Nigeria Solidarity

May Day: No Plan for Concrete Action from Labour against Anti-Poor Policies of Tinubu Government

This year May Day held at a period when many workers and the poor are facing serious economic hardship compounded by the anti-poor capitalist policies of the Bola Tinubu government. Another feature of the government which will reach a midterm mark on May 29 is a ceaseless attack on democratic rights aimed at stifling resistance against its anti-poor policies.

Therefore, ordinarily the theme for this year’s May Day in Nigeria, ‘Reclaiming the Civic Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship’, is apt. However, the problem is that the Labour leaders who formulated such a fitting theme have not demonstrated any serious resolve to reclaim the civic space with a view to organizing and mobilizing mass resistance against the policies that breed the economic hardship. In other words, the Tinubu government is having a field day with its attacks on the living standards and democratic rights of the working people and youth because the leadership of labour have refused to initiate a serious fight back.

Selling ‘Socialist Democracy’ at the Lagos May Day rally

In their May Day speeches, the national leaderships of both the NLC and TUC did not lack correct words to describe the current situation. The problem remains translating them into concrete action. For instance, the NLC President Joe Ajaero did not just lament the fact that many states and private sector employers have not implemented the new minimum wage, he strongly asserted that “the [minimum wage] law must be obeyed. We must begin a fresh push for not just compliance, but also for a comprehensive wage review to mitigate the hardship faced by Nigerian workers.” Good speech. But unfortunately, it may end up as another hot air unless workers and trade union activists mount a serious pressure on the labour leadership to walk the talk.

Selling ‘Socialist Democracy’ at the Osun May Day rally

However, while in Abuja at the national rally, the labour leaders spoke radically, even if it was braggadocio, in many states as usual it was shameless praise singing and pat on the back for the governors. For instance, in Osun, the state chair of the TUC sponsored a big banner campaigning for governor’s second term. In Ogun state, labour leaders commended the state governor for the prompt payment of pension for retirees. However, this is half-truth and misleading. The state owes over N50 billion unpaid gratuities and has not remitted over N40 billion contributory pension funds which have been already deducted from workers’ salaries. However, in Oyo while the labour leaders commended the state governor for approving N80,000 as the minimum wage, they also noted that the implementation had not been extended to workers in the judiciary sector and state-owned tertiary institutions.

In Lagos, the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives NANNM boycotted the May Day rally but instead held a separate event at the union’s Secretariat. This was in protest against the reduction in the salaries of health workers in the state. We are of the opinion this was not a correct method. They should have taken the protest to the main rally. Instructively, the state chair of the NLC Funmi Sessi, incidentally a nurse by profession, did not mention the plight of the nurses and midwives in her speech at the rally which had in attendance the state governor.

Some of the DSM comrades at the Lagos May Day rally

Members of the Democratic Socialist Movement participated actively at the international workers’ day rallies in Abuja, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos with the May/June 2025 edition of the Socialist Democracy (SD), our paper and different special leaflets which articulated what workers and trade unions should do in response to various capitalist attacks by the government at all levels. 416 copies of the SD were sold and about 8,000 copies of leaflets were circulated. Some rally participants wished to stay in contact with the DSM.

YRC Condemns Third Postponement of #ENDBADGOVERNANCE Protesters ‘Treason’ Trial

TREASON TRIAL OF 11 #ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTESTERS: DROP ALL THE CHARGES NOW

WE CONDEMN THE CONTINUOUS DELAY OF THE TRIAL AND THE PERSISTENT ABSENCE OF THE JUDGE

The Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) strongly condemns the continuous delay of the trial of Adaramoye Michael Lenin and 10 other #Endbadgovernance protesters who were charged with treason by the Tinubu administration over their involvement in the #Endbadgovernance protest which erupted last year August. We also condemn the persistent absence of the trial Judge, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court Abuja, each time the case has come up for hearing in the last five months. As a result, the accused activists are yet to have their day in court over six months after they were charged. This delay has caused the accused activists enormous psychological and material strain. We hereby call on the Federal Government to stop wasting the time of the activists over a sham trial. Instead of wasting their time and taxpayers’ money any further, we hereby demand immediate dismissal of the false charges and a public apology to the 11 #EndBadGovernance protesters.

After overcoming the hurdles of a stringent bail conditions, the activists looked forward to the date for trial which was first set for November 8, 2024. Shockingly, the Judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, who set the date was absent on the day the trial was supposed to commence. Consequently, a new date of January, 29, 2025 was set. The activists, who had no reason to be scared of the trumped-up charges against them, had showed up in court, however, again it was no-show for the judge. The absence of the judge meant that a new date had to be agreed on. Hence, March 26 was chosen as a new date for the commencement of trial. Again, the Judge was not in court on this new date! The best explanation we have gotten so far is that the judge is on vacation. The baffling question is how a judge would fix and agree to date of court sitting on three different occasions and be absent? And how many vacations does a Judge take within six months? As far as we are concerned, this is a deliberate attempt to stall the trial and ensure the threat of a death penalty continues to hang on the neck of these innocent Nigerians. We condemn this ‘hide and seek’ gimmick.

We seize this opportunity to call for the dropping of all charges against the 11 #Endbadgovernance protesters charged with treason, and all other #Endbangovernance protesters across the country. We strongly believe that the trial is a ploy by the government not only to criminalize peaceful protest, but to deter Nigerians from protesting against the hardship and misery caused by the pro-capitalist policies of the Tinubu administration. It is important to add that the government through the Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi, had discharged and discontinued similar suit of treason against 119 protesters who were mostly minors after their arraignment in court on November 1, 2024. That arraignment was a gory sight, many of the children had been starved and detained for weeks at different detention centers, including at Abattoir, the notorious police detention centre in Abuja where the 11 Endbadgovernance were also kept for weeks.

We are surprised that the same reprieve has not been extended to Adaramoye Michael Lenin and other protesters still on trial despite the fact that the charges against all of them are broadly the same. We believe that the further entertainment of this matter will not only lead to a wastage of the precious time of the court but also help sustain a national and global embarrassment to the image of Nigeria. Solidarity protests have been held at Nigerian embassies or diplomatic offices in a number of countries in Europe and the US at every court day since last September. We are also aware that Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of British Labour Party, recently signed a petition to the Nigerian High Commissioner in the UK, calling for the withdrawal of charges against #Endbadgovenance protesters and an end to attacks on democratic rights of Nigerians by the government This is why we would like to urge the Attorney General of the Federation to use his power to ensure that the time of the court is not further wasted on what is clearly a frivolous and malicious prosecution.

Francis Nwapa

National Secretary

Youth Rights Campaign

Email: youth_rights@yahoo.com

No to Imposition of State of Emergency in Rivers State:

Working People Should Reject Tinubu Government’s Growing Descent to Civilian Dictatorship

No Illusion in Any Capitalist Politician. For a Mass Working People Political Alternative

Statement of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)

The imposition of the emergency rule in Rivers State is the latest of the anti-democratic actions from the stable of President Bola Tinubu. Recently, he forced 36 legislators of the 40-member Lagos House of Assembly who had democratically removed their speaker to reverse their decision because they did not have his blessing. Though, now in Abuja as the President, he still calls the shots in Lagos, where is a former governor, like the lord of the manor. Besides, his government regularly attacks democratic rights of working people and youth including rights to freedom of expression and protest.

Clearly throwing his official heavyweight behind Nyesom Wike, who is in political standoff with his estranged political godson Governor Sim Fubara over the control of the soul and resources of the oil-rich state, President Tinubu on March 18 suspended the Rivers governor and the State House of Assembly and appointed former Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd.) as the sole administrator for the next six months. In other words, with the earlier dissolution of the local government councils on the order of the Supreme Court which nullified the process of their emergence, there is no semblance of democratic institution in Rivers State. So, what obtains at present is reminiscent of a military rule.

According to Tinubu in his national broadcast over the state of emergency, the administrator will not make new laws but he is free to formulate regulations as may be found necessary. However, such regulations are subject to the consideration and approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) where Wike sits as a Minister. Though, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that the National Assembly should take over the role of the Rivers State assembly, it does not really reduce the direct influence of the FEC on the Sole Administrator. In other words, Wike, the leader of a party to the conflict that purportedly prompted the suspension of the governor, will be involved in running the state as a FEC member. Though, the conflict is officially between the state governor and the vast majority members of the state House of Assembly, it is Wike who is pulling the strings of the latter.

To be clear, it should be stressed that Fubara, who as Rivers State Accountant General was shielded by Wike from arrest by the EFCC over corruption allegations, is not a saint in this conflict. Fubara callously demolished the Rivers House of Assembly complex and prevented the majority of members from sitting apparently to avert a possible impeachment. He derecognized 27 members in a 31-person assembly and was undemocratically dealing with four members with whom he was governing the state including on laws, budget and appointments.

It was a judgement by the Supreme Court delivered on February 28 which tilted the scales against the governor as it favoured the 27 legislators. The judgement reversed all the undemocratic actions of the governor. Therefore, after the initial grandstanding, Fubara began to make move to play ball most likely on the terms of the assembly members. For instance, following the order of the Supreme Court, he dissolved the local government councils and made a move to re-present the 2025 budget proposal which had been earlier approved by his 4-member assembly.

Therefore, there was no immediate basis for the impeachment process that the state assembly initiated against him shortly before the declaration of state of emergency. Rather, it was the resolve of Wike and his sidekick assembly members to get even with the governor that prompted the plan to remove him.

Indeed, it was not impossible that the notice of impeachment itself was a calculated tactic from the Wike camp with the support of Tinubu to create a basis for the imposition of the emergency rule. It was not likely for the impeachment plan to succeed, if it had gone ahead, as the Chief Judge of the state, who is required by the constitution to set up a panel to investigate the allegations leveled against the governor, is an ally of the governor.

No doubt, Governor Fubara fell for the trap. At a gathering shortly before his suspension, he had made a speech which only thinly veiled his endorsement of a threat of attacks on oil and gas pipelines made by some Rivers state youth should he be impeached. However, it is not yet clear whether any of the pipeline explosions that took place in the state recently had any direct link to the threat or the political crisis in the state. Indeed, according to media reports, findings have shown that some reported explosions at oil facilities were false. “For instance, the viral video on social media alleging that suspected militants bombed two Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) flow stations at Cawthorne Channel in the State was false. It was confirmed that the explosion was an old clip from a February 19, 2025, explosion at Cawthorne Channel 1 in Iloamatoru, Bonny, which claimed three lives” (Guardian March 23, 2025).

Nonetheless, Tinubu cited “disturbing incidents of vandalism of pipelines by some militants without the governor taking any action to curtail them” as one of the grounds for the imposition of the state of emergency. However, typical of bourgeois politicians, this is a demonstration of blatant hypocrisy by Tinubu who as an opposition figure in 2013 had in condemnation of the state of emergency on Borno, Adamawa and Yobe by the then President Goodluck Jonathan, argued that state governors had no real power to guarantee security. Then in his words Tinubu said: “No Governor of a state in Nigeria is indeed the Chief Security Officer. Putting the blame on the Governors, who have been effectively emasculated, for the abysmal performance of the government at the centre which controls all these security agencies, smacks of ignorance and mischief.”

Truly, it was political mischief, not the “actual breakdown of public order and public safety” or the danger of it, that prompted the removal of the state governor. While it is for Wike to regain his fierce hold on the state and its resources, to Tinubu, it is a cold move and desperation to have an ally or a weakened opposition figure in control of the state ahead of the 2027 presidential election. It should be recalled that the local and international observers expressly believed that 2023 presidential election in Rivers State was brazenly rigged in favour of Tinubu by Wike as the then state governor. And, Wike, who was rewarded by Tinubu as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja and who has his ‘yes men’ in the national leadership of the PDP, has in further return of favour helped cripple that party such that it is unable play any real or seeming opposition to Tinubu.

Tinubu, with the lowest ever share of votes to become a President in the history of Nigeria, has even had his limited electoral support originally based on ethnic and religious affiliation eroded because of his unabashed, anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist policies which have had devasting effects on the vast majority. Therefore, it is not out of place to conclude that to him his re-election bid will be a do or die affair. In other words, he is prepared to do anything no matter how undemocratic and unlawful in order to be officially declared the winner of the 2027 presidential election.

So whichever way one looks at it, Tinubu’s declaration of State of Emergency in Rivers State stands as an assault on civil rule. The process of the implementation of the declaration itself which saw both chambers of the National Assembly approve the undemocratic policy without first ascertaining quorum and amidst allegations of bribery is an additional indication of the absurdity of the all exercise. Therefore, the working class, the youth, unions, social movements and all credible forces must condemn and reject this development. To this extent, we welcome a joint statement of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) in which they “unequivocally condemn Mr. President’s hasty and unconstitutional declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State.”

However, we disagree with them that “beyond the political and legal implications, this unjustified state of emergency will … lead to job losses, wage cuts, and economic hardship for thousands of workers in both the formal and informal sectors”. This is because the assertion gives an impression that job losses, wage cuts, and economic hardship were not a feature or reality in Rivers State, nay Nigeria, already long before Tinubu’s declaration of emergency rule. The fact is that as a result of the neo-liberal capitalist policies of Tinubu, which are supported by all the governors including Fubara and which the leaderships of the NLC and TUC have failed to seriously oppose or fight against, the economic hardship and poor economic indices, which preexisted the Tinubu government, have been greatly worsened. Indeed, the national minimum wage of N70,000 won by the NLC and TUC in 2024 is actually a wage cut if compared with N30,000 minimum wage won in 2019 as a result of inflation triggered by the anti-poor capitalist policies of Tinubu.

Nonetheless, we call on the NLC and TUC not to limit their opposition to the state of emergency in Rivers to a mere statement. They, together civil society organizations, should also organize a nationwide mass protest and other legitimate actions in order to make a bold statement against an action of Tinubu they describe as “not only unlawful but a direct assault on democracy”. But it should not also be lost on the organized labour that Fubara in the course of the conflict was also a culprit of “direct assault on democracy”.

Good enough, the Rivers State councils of both the NLC and TUC have already indicated that “the organised labour may be compelled to take strategic union actions which might disrupt national economic activities if our demands are not met within a reasonable timeframe.” However, this must not be a mere hot air.

Moreover, the protest we have proposed and whatever action Labour may plan must not be limited to rejecting the emergency rule in Rivers alone but generally include all the attacks on democratic rights of working people and youth and the descent to civilian dictatorship, something which has become a feature of the Tinubu government. In order to ride roughshod over the working people with its anti-poor policies, stifling of democratic rights including freedom of expression and criminalization of protest have become a state policy of the Tinubu government. For instance, over 2000 persons including minors were incarcerated for about two months in police detention and prison in connection with #EndBadGovernance nationwide protest against mass hunger and economic hardship in August last year. Not done, Tinubu government has preferred trumped-up charges including treason which carries death penalty, before Federal High Court Abuja, against 11 activists including Adaramoye Michael Lenin, National Coordinator of YRC and a member of DSM because, according to the police court paper, they carried placards with inscription: “End Bad Government”! Many young people and bloggers have also been detained or made to face sham trial on undemocratic, fraudulent cyber laws.

The latest action of President Tinubu represents a concrete escalation in the situation in Nigeria. More and more, Tinubu regime is acting like a dictatorship in a bid to push through its anti-poor economic reforms and maintain political control while in the process undermining civil rule in the eyes of the masses especially the youth. This may have implication in the near future. At the moment, the truth will not be lost on many – that an ‘elected’ president enlisted elements of the military (even though retired) in an attempt to take control of an opposition-rule state ahead of the next general elections.

Going forward, while working people must resist attacks on democratic rights and any action or measure that tends to further erode even the limited democratic space which has been won, they must not have illusion in any capitalist politician or line behind any section of the capitalist ruling elite. The experiences since the return to the civilian rule in 1999, for instance, have shown that all capitalist politicians at all levels are prepared to unleash “direct assault on democracy” to advance their self-serving interests, and they all carry out anti-poor policies as a logical consequence of their inequitable, profit-first and greed-enabling capitalist system. Therefore, in order for the working people and youth to really enjoin what is popularly termed in Nigeria as “dividends of democracy” there is need, in addition to consistent struggle against anti-poor capitalist policies, for a mass working party that could wrest power from the thieving capitalist ruling elite and begin to organize the country on the democratic basis of socialist planning.

Peluola Adewale

Organising Secretary

For Democratic Socialist Movement

Tinubu Tax Reforms Will Compound The Economic Crisis

The CDWR holds public symposium and calls on workers to organize actions to reject the bills and fight for a political alternative.

By Davy Fidel

On Tuesday 11 March 2025, the Campaign for Democratic and Workers Rights (CDWR) organized a public symposium to discuss the implications of President Bola Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills currently before the National Assembly for working people and the poor. The theme of the symposium is: “Tinubu Tax Reform: Any Benefit for Working People and the Poor?’’

One of the objectives of the symposium is to use the gathering to call on workers in the trade unions to mount pressure on their leadership to mobilize for actions against the bills and other anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist policies.

In attendance, both physically and virtually, were about 60 people from trade unions and civil society organisations. These include the representatives of the Lagos councils of the two labour centres, Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress. Some individual industrial unions – affiliated to either the NLC or TUC – were also represented. They included Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (ASBIFIE), Cab Operators Union, Lagos State Council of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Lagos State Council of National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Precision Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA), National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) and Lagos State Welders Association. The left and civil society organisations in attendance were Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), Centre for Popular Education (CEPED), MEKUNU-KOYA, Joint Action Front (JAF), ACTIVISTA, Movement for African Emancipation (MAE) and Socialist Vanguard Tendency (SVT).

The speakers at the event were Lanre Akinola, a chartered account and NEC member of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and Dr Dele Ashiru, National Convenor, ASUU Committee on Students and Civil Society Organizations. Other speakers were Abiodun Aladetan, Lagos State Secretary, Trade Union Congress and Bisi Idowu Vice Chair, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Lagos State Council.

Rufus Olusesan, National President of PERESSA and also the national chair of the CDWR, moderated the symposium. He introduced the theme and highlighted the ills behind the tax reforms and why workers must begin to unite themselves via the trade unions so they can challenge the bills. In his introduction, he said. “’this public symposium is to discuss the bill and how workers can engage it before it becomes a law.”

He added that the cost of living and inflation has devalued the new minimum wage of N70, 000 the Tinubu presidency is boasting they have enacted to ease the suffering of workers. Stressing the consequences of the tax reform bills, Rufus also emphasized that workers must not trust the government or fall behind the propaganda that workers under the N70, 000 will be exempted. He said, “It will be a self-harm for any worker to agree with such propaganda.”

He further stressed the fact that this government of Tinubu does not serve the interest of workers and the poor working people. Rather, the ruling elites defending the neo-liberal policies of the IMF and World Bank only understand how they will continue to use them to stiffen the life of the oppressed Nigerians.

Lanre Akinola, a tax expert, who was the lead speaker elaborated the issues around the tax reform bills, and why the reform doesn’t serve the interest of the working people and why workers must protest against it.

He used the example of the privatization of the power sector, which has proved to be a monumental failure and fraud contrary to what the government made the ordinary people to believe before it was carried out, as a reminder to the working people not fall for lies and deceit of the government that the tax reform will benefit ordinary workers and the poor. He explained that why it is true that in the bill anybody earning N800,000 and below is exempt, they will be made to pay much more through VAT and other anti-poor policies like increment in school fees in addition to the existing impacts of the devaluation of the Naira and removal of the fuel subsidy. Besides, he further explained, a few workers in the public sector would really benefit from tax relief put in the bills.

Lanre Akinola, a chartered accountant and member of DSM NEC

In the course of his speech, Lanre also explained the damage that tax reform will do to public education, health, social services, and all other aspects of life for the working people in Nigeria. For instance, he said that if the bills become laws school fees in public tertiary universities will be so astronomical and children from working class homes won’t be able to access public university education. This is because one of the plans of the bill is to scrap Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) which largely accounts for the provision of infrastructures and facilities in the tertiary institutions. In his words, “If TETFund began to withdraw their funds from public tertiary institutions, it will mean school fees may triple and many students will drop out of the university because their parents won’t be able to pay their school fees.”

He further explained how the government of Tinubu plans to use VAT to further compound the suffering of working people and the poor, struggling to cope with the current social economic hardship. He warned that workers shouldn’t dance behind any section of the capitalist ruling elite, playing up ethnic and regional card over the sharing formula. Rather, they should unite in their strength to oppose the bill and fight for improved living conditions.

On his part, Abiodun Aladetan – the State Secretary, TUC Lagos –shared his personal ordeal of the electricity tariff and the exorbitant bill of N35 million, the estate he resides received. He was firm in his words when he said “the privatization of the power sector has failed and it is not working.” On the tax reform bill, he stated that the position of the TUC includes the rejection of the planned hike in VAT and demand for an increase in the tax minimum threshold from N800,000 to N2.5m. He added that state leadership is making an effort to educate workers about the danger inherent in the tax bills. However, just like the NLC, whose representative also spoke, there is no a program of action by the TUC to defeat the bills or enforce their own demands.

Dr. Dele Ashiru started by going on historical lane, stating that the current attacks of the Tinubu government on workers and the poor is a continuation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that was introduced by the military dictator Ibrahim Babangida in mid-1980’s in line with the dictates of the IMF and World Bank. On TETFund, he recalled how the struggle of ASUU over university funding led to the establishment of the Fund. According to him, while ASUU has some questions over the democratic management and accountability of the Fund, it is vehemently opposed to its scrapping. He added that the tax reform in general is a summary of the government shifting the burden over to the working people and relieving the super-rich from paying fair taxes. The state, he said, has failed to uphold its responsibility and it is hiding under a fraudulent saying that the state doesn’t have business in business. To him, “free quality education is possible and it is the state that must fund it.’’

A new pamphlet produced by the CDWR and titled “Tinubu’s Tax Reform Will Compound Economic Crises”’, was presented at the symposium by Chinedu Bosah, Publicity Secretary of the CDWR and a leading member of the DSM. He spoke briefly on the bill and why workers in the trade unions must not be quiet. He argued that the tax reform bill can be used to steer a national campaign and mobilise for mass actions against the government and its anti-poor policies. However, the trade unions must be willing to be active in the campaign and drive the campaign in conjunction with civil society groups.

Copies of the pamphlet were shared to the unions and civil society organisations in attendance, and an open appeal was made to the unions for donation towards producing more copies for wider circulation among workers and other subsequent material necessary for a struggle against the tax reform. The pamphlet will be updated with new details after the bills are passed into law.

The contributors to the discussion from the audience were all critical of the lack of seriousness on the part of the national leadership of both the NLC and TUC. Therefore, they urged the labour leaders to begin mass mobilization of the working people and work with the civil society to build national actions in order to defeat the anti-poor provisions of the bills before they become laws.

A worker making a contribution at the symposium

It was also stressed that the struggle against the tax reform must be linked with the struggle against the entire anti-poor capitalist policies and the need for a mass working political alternative with a socialist program.

The pamphlet states in part, ‘”Under capitalism, the rule of engagement is to subject the working class and the poor masses into exploitative slavery. It is the organization of the working classes such as the trade unions that should resist exploitation and organize to eventually defeat capitalism.”

Solidarity songs were chanted to bring the symposium that lasted for over 4 hours to an end. But before then the DSM comrades had sold 26 copies of Socialist Democracy – the paper of the organization.

CDWR email: campaignworkers@yahoo.co.uk

CDWR Demands End to Exploitation of Lagos State Sweepers

The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) condemns the response from the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) concerning the inhumane treatment and exploitation of Lagos State sweepers. Rather than addressing the grave issues raised, LAWMA’s response was a futile attempt to save face, revealing its complicity in the unjust and exploitative system it oversees in connivance with contractors under its supervision. We strongly condemn the illegal and exploitative practices employed by LAWMA and its contractors in engaging sweepers under degrading and substandard working conditions.

A recent viral video brought to public attention the harrowing realities faced by the Lagos State sweepers. In the video, a female sweeper courageously spoke out about the pain, suffering, and indignities inflicted upon her and thousands of sweeper colleagues by the Lagos State government and its contractors. Among the shocking revelations were the imposition of slave wages that fall far below the legally stipulated minimum wage of N80,000, the requirement for sweepers to purchase brooms and other necessary work tools using their meager salaries, and the absence of safety gear, thereby exposing sweepers to dangerous working conditions while sweeping highways, roads, and bridges.

This distressing situation is yet another revelation to the failures of privatization, which serves as a mechanism for government cronies and corrupt officials to siphon public funds while subjecting hardworking individuals to inhumane treatment. In line with the fraudulent contract system, privileged individuals within the corridors of power are given contract to employ sweepers and in turn the contract pay sweepers a fraction of the salary they are entitled to, hereby allow the contractors to earn fat profit. In this case, Lagos State Government through LAWMA may pay the contractors N80,000 or more for each sweeper but sweepers gets about N40,000 or less. So, the contractors pockets about N40,000 for each sweepers monthly and a whopping N480 million annually if the sweepers are 10,000.

The Lagos State government, under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), continues to demonstrate blatant disregard for workers’ rights. Instead of ensuring decent wages and working conditions for workers who keep the state clean, the government promotes exploitative policies that benefit profiteers and corrupt politicians at their expense. However, the plight of Lagos State sweepers is not an isolated case but a reflection of the broader injustice experienced by many workers across both public and private sectors not only in Lagos but also nationally.

CDWR hereby calls on the Lagos State government to immediately ensure that all sweepers receive the minimum wage as stipulated by law and be subjected to the upgraded minimum wage structure. Sweepers should be given permanent and regularized employment under LAWMA, as many have worked for over six years as contract staff. All parasitic contractor arrangements under LAWMA must be discontinued, and contractors responsible for violating workers’ rights must be held accountable and prosecuted for gross misconduct.

We also call the two labour centres – the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) – to take decisive actions to support the struggle and demands of the sweepers. These should include solidarity protests and the demand for an immediate recognition of the rights of the sweepers to form or join a union or association of their choice to enable them to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.

The CDWR stands firmly in support of the Lagos State sweepers and all workers fighting for decent pays and conditions, dignity of labour, fair treatment, and economic justice. We urge the Lagos State government to end its complicity in labour exploitation and take immediate steps to rectify these injustices.

Rufus Olusesan

National Chairperson

Chinedu Bosah

National Publicity Secretary

CDWR email: campaignworkers@yahoo.co.uk

President Tinubu’s Claim of Decline in food prices amidst mass hunger and sufferings is Fallacious

Only economy and agricultural system run on the basis of needs and not profits through massive state investments can guarantee food security

FFRC calls on farmers, market men /women and all suffering Nigerians to organize and demand an end to hunger and cost of living crises

The attention of the Food and Farmers’ Rights Campaign (FFRC) has been drawn to a remark by the President Bola Tinubu, that his anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist economic policies have reduced the soaring prices of food items and brought reliefs to the fasting Muslim community and indeed Nigerians at large.

According to media reports, President Tinubu made this remark in a message to the Muslim community on Friday, February 28th, 2025. He was quoted as saying “the once-soaring prices of essential food items are now trending downward, providing much-needed relief to our fasting population and Nigerians”!

He went further by saying that “as the wet season approaches, we remain steadfast in boosting agricultural productivity. We are determined to enhance food production and ensure food security for all Nigerians”.

The FFRC wishes to note that contrary to President Tinubu’s claims, his pro-rich anti-poor economic policies as prescribed by the IMF/World bank, rather than brings reliefs, have brought untold and unprecedented hardships and sufferings of unimaginable proportions on the mass of poor suffering and fasting Muslim population. The policies have also made the vast majority of poor and working masses starved, and go hungry without food. Therefore, the claim of relief by President Tinubu is an insult to the sensitivity of poor suffering Nigerians, and also at the best a figment of his imagination!

Admittedly, FFRC notes that there are indeed marginal reductions in some prices of essential food items like rice, beans and garri. However these decreases fizzle into thin air and amount to nothingness when juxtaposed with the soaring cost of other food items like pepper, tomatoes, yam, egg, beef, dairy products, etc which have currently skyrocketed. In addition, the increments in fees across tertiary institutions nationwide; the current prohibitive house rents across cities; high cost of drugs and treatments in both public and private health institutions among others have made nonsense of President Tinubu’s touted ‘downward trends’ of soaring food prices.

So what the APC-led Tinubu’s government is doing is dishing out propaganda and gaslighting the general public in vain attempts at understating the deleterious and iniquitous effects of it fuel subsidy removal and the devaluation of the Naira for the suffering majority. The FFRC wishes to put on record that while the poor and working masses continue to gasp for breath under the choking anti-poor policies of the Tinubu government, the ruling elites, both the public office holders and big business bosses continue to corruptly fish in the socioeconomic and political murky waters.

The Tinubu government also claimed that “as the wet season approaches, we remain steadfast in boosting agricultural productivity. We are determined to enhance food production and ensure food security for all Nigerians”! The FFRC wishes to state without mincing words, that this would amount to sheer rhetoric and grandstanding, unless a determined struggle is waged to demand that government at all levels invest public funds in social services like affordable housing, electricity , education, healthcare system, agricultural productivity etc, placing same under democratic management and control, so as to meet the needs of the suffering majority and not profit for a few rich. With this it is possible to begin to guarantee food security and reduce cost of living crises. Any thing short of these would remain a mirage.

The FFRC also urges farmers’ market men and women, workers and the poor majority who are barely surviving, to come together and organize to demand that government reverse fuel subsidy removal, devaluation of the Naira, increase in electricity tariff, and other anti-poor policies which largely account for the current suffering and hardship.

Eko John Nicholas

National Coordinator

Food and Farmers’ Rights Campaign (FFRC)

Lagos State House of Assembly Crisis: APC One Party Dictatorship Is a Danger to Democratic Rights and Civil Rule

The resolution of the leadership crisis which rocked the Lagos State House of Assembly for seven weeks is a warning to the working class, youth and the poor masses of Lagos state of the danger that the increasingly totalitarian one-party rule of the All-Progressive Congress (APC) constitutes to civil rule. On January 13, 2025, Mudashiru Obasa and the Clerk were removed in absentia by 36 out of the 40 members who constitute the House of Assembly and replaced by his deputy, Mojisola Meranda.

Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) statement

In moving the motion for Obasa’s removal, Femi Saheed, representing Kosofe constituency, accused him of gross misconduct and highhandedness amidst other allegations including “mismanagement of funds and lack of time transparency in his management of the House of Assembly funds” (Premium Times 13 January 2025). Despite the severity of these allegations, till this day, neither President Bola Tinubu, who reportedly felt slighted and undermined by being blindsided by the Assembly members before they removed Obasa, nor the Assembly members who made the allegations against Obasa have even bothered to ask for an investigation. The ruling APC has likewise not bothered to question Obasa. Neither the EFCC or ICPC which routinely goes after every petty criminal on the streets has bothered to even invite Obasa for questioning over these allegations.

Instead, at the insistence of Tinubu, the overwhelmingly democratic decision of the members of the assembly was unashamedly thrashed as Obasa was restored as the Speaker on March 3. Indeed, before then the security agencies, including the Police and the Department of State Security (DSS), who had initially protected the decision of the 36 members of the Assembly changed track once it was clear that Tinubu was not in support of it and shifted loyalty to Obasa who had just three other members lining behind him. For instance, on February 28, Obasa with heavy security successfully invaded the House of Assembly and held a plenary of 4 lawmakers in a show of shame that is unparalleled in the recent history of the State.

Unfortunately caught up in the show of shame are three House of Assembly workers who were alleged to have assaulted officials of the DSS on February 17 2025 when DSS operatives attempted to forcefully gain entry into the House of Assembly. We hereby demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ibrahim Olanrewaju Abdulkareem, Adetu Adekunle Samsudeen, and Fatimoh Oluwatosin Adetola and the dropping of charges against them. We urge the trade unions in the state especially the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) to openly defend these workers and demand their release. They should also commence a political campaign involving protests and strikes until the workers are freed.

Indeed, workers have a right to defend their workplace in a case of invasion by alien forces. It is the officials of the DSS who should have operated with restraint and civility when they encountered civil resistance to their attempt to gain an entry into the chambers on the said date. As the DSS itself would later find out, many members of the public including journalists were genuinely confused about the objective of the DSS at the assembly on that day. Singling these workers out for punishment for a confusion created by the heated controversy over the leadership crisis in the House of Assembly is both unfair and unacceptable.

As expected for the ruling APC, the plan ab initio was to settle controversy as an internal family affair. This is because any serious probe into any allegation of financial impropriety will expose the entire APC as a party of thieves and rogues. Even the members of the Assembly who removed Obasa will not be spared as their hands are not clean. This is not the first time when cracks emerge within the totalitarian one-party rule of the APC in Lagos state that allegations of financial impropriety emerge against elected office holders but which are quickly swept under the carpet once the political interest of the powers that be had been settled.

This is why the attempt to cover this up must be rejected. The affairs of the House of Assembly are matters of public interest. To this extent, these allegations cannot be ignored or covered up. They must be investigated because it is taxpayers’ money that is involved. We therefore call for the setting up of a public probe panel, made up elected representatives of trade unions, civil society organizations, professional bodies, community and youth groups, to investigate these allegations not just against Obasa but all members of the House of Assembly as well as the executive.

For far too long, Lagos state despite its global importance as a modern city and the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria has been run as the private property of certain powerful overlords in the ruling All-Progressive Congress (APC) and who, by virtue of their political dominance, claim the right to extract rent on the state vide a variety of means. A statement made by the chairman of the unelected APC’s Governance Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos State, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, made before the reinstatement of Obasa, regarding the crisis rocking the House of Assembly is relevant here. According to him, lawmakers “have no absolute power to remove and install their leaders” (ThisDay Newspaper 3rd March 2025). So, who really have the right to elect the leaders of the elected Assembly, the godfathers? What this statement really shows is how the kingmakers in the ruling party truly see the State as an extension of their sphere of influence for self-serving interest.

Suffice to note that as a result of this one-party totalitarianism, governance in Lagos state has become an exercise in organized deception. Today, the Lagos State government is one of the least accountable and transparent state governments in Nigeria. All its activities including the state’s annual budgets are shrouded in opaqueness while the state treasury is left to the mercy of party chieftains and kingmakers who operate like mafia dons. So bad is the situation that Lagos state government does not even care to respond to freedom of information requests from journalists and civil society groups seeking information about its finances. Right now, the state government is one of the parties arguing at the Supreme Court that it is not bound by the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to further shield itself from public scrutiny.

By all means, again the manner by which the democratic wish of the vast majority of members of the assembly was brazenly discarded and Obasa reinstated because of the self-serving interest of Tinubu and a few is a warning of the danger the ruling APC represents for civil rule and why a working peoples’ political alternative is urgently needed in Lagos state nay the country. Most of the old parties, like the PDP, are not an alternative, they also loot when they have the chance. We need to build a mass political party of the working class, radical youth and poor Lagosians to end the totalitarian rule of the APC and enthrone a new government that would be committed to implement a socialist plan to utilize the vast wealth of Lagos state and stamp out looting and leaders enriching themselves, in order to begin to meet the needs of all residents.

Peluola Adewale

Organising Secretary

For Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)

CDWR Supports NLC-Led Protest Rally Against 50% Hike in Telecommunication Tariff

CDWR SUPPORTS NLC-LED PROTEST RALLY AGAINST 50% HIKE IN TELECOMMUNICATION TARIFF

CDWR CALLS ON NLC TO LEAD A DETERMINED MASS RESISTANCE AGAINST ALL ANTI-POOR POLICIES

Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) condemns the recent approval of 50% tariff hike in telecommunication services by the Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC). This outrageous hike in telecoms tariff will worsen the already high cost of living and increase cost of doing business; thereby compounding the economic hardship faced by workers and the masses. It is for this reason, the CDWR is in support of the protest rally called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and scheduled to take place on Tuesday January 4, 2025.

The telecom operators and NCC have argued that operating cost has increased and has made hike in telecom tariff inevitable. Telecom operators cited hike in the prices of petroleum products, devaluation of the Naira, hike in electricity tariff etc. Unfortunately, the telecom big companies like other big business capitalist supported President Tinubu anti-poor policies or did not oppose it but now use it as the justification for the increase in tariff, Considering the damaging effect of these neo-liberal policies, the reasonable thing to do is for the Tinubu-led government to reverse these policies. Rather than doing this the government and its private sector big business collaborators are hiking tariff, passing on the burden to the working masses and inflicting more hardship on the working masses.

It is not shocking that government granted every request of big businesses and IMF/World Bank to hike tariffs and prices for the purpose of guaranteeing huge profits for the privileged few at the expenses of the masses. This is so because it is a government run by big businesses, imperialism and their agents. Tinubu government’s consolidation on the neoliberal programme through hike in prices of petroleum products and electricity as well as the devaluation of Naira made the cost of living, production and services spiralling out of control, drove inflation to a new high and imposed an unprecedented hardship in the land.

The reason the Tinubu-led government and the private sector are emboldened to impose more hardship on the masses is because of the failure of the leadership of the trade unions to put up a resistance fight against anti-poor policies. The NLC leadership has failed to sustain resistance struggle in the past despite voicing an opposition to some of the anti-poor policies. Indeed, together with the TUC leadership, they practically did little or nothing to resist the petrol subsidy removal and the devaluation of the naira. It is not possible for the NLC to successfully fight the telecom 50% tariff hike without waging a determined struggle to reverse electricity tariff hike, hike in prices of petroleum products, increase in school fees etc. Hence, the NLC leadership should dedicate itself to leading a sustained resistance struggle against all anti-poor policies.

It is not enough to embark on a-day rallies across the country and go to sleep. For instance, the NLC and TUC leadership were opposed to electricity tariff hike but failed to resist it. The leadership of the NLC and TUC must change from its present lacklustre attitude towards struggle that defends the interest of the working people and wage a relentless and sustained mass struggle against all anti-poor neo-liberal policies including well-mobilised general strikes and mass protest. NLC and TUC leadership, workers and the poor masses should demand the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy and placed under democratic control and management of workers and community people. This is in order to make possible a judicious and efficient use of the collective wealth of the country for the interest of the vast majority.

SIGNED:

Comrade Chinedu Bosah
National Publicity Secretary

Join Our “Treason” Trial Day Protests! Drop All Charges Against Adaramoye Michael Lenin and other #EndBadGovernance protestors

The ‘treason’ trial of Michael Lenin and 10 other #EndBadGovernance protesters is scheduled to commence on 29th of January after its postponement last year. Adaramoye Michael Lenin and 10 others would be arraigned in Court on trumped up charges of treason and terrorism financing which could potentially earn them a death penalty if not quashed.

Recall that in the early hours of August 5, 2024, Adaramoye Michael Lenin and a few others were abducted and remanded in detention. It took serious local and international campaign by socialists, activists and trade unions before they were granted bail after almost two months in detention. The campaign to demand the dropping of charges and an end to the trial and victimisation must now be intensified. We call on you all – particularly diasporans, socialist groups and trade union activists – to join this campaign to demand an end to attack on democratic rights of working people in Nigeria.

The material conditions that gave rise to the #endbadgovernance protests last year are still very much there and have even worsened with starvation staring in the face of an escalating cost of living crisis. The horrific deaths of about 65 people, including 35 children in Christmas palliatives stampedes last year is a huge testament to the height of hunger and desperation to survive in Nigeria. This clearly aligns with recent reports that 33million Nigerians, including 16 million children would be faced with acute hunger by mid-2025.

There is no other cause for the mass hunger other than the imposed neoliberal policies of the past and previous governments on the mass of working people. The current government has doubled down the attacks by fully deregulating the downstream sector, devaluing the currency, amongst others, and now plans to introduce a tax reform where big businesses and the super-rich are taxed less and working class and poor people are taxed to the bone. While the regime argues for increased revenue generation through the tax reform bill, it is clearly an attempt to generate more revenue for the self-serving backward ruling elites to suit their lavish lifestyle at the detriment of an already impoverished, starving people.

These attacks are occurring against a backdrop of a meagre minimum wage of N70, 000 set in 2024, that has yet to be fully implemented across all States. With inflation running at over 30% it is not enough. The trade union leadership, particularly NLC and TUC must be prepared to mobilise for serious struggle to force the implementation of the minimum wage while also putting forward demands for reversal of all the anti-poor policies of deregulation, privatisation, education fee hikes, currency devaluation, etc.

There is also need for the trade union leadership, socialist groups and activists to take on the Nigerian government against repression of workers, activists and socialists. For instance, asides the attacks on the #endbadgovernance protesters, Abbey Trotsky, who is a coordinator of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights in Oyo State, has continued to face state prosecution for the past six years. He has suffered a series of harassment including arrest and detention over this period. He has been arrested not less than eight times and is facing a trial on trumped up criminal charges for the role he played extending solidarity to thousands of casual workers of SUMAL FOOD LIMITED who went on strike, protesting against poor pay and slave working conditions.

We demand an end to the state prosecution of Abbey Trotsky and an end to casualisation of labour as well as other indecent labour practices.

Join us in building the solidarity support against an attempt to continue to enslave the vast majority of Nigerians despite the huge natural and human resources possessed by the Country which if placed under collective ownership and democratic control and management of the working people can guarantee decent living standards for all. That is why we need to fight to end the rule of the rich few elites by organising for a democratically-run mass workers’ party armed with a socialist programme that can represent the working people, youth and poor in Nigeria and put an end to misery amidst plenty.

Join our protest at the Nigerian High Commission on Wednesday, 29th of January to build this campaign.

Police Bullying of Amnesty International and Protesters Must End

YRC Warns the NPF to Desist from Bullying Amnesty International over Its Exposure of Police Misconduct and Brutal Crackdown on Peaceful Protests

We Stand by Amnesty International’s Report and Demand the Immediate Suspension of the IGP in Order to Create Room for an Independent and Transparent Probe

The Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) condemns the recent public statement issued by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) demanding an apology from Amnesty International over its report titled “Bloody August: Nigeria Government’s Violent Crackdown on #EndBadGovernance Protests” made by the group on the cruel conducts of officers of the Nigeria Police Force during and after the #Endbadgovernance protest last August. The police also demanded that Amnesty International issues a public retraction within seven days of the whole report which it dismissed as baseless, false and misleading.

We hereby warn the Nigerian Police Force to desist from bullying the Amnesty International. We also warn the NPF against any attempt to victimize workers or members of Amnesty International for daring to report the obvious truth.

As far as we are concerned, as a party accused of misconduct and a bloody crackdown, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has no moral authority whatsoever to adjudge the veracity of the allegations made by Amnesty International in its report let alone the audacity to begin to demand public retraction and apology. The right body that can cast judgement over the veracity or otherwise of Amnesty International’s revelation is a democratically-constituted and independent panel of inquiry. That President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has failed to constitute such since last year when Amnesty International’s report came out is a clear indication that the President is shielding the police from answering for its crimes against humanity.

This becomes even more unacceptable when a body established by an Act of the National Assembly and funded from the federation account, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has already corroborated Amnesty International findings. In October last year, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Chief Tony Ojukwu SAN, in an interview with Vanguard (20 October 2024), accused the NPF of extra judicial murder of nothing less than 27 people during the protest.

So what then is false about report of the Amnesty International? Why has the police not asked the NHRC to also publicly retract their own claims and apologize for it? We reject this arm-twisting tactics by the Nigerian Police. You cannot kill innocent peaceful protesters and then turn around to begin to threaten those who boldly expose your crime.

For us, the NPF is only exhibiting blatant shamelessness and an attempt to further clamp down on dissent and cover-up the atrocities committed by its officers during the Endbadgovernance protest. The protest had the active participation of thousands of Nigerians who witnessed the gruesome attacks on them by the police – even journalists were not spared. There are numerous media reports confirming the cruelty of the NPF during the protest. The report by Amnesty International is a factual representation of the reality of Nigerians during the Endbadgovernance protests.

NPF, instead of accepting responsibility for the misconduct and attacks it carried out, is only trying to maliciously conceal the obvious truth. The so-called internal probe by the NPF force, where it falsely found itself innocent of the allegations made against it by Amnesty International and other civil society organizations like the Youth Rights Campaign, is an insult to the rationality of Nigerians. How do you become a jury in your case? We ask. The NPF is an indicted party in this case, yet it constituted a probe panel to white wash itself. The Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) rejects the so-called in-house probe and investigation by the Nigeria Police force as it is an attempt to mislead Nigerians and create justification for an attack on dissent especially the Amnesty International.

We reiterate our call for the suspension of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to allow for an impartial, independent and public probe into the conducts of the police and other security forces during the #Endbadgovernance protest in August. We also call for the setting up of an independent probe panel democratically-constituted by the elected representatives of civil society, professional groups like the media, NBA, etc, trade unions and youth associations to investigate the various allegations against the police and other security agencies which includes usage include the use of excessive force, firing of live bullets, killing of peaceful protesters, torture of detainees as well as other heinous crimes as contained in the report of Amnesty International as well as several accounts of protesters and civil society groups.

We hereby join Amnesty International and all people of good conscience in calling for immediate action to address these injustices. Specifically, we demand the following:

The prosecution of all police officers and officers of all other security agencies including the DSS and the army responsible for the killings of innocent Nigerians during the protests
The immediate suspension of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to allow for an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into the human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings that occurred during the #EndBadGovernance protests.
The constitution of an impartial and independent panel democratically-constituted by elected representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs), the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), trade unions and other pro-democracy organisations and youth groups to ensure transparency and accountability.
The withdrawal of all trumped-up charges against #Endbadgovernance protesters on trial and the immediate release of all those still in detention detained nationwide. We also demand a halt to the continued assaults on democratic rights.
Compensation for all victims of the police brutality and their families to help alleviate the impact of the tragic losses.
The meeting of all demands of the #Endbadgovernance protest in August.

Francis Nwapa

National Secretary

Youth Rights Campaign

Email: youth_rights@yahoo.com