Over the years, the rise of insecurity has continued to multiply. Under the Tinubu regime, the crises have further tripled: the loss of innocent lives to banditry, kidnappers, and unknown gunmen is alarming. Unfortunately, this has created a sense of frenzy for the working class, who more often than not live in fear. Yet the government has demonstrated its priorities don’t include the right to life and property of the working people. Rather, they are much concerned with the coming 2027 general election and campaigns without any actions in place to protect the lives of its citizens or secure the release of the abducted children in Oyo State.

Weeks after the abduction of children and teachers in Oyo State, they are yet to be released. This has led the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) to declare a protest action against the nonchalant attitude of the government.

The protest, which commenced from the popular Ikeja underbridge, ended at the Lagos State House of Assembly, where they took the opportunity to vent their anger over the high rate of insecurity in the country. With over 500 teachers in attendance, it was a bold step to challenge the corrupt ruling elite, but it was a wasted opportunity that the protest wasn’t used to condemn the government’s anti-people programmes and put forward a working people’s alternative.  

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) must rise to the occasion and provide leadership for the growing anger of workers, youth, students, and poor communities. This is why we call on the NLC and TUC to immediately declare a 48-Hour Warning General Strike against hardship, insecurity, and the anti-poor policies that continue to worsen the living conditions of millions of Nigerians.

The struggle to end insecurity is inseparable from the struggle against poverty, unemployment, and government neglect. Working people must unite and fight for a society where public resources are used to provide quality education, jobs, healthcare, security, and decent living conditions for all, rather than enriching a privileged few.

Part of this solidarity led to a national protest, during which comrades of the Movement for a Socialist Alternative intervened with the banner of the Solidarity Network for Workers’ Rights (SNWR) and the paper.

It is grievance, side by side with a worsening economy and hardship, that workers in Lagos, in their mass, took to the street from Ikeja under Bridge to the Lagos State Secretariat with banners demanding that “Kidnapping has no place in Education”, “Stop the Killing! Secure our Schools Now”, “No to Insecurity, Poverty, and Government Neglect”, and that the NLC and TUC must declare a 48-hours warning strike.

At the Lagos State House, the workers were addressed by the Union State chairman, who stated that if in the next week the children have not been securely released and the government doesn’t rise to its responsibility, it will take the next action.