Statement by the Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN) on Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary: A Day of Shame, Not Celebration.
Statement by the Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN) on Nigeria’s 65th Independence Anniversary: A Day of Shame, Not Celebration.
October 1, 2025.
Fellow Workers, Youths, and Oppressed Nigerians,Today marks the 65th anniversary of Nigeria’s so-called independence, a milestone that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his hollow broadcast from the opulent Presidential Villa, has dared to frame as a triumph of “renewed hope.” But for the toiling masses, this day is no cause for jubilation; it is a stark reminder of our enduring bondage to a system rigged against us. While Tinubu parrots statistics of a 4.23% GDP growth and trade surpluses, he conveniently ignores the blood, sweat, and tears of millions whose lives have been crushed under the weight of his “reforms.”
His speech, laced with pleas for “patience” and boasts of economic “milestones,” is nothing short of an insult to the dignity of a people pushed to the brink of despair.We, the Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN), rise in unison to decry this brazen insensitivity.
Tinubu’s address paints a mirage of progress, claiming victories over terror and banditry, yet the reality on the ground screams otherwise. High insecurity continues to ravage our nation like a plague. Families in the North-East huddle in fear of Boko Haram’s resurgence, while Fulani herdsmen and bandits unleash terror in the Middle Belt and North-West, claiming lives and displacing communities daily. In Benue, Plateau, and Kaduna, massacres have become routine, with over 2,000 deaths reported in farmer-herder clashes alone this year. Tinubu’s vague assurances ring empty when our security forces are under-resourced, and the elite siphon billions meant for arms into private pockets. Where is the “war on terror” he claims to be winning, when our children cannot sleep without the shadow of violence?The President’s rosy economic narrative crumbles further when confronted with our battered and worn-out public infrastructure.
Roads across the federation are death traps, pothole-riddled veins that devour vehicles and lives alike. The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, a “flagship project,” remains a symbol of elite corruption, delayed by graft while commuters perish in accidents. Power outages plague industries and homes, with generation hovering at a pathetic 4,000 megawatts for 220 million people. Hospitals lack basic equipment; schools, roofs and desks. Tinubu’s speech glosses over this decay, touting loans and digital initiatives as panaceas, but these are mere bandages on a gaping wound of neglect. How can a nation “export more than it imports” when its people cannot move goods without risking life on crumbling bridges?Even more galling is the silent epidemic of out-of-school children, a generational theft that Tinubu’s words barely acknowledge. Over 20 million Nigerian children, more than at independence, roam the streets as hawkers or almajiris, fodder for tomorrow’s insurgents or cheap labor for exploitative bosses.
His mention of youth “wings to fly high” through programs like iDICE is a cruel joke when public schools in the North and rural South are ghost shells, teachers unpaid, and fees unaffordable for the poor. This is not empowerment; it is the systematic pauperization of a generation, ensuring the elite’s children soar abroad while ours are chained to illiteracy and poverty.
And poverty, ah, the beast that devours us all, has been aggravated to unprecedented levels under this administration. Tinubu’s fuel subsidy removal and naira floatation, sold as bold reforms, have hurled 133 million Nigerians (over 60% of the population) into multidimensional poverty, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Families skip meals; mothers forage for scraps in urban dumps. His claim of “tangible results” mocks the emaciated frames of market women in Oshodi or farmers in Zamfara, who now pay triple for what cost a fraction before.Fueling this inferno is skyrocketing inflation, now at 34.2% year-on-year, eroding wages and savings like acid. Food inflation hits 40%, turning staples into luxuries. Workers’ salaries, stagnant since 2019, buy less than half of what they did two years ago.
Tinubu’s speech hails non-oil revenue targets met and stock market booms, benefits that accrue to the 1% in Lekki penthouses, while the 99% grapple with empty pots. These “milestones” are not for us; they are the spoils of a system where the rich grow richer amid our collective ruin.Worst of all is the gross socioeconomic inequality that defines Tinubu’s Nigeria, a chasm wider than the Niger Delta’s oil spills. While the President jets to global summits, 87% of wealth concentrates in the hands of a cabal, per Oxfam reports. Youth unemployment lingers at 53%, breeding despair and crime, yet his address offers platitudes about “equitable opportunities” without dismantling the structures of exclusion. Women bear the brunt, with gender poverty gaps widening; rural folk are forgotten footnotes in urban-centric policies.
Fellow country people, Tinubu’s independence speech is not a call to unity but a declaration of war on the poor. It pleads for patience from a populace that has none left, urging optimism while our hope is methodically dismantled.
We reject this farce! True independence demands not GDP figures, but bread on tables, safety in homes, education for all, and justice for the oppressed.
The Renewed Hope Agenda is a renewed hoax, hope for the elite, hopelessness for the masses.On this Independence Day, WYSN calls on workers, youths, students, peasants, and all patriots to:Mobilize against exploitation: Organize mass protests and strikes to demand reversal of anti-poor policies.
Expose the lies: Flood streets and social media with our truths, countering the regime’s propaganda.
Build solidarity: Unite across divides, North, South, East, West, for a people’s Nigeria, free from insecurity, poverty, and inequality.
Demand accountability: Immediate implementation of living wages, free education, functional infrastructure, and equitable resource distribution.
The time for patience is over. The masses must rise, not as beggars for crumbs, but as architects of our destiny. Nigeria’s independence was stolen 65 years ago; let us reclaim it now through collective action!Workers of the world, youths in struggle, unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains!
Signed,
Comrade Iortyom Ushahemba Moses
National Secretary
Workers and Youth Solidarity Network (WYSN)