| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nigeria’s
Solution; Not In The Ballot Box |
Posted By Kola Ibrahim kmarx4live@yahoo.com
“The contemporary history of the
world – Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico,
Greece, Ukraine, etc today has shown
that it is masses’ independent
political actions that can change the
society”.
The outcome of the general election
– that of the 14th and 21st April
2007 – has clearly shown that the
solution to the Nigeria's hydra-headed
socio-political problems can only be
achieved when the mass of the working
but toiling people of Nigeria take
their destiny in their hands and
exercise political movement as a
counterweight to the bourgeois corrupt
politics. The politicians of all
shades cannot be relied upon to
resolve the sufferings of the Nigerian
working people.
To start with, the clash within the
rank of the ruling elite especially
that between president Obasanjo and
his vice, Atiku Abubakar was never
based on how to better the lots of the
masses who have been made to swallow
the poisonous pills of neo-liberal
capitalist economic policies for the
past eight years. In fact, the cause
of the rancour between the duo is a
stinking issue of succession. While
Atiku claimed to have conceded power
to Obasanjo in 2003 in order to have
it back in 2007, the Obasanjo camp see
no reason why an Atiku who has served
two terms in the presidency could be
“criminalizing” Obasanjo for going
for third term in office. The
political camp immediately split
toward the two camps – those who are
well over-fed by the political
arrangement led by Obasanjo and those
who have been estranged ably led by
Atiku.
The masses were presented with these
two camps of the same corrupt
political arrangement without a
genuine alternative. It is on note
that both the president and his vice
have been together in implementing the
anti-poor, pro-rich policies of
neo-liberalism. Atiku was the chairman
of National Council on Privatization (NCP)
for more than five years wherein
several government corporations and
parastatals were privatized while
social service providing institutions
were either commercialized or partly
privatized while mass of people were
made the scapegoats of the age-long
corruption and mismanagement by the
ruling elite via retrenchment,
unemployment, unpaid entitlement
including pension and inflation.
Whenever, the masses tried to raise
their voices in the dungeon pit of
poverty, they are easily jackbooted by
the almighty king-kong called PDP.
Atiku was privileged to have control
of logistics of our ports through his
INTELS while also maximizing the
decadence of our educational system to
his benefit through the ABTI-America
University in Yola, aside other juicy
packages from our treasury
(over-bloated contracts for personal
business, mouth-watery salary and
allowances, bribe for contracts and
sell offs, etc). Obasanjo being the
commander-in-chief could not exercise
this power better than using it to
extend his business chains. We are
aware of his agrarian policy, which
has meant provision of cheap loans,
favourable patronage, etc for his
farms while millions of toiling
farmers could not access ordinary ten
thousand from bank. The president did
not fail to show to us that if the
nation he rules over could not manage
its tertiary education, he could do
better and the children of the poor
masses who want good education should
either cough out N500, 000 at Bells
University’s bursary or go to hell.
We are not unaware of hundreds of
acres of state farmlands bought over
by the president or the Obasanjo
Library. Their followers also could
definitely boost of juicy packages
which they tried as much as possible
to protect – Tony Anenih’s ghost
road projects, Bode George’s NPA
scandal, etc.
While the so-called opposition will
want to present themselves as
alternative, their past could not help
them. One could easily recall the
action of the former PDP chairman,
Audu Ogbe in 2004 when he called the
bluff of NLC for resisting fuel price
hike, reminding Adams Oshiomole that
president Obasanjo is still a military
man neither could Nigerians could
easily forget the spree of
retrenchment of the former AD
southwest governments of the likes of
Bola Tinubu in Lagos, Bisi Akande in
Osun, etc. All of them bow before the
almighty neo-liberal economic pills
(as advocated multilateral agencies of
imperialist capitalism – IMF/World
Bank, WTO, etc) which ensure fat
profit for multinational vampires and
crumb for politicians to loot either
directly or otherwise while the masses
are made to cope with retrenchment,
diseases, poverty, unpaid pension,
inflation, inaccessible social
services, etc.
This goes to show that political
action taken by anyone of them could
not take into cognizance the plight of
the poor people; the best it can do is
to use people’s plight to justify
their quest for power while confusing
the mass of people in the absence of
genuine alternative. This explains why
none of them could give reason why
they supported or participated in
policies that have deprived the
majority. Obasanjo even say it loudly
that all those who antagonize his
“reforms” could not provide
alternatives because they all stand
for the same. This is further
underlined in the letter Atiku
Abubakar wrote to Obasanjo in early
2006 of his intention to vie for
presidency. Aside other things, he
praised Obasanjo for his economic
reforms (of retrenchment, denied
entitlements, decrepit social
services, looting via privatization,
etc) and promised to continue the
policies. Neither Atiku or his kindred
in the so-called opposition has given
any alternative to neo-liberalism and
market economies which are even being
rejected by the working people of the
centers of capitalism.
Therefore, their politics was mainly
to confuse the masses and prevent them
from taking independent actions. The
ruling class politics of survival of
the fittest is substituted for radical
political actions of the masses
because of their fear of masses taking
the political road. This is necessary
because any attempt to allow the
masses take independent political
action through formation of a working
people’s party that will want to
divert the resources of the country to
pro-poor policies like provision of
free, qualitative education, free and
functional health system, adequate
living salary and pension, secured job
opportunities, better infrastructures,
etc all of which can only be achieved
by stopping corruption and
privatization of national wealth and
economy will spell doom for their
corrupt ambitions. Therefore, the
ruling politicians and their estranged
counterpart in the so-called
opposition (which some media has
wrongly tagged the progressives)
continue their ruinous politics while
the masses are being cajoled with such
hollow terms as rule of law, respect
of electoral wishes, etc. It is
noteworthy that the same estranged
politicians participated actively in
the electoral fraud of 1999 and 2003
while many of them played major roles
during the dark days of military
absolutism, which plunge the country
to this sorry state it now finds
itself. For instance, Obasanjo was the
first head of state to plunge Nigeria
to the abyss of debt and economic
dislocation while also decapitating
the mass organizations including NANS,
NLC, etc. Atiku was also the head of
Custom, which was fraught with
corruption while individuals such as
Ojo Madueke, Uche Chuwumerije, etc
were advocate of military jackboot
rule until such was dismantled by the
masses. Therefore, to expect these
individuals to genuinely involved the
masses in the political actions is an
illusion.
The outcome of the election clearly
reflects the futility of relying on
any section of the ruling class for
political breakthrough for the masses.
While the estranged ruling class tried
to use mass pressure to force the main
ruling section (PDP) to concede to
part of their demand, the ruling class
maximizing the constitutional flaws
and illegitimate right to authority
(through its control of INEC, the
armed forces, part of the judiciary,
etc.), ensured that the power did not
leave its hand. Therefore, the masses
which the estranged section wished to
use to pressure the PDP ruling class
to concession of power were boldly
disenfranchised by the political
machine of the PDP ruling class
through rigging, violence, etc. On the
other hand, the estranged opposition
could not mobilize the masses out as a
result of its morbid fear of masses
questioning its right to political
power.
It will be foolhardy for anybody
claiming to come from a Left
background to believe that any
political gain can come the way of the
masses if they attached themselves as
apron string to the estranged section
of the ruling class without thinking
of undertaking independent democratic,
mass based, radical political
activities. One can safely pardon many
so-called civil society organizations
many of which derive their grants from
the imperialist agencies in the West
which only give grants out on the
basis of maintaining the status quo.
But the pro-masses organizations and
individuals who rather than build a
political platform of the working and
toiling people of Nigeria that will
seek to dismantle the stranglehold of
the capitalist ruling class on our
economic and political lives have
continue to either be in lethargy or
complete illusion. This is where
Comrade Oshiomhole got it wrong. By
believing that it is only through
bourgeois politics that he can assume
power for the masses and thus
exhibiting contempt for the masses he
had once led in protest, Oshiomhole
had denied himself of the enormous
mass support he would have got by
organizing a working people’s party
which would garnered the mass anger
against the ruling class and given a
genuine focus for the masses who are
desperately seeking for change from
this rotten bourgeois system. An
attempt to disenfranchise an
Oshiomhole contesting under a working
people’s party directly controlled
by the masses themselves from the
grassroots up to the national level
would have ensured political disaster
for the ruling class. But Oshiomhole
left the masses ranks and confused
them. While one appreciate the fact
that it was only Oshiomhole that
undertook an organized mass protest
among the rigged candidates – which
also reflect the difference between
the pro-workers individual and a
mainstream politician – such
political action would have been
organized on a national plane and
given a better focus had Comrade Adams
mobilized the masses around a working
people political alternative.
From the foregoing, it is important to
draw the lesson of the last week farce
called general election for the
working masses. First of all, it must
have been seen that given the present
arrangement, both constitutionally and
politically, the corrupt capitalist
ruling class shall continue to recycle
itself in power no matter the mass
opposition to it. Secondly, confining
the masses within the economic
framework of neo-liberalism shall
continue to deprive the masses of the
political will to undertake
independent political action. Thirdly,
the masses in order to ensure a
breakthrough from this quagmire must
build a fighting political alternative
that will be economically and
politically different from the corrupt
politics and such alternative platform
must be democratically organized from
the grassroots to the national level.
Fourthly, it will be erroneous for the
leaders of working class organization
or alternative platform to believe
that by confining themselves to the
so-called civil/legal means only, they
can assume political control; unless
the masses and their organization take
to the street along with other mass
political actions can they force the
present ruling class to abdicate
power. Also, the political alternative
that will be formed must link its
politics with the daily struggles of
the masses for democratic rights
including right to free and fair
elections.
On this basis, without prejudice to
points earlier raised, the mass
organizations and their leaders must
reject the last week nonsense called
general elections and immediately call
for the reconstitution of the
electoral body, rerun of the whole
elections and convocation of a
Sovereign National Conference that
will draw its membership
democratically from mass organizations
– trade unions, market men and women
associations, students ‘movements,
civil societies, etc. – and ethnic
nationalities which shall reconstitute
the political and economic agenda of
the country. This by no mean is a
support for other corrupt politicians
but a step toward building a mass
struggle that will culminate in the
ultimate reconstitution of the country
in favour of the working masses. The
mass organizations must come together
and call the masses to the street to
take their destinies in their hands.
This must also be used to convoke a
general summit of all pro-working
peoples organizations (to be
spear-headed by the trade unions) with
the aim of forming a working
people’s party that will serve the
interest of the masses. I propose a
week of political protest around the
country to include mass processions,
leafleting, rallies, mass meetings,
etc. as soon as possible.
Finally, I wish to state that unless
the masses fight for a democratic
socialist Nigeria where the resources
of the country will be used for the
welfare interests of the masses as
against that of the already rich few.
*KOLA IBRAHIM, a student activist
from; Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
