The Take It Back Movement (TIBM) has announced June 12, 2025, as a national day of protest in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Juwon Sanyaolu, on Monday, the civil rights campaigner movement decries the escalating insecurity, press attack, and economic hardship faced by Nigerians across the country
The Take It Back Movement coordinator frowns that freedom of speech is under attack, saying, “the state has turned on its citizens with an unrelenting campaign of intimidation and censorship. Journalists are harassed. Activists are detained. Citizens are arrested for social media posts.”
Sanyaolu added that through weaponisation of the Cybercrime Act, government agents now stalk the digital footprints of dissenters, silencing legitimate criticism and criminalising free expression.
He further described the escalating assault on the right to protest as uncalled for.
“Protesters demanding better governance are met with brute repression, arbitrary detentions, and sometimes death. From university campuses to labour rallies, the Nigerian state has responded not with dialogue, but with repression and violence,” he said.
He added that insecurity ravaging Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, and the Middle Belt, including mass killing, has continued to decrease the number of residents of the communities with no consequences for the perpetrators.
“Lives are snuffed out without consequences. Internally displaced persons multiply, while perpetrators roam free. The bloodletting has become a routine, and the state remains complicit, through its inaction, negligence, or outright denial. This is not a democracy. This is organised cruelty.”
Take It Back Movement rejects hollow ceremonies
As the nation marks June 12, the movement has vowed to reject the hollow ceremonies and official pageantry, stressing that it will not participate in the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom where none exists.
“Instead, we declare this day a national day of resistance, a day to stand against tyranny and bad governance.”
Take It Back Movement urged Nigerians, youth, students, workers, civil society, market women, artisans, and patriots at home and in the diaspora to rise in defence of their rights.
“This June 12, we march not just for ourselves, but for the slain in Benue, the displaced in Plateau, the silenced in detention, and the starving masses abandoned by a corrupt elite,” Sanyaolu said.
