Democratic Socialist Movement

For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria

By - DSM

NO TO HIGH COST OF LIVING AND MASS SUFFERING

  • Join the Movement to Stop Tinubu’s Bad Policies

  • Fight for Socialist Change

 Leaflet Issued by the DSM on February 22 for Mass Circulation across the Country.

In different parts of the country many people have hit the streets in peaceful protests over the prevailing mass hunger and cost of living crisis. Where people have not organized a protest, we have to immediately begin to plan for it. Where a protest has been held before it needs to be repeated. But protests must be just the start. We need to build a nationwide mass movement with a sustained mass struggle in order to force President Bola Tinubu to reverse his anti-poor policies which are responsible for this excruciating economic hardship. Prices of food, energy and basic items have gone through the roof beyond the capacity of ordinary people. It is so bad to the extent that prices of some commodities have kept increasing so frequently and with no end in sight.

Tinubu and his spin doctors are persuading suffering Nigerians to bear the hardship. We must not be deceived. The same Tinubu and top political office holders are feeding fat and maintain an obscene opulent lifestyle on our collective public funds. For instance, about 200 billion naira was used to procure exotic cars by the current National Assembly members alone. We cannot continue to endure the mass suffering in the midst of plenty. We must resist anti-poor policies and high cost of running government at all levels. So, in our communities, markets, schools and workplaces, we need to set up action committees that will begin to organize mass meetings and protests

In addition to independent actions, we should join the organized Labour (NLC and TUC) whenever they call for a protest. For instance, NLC has fixed February 27 and February 28 as days of mass protests. We call on working people and youth to join and participate actively. These protests need to prepare the way for further steps, including a 48-hour general strike action, to win our demands. However, we should be prepared to carry on with the action if the labour leadership calls it off as it happened in the past. Labour is not made up of only the leadership. Ordinary workers who are members of Labour (trade unions) are ordinary people experiencing the same excruciating pain like the vast majority of the population. So, the ordinary workers should agitate at workplaces and within structures of their trade unions to mount pressure on the leadership to make available the platform of Labour for mass resistance against the ongoing attacks on the living standards. Any labour leader who is not prepared to struggle should be made to step aside or be removed. Workers must not continue to tolerate the recent tradition of betrayal of the cause of workers and ordinary people by the Labour leadership.

Since May 29, 2023 when President Tinubu was inaugurated, he has made it clear that he is intent on unleashing on the mass of the population a neo-liberal capitalist economic agenda in the form of fuel subsidy removal/price hike, devaluation of the naira alongside with the intensification of the policies of underfunding and commercialisation of public services like education and health, privatisation and deregulation. Also, the plan to increase electricity tariff is in the offing. These are the immediate causes of the aggravation of the cost-of-living crisis that preceded Tinubu government.

Indeed, many Nigerians had thought that the mass suffering experienced under Muhammadu Buhari government, which was a monumental failure, could not be surpassed, but Tinubu administration just in less than 9 months has proved otherwise. This is because the capitalist policies of deregulation and devaluation implemented by Buhari government and which were responsible for high cost of living then have been intensified by Tinubu and with much greater commitment to the dictates of the IMF and World Bank. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that other main parties’ presidential candidates in the last election like Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi advocated the same policies of removal of the so-called fuel subsidy and devaluation of the naira. This is why the struggle over the cost of living and high prices must also be linked to the need for a genuine mass working people party with an alternative economic programme that ensures that the huge human and material resources Nigeria is endowed with are used for the benefit of the vast majority, not the greed of a few. This alternative programme is socialism.

WHAT WE SHOULD FIGHT FOR

We call on working people and youth not to limit the demands of the struggle to palliatives alone nor be deceived by any offer of palliatives by the government. It is more important to demand the reversal of the fuel price hike and all neo-liberal policies which are the immediate causes of the present crisis. Minimum wage must be living wage that rises with inflation. However, while we embrace every concession no matter how minor that can be won for the working people, without the working-class ending capitalism and taking over the running of society under a Socialist programme, there is no way any concession whatsoever  can bring any lasting relief for the long-suffering working people and youth. By and large, we urge working people and youth to fight for the following set of demands:

  • Reversal in the fuel price hike to pre-May 29 levels.
  • Reversal all neo-liberal policies.
  • Reversal of recent hikes in school fees at tertiary institution and for adequate funding and democratic management of public education at all levels.
  • For trade unions, civil societies and communities led actions to ensure price control and prevent price gouging and hoarding of food and other essentials.
  • For an increase in the national minimum wage to meet the rate of inflation.
  • Immediate cut in the salaries and allowances of political office holders.
  • Immediate fixing of public refineries and their democratic ownership and management by the working people.
  • A price-cap on all petroleum products from the Dangote refinery in order to ensure affordability.
  • Public ownership of the banks, financial institutions, industries, oil refineries under democratic workers control and management in order to ensure Nigeria’s economy works for the needs of all and not the greed of a few.
  • For the building of a genuine mass workers party with Socialist programme.

JOIN US

If you are dissatisfied with the current economic crisis and government policies and are looking for how to fight back and a better alternative programme, the organization to join is the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM). You can also contact to discuss how to organize mass meetings and protests in your communities and workplaces over the current cost of living crisis as well as other anti-poor attacks on our rights and livelihood. Email: [email protected].