The Working Masses Have Nowhere and No One Else to Turn to but Themselves — It’s Time to Get Organized!

By Aj. Dagga Tolar

The August protests in Nigeria have made it abundantly clear, announcing to all who care to listen, that a growing segment of the working masses is drawing the conclusion that nothing positive can be expected from the Tinubu capitalist regime. The promise that the country, under its leadership, would turn the corner and see better fortunes has proven to be an outright mirage. Under the heavy-handed rule of this administration, the country has seen fuel prices rise from N167 when it took power to over N1,000, with prices reaching as high as N1,200—a staggering 700% increase in less than 16 months!

All of its major capitalist policies, from the deregulation of the oil and gas sector to the devaluation of the currency and increasing electricity tariffs, have only resulted in more hardship and hunger for the working masses.

This explains the resonance of the call to action by the organizers of #EndBadGovernance. The call for the working masses to take to the streets to protest against the Tinubu regime and its anti-people capitalist policies from August 1-10 received widespread support across the country. The only notable exception was the Southeast, where the stronger push for secession acted as a deterrent to joining the protest—though this should not be mistaken as support for the Tinubu regime or its anti-people capitalist policies.

The loudest statement of support for the protest was on full display on August 1, the first day of the ten-day protest, when Nigerians in their millions freely and willingly chose to stay at home, grounding nearly all activities. This was the case in Lagos and Abuja, with little to no vehicular movement on the streets throughout the day. The message that needed to be passed had indeed been passed: the illusions the working masses had in the Tinubu regime were quickly fading.

Remember, Lagos, his supposed adopted state and base, where Tinubu lost the election, and the Southwest of Yorubaland, where he comes from and where the slogan “Emi lo Kan” was supposed to mobilize a base of support for the regime, are now largely singing a new tune.

The word on the street is now one of growing hatred and regret, having been hoodwinked by the erroneous belief that Tinubu was one of their own and that his coming to power would change the fortunes of the country. The earlier cry for more time for his government to settle has now been replaced by a sense of complete disappointment. “…many Nigerians were persuaded that as a Democrat, you would perform better than Muhammadu Buhari, a soldier who deepened the poverty levels of Nigerians and increased insecurity from 2015 to 2023.

“Today, events have proved that they were wrong. Mr. President, to tell the truth, you have really disappointed many Nigerians who thought you were the messiah they were waiting for.” This is coming from none other than Gani Adams, the Are Ona Kankanfo of Yorubaland, a founding active member and leader of the Odua People’s Congress, whose members were used as foot soldiers to drum up support for Tinubu.

Tinubu Turns to Repression Rather than Heed the Cries of the Masses for Reversal of Anti-People Policies

Rather than respond to the cries and pain of the working masses for the reversal of its anti-people capitalist policies—policies responsible for the hunger and suffering in the land—the Tinubu regime, like others before it, and especially like the military regimes before it, has chosen to wield a sledgehammer to deal with the growing opposition from the ranks of the working masses against its policies and rule.

The arrest of leading figures, organisers, and participants in the #EndBadGovernance protests, and the ongoing trial of ten protesters for treason, is completely laughable. It represents the criminalisation of the democratic right to protest. To go further and impose bail conditions on working-class youths that include owning landed property in Abuja and a N10 million bail fine for exercising their right to speak out against the country’s continued drift into the abyss is absurd.

Equally concerning is the arrest of Daniel Akande, a member of the Solidarity Network for Workers’ Rights, along with 104 others, still detained by the IRT arm of the police in Abuja in terrible and dehumanizing conditions. The refusal to charge them or bring them to trial is a clear indication that the accusations are baseless, and they should all be immediately released! We commend the Nigeria Bar Association and all its members who have committed to providing the necessary legal services to defend these protesters.

It is ironic that the prosecution is presenting as evidence the use of the Russian flag by some protesters in northern states. This comes from members of the ruling elite whose children, and even they themselves, carry foreign passports, with some of their businesses in the country flying foreign flags at their premises. How can the issue of a flag, or even calls for a young officers’ coup to dislodge the regime, be equated with participation in a coup plot?

The regime, in its desperation, has also turned its repressive machinery toward the leadership of the Trade Unions, knowing the critical role they could play. It has made efforts to link Joe Ajaero, the leader of the NLC, to the protests, inviting him for questioning under the threat of arrest, and even going so far as to detain him and prevent him from embarking on a trip to the UK to speak at a Trade Union Congress conference in London. This orchestrated attack is clearly aimed at intimidating the trade union leadership, discouraging them from providing the leadership needed for a General Strike against the Tinubu regime, which has again increased the pump price of fuel. Furthermore, the regime has reneged on its promise to Labour leaders to increase the minimum wage to N70,000, a promise that has yet to be implemented after two months.

Earlier, the police raided the NLC secretariat, ransacked it, and confiscated books from a tenant-operated bookshop, the Iva Valley Bookshop, owned and managed by British national Andrew Wynne (aka Povey). The police authorities have even rechristened him “Andrew Povich” in an attempt to further a narrative of Russian conspiracy.

The Russian Flag and the #EndBadGovernance Protest

Over 100 protesters waving Russian flags are still in detention. We in the MSA call for the immediate release of all protesters. To hold these protesters any longer is to criminalize their right to protest. Failing to recognize the right of the working masses and working-class youth to take independent action to draw government attention to the sorry state of the country and its continued economic decline is insensitive to their plight.

In an interview with the BBC, Saadu Musa Abdullahi is quoted as saying that since the Tinubu regime came to power, “nothing has changed. The only reason we fly Russian flags is to draw attention to our plight” (https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/c4gzz049dyxo).

We in the MSA completely share the sentiment expressed in the comment and add that the working masses are increasingly drawing the conclusion that the Tinubu regime, and indeed the entire ruling class, is not the solution. However, they have not yet fully realized their own power and the need to get organized to carry out independent class action, which poses the question of political power.

All the theories suggesting that this is an attempt by Russia’s Putin, directly or indirectly, through his agents to intervene in Nigeria, hold no water. But this demonstrates how events in one country can influence others. Just as the success of protests by working-class youth in Kenya forced the Ruto regime to reverse its imposed tax, so too will the working masses in Northern Nigeria be aware of the events in the Sahel region and their influence on their consciousness.

In Sahel countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, the Russian flag has come to symbolize hatred for French and Western imperialism and their support for repressive regimes serving imperialist interests rather than the needs of the working masses. It also reflects applause for military support from Russia against insurgent groups in these countries. This can be interpreted as an indication that the Northern working masses saw the August protests as a way to tell the government to seek military support from Russia to turn the tide in the fight against bandits and insurgency in the North.

But in reality, is Russian imperialism any different from the more hated French or Western imperialism or the growing influence of China in Africa? Ultimately, it is all a rivalry for Africa’s raw materials, and any seeming benefit now will not help Africa develop its means of production to contend with imperialism, whether represented by France, the US, Britain, Russia, or China.

It follows, therefore, that the position pushed by General Christopher Musa, Chief of Defence Staff, that “We will not accept anybody, any individual flying any foreign flag in Nigeria” and that doing so is an act of treason (https://punchng.com/protesters-waving-russian-flags-committing-treason-defence-chief/) cannot stand. The facts on the ground do not support it.

Even for those sewing the flags, it represents a creative business opportunity to quickly take advantage of the protests and earn some money, no matter how little, to survive. But more significantly, as stated in the Vanguard newspaper editorial, it is nothing but a metaphor, through which “the Northern protesters expressed what many Nigerians have been murmuring since the hardship became unbearable over the past year. Nigerians are beginning to question whether our democracy is worth the pain of disappointing governance” (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/08/protests-metaphor-of-russian-flag/).

No reasonable person can disagree with the interpretation of the use of the Russian flag during the August protests in the North. A listening government would take the necessary steps to reverse its neoliberal, anti-people capitalist policies as dictated by the IMF and World Bank and embark on a path that prioritizes the welfare and well-being of the working masses rather than the selfish class interests of making super profits for big businesses, oil barons & marketers, and financial speculators.

On the Question of Coup

Yes, some protesters in the North were openly calling for a coup. It is not impossible that illusions about a military coup will grow in the coming period, as the working masses continue to groan, without recognizing their own strength and potential power to be the only revolutionary force capable of taking on the ruling class, dislodging it from power, and winning power under the leadership of the working class.

In its misguided state of helplessness, certain layers of the working masses may actually provide more oxygen to feed these illusions about a military coup. The events in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, where coups and regime changes have occurred, certainly reinforce this notion.

However, this is not enough to assume or accuse protesters of treason. By outlining a possible scenario, which is what the protesting youth in the North have done, they are merely warning the regime of a likely danger ahead.

We in the MSA, like all Marxists, must go on record to warn that a successful coup will fundamentally do nothing to change the fortunes of the working masses, apart from the momentary celebration and street victory dances over the overthrow of a regime acting against the interests of the working masses. How many regime changes have the working masses witnessed, and yet no meaningful change has occurred? The long years of military dictatorship in this country should be enough to make it clear that this is not the path to follow. Even the supposed radical young officers’ coups, as exemplified by J. J. Rawlings in Ghana and Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso, proved that their best intentions were still not enough to bring about the necessary changes in both countries.

In the end, Rawlings lost his revolutionary fervour and offered Ghana to Western imperialism as a testing ground for the IMF and World Bank. Sankara ended up in an unmarked grave, with French imperialism aiding and supporting a coup against him. The key lesson from both cases is that the working masses are the only force that can fully organize to take on capitalism and imperialism, with the support of workers internationally.

Capitalism is the Enemy Here

Any regime change that is merely a change of personalities, without a change of the system, will, in the shortest time, replicate and even worsen the living conditions of the working masses. This is the summary of Nigeria’s entire political history. The musical chairs from one republic to another, and all the military takeovers in between, from one regime to another, have repeatedly made this clear.

The working masses must therefore do themselves a world of good by understanding this lesson from their own history: any new regime that fails to break with capitalism will soon disappoint them. In fact, it will perform no better, and likely even worse, than the regime it succeeds.

No Cowing the Working Masses

We have seen this before: when a regime turns to using the coercive instruments of the state and repression to intimidate and suppress the resistance of the working masses against its continued failure at governance. The only success it ever achieves is that it deepens the masses’ hatred for it and hastens its downfall into the dustbin of history.

No amount of repression can cow the working masses! Not for a people who struggled through the repressive military dictatorships of IBB and Abacha, gave their all to overcome their disguises and detours, and brought about this so-called “democracy.” If anything, they will be further strengthened and will ultimately outlive the Tinubu regime. The fact that it was elected means it has an expiration date, and the task ahead for the working masses is to become more organized and politically mobilized to dislodge the government at the polls.

To achieve this, the working masses need a political party of their own—one that is committed to organizing them not just to elect candidates into office but to champion their struggles in workplaces, on campuses, and in communities. Such a party must earn the wages of an average skilled worker and, more importantly, view political power under a bourgeois order as a means to continue organizing for the working masses, aiming not just for better living conditions but for revolutionary change. This party must build a revolutionary movement with a clear program, advocating a Socialist Alternative manifesto to overthrow capitalism and end the domination of the country’s wealth and resources by imperialism.

We therefore applaud the initiative of working-class youth in organizing the #EndBadGovernanceinNigeria protest in August and remaining uncowed by the repressive machinery of the Tinubu regime. We call on the working class, trade unions, and all pro-labor organizations to take up the baton and provide the necessary leadership, including a 48-hour warning strike for all the demands of the August protest to be met. These demands include reversing the pump price increases, reversing the electricity tariff hike, reversing the increase in school fees, and ending all anti-people capitalist policies. The next step must be to organize and bring the working class together to form a Workers’ and Farmers’ government, which can begin the socialist reconstruction of Nigeria.