SIXTY-SIX YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE: GOVERNMENT HAS NOT MET ASPIRATIONS OF MAJORITY OF NIGERIANS
Reject all Anti-Poor Policies
In Lagos, Campaigns over High House Rent and Poor Waste Management are Needed Now!
As the working people and youth, while Nigeria celebrates its 66th anniversary of the flag Independence from the British colonial masters, our living conditions have been devastated since the removal of petrol subsidy on May 29 2023 when President Bola Tinubu assumed office and the devaluation of the naira he did shortly after. The cost of living has gone up. The prices of food items and other essential goods and services have increased astronomically. While there has been reduction in the prices of a few items after the initial spike, the prices are still much higher than pre-May 2023 level. The minimum wage of N70,000 was eroded by high inflation immediately it was signed into law such that its value is much worse than that of N30,000 minimum wage before May 2023.
This is not to say that the previous governments in Nigeria, both military and civilian, had not also ruined this country after independence of 1960. For instance, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) added to the economic ruining of Nigeria from 1986. But the fact is that the Tinubu government has plunged the vast majority of Nigerians deeper into an abyss of poverty and hopelessness.
The entire ruling elite deciding the fate of this country has continued to operate the same capitalist neoliberal policies especially since the return to civil rule in 1999. This explains why over 150 million people currently live in multi-dimensional poverty despite the fact that Nigeria is hugely rich in both human and mineral resources. Top government functionaries have continuously converted Nigeria’s public funds and resources into sources of enriching themselves and have consistently implemented anti-poor policies.
Their policies and what they represent are based on the iniquitous capitalist system in a neo-colonial country. The ruling elite are backward, primitive and corrupt. This is why Nigeria, including Lagos despite its enormous wealth, is in this mess. It is disheartening that Lagos, which is the richest state in Nigeria and Africa’s 7th biggest economy if it were a country, cannot manage solid waste effectively or provide decent, affordable housing for its residents.
Petrol Subsidy
Working people and youth must not have illusion in any capitalist politician. Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have promised to restore petrol subsidy in one form or another despite having advocated for the removal of petrol subsidy, as Tinubu did, ahead of the 2023 elections. This is clearly a deceit to win votes. Besides, a restored subsidy regime by Atiku, Obi or even Tinubu, managed under a capitalist economy, will not necessarily translate to a sustained decrease in pump prices. Rather, regardless of who wins the 2027 presidential election, we should fight for the restoration of petrol subsidy, democratically managed to ensure it’s not a guise to line the pocket of oil barons and public officials. This must go side by side with the demand for building of adequate and functional public refineries. However, as a safeguard against the debacle of corruption which currently characterises the existing public refineries, we call for democratic control of building, renovation and running of public refineries by the elected representatives of workers and relevant professionals
House Rent Crisis
Majority of Lagosians, who are tenants, are currently faced with an unbearable rent hike that is suffocating us. These exorbitant increments in rent come without regulations or protection by the state government.
We must initiate a campaign to pressure the government to regulate rent in the state. We must also demand that the government prioritize the need of building affordable houses for people. Such houses mustn’t be based on profit where they will now begin to sell it to themselves Rather, it should be the use of public funds for a purpose that has a meaningful impact on us.
What we must know is that the Lagos State government has the capacity to build affordable houses for people. If the Jakande government in 1979-83, despite its limited financial resources at a period of a collapse in the global oil prices, could build 30,000 affordable decent housing units in Lagos, the successive administrations since 1999 with huge wealth at their disposal should have cumulatively built millions of affordable housing units. The limited houses that they have built are put at the prices beyond the capacity of the majority civil servants and ordinary people in Lagos.
Lagos’ yearly Internal generated revenue that is, on average, 1.5 trillion naira and is the seventh largest economy in Africa. The wealth of Lagos is not used for the benefit of the majority because of the commitment of the government to neo-liberal capitalist philosophy that prioritises profit over people. It also explains why the government has turned a blind eye to the outrageous house rent being charged in Lagos. Working people and youth affected by the rent problem have to come together with a campaign to demand rent regulation, building of affordable decent houses by the government and an end to capitalist policies and arrangement that are responsible for high prices of cement and other building materials.
Refuse Crisis in Lagos
In most parts of Lagos, household waste is collected once in four months by which time everywhere has become messy. Indeed, in some other places, residents are abandoned to dispose waste as they can. So, there is threat of epidemic due to overflown garbage that now compete with humans for space and survival. Is it not ironical the same Lagos State Government who undemocratically imposed a monthly sanitation exercise on the people cannot regularly collect waste let alone manage it properly.
The Lagos State Government has displayed utter ineffectiveness and lack of seriousness in waste management. The model adopted by the government in the last 27 years is a so-called private/public partnership wherein the private sector brings little or no investment but makes super profit from it because they are affiliated to the ruling party or connected to top political office holders. The private waste companies get regular subventions (a secret arrangement not open to public scrutiny) and other forms of support while still charging residents for waste disposal.
We call for consistent campaigns and mass actions in communities across the State to demand immediate evacuation of refuse and proper refuse management system including provision for separate collection of recyclable waste. The community groups can build a network for a joint campaign and name a day of mass protest over the refuse crisis and other anti-poor policies of the state government.
For Socialist Alternative
The failure of government that accounts for mass poverty, housing crisis, waste problem, lack of amenities, decayed infrastructure, collapsing public education and health care is not peculiar to the APC. It is the same with other pro-capitalist parties and their self-serving, anti-poor candidates in Lagos and nationally. Unfortunately, there is no mass party that genuinely represents the interests and aspirations of the working people and youth at present both in Lagos state and nationally. So, every campaign we have proposed above against the current refuse and house rent crises in Lagos and the anti-poor policies of Tinubu government must be linked with the efforts at building a mass working people’s political party on a socialist program.
By and large, Nigeria cannot move forward, with its primitive ruling elite and neo-colonial character, if we don’t as the working people and youth begin to build such a mass political alternative to wrest power from the backward capitalist elite. This is with a view of enthroning a planned socialist society that will ensure that the needs of all, not the greed of a few, are the basis of governance, economy and development.
Join Us
If you are dissatisfied with the various anti-poor capitalist policies implemented by the government at all levels and you are interested to be part of campaigns over house rent and refuse crisis in Lagos, the organisation to join is Democratic Socialist Movement.
Visit DSM Secretariat at 49 Charity Road, Beside Old English Bakery, Abule Egba, Lagos
Telephone and WhatsApp: 0812 1823187, 09070688227
Email: dsmcentre’yahoo.com.
Being leaflet produced by the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) Ifako Ijaiye, Lagos Branch and circulated at tabling organised on the occasion of the 66th Independence anniversary of Nigeria on October 1, 2026