Nigerians have begun a “warm up” protest in Kano State over the hike of petrol price from N195 to N617, naira devaluation, school fees increment and other anti-poor policies of the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government.
Photographs of the protest obtained by SaharaReporters on Tuesday confirmed that the Joint Action Front (JAF) coordinated the demonstration.
JAF alongside the Alliance for Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) and Coalition for Revolution (CORE) declared their total support for the August 2 Nigeria Labour Congress nationwide action.
The civic organisations in a joint declaration, signed by Femi Falana (ASCAB), Baba Ayelabola (CORE), and Achike Chude (JAF) after a meeting on Sunday, which was made available to SaharaReporters on Monday, had said they would join in the protest until victory was achieved.
Titled: “August 2nd, 2023 as the beginning of nationwide resistance against fuel price hike and anti-poor policies is sacrosanct,” the civic organisations had said that the minimum aim of the forthcoming struggle is the reversal of the “criminal hike of petrol from N617 to N195, reversal of other criminal policies like fee hike in public tertiary institutions, devaluation of the naira” which they noted had made life unbearable on Nigerian masses.
“We support the decision of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to call Nigerian workers and poor masses out on protest starting from Wednesday, August 2, 2023, against the wicked and neoliberal policies of the President Tinubu government, including, the severe hike in the price of petrol and devaluation of the naira.”
The organisations tasked the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) with unity in their engagement with the Federal Government and encourage them to jointly mobilise for mass action.