Between Okwaraji and Foe

I watched the opening ceremony of the final match of this year Confederation Cup between Brazil and the United States with mixed feelings. On one hand, it presented FIFA as a responsible organisation that cherishes football practitioners, dead or alive. On the other hand, it provoked in me a sad memory of how Samuel Okwaraji has been ill-treated.
The ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Marc-Vivian Foe, the Cameroonian footballer, who died on June 26, 2003 while playing in a Confederation Cup semi-final match against Columbia.

This event was just a continuation of a lot that has been done to immortalize Foe. Foe slumped on the pitch like Okwaraji had done 14 years earlier, while playing for Nigeria against Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. It will be 20 years on August 12, when Nigeria has lost one of his finest and most dedicated players in history.

The fact that both died at a FIFA organized match has not meant that they are treated the same. Foe is still highly celebrated and members of his family are properly taken care of, while Okwaraji is getting deeper and deeper into abyss of oblivion and family abandoned. It is most likely that if a survey is conducted among Nigerian football enthusiasts who are born as from 1990 on the knowledge of Okwaraji, the result will be abysmal. The only honour that has been done to his memory is lip service from the successive football administrators and governments. A friend reminds me of his bust; this is too tokenistic and insulting.

I will not blame FIFA or CAF for saying what is a sauce for goose is not a sauce for gander. Even if the fact that in addition to Okwaraji about nine football fans died after the match as a result of stampede could not make the continental and world football bodies to care a hoot. We have to blame the perennial self-serving football administrators the country has been accursed with.
He has not been properly honoured at home; we should not expect anything from the outsiders. You lift up your load where it is heaviest. The fate of Okwaraji is a metaphor of the crisis of football management in Nigeria .

I will not be surprised if the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) (I don’t like the name) has not had plan to commemorate the 20th anniversary. Even if anything is done, Nigerians will be most likely treated to another round of hot air.

The roles of the sport writers and lately, Association of Professional Footballers of Nigeria (APFON) in holding aloft the memory of Sam Okwaraji should be acknowledged. But a lot more still needs to be done by the media. I would expect comprehensive feature stories in the media on him at the 20th anniversary of his tragic death in the service of fatherland. The current football administrators should atone for the sin and irresponsibility of their forerunners by according due honour to the memory of Sam Okwaraji.

Iran Revolution? Contribution to a debate on facebook

I think we should be careful using the term “revolution” sweepingly in our analysis of mass protest in Iran. Yes, it is a mass based progressive movement against reactionary, authoritarian Ahmadinejad government, but uncritically calling it a revolution may create problem for us when we actually call for a genuine one. The movement the pro-capitalist commentators and their media are comfortable to describe in glowing superlatives cannot be a genuine revolution. We should remember what have become of the so-called orange revolution, rose revolution, etc of the eastern Europe. If we want to describe the development as a revolution because of the huge involvement of mass of working masses and youths, and other unfolding elements, we should strive to explain the characters and limitations of the movement like reformist character of its leadership and the absence of a working class revolutionary party. We should state measures that could ensure a permanent revolution.

I admit that facebook is too small a space to do a thorough analysis. This is why we should be careful for our view and position not to be misrepresented. If the movement unseats Ahmadinejad, could it tear asunder the very fabric of theocratic society? Could it finally end the influence of clergy, the supremacy of Ayatollah? Will there be enthronement of working class political and socio-economic alternative?

The movement is still in the process, of course with some elements of pre-revolutionary situation, we should be careful with a final word. May be this could lead to completion of bourgeois revolution in Iran (which itself is a fundamental development; as a socialist I support, though not limited to, struggle that aim at ensuring full democratic rights, rights to form trade union, political parties, equality for women, freedom of expression, etc), but looking from the present height and tendency of the movement, socialist revolution is not yet on the horizon.

It is an interesting historical coincidence that the election that triggered the current uprising in Iran was held on June 12.

Workers of the World Unite! Viva Social Revolution!!

Nigerian Economy: Bad Case Worsened by Global Economic Recession

Demonstrators in Lyon France carried a banner calling for neither state nor bosses - revolution! Millions of workers protested on January 29 accross France to protect jobs and wages

Barack Obama, alarmed by the depth of recession of the US economy and proclivity to go deeper, described recession as a continuous disaster. Yes, it is indeed a disaster, not only for the US, but also the entire world. Gordon Brown has revealed that the world is in recession. Any way, nobody needs Brown’s binoculars to see the monster; the socio-economic indices have been scary and freezing. There is no advanced capitalist economy that worth its salt which is not in recession. The economy of China and Asia has been slowdown. There are record job losses in the US and Europe. Both the financial system and real economy across the world have been receiving serious battering. Many big companies which are global brand have experienced first losses in decades. The US auto industry is kept afloat by tax payer money. There is rapid collapse of production in some of main imperialist countries and Asia.

Several trillions of dollars of public funds have been injected to arrest the rampaging economic tsunami, yet it appears there is no light at the end of the tunnel. On the top of over $1trillion that had been spent to bail out the financial gamblers, $787billion economic stimulus package has been approved by the US Congress. It is expected among other things to create between 3million and 3.5million jobs in a country that has already recorded about 4 million job losses since recession started in December 2007. Another estimated 3 million are set to be thrown to the labour market. In 2008, 2.6 million jobs were lost, the highest since 1945. To underscore the failure of global capitalism, protectionism is now on the agenda. Brown is talking of “British jobs for British people” while Obama has included “Buy American” clause in his stimulus package.

Most bourgeois leaders and commentators have hitherto avoided the word “recession” like a plague while qualifying the crisis. This is no more; truth is intractable and indelible. The crisis has metamorphosed from financial meltdown through economic meltdown to economic recession. The speed of transformation has been supersonic. Possibly, the next port of call is global economic depression. Whether it could reach the level of 1930s Great Depression is a moot question. While recession is a disaster, capitalism itself is horror. Lenin called it horror without end. Already, two persons have committed suicide, one on the account of losing life investment to Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. As defined by Encarta, Ponzi scheme is a pyramid investment swindle in which supposed profits are paid to early investors from money actually invested by later participants. Through this big racket, possibly the largest the world has seen, Madoff bilked investors of over $50bn. This is only symptomatic of flaws and frauds that fuelled the hitherto boom in world economy and have turned back as its Frankenstein’s monster.
Corporate greed and lack of proper regulation of the financial market have been made the scapegoat of this global crisis not seen since the Great Depression. In Europe and US there is hatred for the bank executives which has become deeper with the bumper bonuses they paid themselves after receiving bail-out from the taxpayers’ money. Obviously, financial speculation triggered the crisis, but it is a fundamental crisis of capitalism. There is no capitalism without greed and blind pursuit of profit, and re-introduction of regulation cannot stop the capitalist cycle of boom and burst.

In the absence of international revolutionary working class movement that could seize the opportunity of the crisis to enthrone socialism, capitalism will sprout from its own rubble, though weaker. The economic upswing that just came to an end was built and maintained on cheap finance or credit. Thus, when there is, eventually, a recovery from the worst of this crisis, growth will be very limited because the ruling class will not be able to use credit in the same way to extend the market.

Nigeria in Doldrums

The current crisis of capitalism is indeed pandemic. The contagion has caught up with the countries like Nigeria which had thought that by not being fully integrated into the world economy, they could at worst receive a mere scratch. Globalisation has made this economic maelstrom to be truly global even more than what obtained at the Great Depression. The recession in West and the slowdown in the East have dragged down the prices of commodities, which are the mainstay of the economies at the periphery. Nigerian economy is in doldrums. Though it has always been a battered economy for the poor working masses, who benefited precious nothing from the longest run boom in the annals of Nigeria, the crisis has helped cast into the wind the veneer of pretext and paper economic achievement of the past period.

In the era of the boom in oil price that engendered increasing annual growth and piling up of foreign reserves, the government and its economic managers beat their chest with magic wand as great achievers. Whereas, the phenomenal rise in oil price that reached the all time high of $147 last July obtained in spite of them. Now the oil price has plummeted to around $40. The 2009 budget proposal that is based on $45 per barrel was lame on arrival at the National Assembly. Even at that there is budget deficit of N1.1 trillion which is the largest in Nigeria’s history.

Partly to fund the deficit the Central Bank at the instance of Yar’Adua government has devalued Naira against dollar. This will stimulate artificial increase in the oil revenue in naira terms. But fraudulently or erroneously, Chuwkuma Soludo, the Governor of the apex bank has cited example of China to justify the devaluation of naira. Yuan, the currency of China, is held low in the order to make Chinese exports cheap and competitive. This has already put China and US on the brink of trade war as the latter wants yean to be revalued (to have higher value) in order to be able to compete with China’s products. On the contrary, the devaluation of naira does not accord any balance of trade advantage on Nigeria. The main export of Nigeria, crude oil, is denominated in dollar, which we have no control over. Nigeria is essentially import dependent economy which imports every basic goods including refined petroleum products. Thus, the devaluation can only make goods and service expensive. For instance, the importers of refined crude oil products used the devaluation of naira as reason the decrease in crude oil in the international market could not reflect at the pumps locally.

Notwithstanding the official reason of government, the free fall of naira against dollar reflects an economy in serious crisis. Nigeria’s foreign reserve has shed about $13bn from its $63bn mark in September. The global economic recession has meant that the reserve can only grow slimmer. Deploying the reserve to the level of matching the rate of demand for dollar will make it further emaciated. This will be nightmarish for a government that has only huge reserve to show as index of economic achievement. Hence, the Central Bank has had to constrict the supply of dollar in its intervention in the foreign exchange market.

Catch 22 Situation

In deed, on monetary management, the economy is facing tripled edged challenges. In addition to the falling-naira exchange rate are the crippling inflation rate put at 15.1 percent as of last December and usurious interest rates which are as much as 28 percent. This has put Nigeria in a Catch 22 situation. This is because to tackle this crisis, there must be strong infrastructure base that will provide enabling atmosphere for business. But when the government made huge fortune from the oil boom there was nothing to show for this in term of infrastructural development along with improved standard of living for the vast majority of Nigerians, let alone now that the revenue is on the slump. The crisis of infrastructure has forced many factories and businesses to close shop. Michelin, tyre manufacturer, has shut down its factories in Nigeria while its counterpart, Dunlop has been forced to scale down operation in the country. The textile industry, which used to be the second employer of labour after government has almost become carcass. All this has left on its trail huge job losses.
Talking of job losses, the global economic recession has added more venom to the festering sore in Nigeria. Cadbury has retrenched 300 workers while Vehicle maker Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) has sent home 565 of its 753 workers and placed the rest on half salary due to the recession (The Nation February 9, 2009). The plans by some banks to reduce their workforce have also been reported.

Yar’Adua government has resolved to rely on private initiative for infrastructure financing. In the face of global financial meltdown, this has become anachronistic. International financial institutions have not only cut credit line, they also rely on public funds as lifeline to remain in the business. For sure, Nigerian banking sector cannot provide the succour, don’t mind the claim they are now heavily capitalized. Besides, as a “hot and quick” profit industry, Nigerian banks cannot commit resources to a long term return yielding projects like infrastructure provision. The Compass newspaper reported Sonnie Ayere, the Managing Director of UBA Global Marketing Limited, stating that there is a limit to which the banks can provide finance for infrastructure development, as they can only provide short term facilities, if banking sector will not plunge down (Nigerian Compass November 3, 2008).

What all this has meant is that the Yar’Adua government is poised to leave infrastructure to go to rack and ruin. The paltry capital votes for power, education, health care and transport in the proposed 2009 budget has shown the policy thrust of the anti-poor, neo-liberal government.

Already, the exchange and interest rates have compounded the cost of doing businesses thereby further worsening the inflation. Most manufacturers import the raw materials used in production. The banks consider it too risky to lend money to the real sector in the face of infrastructural decay. For instance, in absence of public power supply, alternative energy contributes about 45% to the cost of production. Banks are in business to make super profit and not to aid development of the economy as against one of the major reasons advanced for the storied banking consolidation exercise.

The monetary policy of the Central Bank that entails mere manipulation of figures has proved too artificial to improve the realities of an economy in crisis. In the last two years, the apex bank has severally mopped up excess liquidity from the system with the aim of taming inflation. This has failed woefully as the rate of inflation keeps soaring. In fact, the inflation skyrocketed from 6.6% to 15.1% in just 12 months from December 2007 to December 2008. Rather, the exercise has only ended up gifting public funds as returns/interest to the banks on the idle funds they have refuse to lend to the real sector but kept in their vaults.

Oil Boom Looted

When the foreign reserve, which is now shedding weight, ought to have been injected into infrastructural development that could have laid solid foundation for a productive economy, a considerable amount of it was put at disposal of global financial sharks and their local vampires to gamble with. The government has kept the nation in dark how much in real value have been the returns on the investment. The flip side looks more the reality, though. The global financial meltdown that affects most of the banks the money is invested has shown that such returns could only be found in castles in the air.

Besides, according to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Nigeria earned N30.78 trillion (about $257bn) in eight years from May 1999 and June 2008. Out of these earnings, N13.63trillion, representing 44.3 percent was transferred to the Excess Revenue Account, which is not only illegal but also fraudulent and unaccountable (Punch October 31 2008). The excess revenues, the difference between the market price of crude oil and budget benchmark, are shared between federal and state governments without appropriation in addition to statutory monthly allocation. There has been nothing to show for this huge revenue in terms of infrastructure development, social welfare, jobs creation and improved standards of living for the ordinary Nigerians. The thieving ruling elite in government at all levels has been looting the treasury in addition to jumbo pay package to its over-bloated top functionaries.

Labour and pro-masses organizations must demand the injection of a large part of the foreign reserve and public resources from other sources into infrastructural development and social services like power, transport, education, health care, etc. The mismanagement of $16bn power project has shown that it is not enough to allocate public funds to finance infrastructure. Ensuring open democratic control of the projects by working people, communities’ representatives and professionals is imperative.

Labour must prepare for a series of political actions in order to drive home the demand for the minimum wage of N52, 200 without job losses. The government has declared that wage increase is not part of its so-called agenda to cushion effects of global economic recession on Nigerian economy. Besides, the only cushion a neo-liberal government in a non-productive economy could provide is the one laced with thorns or another avenue for looting.

The 2009 budget has revealed that ordinary Nigerians are in for more neo-liberal attacks. Labour and pro-masses organizations must prepare to go back to the trenches. On the basis of capitalist neo-liberal policies, it is clear that Yar'Adua government will not commit public resources to infrastructure development and basic needs of poor working people, more so now there is slump in the oil revenue.

Socialist Alternative on Front Burner

The global economic recession is a bold statement on the failure and failing of capitalism. This is more profound in a country like Nigeria which has been suffering from a form of Dutch Disease – socio-economic hardship and non-productive economy in midst of huge revenue from crude oil – even before the global capitalist crisis. Capitalism has failed to develop Nigeria, despite the country's enormous natural and human resources. The Nigerian ruling class is parasitic and generally not prepared to invest in Nigeria. In the world economy dominated by imperialism they see no chance to compete, so they loot and ultimately run. These thieving ruling elite must be chased out of power.

Labour, socialist and pro-masses organizations must build a fighting mass working people that could lead workers, youths and poor masses in a struggle for political power and social change. Such a party, when in power, has to take into public ownership, the commanding heights of economy with democratic management and control by working people. Such socialist nationalisation would allow a democratic plan to be drawn up to mobilize adequate resources to develop the country, finance infrastructure, public education, healthcare, housing, etc, and raise living standards. More importantly, capitalism has to be defeated. Hence, the party must strive to develop to a revolutionary socialist movement.

Already, this crisis, which has led to the collapse of Iceland government and attracted mass protests in France, Greece, etc and social tension around the world, has put socialism and Marxism in the front burner of public discourse globally. More and more workers and youths will rediscover socialist ideas while searching for alternative to the rotten capitalism.

Unveiling the apple of my eye

The apple of my eye, Mariam Olaife-Gold Peluola, was one February 3. Happy Birthday Deary!

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MAELSTROM: How Safe is Nigeria?

Capitalism is in deep crisis. Some have called it Armageddon. But by whatever name it is called, the global financial crisis has melt down the neo-liberal orthodoxy of capitalism. At present, the global financial maelstrom triggered by casino capitalism is raging like tsunami from one end of the earth to another. Developed, developing and under developed economies have all been hit though in different ways. The capitalist commentators themselves have agreed that the crisis will be long-drawn and widespread. Germany and Britain, the strongest economies in Europe, as well as the Eurozone and Japan are now officially in recession. So is the US, but the official proclamation has been postponed until next January when the economy will have recorded negative growth in two consecutive quarters.

The contagion has caught up with the real economy with cases of drop in profits of companies, factory closure and job losses on the rise in US, Europe and China. More and more working class people have started losing their homes because of inability to pay mortgages. The slowdown in world economy has dragged down commodity prices and thinned out revenues of developing countries. Workers, youths and poor masses around the world are in for more attacks on their living standards and basic needs.

More than any other thing the crisis has shown that capitalism is fundamentally flawed. In a complete reversal of what they have preached for the last few decades governments are now directly intervening in business. Some financial institutions have been nationalized viz; Fannie and Freddie, AIG in the US, Northern Rock in Britain and Fortis in Netherlands. This notwithstanding, the list is getting longer everyday. The US auto companies are especially pleading for state aid.

The multi-trillion dollar government interventions not known since the great depression have been tagged socialism by some capitalist commentators. But it has no semblance with genuine ideas of socialism. What we have witnessed is the nationalization of bad debts and rotten assets that litter the financial system around the world. Essentially, it is employing public funds to pay fat cats for their losses and to prop up capitalism.

Curiously, while world economic strategists are sweating and gnashing teeth over the monumental crisis, which has consumed many banks and financial institutions, and its crippling effect on the larger economy, Nigeria economic managers have assured that our financial system is largely insulated. But could any one doubt them. Take for example this year IMF/World Bank annual meeting which had global financial meltdown as the main item on the agenda; Nigerian banks executives were on the sidelines popping champagne over different awards for their "excellent performances". But is Nigeria really safe given the rampaging global financial tsunami?

NIGERIAN BANKS: BEYOND THE RAZZMATAZZ
These days, one hardly opens newspapers without coming across advertorials posting impressive financial results of different banks. But behind this razzmatazz, there is really nothing to celebrate. Nigerian banks are good for nothing. Their phenomenal growth does not reflect in the real economy. For every new branch of bank that is opened, a factory is closed down. In addition to primitive infrastructure and high cost of fuel, real sector operators are denied access to credit facility by banks. Nigerian banks prefer to pump funds into the stock market and stimulate bubble that has burst in the face of many so-called investors. When they lend money at all, it is only to government cronies (Otedola, Dangote, etc) and in specific areas like oil and cement importation and blue chips companies while the manufacturing sector is denied access to credit due to prohibitive interest rate.

This is no fault of theirs however, in the face of pervasive infrastructure decay and attendant high cost of doing business, the risk of granting loan to the real sector is high than necessary. To banks, they are in business to make profit; therefore the real economy may "go to blazes". Again, this proves that banks in their current profit-oriented form cannot be drivers of socio-economic development as against what we have been told by the government while justifying the banking consolidation exercise. This is why socialists demand that the banks and financial institutions have to be put under public ownership with open democratic control and management by the working people so that the resources at their disposal could be deployed for economic development and benefit of all. Meanwhile, the "all is well" tune by Nigerian banks is a moot question. Nigerian banks have obsession for exaggeration of their true worth. More so, the Cadbury scandal has taught us to always take financial and audit report with a pinch of salt.

NIGERIA: CRISIS IS NOW ONSHORE
However, while there could be some abracadabra around the financial sector, there is no hiding place for the real economy. Accordingly, the effects of the global financial meltdown are already here with us. The benchmark of 2009 budget proposal which was originally put at $62.5 per barrel has been cut down, some reports say to $45. The price of crude oil that reached all time high of $147 per barrel in July has come down below $60 due to the financial meltdown and attendant economic slowdown in Western Europe and China as of the second week of November. Even the cut in supply by OPEC could not halt the price slide. Some analysts have said the price would not stop plunging until it is $50.

Paradoxically, for so many years while Nigeria earned mouth watering profit from crude oil sales (from less than $20 a barrel in 1998 to $147 in July 2008), nothing was done to improve the infrastructure or the standard of living of ordinary Nigerians as the funds were looted by capitalist politicians. In addition to decaying infrastructure, Nigerian poor working masses have continued to pay more year-in-year out for goods and services over the same period. The cost of education has reached the roof. The fees paid in public higher institutions have been increased by as much as 5,000% in the last one decade while education quality has kept deteriorating. Most public schools are housed in dilapidated buildings and with no functional learning facilities. Throughout all these periods, medicare became expensive and inaccessible to the poor masses while the cost of domestic fuel (petrol, diesel and kerosene) was arbitrarily hiked for about 7 times in the past nine years. It is therefore not hard to see that further calamity awaits the working and poor people of Nigeria on the basis of the low price of crude oil on the world market. It is the workers, youth, artisans, farmers and poor people who will have to pay for the crisis of capitalism through retrenchment, low wages, increased school fees, unemployment etc.
To be expected is further decay in the already deplorable condition of infrastructures, more power outages, insecurity and general plummeting of living standards. Already, Minister of Transportation hinting that the global financial meltdown will affect the planned rehabilitation of the deplorable road networks in the country recently lamented, "The current global meltdown will probably not assist in this particular instance because I will imagine that funds even further depleted, in terms of budgetary allocation" (Guardian October 17, 2008). Meanwhile, by official figure less than 20% of Nigerian roads are in good condition.

In past few years, many factories have closed shop or relocated out of the country with attendant job losses which add to already saturated labour market. And this is because of high cost of doing business due to poor infrastructures. Michelin has shut down its operations in Nigeria while Dunlop was forced to scale down operation. Textile industry that used to be second biggest employer of labour after government is now a shadow of its former self. Artisans and small businesses that need electricity for operation have had to close shop or continue to hope for a better tomorrow.

Unfortunately, government's response to this debacle is to further cede responsibility of infrastructure provision to the private profit concerns under the public-private partnership initiative. Shamsudeen Usman, Minister of Finance, has continued to echo the policy thrust of the Yar'Adua government that it could not meet the financing requirements of infrastructure provision alone, more so at a period of plummeting government revenue. Besides, according to him, the private sector was a "more preferred" method of financing infrastructure provision. But where and how this "more preferred" private sector will raise fund to finance infrastructure in the face of the rampaging global credit crunch? The reality however is that even before the global financial crisis, Nigerian banks could not commit resources to long term return yielding projects like infrastructure provision.

GOVERNMENT FOR CORPORATE PROFIT
The Nigerian ruling elite are among the worst specie of the neo-liberal capitalist elements. They are perfectly content to live with the imperialist domination of the world economy and have abandoned any idea of really developing Nigeria. Thus they are not interested in committing public resources to public works and basic needs in order to reserve huge resources for looting and primitive accumulation. This is why only 1 percent Nigerians, the rapacious, parasitic ruling elite, has appropriated 80 percent of the wealth from crude oil, as once reported by the World Bank. Even the few public utilities and institutions built in the 70's from the then crude oil windfall have been either privatized or commercialized for profit maximizing interest of a few.
Instead of injecting huge resources realized from the upswing to provision of education, health care, housing, infrastructure, Nigerian ruling is building external reserve to gratify profit interest of global financial institutions and local partners. Meanwhile, Nigerians have not been told how much in the real value of the reserves has been lost to the global financial meltdown.
The poor working masses, who have not benefited from the boom, will be worst hit as we enter the slump. The government has already hinted raising more revenues from taxes. Already, many businesses suffer multiple taxation imposed by all tiers of government. But in sharp contrast to their admonitions that average Nigerians should "tighten their belt", the government has 'bailed-out' its functionaries (executives, law makers and politicians) against the telling impact of the global financial crisis with jumbo pay in addition to inestimable public loots. Again this confirms that on the basis of neo-liberal economic agenda, Yar'Adua government cannot guarantee improved living standard and infrastructure development either in the immediate or future periods. The NLC, TUC and LASCO must therefore begin mobilization of workers, youths and poor masses for mass protests against neo-liberal attacks on the living standards and working conditions.

LABOUR MUST LEAD A FIGHT BACK
Since the global meltdown came to head in September, Nigeria Labour Congress has organized two "NGO like" talk-shops. Unfortunately, there was no conscious effort at using the public events to chart concrete actions to mobilize workers and poor masses in the struggle for power as the events ended up "crying over the situation" as usual. In a press statement issued in the run up to one of the symposia, John Odah, General Secretary of NLC had lamented, "The NLC is concerned that the country seems to be adrift with no viable ideas or polity to anchor it. The Congress is particularly worried about the country's future polity and economic well-being, given the crisis globally" (This Day November 4, 2008)

If the NLC is sincerely concerned about the prostate state of country, it cannot find solution in lamentation or sterile speechifying. First, together with TUC and LASCO, NLC should lead workers, youths and poor masses to demand a N50, 000 living minimum wage, adequate funding of education, health care, etc and provision of basic infrastructure, and oppose hike in fuel price, VAT and resist retrenchment. Labour must also lead a campaign against privatisation and all neo-liberal policies and demand nationalisation of all banks and financial institutions under workers control.

Most importantly, it is more necessary now than ever for labour to spearhead the building of a formidable working people's political alternative, rather than lamentation that has been their pre-occupation in recent time. This means the formation of a working peoples' political alternative that could wrest political power from the thieving ruling elite and commit public resources to basic needs of all and infrastructure development. Such party must prepare to mobilize adequate resources for socio-economic developmental programme and ensure genuine accountability and transparency while in power. This will require putting under public ownership the commanding heights of the economy including big banks, oil industry, etc with democratic management and control by the working people themselves. Such socialist nationalisation would allow a democratic plan to be drawn up to use these resources to develop the country and raise living standards.

If such a transformation took place in a country like Nigeria it is clear that, given the international character of this crisis, it would be an enormously attractive example for working people in other countries to follow, thereby opening the way to transforming the world.
Already, there is a Labour Party registered by the NLC but abandoned. The party should be built and repositioned as a fighting party of workers, youths and poor masses, which identify with their immediate demands and lead them in the struggle for political power. More importantly, the working peoples party must develop to a revolutionary socialist movement in order to defeat iniquitous capitalism that has brought the world into this abyss of mess with its vicious cycle of boom and bust. This is the task for working class people in Nigeria, Africa and worldwide.

Red Views

Buddies, you are welcome to my worldview painted in red. I shall be sharing my opinion on developments around the world. Though I'm internationalist, I was born in Nigeria and live there, discussion on issues on the country will take a fair share of my posting.

You are welcome to the red view

Peluola