January 31, 2017
Urgent Plan and Mobilization Needed
to Make the Protest a Reality
PRESS STATEMENT
Over the past few days,
social media platforms have been agog over popular Nigerian artiste, Tuface
(Innocent Idibia) call for massive nationwide protest on Sunday February 5,
2017. The spontaneous popularity enjoyed by the call shows the intense anger
and frustration brewing within society at the gross failure of the Buhari/All Progressive
Congress (APC) government which has succeeded in turning the glowing
expectations of the people into disappointment within the space of barely 2
years.
According to the
statement posted on his Instagram page “We the people of this country not
living under the privileges of government allowances and remuneration have now
accepted to take the bull by the horn to come out and protest this obnoxious
and baseless policies and excuses of the government of the day”.
This is “A call for
good governance. A call for urgent explanation into the reckless economic
downturn nationwide. A call for nationwide protests as we say No to the
Executive, No to legislatures, No to judiciary… You have all failed us. We the
people are tired. We can no longer continue with all of you. All your excuses
and mistakes are not funny. We do not wish to continue with a system and
government that is not working but afflicting the people”.
Since this statement
announcing the protest was posted online, a few other musical celebrities have
reportedly endorsed it. This is aside countless number of people who have
retweeted and shared the post several times thus making the call a major
trending topic on social media.
The Education Rights
Campaign (ERC) fully endorses this call. At this period of intense hardship,
only mass struggle can begin to challenge and roll back the unrelenting assault
on our living standards. We fully agree with the statement that the entire
Buhari government has failed the working class and poor masses. However, the
PDP and all other capitalist parties are equally guilty.
While the previous
PDP/Jonathan government set the economy onto the path of a recession through
mind-boggling corruption and looting of the proceeds of the oil boom, the
Buhari government working within the confines of a failed capitalist system has
helped to deepen the economic crisis the more. This he succeeded in doing by implementing
measures that not only unleash the consequence of the crisis on those who
benefitted nothing during the boom (e.g. working people, middle class, poor and
ordinary Nigerians) but that would also ensure that even if growth picks up at
some point in future, millions of people will continue to live in conditions of
depression for many years to come.
Unfortunately, since
the last one week that the announcement of the protest was made, there has been
no further details released about how the protest is going to take place, where
protesters would gather and of course what the demands should be. This has
unfortunately created an element of confusion with many asking what they are
meant to do on February 5.
The ERC calls on the
organizers to urgently update the public about plans for the protest as well as
gathering points in key cities and communities that the protests are meant to
take place. This will go a long way to energize the mass of the people who are
already primed for action. Perhaps for reasons of safety given the government
penchant for repression the organizers may wish to keep further details of the
planned protest secret. However the ERC feels
that while safety is important, this should not now undermine the ability to
effectively communicate important details of the protest as well as plans for
wide mobilization.
In conclusion, the
current development is an indictment on the leadership of the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC). That musical celebrities like
Tuface have to call for nationwide protest is because the labour leadership
have failed to play their roles as the historical and traditional leaders of
the struggles of the working class and oppressed masses. Instead of calling for
strikes and mass actions, all the NLC and TUC have been doing is issuing
harmless statements threatening actions that never take place. Meanwhile the
conditions of hardship in which majority of Nigerians are wallowing continue to
grow worse every day. There is a similarity between the current situation and
that which existed in January 2012 when the working masses and youth were
already on the streets across the country protesting the hike in pump price of
fuel by the Jonathan/PDP administration before the NLC and TUC was able to call
an indefinite general strike starting from January 9, 2012. So bad is the situation in the labour
movement that leadership of labour often lag behind the consciousness of their
own members and the mass of working people outside of the unions.
Meanwhile, the enormous
popularity that Tuface’s call for a nationwide protest has enjoyed shows that
there is a developing mood for a fight back. People are tired of the situation
and most especially the fact that nothing is being done by labour and civil society
organizations. This should therefore be a wakeup call on the leadership of the
NLC and TUC to act now. In its January 1st statement, the NLC had
threatened that it would no more be able to guarantee industrial peace by May 1st
if the national minimum wage is not reviewed. The current situation however shows
that people are not prepared to wait till May 1st before fighting
back not just on minimum wage but on all the other issues that affects all
categories of working class and poor people. Therefore, the struggle must start
now.
The ERC demands that an
emergency meeting of the principal organs of the NLC and TUC to discuss the
economic crisis and the intense hardship under which Nigerians are growing with
a view to rolling out immediate plans of actions that would include a general
strike and mass protest to begin the struggle to liberate the working people
from the shackles and manacles of capitalism which is behind the failure and
inability of the Buhari/APC administration to make any positive difference in
the last 18 months. Most importantly labour urgently need to come out with a
plan to build an alternative working peoples political party to fight for
political power. This is because the failure of the Buhari administration is
first and foremost a failure of capitalism and only the building of a socialist
alternative can open the way for resolving the political and economic crisis
afflicting Nigeria.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Ibukun Omole
National Coordinator (07033697259) National Secretary
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