and trade union activists to agitate within the trade union movement, workplaces and communities for the return to the tradition of Labour opposing neo-liberal capitalist agenda which naturally militate against the interest of workers and the poor masses. Local initiatives can be taken to sensitise broader layers that struggle can win gains. The aim must be joint action and a rejection of attempts to sow divisions on ethnic or religious lines.
There is also need for a conference of the broad labour movement including left activists and socialists to discuss what should be the alternative program to the prevailing capitalist economic program of Tinubu something which was fundamentally also advocated by the two other leading candidates in the 2023 presidential election – Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar. At such a meeting, we will argue why a socialist alternative is the only program that can guarantee decent life and meet the aspiration of the vast majority of the populace on a permanent basis.
We also welcome the directive of the NLC, as contained in the communiqué of the emergency meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC) on August 19, to affiliates and state councils to immediately embark on strike action if Joe Ajaero is arrested and detained over the phantom allegations. We also support the call on civil society allies and the general populace to stand in solidarity with the NLC. Indeed, for us in the DSM, we consider it an obligation to defend any organization of the working class people against any form of attacks by the government or capitalist bosses.
However, we would like to believe that it is an oversight that the NLC did not include in the communiqué the demand for the immediate release of the civil society activists and other protesters who have illegally and unjustly detained by security agencies over #EndBadGovernance protests. One of the activists is Adaramoye Michael (Michael Lenin), National Coordinator of the Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) and a member of the DSM who was abducted by the operatives of the National Intelligence Agency along with Mosiu Sodiq from their house in Apo Abuja on August 5. Since then, they have been held incommunicado and without trial at the facility of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) the same special police unit which has invited Ajaero for criminal interrogation. Also in the custody of the IRT is Eleojo Opaluwa, a member of National Union of Electricity Employees and a vice-chairman of Kogi State NLC, who has been detained since August 4 in connection with the #EndBadGovernance protests.
We acknowledge that the NLC in its two previous communiqués condemned the killing of protesters and called for the release of detainees. Since then, the government has intensified the attack on democratic rights including making the NLC a target of the state terror. We urge the Labour leadership to be consistent and all-encompassing in the defence of democratic rights. It should not be forgotten that Tinubu has a record of attacking combative trade unions as shown when he, as Lagos State governor, sacked militant union leader Ayodele Akele and many workers, over their struggle for payment of the minimum wage.
Tinubu does not have a strong base. It should not be forgotten that last year he was elected president with officially just 8.8 million votes, less than 10% of those who have permanent voter’s cards, in a country of around 230 million. This is why he moves to crush anything that could lead to serious opposition. Therefore no breathing space must be yielded to Tinubu to build a de facto civilian dictatorship which he has demonstrated that he is out to achieve.
Therefore, to show the resolve of labour not to tolerate further the attacks on democratic rights and the criminalisation of dissent and peaceful protests by the Tinubu government, we urge both the NLC and TUC to declare a 24-hour warning general strike and mass protest as a first step. The strike should also be used to demand the reversal of all anti-people policies responsible for the current mass hunger and economic hardship as well as the immediate release of Michael Lenin, Mosiu Sodiq, Eleojo Opaluwa and all unjustly incarcerated over the #EndBadGovernance protests.
We also urge the labour leadership and workers activists across the country to take the opportunity of the labour movement’s recent bitter experience under the Tinubu capitalist regime to acknowledge and understand that no section of Nigeria’s ruinous and corrupt capitalist class can be trusted to make life better for the working class and poor masses. Only the independent struggle of the working people can achieve this. On this basis, we urge the labour movement to immediately start the urgent task of building of a mass movement and transforming the present Labour Party into a genuine mass workers political party to end capitalism, sweep aside the corrupt and enthrone a workers and poor people’s government armed with socialist programme.
