Press statement of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement (RSM)
29th December, 2023
Ethno-religious conflict rooted in rotten ruling-class policies
The Revolutionary Socialist Movement (RSM) condemns the recent attacks on some villages in a few local government areas of Plateau state.
According to media reports and videos available online, gunmen attacked armless people on Sunday 24th December 2023. This attack claimed about 200 lives, approximately 250 families were forced to relocate, and not less than 300 people were reportedly injured in Ndun, Ngyong, Murfet, Makundary, Tamiso, Chiang, Tahore, Gawarba, Dares, Meyenga, Darwat, and Butura Kampani villages in the Barkin Ladi, Mangu and Bokkos areas of the state where the attackers burnt down houses and shot at residents.
We join Nigerians to mourn those families whose members died while our heartfelt prayers go to the injured.
Even though crucial details have shown that the attack has been going on for a long time where public schools and health care facilities were being taken over by the terrorist groups. According to the report, these terror attacks are aimed at achieving widespread death, damages and destruction, and to spread terror and panic among the common people of the state. We demand an immediate investigation to unmask the perpetrators and ensure their speedy arrest so that justice can be served.
Unfortunately, no section of the capitalist ruling class in governments can be trusted to do any serious and diligent investigation as they are usually complicit in the orgy of ethnic and religious violence, criminal banditry and Islamic insurgency which has taken hold across the country. At first, they will all pretend to care only to engage in cosmetic policing and media charades.
The security has shown their inability to stop the crisis not only in Jos but across other parts of Nigeria where armless and ordinary people have been victims of reprisal attacks, including kidnapping.
According to the news-making round, President Bola Tinubu, after promising to tackle security challenges that his predecessor has failed to address, instructed security agencies to “scour every stretch of the zone and apprehend the culprits.” However, there has not been any record of arrest made concerning the ugly event. Even, the president himself hasn’t visited the scene of the attacks.
There is no other way to describe these tragic developments than to call it barbarism.
We of RSM hold that things will continue to get worse for as long as Nigeria remains under the grip of the APC, PDP, and other anti-poor capitalist parties whose idea is to continuously loot our resources, implement anti-poor policies, and segregate the masses on basis of ethnic and religious sentiment.
We call for the democratic formation of united and non-sectarian defence committees, armed where necessary, to take up practical measures of defence and security subject to the democratic control of the entire community.
As things are, the police and other security agencies have proved their utter incapacity to deal with this kind of situation. Over time, the motive and modus operandi of these security agencies are usually suspected by the combatants on the different sides of the divide.
To us in the RSM, this will not be the case with a defence committee formed by ordinary people and genuine change-seeking elements.
We believe that it is only the working class people can find lasting solutions to the perennial ethno-religious killings. For this reason, we call on the labour movements; the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) to unite the working people for the struggle against insecurity and all attacks. This is necessary both to defend the immediate economic and political interests of the working people and also to ensure unity and solidarity across ethnic and religious lines.
Nigeria presently is in a tumultuous socio-economic problem that has made available a huge number of young people who are jobless and at the disposal of politicians to achieve their greed-driven goals.
Continuous Rule of the APC, PDP, and other capitalist parties is equal to endless horror and tragedy for ordinary people as we presently see in Jos, Plateau State. The story is not also different from what we have in Kaduna, Niger and Benue states.
Knowing that without the working masses taking their destiny into their own hands, Nigeria will never get better. This also has to be linked with rising demands on the high cost of living, creation of jobs for young people, anti-poor policies, attacks on democratic rights and other crises facing workers and the poor people.
The worsening state of insecurity across the country demonstrates the urgency in the Nigerian situation and the need for the building of a mass party of the working people with bold socialist programs to take political power, end capitalism and enthrone a democratic socialist Nigeria under where the commanding heights of the economy will be placed under the democratic control and management of the people to ensure Nigeria’s wealth benefits the mass majority of the people. This will also ensure that a democratic solution is implemented against the present situation that only serves the interest of the rich.
Publicity Secretary
Salako Kayode
RSM
