October 1st: CORE to Lead Total Liberation Protest

The Coalition for Revolution (CORE) calls on the working masses and youth across Nigeria to join us in the #October1stProtest on Friday. It is quite clear that those who have benefited from the flag Independence of October 1, 1960, are a handful of exploiters and social parasites, who have marginalized and continually oppressed workers, poor farmers, artisans, traders, women, and youth, over the last sixty-one years.
Meanwhile, it was the struggle of the working-class people that made decolonization inevitable. We recall the 1929 Aba Women’s Revolt and the Egba Women’s Revolts of the late 1940s, the 1945 General Strike for Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), and the youthful Zikist National Vanguard’s “A Call for Revolution” in 1948.
The British colonialists realized that these struggles represented much more than empty decolonization. The colonial masters realized that the masses were fighting to emancipate themselves from exploitation and oppression. So, the masses were excluded from power at “independence.” Power was handed over to local elites who continued to make life miserable for the poor masses.
The Maj Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd) regime has turned out to be the most emblematic picture of why we need to kick out these elites and the system they represent. The CORE RevolutionNow campaign is aimed at mobilizing Nigerians to fight to achieve this end. It is a movement for emancipatory independence of the people.
In the light of the current situation in the country, we reiterate our immediate demands for the 2021 #1stOctoberProtest as follows:
DEMANDS
Reinstatement of all sacked public sector workers, reversal of salary cuts in both the public and private sector, and provision of needed credit for small businesses in the informal economy to get back on their feet.
Full respect for the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of expression and assembly. The immediate release of all detainees and prisoners being held for participating in peaceful protests or exercising their right to free speech.
Recognition of the #EndSARS rebellion’s martyrs as national heroes, with; their names immortalized, the regime’s unreserved apology for killing them, and compensation paid to their families.
Full implementation of the outstanding Memoranda of Understanding and all other collective agreements reached with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) & Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).
Adequate public funding of health and education to ensure quality health and education for all. A ban on all public officials, including the president, travelling overseas for medical treatment. The children of all public officials must also attend public schools in Nigeria.
Implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage in all states and private companies as stipulated in the 2019 National Minimum Wage Act. And the immediate commencement of a negotiations for an upward review of the minimum wage with the trade unions, with the institutionalization of annual increment linked to increases in the cost of living.
A massive youth employment program, which will not be based on party patronage as both PDP and APC have done. This must be designed and governed by the youths organized independently in their communities, in collaboration with trade unions in the different sectors of the program.
Paid 12-month maternity leave for all working women and childcare support allocation for all children under the age of five, pad to their mothers regardless of status
Safeguarding the lives of the poor masses against bandits. All sponsors of banditry and insurgency in government and private business must be identified and brought to book.

Baba Aye Gbenga Komolafe
Co-convener