June 12: Coalition declares nationwide protest over insecurity, hunger
A coalition of civil society organisations has scheduled a nationwide protest for June 12 against worsening national insecurity, severe economic hardship, and a sharp drop in living standards across the federation.
Recall that the date was designated by the Federal Government in honor of Chief MKO Abiola, the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential Election.
The coalition comprising trade unions, youth groups, community associations, social movements, faith-based organisations and concerned Nigerians, said this in a statement jointly signed by prominent activists and leaders of various organisations, including the National Chairman of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), Mr Femi Falana (SAN); Organising Committee member of the EndBadGovernance Movement, Hassan Taiwo Soweto; National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) Yinka Folarin and Organising Secretary of the Nigeria Patriotic Front Movement, Yusha’u Sani Yankuzo.
Others are: Secretary of Initiative and Mediation, Zauren Tuntuba da Sasanci; Ali Attahiru; musician and activist Falz; Executive Director of the Moses Oisakede Leadership Foundation, Mike Igaga; President of PERESSA, Rufus Olusesan; Segun Oladunni of the Joint Action Front; General Secretary of Socialist Labour, Abiodun Olamosu; Jonathan Ugbal of the Calabar Group of Socialists; Richard Inoyo of Citizens Solution Network; Salako Kayode of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement; Omole Ibukun of the Centre for Creative Change; Adaramoye Michael of the Youth Rights Campaign; and Adewale Ojo, Chairman of CDHR Lagos.
The coalition lamented that millions of Nigerians have little reason to celebrate Democracy Day as communities across the country continue to grapple with terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality.
According to the organizers, widespread administrative failures have left ordinary citizens with nothing to celebrate on this anniversary, sadly noting that the entire communities across the country were currently subjected to continuous trauma from unpunished banditry, terrorism, and mass abductions.
It demanded that the Nigerian people deserved a pro-people government that places protection of lives and property at the core of governance.
“Innocent Nigerians are being killed, abducted, displaced and traumatized while government responses have remained largely inadequate and ineffective. We express solidarity with families of victims of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping across the country.
“We demand immediate and concrete action to secure the release of all Nigerians held captive by criminal groups in Oyo, Borno, Katsina, Kwara, Ekiti, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and other states where citizens have been abducted. The Nigerian people deserve a pro-people government that places protection of lives and property at the core of governance,” the coalition stated.
Speaking further, the organizers criticized official security narratives, arguing that promises of safety had been consistently contradicted by the realities faced by rural farmers, commuters, and schoolchildren.
This was just as it attributed the country’s severe economic crisis directly to the neoliberal policies introduced under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, listing them to include the negative impacts of currency devaluation, electricity tariff increases, and the removal of the petroleum subsidy.
According to the coalition, these measures have triggered historic food inflation and crippled small businesses despite increased statutory allocations to state governments.
The leaders, while urging widespread citizen participation by calling on workers, market women, unemployed youth, students, and professionals to coordinate grassroots mobilization efforts within their respective neighborhoods and workplaces to demand an immediate policy reversal, however, characterized the upcoming June 12 demonstration as the initial stage of a prolonged series of public actions.
“This protest is about the lives of our children and teachers in captivity. It is about the collective survival of ordinary Nigerians. The coalition, therefore, calls on civil society organizations and progressive groups to unite and mobilize the collective power of Nigerians to demand the release of all captives and oppose anti-people policies of the Tinubu administration that continue to increase poverty.
“The time has come for Nigerians to speak with one voice and demand security, dignity and a decent standard of living. Enough of the killings. Enough of the kidnappings. Enough of the hunger. Enough of the suffering,” the coalition stated.
