NIGERIA: End the ‘Treason’ Trial and Drop All Charges

Nigeria Solidarity UK

• We support Amnesty International’s report titled “bloody August” indicting the Police and other security agencies of a crackdown on peaceful protesters
• End the 6-year long trial and drop all charges against Abbey Trotsky who is being tried for defending workers’ rights in Ibadan, Nigeria
• Prosecute police officers, army and other security officers culpable of violence against peaceful protesters in Nigeria
• We call for the reversal of all the neoliberal anti-poor policies of President Tinubu’s regime since its inception and a withdrawal of the recent tax reform bill
• We call on NLC & TUC leadership to begin mobilisation for a 48 hour general strike to reverse all the anti-poor policies, demand implementation of the 2024 minimum wage across all States and an increase in line with inflation
• We demand public ownership of the key sectors of the economy of the economy under the democratic control of workers, youth and the poor to ensure Nigeria’s resources are utilised for the needs of the vast majority and not the profits and looting of a few

The ‘treason’ trial of Michael Lenin and ten other #EndBadGovernance protesters is scheduled to commence on 29 January after its postponement last year. Adaramoye Michael Lenin and ten others would be arraigned in Court on trumped up charges of treason and terrorism financing which could potentially earn them a death penalty if not quashed.

Recall that in the early hours of 5 August, 2024, Adaramoye Michael Lenin and a few others were abducted and remanded in detention. It took a serious local and international campaign by socialists, activists and trade unions before they were granted bail after almost two months in detention. The campaign to demand the dropping of charges and an end to the trial and victimisation must now be intensified. We call on you all – particularly diasporans, socialist groups and trade union activists – to join this campaign to demand an end to attack on democratic rights of working people in Nigeria.

The material conditions that gave rise to the #endbadgovernance protests last year are still very much there and have even worsened with starvation staring in the face of an escalating cost of living crisis. The horrific deaths of about 65 people, including 35 children, in Christmas palliatives stampedes last year is a huge testament to the height of hunger and desperation to survive in Nigeria. This clearly aligns with recent reports that 33 million Nigerians, including 16 million children, would be faced with acute hunger by mid-2025.

There is no other cause for the mass hunger other than the imposed neoliberal policies of the past and previous governments on the mass of working people. The current government has doubled down the attacks by fully deregulating the downstream oil sector, devaluing the currency, amongst others, and now plans to introduce a tax reform where big businesses and the super-rich are taxed less and working class and poor people are taxed to the bone.

While the regime argues for increased revenue generation through the tax reform bill, it is clearly an attempt to generate more revenue for the self-serving backward ruling elites to suit their lavish lifestyle at the detriment of an already impoverished, starving people.

These attacks are occurring against a backdrop of a meagre minimum wage of N70,000 set in 2024, that has yet to be fully implemented across all States and which now needs to be increased. With inflation running at over 30% it is not enough. The trade union leadership, particularly NLC and TUC, must be prepared to mobilise for serious struggle to force the implementation of the minimum wage while also putting forward demands for reversal of all the anti-poor policies of deregulation, privatisation, education fee hikes, currency devaluation, etc.

There is also need for the trade union leadership, socialist groups and activists to take on the Nigerian government against repression of workers, activists and socialists.

For instance, asides the attacks on the #endbadgovernance protesters, Abbey Trotsky, who is a coordinator of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights in Oyo State, has continued to face state prosecution for the past six years. He has suffered a series of harassment including arrest and detention over this period. He has been arrested not less than eight times and is facing a trial on trumped up criminal charges for the role he played extending solidarity to thousands of casual workers of SUMAL FOOD LIMITED who went on strike, protesting against poor pay and slave working conditions.

We demand an end to the state prosecution of Abbey Trotsky and an end to casualisation of labour as well as other indecent labour practices.

Join us in building the solidarity support against an attempt to continue to enslave the vast majority of Nigerians despite the huge natural and human resources possessed by the Country which if placed under collective ownership and democratic control and management of the working people can guarantee decent living standards for all.

That is why we need to fight to end the rule of the rich few elites by organising for a democratically-run mass workers’ party armed with a socialist programme that can represent the working people, youth and poor in Nigeria and put an end to misery amidst plenty.