The Partisan Defense Committee condemns the Nigerian government’s crackdown on anti-austerity protests during the past two weeks. There must be a broad outpouring of worldwide protest against this repression! The labor movement, the left and all opponents of U.S. imperialism have an interest in defending the Nigerian protesters and the NLC against this crackdown.

Hundreds of thousands of youth and unemployed took to the streets in Nigeria against imperialist-dictated shock therapy. In the response the Bola Tinubu government has unleashed bloody repression in order to silence this opposition. At least 22 protesters have been killed. Hundreds more have been arrested and many are still in jail. These include protest leaders such as Adaramoye Michael (“Michael Lenin”), national coordinator of the Youth Rights Campaign, Mosiu Sodiq, Eleojo Opaluwa and Babatunde Oluajo (“OSB Sankara”). According to the latest reports, Michael, Sodiq and Eleojo remain in custody.

On August 7, government security forces staged a nighttime raid ransacking the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), seizing printed materials and other documents. This raid came just hours after the NLC held a meeting critical of the crackdown and urging concessions by the government.

It is urgently necessary to mobilize protest throughout Africa and around the globe against the crackdown. Protest statements have been issued by IndustriALL and Amnesty International, among others. The PDC has sent a letter of protest to the Nigerian embassy in the U.S. We urge others to do the same and to raise the call broadly in your unions, community, civil rights and left organizations, on the campuses and in the streets:

Down with the crackdown against the #EndBadGovernance protests!

Free all detainees!

Drop all charges!

Hands off the NLC! Return the seized materials!

No reprisals!

Down with imperialist imposed austerity!