June 12 Nationwide Protests Held Over Worsening Insecurity

NLC and TUC Should Declare 48-Hour General Strike and Mass Protest as the Next Action.

On Friday June 12, 2026 protests against insecurity and economic hardship took place in a number of states across the country. Protest action has been taking place on every June 12, which is officially “Democracy Day”, especially since 2024. These have been organized by left groups including the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and later the #EndBadGovernance Movement. In recent years they centered on the neo-liberal offensive unleashed by the Bola Tinubu government right from its inception in May 2023, something which has continued to devastate the living standards of the vast majority.

But this year’s protest was headlined by a wave of kidnapping of students and teachers by bandits and Islamist terrorists, a part of the overall insecurity which has seen many people killed, displaced or held in captivity across the country. For instance, in Oyo State, 46 people comprising pupils, teachers and other have been in captivity of Islamist terrorists since May 15. This is the first time bandits or Islamists have attacked a school in the Southwest. So, it is an indication that, rather than abating, the security crisis is getting worse.

Members of the DSM actively participated in this year’s June 12 protests in Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Abuja, and indeed played a central role in organising actions nationally. Everywhere, a coalition of left and civil society organisations, including women groups, mobilized members and supporters to join the protest.

In Lagos, prominent civil rights lawyer and activist Femi Falana, his popular rapper son Falz, and wife were part of not fewer than a thousand protesters who marched from Under Bridge, Ikeja, to Ojota park, stopping at different junctions on the route to address the people. However, the protest did not take off without an altercation with pro-government elements, largely members of the ruling APC, who had been mobilised for a counter-protest and took over the venue the anti-government protest organisers had announced and have always used for actions. The pro-government elements eventually yielded the place. They made a similar attempt last year to disrupt the June 12 protest. This is part of overall machination of the Tinubu government to shrink the civic space and stifle democratic rights of the working people and youths. This explains why also in Abuja, protesters including Omoyele Sowore, were attacked by the police with tear gas.

 

The demands of the protesters include the immediate and safe rescue of students, teachers and others in captivity of bandits, terrorists and other criminal elements across the country. However, beyond placing demands on the government, DSM also called for the setting up of non-sectarian and democratically run defence communities which must be armed when necessary and subject to control of the community people.

Also importantly, the campaign for an immediate freedom of everyone in captivity and an end to insecurity in general must be sustained. It should be recalled that before this year’s June 12 protest, there were a pocket of protests including the June 2 nationwide action by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT). The next action should be an escalation. Therefore, the leaderships of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) must step up to the plate beyond mere issuance of statements. We call on them to declare a 48-hour general strike and mass protest as a first step. Ordinary workers and trade union activists should organise to mount pressure on labour leaders to take serious actions over insecurity and also economic hardship. Thus the demands of the general strike and mass protest, which we have called for, should, in addition to the rescue of all in captivity and an end to insecurity, include the reversal of all anti-poor policies of the Tinubu government and for a living wage for workers. However, what to do next must not be left to the organized labour alone. Left and civil society organisations should reach out to different mass organisations and individual trade unions with a view of planning for another mass actions against insecurity and anti-poor policies.

More importantly, as the DSM argued in the leaflet we circulated at the protest, one lesson that must be learned from the failure of the successive governments to guarantee security and use human and material resources of the country for the benefit of the vast majority is the need for a party of the working people. Such a party, if armed with a socialist program, can form a government that will ensure the needs of the vast majority, not greed or profit-first interest of few, are the basis of economy and governance.

In Lagos, 74 copies of Socialist Democracy (SD), the DSM paper, were sold and while copies of DSM leaflet were circulated. Contact was made with people who are interested in joining the DSM or find out more about our organisation and the next steps that need to be made.