“We are hungry!” – Nigerian youth on the move again

The unbearable cost of living has sparked furious protests across Nigeria, with thousands taking to the streets shouting the slogan “We are hungry!” The masses have been forced to temporarily retreat under a deadly police crackdown, but we have been given a foretaste of greater battles to come. 

The Nigerian youth have been keenly watching the heroic struggle in Kenya against the hated Ruto regime, which was forced to retreat after it tried to impose a regressive tax bill. Nigerian youth feel that, if their brothers and sisters to the east can go so far, then they must go even further!

It remains unclear exactly who called the protest, but the most credible information suggests that a young man, inspired by the struggle of the Kenyan youths, took to social media and called for a similar movement in Nigeria, proposing ‘10 Days of Rage’ between 1-11 August. 

At first, nobody noticed this cry into the void. The majority of Nigerians only heard the call when the government started popularising it out of panic. The media was filled with all manner of threats against anyone behind this call, or who might be tempted to participate.

The government accused the Labour Party’s last presidential candidate, Peter Obi, of being behind the 10 Days of Rage, which he was quick to deny. 

The ‘Take It Back’ movement, set up by the liberal opportunist Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress, eventually jumped in and claimed ownership of the call for protest. This was only after support for the Days of Rage became clear, and all the so-called bourgeois oppositions distanced themselves from it.

Days of Rage begin

Despite all the regime’s threats and massive deployment of state security apparatus, the protest commenced nationwide on the planned date. 

All the regions of the country took to the streets on 1 August. The protest in Lagos, the commercial centre of the country, was massive, and the pro-government thugs mobilised by the regime were rendered powerless by the strength of the masses.

All the regions of the country took to the streets on 1 August / Image: Fumaceblog, Twitter

The movement was very peaceful in large cities, except in Kano where in-fighting among the local bourgeois politicians pushed the masses towards violence. The police also helped in ensuring that thugs in the service of these politicians wreaked maximum havoc, to justify a clampdown.

President Bola Hammed Tinubu, who initially dismissed the protest as a rampage of hooligans, eventually addressed the country in a TV broadcast, in which he tried to soothe the masses with honied words:

“My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens… But we must not let violence and destruction tear our nation apart.”

These hypocritical platitudes only intensified the anger on the streets. The ‘violence’ has been overwhelmingly instigated by the state forces and government goons, and its victims have exclusively been ordinarily Nigerians protesting their living conditions.

Rather than calming tensions, the protests became much more widespread and bolder, even affecting layers of the state forces. In Kaduna State, for example, people were seen fraternising with the army and even hijacking the armoured vehicles of the police, without any serious resistance from the security forces. 

Outbreaks of violence happened mainly in the north, where poverty is much more acute and the anger much deeper. Nonetheless, all attempts to use ethnic divisions to hold the South West (Yoruba-speaking) region back utterly failed. 

Increasing poverty at one pole and rising wealth at the other

Inflation was already rising before the regime was sworn in. But when Tinubu announced the total removal of oil subsidies last year, the price of oil jumped from less than 200 Naira to over 600 Naira per litre within 24 hours. At the same time, the value of the Naira entered into freefall after the regime announced market forces would henceforth determine the currency price. 

While the masses suffer under eyewatering living costs, inflation has fuelled obscene profits for the banking sector / Image: Be The Change Initiative, Facebook

As a result, in the year since Tinubu and the APC’s election victory, inflation has ballooned to 34.2 percent, with food inflation at an unprecedented 40.66 percent, and the poverty rate has skyrocketed. This, Tinubu claims, is the ‘necessary’ cost of stabilising Nigeria’s economy after years of mismanagement.

While the masses suffer under eyewatering living costs, inflation has fuelled obscene profits for the banking sector, with the Nigerian banks recording combined pre-tax profits of N1.58 trillion in Q1 2024: a 263 percent year-on-year increase. 

It is not surprising that the new call for protest struck a chord, given the dire conditions in Nigeria. Not only are Nigerians hungry, they are angry with a ruling class that claims there is no money for subsidies on anything that benefits the people, while shamelessly flaunting its wealth. Tinubu is himself a billionaire, and his policies help stuff the pockets of the capitalists as the people starve.

These IMF and World Bank-demanded policies had always been on the table. The previous regime had simply not summoned sufficient courage to go all the way. 

But Tinubu is playing with fire. His regime only narrowly won the last election by exploiting ethnic and religious divisions, and rests for support on a small minority of the population. Tinubu was even defeated in his home turf of Lagos by the Labour Party candidate. 

While the youth have led the recent protests, the working class through the trade unions first responded to this crisis with a demand for an increase in the minimum wage, backed by some powerful strikes. 

Against the current 30,000 Naira per year, a sum of 645,000 Naira was presented by the union leadership. But it was not followed up by any significant fight, and the union bureaucrats instead of building up the movement, eventually betrayed the workers by settling for 70,000.00, which after inflation is a reduction of wages, in terms of dollar value. 

The 1 August protest was seen by many workers as a means of taking their destiny back into their own hands, having been betrayed by their leaders, and they came out in big numbers alongside the youth.

Nigerian masses can no longer tolerate their miserable conditions

Tinubu met the struggle with serious repression. An estimated 35 people have been killed and many more have been injured and arrested. The initial tempo of the protest has slowed down, but what we have seen is just a dress rehearsal of what is to come. The patience of the Nigerian working class and youth is exhausted, and the ruling class is very nervous. 

Tinubu met the struggle with serious repression / Image: Chatham House, Wikimedia Commons

The regime is too weak to sustain a serious, long-term clampdown, but it has no other alternatives to pacify the masses. The masses cannot be contained forever, and the next showdown will be decisive. 

What has been missing thus far in this heroic battle, and what was missing in the last EndSARS protest of 2020, is the necessary leadership to channel the anger of the masses towards a successful revolutionary overthrow of the current hopeless ruling elite and the rotten capitalist system they defend.

Campaign for a Workers’ Alternative has set itself a task of building this necessary leadership, and we appeal to those who share this objective to join us!