Cautions the government and security agents on the mismanagement of the protest
Precision Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA) declares support for the protest being called by hungry and angry Nigerians between August 1-10.
We state unequivocally that the conditions which generated the anger and hunger fueling the call for the protest are products of the Nigerian government’s neoliberal anti-poor policies of commercialization and privatization of basic services, currency devaluation, and so forth.
We agree with the demands of the protest to reverse fuel price to pre-May 2023 price, recover looted funds, end hunger and hardship among others. These demands, we reckon, are legitimate demands which any responsible government would consider with utmost seriousness.
We are not oblivious of the flagrant opulence and profligacy being displayed by government officials while telling the working people and poor masses to tighten their belt and pull themselves up by their bootstrap, as “the government is broke”. The working people can obviously see the hypocrisy of the Nigerian ruling elites staring them in the face.
The present government has asked that the working people should be patient while it works to stabilize the economy, but the Nigerian people have heard the same deceptive persuasion over and over again from the successive capitalist governments, while our lot as working people has increasingly worsened over the years.
A good testament to this is how the value of the minimum wage has continually gone down over the past decades, so that while a minimum wage of #3,000 was equal to about $300 dollars in 1991, a minimum wage of #70,000 in 2024 is now worth less than $50.
Under the prevailing circumstances, it is simply inevitable that the worsening socioeconomic conditions in the country leads to dissatisfaction and protest. The government should be appreciative of the young people, and other citizens who have stepped forward to give coordination to the spontaneous call by many Nigerians for a mass protest starting on August 1.
We charge the Nigerian police to fulfill its constitutional duty of protecting citizens at all times, including when they exercise their democratic right to protest. Government officials and desperate politicians must desist from the campaign of calumny being engaged in, with the attempt to ethnicize the protest and threatening peaceful protesters through some individuals who primarily for the reason of their misery have become tools in the hands of these selfish politicians.
We call on the police to begin to show commitment to protecting citizens by immediately executing the arrest and prosecution of these individuals. We know from history that protests only turn violent when mismanaged by government and its security agents, by attacking peaceful protesters and allowing some hired individuals (like those already going around to threaten innocent citizens) to ferment trouble while blaming the protesters.
We ask our members and all working people of Nigeria to go out and exercise their democratic right, protesting peacefully in the hope that through our courageous resistance we can birth a better future for ourselves and the coming generation.
Aluta continua, victoria ascerta.
Comrade Rufus Olusesan
PERESSA President
