In a statement signed by Amin Al Amin on behalf of the NPFM Collective on Monday, the group declared August 1 as “National Resistance Day Against Bandit Capitalism in Nigeria,” accusing the Tinubu government of ignoring widespread calls for reforms raised during mass protests in August 2024.
The Nigeria Patriotic Front Movement (NPFM) has announced plans for a nationwide protest on August 1, 2025, vowing to mobilise citizens across the country and abroad to challenge what it describes as bad governance, rising economic hardship, and a creeping slide toward one-party dominance under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The planned demonstration, which the movement has branded as marking the anniversary of the “Bloody August” protests last year, is aimed at seeking justice for those allegedly killed, missing, or imprisoned during those demonstrations.
The NPFM accused the government of neither addressing the grievances that sparked last year’s protests nor taking steps to alleviate worsening living conditions.
The movement lashed out at President Tinubu, accusing him of pursuing harsh economic policies that have pushed millions deeper into poverty.
The NPFM also condemned what it perceives as a deliberate attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to dominate Nigeria’s political landscape by absorbing opposition figures and weakening democratic competition.
The group urged Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to join the August 1 protest to demand urgent reforms, or, as the group put it, to “recall” the government through the power of the people.
The statement partly read: “We Still Say No to Bad Governance. On August 1, 2025, we will march across the nation to: Seek justice for those who were murdered, are missing, or were imprisoned by the regime for protesting against bad governance last August 2024.
“Reiterate our demands for: Radical improvement of the security situation across the country; drastic reduction in the cost of living; steep reduction in the cost of fuel; an end to the tolerance of grand corruption in public office. No double standards: regime acolytes are free from prosecution, while the disfavoured are not. Deep cuts in the cost of governance (political office is not a business venture; pay politicians the same package as civil servants).
“Re-nationalisation of the NNPC; electricity provision (generation, transmission, distribution); and telecom services (NITEL) for rapid industrialisation and national security in a fast-changing local and multipolar environment; increase of the national minimum wage to a true living wage: N250,000 per month.
“Payment of all pension and gratuity arrears. There is no excuse for this problem to exist in our land in this century.
“Stop the wanton appropriation of peasant lands by the elites, especially in the North where this has exacerbated the security situation in the region. Unless we restore land justice, violence and insurgency will continue in Arewa.
“The grabbing of mineral and fertile lands has reached dangerous proportions and is a threat to national security. All levels of government are involved in this theft.
“Public education as a human right to which all citizens are freely entitled irrespective of their social status. Poverty should not be a barrier to educational access. And no student should be burdened with a lifelong loan for seeking higher education. All such loans should be converted to automatic grants.
“Insensitivity of the regime: The president has not taken any concrete steps to address the issues raised by the masses last August 1. Instead, he blamed the youth for challenging the high cost of living under his watch. And he doubled down on his harsh economic measures, making it nearly impossible for most Nigerians to eke out a living.
“As a woman in our movement cried out yesterday at our meeting: Our unborn children are starving, and the government is making it impossible for us to feed them. It means they don’t want us to have a future after they have robbed us of our present. What kind of leaders are these? We must unite and fight them to free ourselves from their rule.”
It added, “August 1 is our National Resistance Day Against Bandit Capitalism in Nigeria. We call on the working and toiling people to come out in numbers on August 1 to show the regime that we will not bow to its insensitivity, insincerity, and false hope.
“We will not stay in our homes and die of hunger and starvation imposed on us by public policy. We would rather be in the streets to speak truth to the tax collector, rent collector, petrol price profiteer, commission agent, and grand extortionist of the century in Nigeria: the President whose turn it is to eat first while his people die of extreme poverty.
“His brutality, arbitrary arrests, and detentions will not deter us; nor will his anti-democratic and unconstitutional antics to impose despotism on the nation via a mafia political machine built around himself break the will of the people to end bad governance in Nigeria.”
