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{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl9\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b NIGERIA:
\par CIVIL RULE IN DANGER
\par 
\par A DSM PUBLICATION 
\par 
\par AUGUST 2002
\par }{
\par Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)
\par 162, Ipaja Road, Agege, Lagos
\par P.O. Box 2225, Agege, Lagos
\par Tel: 01-8046603 
\par E-mail: }{\field\flddirty{\*\fldinst { HYPERLINK "mailto:dsm@beta.linkserve.com" }{{\*\datafield 
00d0c9ea79f9bace118c8200aa004ba90b020000001700000017000000640073006d00400062006500740061002e006c0069006e006b00730065007200760065002e0063006f006d000000e0c9ea79f9bace118c8200aa004ba90b3c0000006d00610069006c0074006f003a00640073006d00400062006500740061002e00
6c0069006e006b00730065007200760065002e0063006f006d000000}}}{\fldrslt {\cs15\ul\cf2 dsm@beta.linkserve.com}}}{
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {INTRODUCTION
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par In this pamphlet, the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) x-rays the three years of civil rule in Nigeria and looks at the likely course of events in the coming years. Most importantly, we explain what the working masses and their organisation
s need to do to get the country out of the precipice it is heading as a result of capitalist misrule.
\par 
\par As we were going to press, the controversy over issue of the two weeks ultimatum given to President Olusegun Obasanjo, by the House of Representatives to resign or be impeached was still raging. The president was accused of \'93
monumental inadequacies, ineptitude, persistent disrespect for the rule of law and the obvious corruption being perpetrated in the presidency which exposes Mr. President's inability to steer the ship of the state as its president\'94.
\par 
\par As true as the accusations are, it will however be erroneous to think that removing Obasanjo will make any better change or that those behind the attempt are acting in the interest of the society. The realit
y is that we are confronted by the grave crisis of a neo-colonial capitalist state operated by anti-poor political elites both in the legislature and the executive. Giving the unprincipled character of the members of the National Assembly, the whole impea
chment threat may be another ploy to extort more money or other concession from the executive as it had been several times in the past three years.
\par 
\par But in the event Obasanjo is impeached, the country will only be plunged into deeper crisis. In the first in
stance, this present dispensation cannot yield any better alternative. In particular, should the current vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, succeeds an impeached Obasanjo, this will further heighten the nationality question. The result will be greater instab
ility that will further threaten the fragile civil rule.
\par 
\par As we explain inside this pamphlet, neither Obasanjo and his cabinet nor members of the National Assembly or any section of the capitalist class can guarantee democracy and decent working and living 
conditions for the masses. These can only be attained and sustained by the mass struggles of the masses and conscious efforts of trade unions, students' organisations, community groups, NCP, etc. Such efforts must be galvanised into an independent mass wo
rking people's political party whose goal will be to end the misrule of the capitalist elite and to transform society along socialist lines. It is how this objective can be realised that should preoccupy labour and youth activists.
\par 
\par 19th August, 2002
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CONTENT
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Chapter 1-\tab General Overview
\par Chapter 2-\tab Failure of Neo-liberalism
\par Chapter 3-\tab Breaking With IMF?
\par Chapter 4-\tab Will There Be A Coup?
\par Chapter 5-\tab National Question
\par Chapter 6-\tab The Labour Movement
\par Chapter 7-\tab NCP and 2003 Elections
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CHAPTER ONE- GENERAL OVERVIEW
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par It is now over three years since the military were forced out of power in Nigeria.
\par 
\par Looking back, it has been a period of pains and pangs for most layers of the working masses. The period has been dominated mostly by infernal socio-religious strife an
d violent wars. Crime has assumed a more widespread and horrendous dimension. The various economic cum political problems ravaging the working masses have not only survived, in several respects, they have become more intractable and burdensome.
\par 
\par Against th
e widely held belief that civil rule will ensure better living conditions and liberties, excruciating poverty and oppression remain the lot of the masses. Corruption, one of the most inglorious features of military rule, has not only survived, it has beco
me more monstrous and widespread.
\par 
\par In fact, if the current trend persists, then the future of Nigeria is at stake. The endemic economic and social crises, and rise in ethnic nationalism these have engendered, mean that a break-up of the country in the comin
g period cannot be ruled out. Even more frightening is the increasing prospect that ethnic wars which have recently ravaged countries like Rwanda, Somalia, Congo and Yugoslavia, and in which millions of lives could be lost, could take place here.
\par 
\par On the g
ood side though, the working masses have not just meekly reconciled themselves to their artificial, capitalist-induced plights. Apart from series of industrial strikes and mass demonstrations that have rocked the different sectors of the economy and socie
t
y, two nation-wide general strikes have been organised by the leadership of the NLC in less than three years of civil rule. But the inability of the labour movement to give a real alternative has led to growing despair, and the search for short cuts in th
e form of nationalism, religion, corruption, crime or migration. 
\par 
\par But to the capitalist politicians and their cronies, the past three years are seen as Nigeria's best moment, in the recent period. When grudgingly they concede that the living conditions of 
the masses leave much to be desired, invariably, this will be attributed to the fact that too much damages had been wrought on the economy and polity during military years, than can be tackled in a four-year tenure. Thus giving the impression that things 
will get better for the masses if the current policies and their makers are given another four-year terms of office!
\par 
\par But we ask: can any good thing ever deliberately come out of the gang of capitalist vampires presently holding sway at the central, state and local government levels?
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {GOVERNMENTS OF THE RICH
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par In all the tiers of government, the reigning philosophy is this: the rich to become richer while the masses can go to blazes. Under the bogus terms of privatisation and liberalisation, collective herita
ge and social wealth are being handed over/sold to a few private local and foreign businesses, at give-away prices. At the same time, the governments have intensified commercialisation drive which means that only those who have sufficient money deserve to
 have food, water, housing, health care, education, electricity, telephones, etc. Can these counter-productive approach and policies ever pave way for mass prosperity and political freedom?
\par 
\par In the history of post-independent Nigeria, no sitting government had ever conducted free, fair and acceptable elections, even going by bourgeois standard. Are there indications that this time around things will be different?
\par 
\par What factors lay beneath Nigeria's ceaseless ethnic and religious crises? How can these problems be permanently and positively solved in the interests of the working masses?
\par 
\par Things have become so bad that even sections of the working masses, including some trade union and socialist activists, have begun to develop illusion in the return of the mili
tary. Can the military come back now and if so, can that bring better living conditions and democratic rights to the masses?
\par 
\par Is it true that there is no viable alternative to the prevailing global capitalist exploitation and oppression? If there is, as we
 socialists have always insisted, what are the basic economic and political features of this alternative? Put differently, how can the working masses put in place an economic and political alternative that will guarantee their own basic needs and aspirati
ons?
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {SOCIALIST REVOLUTION OR THE DEEPENING OF BARBARISM
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par More than at any other time in Nigeria's post-independence history, the economic features and orientations of the past three years of civil rule have clearly revealed the fact that there are only two
 options before the working masses: socialist revolution or the deepening of barbarism.
\par 
\par As at 29th May, 1999, when the present civilian section of the capitalist class replaced their military counterparts, crude oil, the main foreign exchange earner, was 
selling at $9 per barrel. But as a result of developments in he world oil market, this soon went up to $20 per barrel. 
\par 
\par But as usual, while the country makes more money, little or nothing is being spent to improve the living conditions of the masses. Less
 than 10 million Nigerians have access to the minimum health care facilities recommended by the World Health Organisation. 18.6% or 24,180,000 million Nigerians are categorised as hungry by ACDESS. This is expected to increase to 27.8% or 36,140,000 milli
on by the year 2015. 85.5 million Nigerians are too poor to afford the basic standard of living, good shelter, nutritious food and good education. 69% or 89 million Nigerians are living on less than a dollar per day.
\par 
\par Not surprisingly, life expectancy at birth in Nigeria is put at 47 years and 52 years for male and female respectively. The figures for the developed capitalist countries are 73 years and 80 years for male and female respectively.
\par 
\par Yes, governments at central state and local levels and private 
employers have had to increase the wages paid to their workers. But apart from the fact that this exercise covers only an infinitesimal proportion of the working masses, the overall effects of this increment itself had been cancelled by other pro-rich, an
ti-poor capitalist policies being implemented by governments, across parties and structures.
\par 
\par Today, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs as a result of claims of inability to pay this increment. The better to be forgotten era of accumulate
d, unpaid salaries and allowances are back again. For most pensioners, it is nightmare unlimited. To the bought press and ignorant/fraudulent public commentators, Tinubu's government in Lagos State is a \'93success\'94. Yet this same \'93successful\'94, 
\'93Awoist\'94 gover
nment has sacked 15,000 public servants ostensibly because of inability to pay the new minimum wage. To add insult to injury, the government has refused to pay these unfortunate workers their terminal benefits one year and a half after their unjust sack!

\par 
\par Osun State, another state headed by an \'93Awoist\'94
, in the person of Bisi Akande, has sacked about 12,000 public servants including teachers, in a state where government is the largest employer of labour. And for daring to continue to fight this unjust act, D
r. Oyebade Olowogboyega, the NULGE president in Osun State who spearheaded the struggle for the payment of N6,500 minimum wage, was pencilled down for elimination via assassination. On the 19th July, 2001, gunmen were sent to his house at about 2.00 a.m. 
with a view to kill him. Although Olowogboyega's assailants did not succeed in killing him, they nonetheless left him with a leg irreparably damaged for life, as a result of gunshot.
\par 
\par In the last three years, the President Olusegun Obasanjo's central govern
ment has increased the prices of petroleum products twice. Needless to stress, this as usual, has led to astronomical rises in the prices of housing, transportation, telecommunications, goods and services in general. In a situation where retrenchment of w
o
rkers is seen as the best strategy to ensure balanced budget and at the same time enhance profitability, the fact that the overwhelming majority of able and qualified persons, most especially youths, remain jobless and have no prospect of gainful employme
nt in the foreseeable future, needs no special explanation.
\par 
\par While wrecking unprecedented assaults on public housing, education and health services, while accessibility to electricity and telephones remain in pre-civilisation threshold, while less and less 
proportion of roads are being tarred/maintained, when compared with even with the most inglorious civilian regimes of the past, government propaganda through the bought bourgeois press, have come up with glowing but virtually non-existing achievements.

\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {TINUBU'S \'93MIRACLES\'94
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Take for instance, the \'93people's\'94, \'94action\'94 governor of Lagos State, \'93Asiwaju\'94 Ahmed Bola Tinubu. His government presently is said to be operating pro-masses, welfarist programmes in housing, education and health care. This is how they w
ork out in reality! The cheapest house in Tinubu's housing programme goes for N2 million, in a state where annual minimum wage is less than N150,000. Even the highest paid public servants could not afford the cheapest of government houses without bending 
the rules or indulging in outright looting of government money! But hang on a moment; government has devised an ingenious way to dress up this apparent fraud in a pro-masses garb!
\par 
\par In place of religious miracles, government has introduced lottery a game of 
chance. And as it does sometime happen, a thirteen-month-old child of Mr. And Mrs. Kayode Davies, a poor working class family has become an owner of a two bedroom flat. (The Guardian Sunday April 7, 2002). Quite rightly, the boy's parents have described t
he whole episode as a miracle. But as it is to be expected, government propagandists see it as a victory for governor Tinubu's pro-masses housing policy. All hail \'93Asiwaju\'94, the \'93people's\'94 governor!
\par 
\par Visit any government hospital, you are likely to see writ
ten on boards or at the back of files, announcements of free health services of different categories. There is one which promises free health services for children below three years of age. There is another which promises free medical care of 24 hours for
 
accident victims, etc. For the few children that can be accommodated in the available bed spaces or attended to by the limited number of medical doctors, the usual practice is to ask the parents to provide most of the required drugs and medical facilities
.
 For the accident victims, 24 hours free medical care means 24 hours of abandonment, after which treatment is based on ability to pay. There is supposed to be in existence a free maternity and child delivery service. Officially, expectant mothers are not 
s
upposed to pay any money. However, in reality, they have to purchase every item that would be used for their deliveries, ranging from drugs, gloves to ordinary needles and syringes. In the final analysis, a normal delivery costs up to N10,000 while a caes
arean section operation costs between N30,000 to N40,000 under this Tinubu's free medical service.
\par 
\par Education has not had it so bad. 48 public schools which tens of thousands of pupils used to attend have been handed over to private, profit merchants, masqu
erading as missionaries. The direct effect of this elitist education policy is the resultant over- crowded classes and staff rooms of the remaining public schools.  Apart from the fact that little or no meaningful learning can be done in the prevailing un
c
ongenial atmosphere, teachers face the risk of mass retrenchment either before or after 2003 elections. This is because it is almost certain that government will say that it cannot justifiably retain same number of teaching personnels when there are 48 le
s
s schools! A typical example is the situation in Tolu Schools Complex in Ajeromi-Ifelodun local government area. Here, the demolition of one secondary school and six primary schools to make way for houses for the elite has led to the merging of several sc
hools. As a result, it is now the pattern to see about 150 students crammed into a classroom originally built to accommodate 40 students!
\par 
\par The failure and hypocrisy of Tinubu and other AD governors in the south west enumerated above is equally applicable to
 all other governors elected on the platforms of all the registered political parties across the country. For instance, most of the northern governors have failed to uplift the living standards of the masses in their domains. Meanwhile, they have sought u
ndeserved popularity by pretending to be religious by introducing the Sharia Islamic code. Similarly, most of the south-east and south-south governors have been pretending to be championing the interests of their people by leading crusades for \'93
Igbo presidency\'94 and \'93resource control\'94 respectively.
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CHAPTER TWO \endash  FAILURE OF NEO-LIBERALISM
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b 
\par 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADE?
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par During his campaigns and at the early period of his tenure, President Obasanjo was waxing eloquent on the need to stamp out corruption in government. This is a mere verbal crusade as the corruption \'93business\'94
 continues to flourish, as usual. While a few minor government officials have been arrested and put on trial, the big-time corrupt politicians and public servants are still treated as sacred 
cows. A graphic example is Lieutenant-General Jeremiah Useni (rtd), the former minister for federal capital territory and close ally of the late General Sani Abacha. Though he confessed to having unjustly acquired dozens of choice landed properties in the
 
federal capital city, Abuja, he has never been prosecuted. Equally, General Ibrahim Babangida, who presided over one of the most corrupt regimes in Nigeria's history, still lives freely in his 50-room mansion in Minna, Niger State and even visits Aso Rock
 to consult with President Obasanjo. Also, in a very rotten and disgraceful deal, the Obasanjo government has agreed that the Abacha family should keep $100 million out of the money looted by the late dictator and his cronies from the Nigerian treasury.

\par 
\par Hu
ndreds of billions of naira has been voted for electricity, road construction, etc, by the various tiers of government. Nonetheless, electricity supply remains epileptic for most of the 30% Nigerians that have access at all to light. As usual, most of the
 
money voted for these projects has been looted by top government officials in collaboration with their local and foreign capitalist contractors. This is aside from the fabulous salaries and allowances that are being paid to top executives and parliamentar
i
ans across the country. While the masses groan under excruciating poverty, top government officials, from president to local councillors, and their wives, continue to embark on frivolous foreign trips drawing large allowances and estacodes in dollars, fro
m public purse.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {ENDLESS NIGHTMARE
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Overall, economic life and prospects have remained in a state of stupor and decay. The real value of naira continues unabated along the path of systematic decline. In May 1999, when the Obasanjo regime came to power, N85 
was needed as an exchange for $1. Today $1 exchanges for N145. At 35%, the prevailing bank exchange rate forecloses the possibility of long term borrowing by the real sectors of the economy. There have been reports that industrial capacity utilisation has
 
risen slightly from about 34% to 40%. But this calls for no cheer as it must be evaluated against the background of the reduced capacity caused by the closure of several factories and plants over the past two decades that the economy has been in recession
.
 ThisDay newspaper of 13th April, 2002 reported the president of Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria, Charles Ughwu, as saying that Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.8% in 2001 according to official estimate. But this figure falls far sho
rt of the national plan target of 10% growth rate.
\par 
\par It is significant that this year is the 20th anniversary of the ending of the \'93oil boom\'94 and the first austerity package of the Second Republic announced by the then President Shehu Shagari. The history of
 the whole period since Nigeria's so-called independence in 1960 has been capitalism's inability to develop Nigeria. Even technically simple things like providing clean water, sanitation, continuous electricity and good transport have proved too much for 
weak Nigerian capitalism to provide and not profitable enough for imperialism to invest in. 
\par 
\par But the leaderships of the six registered political parties (PDP, ANPP, AD, UNPP, NDP and APGA) have said, times without number, that \'93market force\'94, private enter
prise and foreign investment will continue to constitute the central planks of the country's economic strategy.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {PRIVATISATION
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Plainly put, Obasanjo and virtually all members of the capitalist ruling class across the parties see privatisation of the comma
nding heights of the economy and the liberalisation of the entire economy in compliance with the dictates of imperialism and finance capital, as the best solution to problems of economic decay and underdevelopment. If it may be stressed, there is nothing 
n
ew either about this counter-productive strategy or its particular implementation in Nigeria. The only thing that could be said to be new is the unprecedented, neck-breaking speed with which the Obasanjo regime has been selling collective resources and he
ritage to a few capitalist corporations in the name of privatisation! Of course, more than ever before, the Obasanjo regime and the Nigerian capitalist elite in general, have been under pressure from imperialism to \'93open up\'94 the economy further.

\par 
\par A major fa
ctor for this is the change in world situation. When Nigeria's oil industry was nationalised in 1975 the Nigerian bourgeoisie, like others in the neo-colonial world, was able to a limited extent to balance between the two super powers. But, following the 
c
ollapse of the USSR, imperialism has dominated the world. Although it may be possible, in the future, to play off one group of imperialists against another, this will really only be possible when serious conflicts develop between the different bandits, an
d
 even then it will have the character of only getting brief breathing spaces. In the 1990s we have seen the general drive of all the imperialist countries to open markets etc. The key point for a country like Nigeria is that it cannot follow the same path
 
of development that western Europe, the USA and Japan undertook. This is because today the imperialist countries already dominate the world economy and developing countries are faced with already developed competitors. Countries like South Korea and Taiwa
n
 that have developed in the last period were exceptions because there were strategic political reasons for the main imperialist powers to encourage their development. Of course the imperialist countries can undertake operations or production etc. in the n
eo-colonial world, but they are only subsidiaries. 
\par 
\par The first two years of the Obasanjo regime was devoted to sales of public corporations in several key sectors of the economy, including petroleum, construction, insurance, hotels, cement industry, telecom
munications, etc. So far, only a meagre sum of N19 billion has been realised as proceeds from privatisation of assets that cost tens of billion dollars originally! If only for this fact, privatisation is nothing but an act of legal looting of public asset
s by a few capitalist elements and multinational corporations. 
\par 
\par The inefficiency, poor performance and corruption that characterise public corporations such as NITEL, NEPA, Airways, etc, are what are being used as pretexts for their privatisation. But the 
capitalists who are selling and buying these public assets are the ones responsible for their failure in the first instance, through their acts of under-funding, mismanagement, nepotism and looting. Having run these public assets aground, they now want to
 sell them to themselves cheaply at rock-buttom prices! 
\par 
\par Privatisation is thus nothing but a brazen act of robbing the poor to settle the rich. Never be deceived that the privatisation programme was designed to rid government of unproductive and unprofitab
le ventures. In practice, it is usually the other way round. Ponder this quotation from page 42 of The Guardian of March 24, 2002: \'93
NICON for ten years had been the most successful business. In 1999, NICON was posting a profit of N1 billion. While big insu
rance companies were selling out to competitors, NICON was expanding its trading interests in hotels, manufacturing and other areas in Nigeria. NICON is the largest insurance company in Africa with assets in excess of $1 billion. When the Yorkshire Insura
nce Company, a British firm in Nigeria, fell into bad times, NICON bought it over and made it a profitable business concern in the name of Niger Insurance Company. Why then must this company be privatised?\'94
\par 
\par This and other lucrative ventures and resources m
ust be privatised because privatisation, first and foremost is an organised racket wherein the most powerful foreign and local capitalist elements rob the public of its resources and wealth for little or nothing. Nothing shows this negative syndrome bette
r than the recent purported sale of NITEL.
\par 
\par NITEL's total purchase price was put at $1.185 billion. By the sales agreement, the successful bidder was expected to pay a sum of $136.7 million i.e. the equivalent of 10% of the purchase price as advanced paymen
t. The rest 90% was to be paid after purchase agreement has been duly concluded and signed by the parties. However, when this was done, the successful bidder, Investors International London Limited (IILL) neglected/failed to pay the balance of the agreed 
sum. Certain reasons including political instability, sluggish economic climate, etc have been cited, amongst other things, as reasons why this company could not even pay the highly under estimated purchase price!
\par 
\par Even the 10% paid was gathered from differ
ent other capitalist corporations obviously looking for easy profits. First Bank of Nigeria Plc gave this fictitious parasitical company called IILL a huge sum of $96.2 million without consultation or permission of depositors, most of whom are middle clas
s and working class people. Continental Holding SA of Hamburg put down a sum of $10 million, while SIOTEL Limited and Sunny Odogwu contributed $20 million.
\par 
\par Meanwhile, the original idea sold to the public was that these commanding heights of the economy would be sold to \'93core investors\'94 who are expected to have sufficient technical know how and financial muscles. But what happens in reality?
\par 
\par Those that bought government shares in UNIPETROL are the ones bidding for government shares in AGIP. Their simple pla
n is to secure a loan of about N8 billion, which they will need to buy Agip, from bank(s). As soon as the deal sails through, the corporate headquarters of AGIP will be put up for sales to partly repay the purchase loan.
\par 
\par All these reveal how, under the guise of privatisation, capitalist elements and their finance institutions buy public assets with public money and turn them into their own private properties.
\par 
\par It must always be stressed that the cardinal objective of privatisation is to open new ways for p
rofit making by the multinational corporations and their local allies. This will further deny the working masses and the poor segments of society access to the basic necessities of life such as food, education, medicare, jobs, etc. Thus, privatisation is 
a recipe for permanent social crisis and violence amongst classes and nations of the world or that of a given country like Nigeria. 
\par 
\par For instance, the world richest individual, Bill Gates, and other 2,999 super rich individuals are said to be richer than t
he poorest 2 billion people on earth. But according to United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and World Health Organisation (WHO), a sum of $40 billion, judiciously spent, is enough to wipe out curable diseases and illiteracy f
r
om the surface of earth. This US$ 40 billion is also less than the amount by which President Bush is increasing US military spending in the aftermath of the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. The privatisation drive is not concerned with the
 
issue of how this sum can be raised but how to transfer the natural and human resources of the universe into the hands of a few super billionaires. Hence, the road of privatisation is the road of mass poverty and the concomitant social crisis and violence
.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {TRADE LIBERALISATION
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par The other central plank of Obasanjo's economic strategy is called trade liberalisation. This is the same ruinous, counter productive policy usually preached by international business monopolies and their cronies in governments and i
nstitutions such as World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank and the IMF. The conventional argument is that trade and investments, and through this productivity and profitability, will only flourish when there is little or no trade and economic restrict
i
ons, by the different countries of the world. So everybody should be free to sell and buy from anywhere in the world. But in practice, this policy has shown to be more beneficial to the companies and countries of the advanced capitalist world to the utter
 disadvantage of the underdeveloped countries like Nigeria.
\par 
\par Under the guise of liberalisation, the nation's commanding heights of the economy are sold at give away prices to the highest bidder invariably a foreign company or local company backed by foreign business concern!
\par 
\par Simultaneously, the feeble local industries are usually destroyed by the more efficient and cheaper foreign competitors. This explains while a large proportion of so-called local industries and corporations do little these days beyond a
cting as conduit pipe for the importation and sales of goods produced outside the country. This is the basis of the perpetual low level of capacity utilisation, as well as massive unemployment in society.
\par 
\par Yes, the economic and social emancipation of the w
orking masses and mankind in general is a task that can only be fully actualised within the framework of international economic and social integration. However, this integration can only be able to attain its true, selfless potential only if the entire na
t
ural and human resources of the universe are democratically planned for the use of entire mankind and consideration for the environment as opposed to the prevailing practice of seeking to appease the insatiable and irrational profit greed of a few super b
illionaires.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s16\qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
This is the basic contradiction facing the working masses today. If the universe resources is not owned, controlled and managed democratically by the working people of each capitalist country and jointly in collaboration with the working peopl
es of all countries, it will inevitably be owned, controlled and dominated by a few capitalist corporations and their directors. This of course, as it had been pointed out before, can only be a recipe for perpetual misery and instability.
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CHAPTER THREE- BREAKING WITH IMF?
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b 
\par 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {PURPORTED WITHDRAWAL FROM THE IMF 
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par The hopeless situation facing the masses and the society under capitalism and imperialism was illustrated by the decision of the Obasanjo regime to purportedly withdraw from IMF monitored economic p
rogramme and the reversal of the same decision a few weeks after it was announced.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s16\qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\'93
When the Olusegun Obasanjo administration came into power, it invited the IMF and the World Bank to help provide second level quality checks for its macroeconomic policies
. Specifically, it invited the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the Bretton Woods institution to advise the nation on privatisation\'94. (The Guardian, 6/4/2002)
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par For most averagely conscious working class people and youths, 
the names - World Bank and IMF - instantly bring forth a feeling of horror and misery. But to members of the capitalist class like Obasanjo, Tinubu, Kachalla (the Borno State governor), Dr Kalu (governor of Abia State), etc., the Bretton Woods institution
s like IMF, World Bank, etc. embodied the last wisdom in economic management. 
\par 
\par This is why the entire country and its people are being cheaply sold into second slavery, in the name of privatisation and liberalisation. This is what globalisation means to im
perialism and its private international monopolies. The World Bank and the IMF, as creations of imperialism, were precisely created to achieve this selfish and unjust goal. The servile and spineless collaboration of members of the local capitalist class w
ith the foreign senior partners should thus be seen as the inevitable consequence of the conduct of a very greedy but economically weak allies.
\par 
\par In other words, every class conscious working class person or youth should understand why the various capitalist
 elements ruling the country will always dance to any tune dictated by their imperialist masters and their institutions like the IMF and World Bank.
\par 
\par The central aim of members of the local capitalist class is to convert the entire societal resources and techniques into their own private estates, exclusively under the whims and caprices of themselves and members of their \'93 God chosen\'94
 families. Here we need not stress that this has always been the reason and motive behind every imperialist expansion. As it 
should be known, imperialism is the author and originator of privatisation and liberalisation especially as being articulated in the prevailing globalisation concept.
\par 
\par The local capitalists want to steal the country and its people for the sole benefits of 
their own private estates. Significantly, this is also the central aim of imperialism when it preaches globalisation, trade liberalisation, etc., knowing fully well that it has better economic and political advantages than its economically and politically
 
weak neo -colonial counterparts in any global sales of commanding heights of a national economy and exportation of goods and services. On its part, the neo-colonial bourgeois will always grumble and even make occasional attempts to stand up to their forei
g
n senior partners. However, as long as selfish, profit motive of capitalism dominate their thoughts and action, they can never be expected to make a clean break with the hateful anti- poor, pro-rich policies usually championed by the World Bank and IMF. T
h
e neo-colonial bourgeoisie in Nigeria and elsewhere see that they have no chance to compete successfully with imperialism. This explains why they do not seriously invest in production. Instead, they engage mainly in trading, financial speculations as well
 as looting of public treasury.
\par 
\par But the Obasanjo administration falsely gave the opposite impression when he told the world on 5th March, 2002 that it had broken with the IMF monitored economic programme. According to Tunji Oseni, the senior special assist
ant to the president on media affairs, who made this revelation, government has taken this decision because of its commitment to the principles of \'93political stability, democratic consolidation, credibility and accountability\'94. 
\par 
\par Elaborating later on the same 5th March, 2002, finance minister, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, stated that government had decided to formally withdraw from the IMF because \'93
it does not wish to continue with arrangements where only narrowly defined macroeconomic considerations come into play\'94. Ciroma went further: \'93
The government owes it to the people of Nigeria and secondarily to its external partners to identify prudent economic objectives that the people of Nigeria can support\'94. 
\par 
\par Simultaneously, President Obasanjo, in conjunction with other African rulers, has come up with what, from afar, looks like a responsive, anti-imperialist African renaissance economic cum political agenda. This initiative is called \'93
New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)\'94. Obasanjo, Thabo Mbeki  (South Africa's president) and other African rulers have been making high-sounding speeches, on the aims and objectives of NEPAD. Amongst other things, NEPAD is described as \'93
the most attractive basis of productive and viable interaction and cooperation between the international community and the continent\'94
. Addressing the steering committee of NEPAD in Abuja on 26th March, 2002, President Obasanjo amongst other things stated: \'93African leaders are fully aware of their responsibilities and obligations to their peoples. \'85
\par We must all ensure that Africa indeed claims the 21st century. There is the urgent need to set up parameters for good governance to guide our activities at both the political and economic levels\'94
\par 
\par When the aforestated decisions and comments are being 
made by rulers like Obasanjo, Mbeki etc. there exists the likelihood of sections of the working masses thinking that these African capitalist elements are prepared to break with the anti poor, pro-rich philosophy and policies of capitalism. In Zimbabwe at
 
the moment, President Robert Mugabe wants to be seen as standing up to imperialism. He and his ZANU-PF party are implementing some pseudo-radical land reforms, which in practice have forced some of the extremely few but rich and influential white farmers 
to lose some little fraction of their land. 
\par 
\par What therefore are the real stuff and ingredients of Nigeria's \'93formal\'94 withdrawal from the IMF monitored economic programme? Are there really new elements in NEPAD's composition and objectives?
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {BRAKING WITH IMF?
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par As far as the need and aspirations of the working people are concerned, government's purported withdrawal from the IMF monitored economic programme would have little on no positive effect. Government of course, stated that it would in place of the IMF 
monitored policies provide a \'93home grown alternative\'94.
\par 
\par This is a blatantly false commitment. Barely two days after government's purported withdrawal from the IMF, Mallam Tijani Abdulahi, Acting Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) ad
mitted that the privatisation drive of the Obasanjo regime is informed by the prevailing \'93global trend\'94.
\par 
\par In other words, all the pro-rich, anti-poor policies of mass retrenchment, commercialisation of housing, health care, education, telecommunications, water, light, etc, would continue as before.
\par 
\par But the purported withdrawal from IMF programme also shows that the neo-colonial ruling class sometimes are compelled to take account of mass opinion. In addition, it cannot be ruled out that they may be forced 
to take some limited measures against imperialist interests because of mass pressure from below.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {SAP
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par In any event, this is not the first time a Nigerian government had purportedly shunned the IMF. In 1986, the military junta headed by General Ibrahim Bab
angida launched a neo-liberal anti-poor, pro-rich economic agenda called the Structural  Adjustment Programme (SAP). SAP was initially presented as a \'93home grown alternative\'94
 to the IMF-preferred policies which the working people had resoundingly rejected 
in a government sponsored referendum. Of course, SAP turned out to be the most coherent, comprehensive, pro- imperialist, capitalist, anti-working people's agenda ever articulated and implemented in Nigeria hitherto. 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s16\qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {Whether sanctified or not by the Worl
d Bank and IMF, privatisation of societal resources and techniques will only spell disaster for the vast majority of human race. This means that mass hunger will remain, illiteracy will continue and joblessness will remain the order of the day; crimes and
 sectarian strife will become intensified.
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b 
\par ELECTORAL GIMMICK
\par }{
\par There is therefore no serious, irreconcilable disagreement between the IMF and Nigeria's capitalist government. The government, knowing that it lacks any genuine spontaneous mass appeal that can
 get it re-elected, has decided to spare no cost to get re-elected at all cost! This decision the government knows well will surely attract \'93criticism\'94
 of the IMF officials. Hence, government decision to eat its cake, while pretending to keep it. Governmen
t wants to be spending money anyhow to get re-elected. On the basis of the counter-productive policies of the World Bank and IMF, this is not acceptable because of the inflationary wave which this conduct will unleash.
\par 
\par So, in order to avoid any costly verbal critique, government has formally withdrawn from the IMF monitored programme, while at the same time pretending that this is being done because of the masses. Hear the Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma: \'93
the government owes it to the people of Nigeria .....to identify prudent economic objectives that the people of Nigeria can support\'94.
\par 
\par So far, there is no single objective of the capitalist government headed by Obasanjo that can be truly supported by the working masses. The \'93formal\'94 withdrawal is
 thus nothing but an election gimmick. Before or after the 2003 elections the Obasanjo government or any other capitalist variation will have no choice than to \'93formally\'94 go back, cap in hand to the World Bank / IMF.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {NEPAD
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Beyond rhetorics, there is noth
ing new about NEPAD's composition and objectives. First and foremost, NEPAD is being packaged by the same set of the neo-colonial capitalist elements that are very corrupt and tyrannical in their respective countries. Even the current verbal renaissance d
oes not reveal any clear break with the status quo in any respect whatsoever. According to the Vanguard of 27/03/02, \'93
in the past six months, NEPAD officials have met three times with representatives of the G8 leading industrialised nations to prepare a plan to put to the next G8 summit in Canada in June\'94.
\par 
\par According to The Guardian of the same day, NEPAD's initiators \'93welcomed on going engagements with developed states and multilateral institutions and urged that interactions be continued to meet the ultimate objectives of the new development paradigm
\'85. The heads of state noted that in the spirit of partnership and development co-operation the invitation from the Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) to host the third meeting of the summit\'94 (NEPAD) \'93
in Rome, Italy during the food submit in 2002 has\'85\'85..been accepted\'94.
\par 
\par NEPAD therefore does not represent in any sense a break with imperialism or its hated policies. In composition, objectives and style, NEPAD is more like a loyal rebel,
 in the character of Her Majesty's parliamentary opposition where subterfuge is the preferred option to substance. To expect a new economic alternative from African capitalist rulers that is different from that of imperialism is to live in the world of il
lusion that someday the exploiters of the masses will voluntarily swap positions with their victims, the exploited working masses. NEPAD therefore means Never Expect Any Development.
\par 
\par According to a NEPAD's estimate, Africa needs annual foreign investments 
of $64 billion to ensure sustainable growth. But in the skewed world of capitalist globalisation, Africa and other poor countries of the world will end up paying more to the advanced capitalist countries than whatever paltry investment will be made by the
se countries. Between 1984 and 1999, the poorest countries in Africa handed over $11 billion in debt service to western creditors. Africa owes those countries more than three times her original loans. 
\par 
\par According to Nigeria's finance minister, Mallam Adamu 
Ciroma, Nigeria originally borrowed $12 billion from Paris Club, repaid the sum of $17 billion, only to find itself still owing a sum of $21.25 billion to the same Paris Club! (Vanguard, August 1, 2000).
\par 
\par Imperialism is never a charitable entity. Whatever 
investments the so-called international community will make in Africa or elsewhere will be strictly based on how high is the prospects of returns. In the case of Nigeria and other highly indebted countries, such \'93investments\'94
 will be tied down to the unscrupulous sales of the assets of the countries concerned, in the name of privatisation and trade liberalisation.
\par 
\par Amongst other things, what Africa and other oppressed countries and nations of the world need for true emancipation is a total repudiation of th
e fictitious, unjust and unsustainable debts said to be owed by these countries. This of course, is only possible within the framework of an anti-capitalist international socialist order. Even compared with the Pan-Africanist agenda of the 50s/60s, that i
s the Pan Africanism of Kwame Nkrumah's era, NEPAD is a complete throw back. Where a complete break with imperialism and all its institutions and ethos are required, NEPAD proposes active collaboration and subservience to imperialism.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {ZIMBABWE
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par However, th
ere is something significant about both NEPAD and Mugabe's land reform programme in Zimbabwe. It is this: the needless suffering of the working people has become so unbearable that even those responsible (local capitalists and imperialism) for this deplor
able plight are being forced to recognise that there is a problem on hand. Expecting solution to come from these narrow minded, imperialist lackeys is however a different issue entirely.
\par 
\par In Zimbabwe, twenty one years after independence, 45% of the arable l
and is owned by white capitalist farmers. On the other side, 55% of this land is shared between black farmers constituting 70% of the population. The land question therefore still retains all the explosiveness of the pre-independence era.
\par 
\par For two decades,
 Mugabe and his leading officials, just like their counter-parts in other African countries have spared nothing to appease the insatiable profit greed and corruption of capitalism. These neo-liberal attacks on the living standards of the working people re
s
ulted in increasing mass opposition to the Mugabe regime, manifested in many protests and general strikes against his anti-poor policies, especially in the 1990s. Pressure built up for a political alternative in the form of a party to represent the intere
s
ts of the poor, marginalised workers and peasants. It was this pressure that led to the creation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Unfortunately, though the MDC evolved from the trade unions and its leader, Morgan Tsigangirai, is for
mer general secretary of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, its leadership has embraced capitalist programmes and policies. 
\par 
\par When confronted with the reality of being pushed out of power, Mugabe and ZANU-PF officials suddenly began to implement a highly op
portunist, unscientific and undemocratic land reform programme. In practice, land hungry ZANU/PF supporters have been encouraged to forcibly take over some little portion of the entire land belonging to a very minority class of white farmers.
\par 
\par Expectedly, 
this has met with vociferous denunciations of the imperialist forces worldwide. This of course has wrongly portrayed Mugabe and his ZANU/PF top officials as some kind of anti-imperialist forces, to certain layers of Zimbabwean working masses and their cou
n
terparts in other African countries. But it won't take long before these characters are shown for what they actually are. On its part, imperialism is worried about Mugabe's so-called land reform programme not because it has any great concern for the white
 
farmers. Its real fear is that it may become an example for other African countries where the problems of landlessness among poor farmers, job losses through privatisation, rabid exploitation of human and material resources by multinational corporations a
nd general mass poverty could lead to nationalisation and other actions being taken against its interests.
\par 
\par This opportunistic, bureaucratic, piece meal land reforms will backfire very soon. As long as imperialism and capitalism dominates the key sectors of
 the economy, in agriculture, industry, banking, finance, transportations, telecommunications, etc, capitalist ethos and dictates will ultimately determine what happens or does not happen. In this circumstance, Mugabe/ZANU-PF land reform will bring more d
o
om than benefits. To start with, the method of the land reform is bureaucratic and inevitably the resultant land control and ownership is bound to be individualistic and capitalistic. On the other hand, the imperialist forces will spare nothing to conscio
usly sabotage any incidental economic benefits that could come out of this exercise. 
\par 
\par A thorough land reform in Zimbabwe or any similar situation like South Africa and Africa in general can only be successfully implemented within the framework of a democra
tic socialist plan, under a workers and poor peasants' government. Only the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy and its democratic management and control by the working masses themselves can prevent imperialist and capitalist sabotage
.
 However, as we often explain, only a revolutionary, socialist workers and peasant government can attempt to successfully carry out this kind of programme, with the world wide, active support and solidarity of the working masses particularly those of the 
advanced capitalist countries. 
\par 
\par What therefore is the perspective for Zimbabwe? Now that elections are over, Zimbabwe will once again renew efforts, even if subtly at the beginning, to secure the approval of the West and their various imperialist instituti
ons, for its overall economic policies. On its part, in the absence of any immediate upsurge of the working masses threatening capitalist interests as a whole, imperialism too will find one way or the other to reconcile and collaborate with Mugabe and co,
 just as it had done in the past, with several other inglorious African rulers like Mobutu of former Zaire, General Sani Abacha, just to mention two examples. 
\par 
\par But Mugabe's land reform and his anti-west rhetorics show, once more, that in times of very deep
 crisis or mass upheavals, the local capitalist ruling class can be forced to strike - or might made attempts to strike - some blows against imperialism in order to defend themselves. Such local ruler or regime could, for a time, take some anti-imperialis
t
 or radical measures, resting on sections of the masses and exploiting divisions among the imperialist powers. But this will not amount to a total break with capitalism. Therefore, where such a development occurs, socialists will warn the masses against h
aving illusions in such regime or its policies. We will campaign for working class independence and explain the necessity to struggle for a workers' and poor peasants' government. 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {GLOBAL CAPITALIST CRISIS
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { 
\par Meanwhile, the on-going recession in the advance
d capitalist countries once again brings to the fore the incurable and insoluble contradictions of capitalism. It is already having negative impacts on the Nigerian economy and society. The recession started in the US between late 2000 and early 2001. In 
the US, capacity utilisation has gone down to 75% (the lowest for the past 18 years). But by late 2001, bourgeois experts were claiming some form of \'93recovery\'94
 or the other in the US economy. To the extent that the US economy accounts for one third of the world economy, this should be a cheerful prospect, at least going by the bourgeois economic theory of \'93multiplier effect\'94.
\par 
\par However, as socialists explained at the time, when the factors beneath this so-called recovery are scientifically and dialectically analysed, their hollowness leaves little or nothing for imagination. The \'93recovery\'94
 was based on a rise in consumer spending which in turn was based on increased debt. The so-called recovery had little or no positive effects on capacity utilisation, employm
ent, and living standards of the vast majority of the exploited mankind of the advanced capitalist countries. Confirming this analysis, the statistics issued out lately on the state of the US economy show that it is far from being on the road to a recover
y. On the contrary, the capitalists are now talking of the US economy experiencing what is called a \'93double-dip recession\'94, with all the consequences this would have for the rest of the world, including Nigeria.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {DECLINE IN REVENUE
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par In any event, this globa
l capitalist crisis has already plunged Nigeria's economy into greater crisis. The expected revenue for year 2002 has fallen by 33%. When Nigeria was making more money than what is expected in year 2002, little of this practically trickled down to the vas
t
 majority of the working masses. The vast majority of the working people still live in squalor and unabated poverty which dominated the years of military rule. Needless to stress, the drastic collapse of revenues and economic activities in general, owing 
to the contraction of the economies of the advanced capitalist countries, particularly that of the US, Japan, Germany, etc, will bring greater disaster to the living standard of the masses.
\par 
\par In the 70s and early 80s when petroleum was selling at $40 per bar
rel, Nigeria was making a lot of money. But as typical of neo-colonial capitalism, this wealth only succeeded in creating a few local and foreign multi-millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the masses. However, when oil prices tumbled, the capit
alist elements quickly introduced austerity measures whose central aim was to make the masses pay for the short fall in revenues, so that the capitalist elites can maintain their obscene, opulent life styles. 
\par 
\par The same process has already begun to manifest
 itself in the face of the current drastic reduction of revenues from oil products. Borno State gives a frightful picture of what the future holds for the working masses under capitalism. According to The Guardian of April 1, 2002, \'93
five categories of fees and licences have been increased by about 300 per cent to 4,900 percent\'94
. For instance, cattle trade fee of N10 per head has been increased to N100, while that of sheep and goats have been increased from N5 to N20. Cattle trade licence has been increased 
from N100 to N5,000 yearly. Hide/skin fees for each loaded trailer, lorry and pick up have been increased from N800, N400 and N200 to N1,500, N1,000 and N500 respectively.
\par 
\par Formerly, inspection of meat was free, now this will cost N20. Hitherto government 
sells a crate of eggs for N250, now this goes for N300, while poultry meat has been raised to N400 per kilogram from N200. Also, firewood sellers are to pay N1,000, N500, N50 for a lorry, pick-up, mini-cart and donkey load respectively. 
\par 
\par In year 2000, the
 Obasanjo government signed a pact on minimum wage with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Under this agreement, workers wages were to automatically increase by 25% and 15% respectively in year 2001 and 2002. Now, governments and private employers are cit
i
ng the prevailing global capitalist crisis and its negative effects on local economy as reasons while that agreement can no longer be honoured. In fact, several private and public establishments have failed to implement the increment granted for the year 
2000.  Where partial implementation has been effected, this has resulted in mass retrenchment of workers while prices of goods and services have simultaneously skyrocketed.
\par 
\par States like Anambra and Enugu are already in arrears of salaries and allowances of 
over six months. Things are so bad that even frontline state apparatuses like the army, police, immigration, prisons, etc, are increasingly finding it impossible to pay the salaries and allowances of their non-commissioned officers as well as the allowanc
es of their pensioners.
\par 
\par In The Punch of 26th March, 2002, the Head of Service of the federation, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, was quoted to have ruled out any increment in the wages of civil servants. According to him, the upward review of the remunerations
 of civil servants in year 2000 was just a kind gesture of the present administration. He stated further: \'93
it is one of the major conflicting signals of public sector management in our part of the world that while the civil servants complain vociferously a
bout inadequate level of remuneration, the government duly supported by the multi-lateral agencies, is committed to exploring ways of significantly reducing the cost of public administration\'94.
\par 
\par In plain language, Ahmed is not only ruling out any wage incre
ment, he in fact was saying that the local capitalists and their foreign backers are in agreement on imposing further hardship in forms of wage cuts and retrenchment on the working class people. This anti-poor, anti-working class approach will surely as u
s
ual provoke resistance and fight back on the part of the labouring masses. Therefore, the major task confronting socialists and the working class leadership is how to give correct political and organisational expression to this inevitable confrontation of
 the masses against the selfish calculation of the capitalists with a view to permanently guarantee the masses' basic needs and aspirations.
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CHAPTER FOUR- WILL THERE BE A COUP?
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b 
\par 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {THE CIVILIAN SECTION OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par In this respect, all the sect
ions of the capitalist ruling class are absolutely useless and irrelevant. Of course, those of them in power in PDP, APP and AD would tell you that another term of office is what they need to be able to complete the wonderful jobs they are doing at the mo
ment, while those of them not directly in power are boasting of performing more wonders if voted into power.
\par 
\par Significantly however, all the strata of the capitalist ruling class, within and outside the registered political parties subscribe to a private se
ctor led, market driven economy. In other words, they all severally and collectively subscribe to the prevailing unjust capitalist order, where the overwhelming majority remain in squalor, in the midst of abundant resources and inexhaustible potentials. N
aturally, every one of their policies and conduct poses a serious danger to the interest of the vast majority of the working masses and Nigeria's so-called nascent democracy in particular.
\par 
\par If you complain about mass unemployment of the employable, members 
of the capitalist class will say there is insufficient money to provide job for every person in society. If you complain about mass retrenchment, the usual answer is that government and employers of labour do not have enough money to keep the retrenched w
o
rkers in their jobs. If you ask them why they are hiking up the cost of food, housing, health care, education, telecommunications, etc in the midst of mass unemployment and mass retrenchment, where wages are grossly inadequate and yet never get paid regul
arly, the standard ruling class response is that money is not enough to attend to these needs.
\par 
\par However, no matter how deep the economic crisis is, no matter how high is the shortfall in revenues, members of the capitalist class in position of authority in 
public and private sectors have always had enough money to meet their own obscene, opulent life styles. Whenever they are not busy looting the treasury via fake and over-bloated contract deals, with their local and foreign business partners and companies,
 they will be busy using their privileged position to award to themselves outrageously fat salaries and allowances.
\par 
\par If it should be stressed, this kind of reprehensible conduct is inevitable under capitalism. To start with, capitalism glorifies a bizarre s
ituation where one individual like Bill Gate is richer than say 500 million people on earth. This is the joy of private enterprise. But then this \'93joy\'94
 can only be made possible through the robbing, by a few individuals/capitalist corporations, of what bel
ongs to all. In this context, capitalism itself is the mother of all corruption. In a neo-colonial capitalist set up like Nigeria, where the vast bulk of members of the capitalist class do not have independent capital or source of money outside state's tr
e
asury and public contracts, the organic corruption of capitalism assumes a more obscene, provocative character. If you are not in direct position of power and authority, in private and public sectors or have connection with those in authority, you are vir
tually an economic and political nonentity.
\par 
\par This primarily is what sharpens the intra and inter party conducts and relations of the six registered political parties, particularly PDP, AD and ANPP which have been ruling parties since 1999. For instance, the
se so-called parties are run in highly undemocratic manner. All, without exception, lacks active grass-root membership. The affairs of these parties are invariably dictated and bulldozed by the factions in control of state treasuries and apparatuses. Ther
e is one exception though: most segments of these \'93parties\'94
 agree that additional political parties should not be registered to contest power with them, lest they lose out. The working masses are thus faced with a no-win situation on all fronts. Neither the
 policies nor its current implementation can be changed! In this context, the so-called 2003 elections will be nothing but a cynical monumental farce, of course, with serious negative socio-political implications for Nigeria and the working masses in part
icular.
\par 
\par Therefore, none of the registered bourgeois parties represents the way forward for the masses. Their continued stay in power will only further deepen the alienation of the masses from civil rule. Severally and collectively, their conducts will be s
uch that could only make the least conscious sections of the working masses to begin to see military rule as a better alternative to the prevailing suffocating economic and political realities of civil rule.
\par 
\par A central reason why there is growing disillusi
onment with civil rule is because bourgeois civil rule essentially functions like a dictatorial clique, aside from the widespread greed, rapacious corruption which characterise this rule. The intolerant, absolute undemocratic regimes which predominate in 
i
ntra and inter-party affairs have very little in common with democracy. Under past military rules, formation of political parties were the absolute prerogatives of the powers that be. Sadly, this counter-productive undemocratic practice has been upheld by
 their civilian bourgeois successors.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {THE MILITARY WING OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Nevertheless, it will be grossly mistaken to see the military wing of the capitalist class as a credible alternative to the hopelessness and rottenness of the civilian bourgeo
is. In the first instance, the foundation of the prevailing rottenness, economically and politically, was laid under the rule of the military wing of the bourgeois. Secondly, it is not civil rule or democracy that is responsible for the prevailing poverty
 in the midst of inexhaustible plenty. Rather, it is capitalism which places the insatiable profit greed and egos of a few above the needs and aspirations of the majority that is responsible for this deplorable state of affairs.
\par 
\par This situation will only be
 worsened by a return to power of the military wing of the bourgeois. By nature, military rule is dictatorial and arbitrary in form and content. Yes, there is widespread corruption today under civil rule. However, the widespread nature of this deplorable 
p
henomenon is due to the nature of civil rule which has to necessarily accommodate more structures and officials than what is needed under military government. Under military rule, individuals like General Babangida, Abacha or Abubakar could steal more in 
a month than what a group of hundred politicians will have the opportunity to steal in a four year tenure. Therefore, an acceptance of military rule as an alternative to bourgeois civil rule is like moving from a frying pan into fire.
\par 
\par What the masses need is a complete economic and political democratisation of the society, not a choice between the barbarism and corruption of the civilian and military wing of the bourgeoisie.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {A NEW PERIOD OF MILITARY RULE?
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par What then are the perspectives for a new period of
 military rule? At the present period, a military coup, though not entirely ruled out, is not a likely development due to the mass local opposition and international condemnation that it will receive. However, as capitalist civil rule becomes increasingly
 discredited and the masses further alienated, a section of the military might bid for power purportedly to \'93rescue the nation\'94
 from corruption and chaos created by politicians as it happened on 15th January, 1966 and 31st December, 1983. By taking some pop
ulist measures, such as arrest of corrupt politicians, such a coup might be received with apathy or sympathy rather than opposition by wide layers of the masses.
\par 
\par It is also possible that rather than an outright military coup, the ruling class or sections of it might opt to use \'93state of emergency rule\'94
 with severe repressive measures in order to deal with growing mass opposition or nationalist/separatist movements. This \'93state of emergency\'94 under a civilian government is a less costly option for the ruling
 class than an outright military coup which might attract sharp local and international condemnation. The massacres carried out by the army in Odi in 1999 and Zaki Biam in 2001 and the threat by President Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency in Lagos 
during ethnic clashes in the city in 2000 indicate the extent the ruling class could go when it perceives that its vital interests are seriously threatened.
\par 
\par However, it will be erroneous to simply assume that any future military coup will be broadly welcom
e across the country in the same manner as in 1966 and 1983 due to mass disaffection with the civilian politicians. The national question has become sharper in Nigeria in recent years particularly since the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elec
t
ions won by MKO Abiola, a politician from the Yoruba Southwest, but whose results were nullified by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, a member of the northern Hausa-Fulani section of the ruling class. Though the feeling of northern dominat
ion\'94
 has been somewhat moderated in the south west in particular and the south in general as a result of the election of and hand-over of power to Obasanjo, another bourgeois from the south west, the reverse would be the case if there should be a military c
oup whose main organisers or officers appointed after the coup are of northern extraction. Such a development would further heighten ethnic feelings and increase the tendency towards a break-up of the country. 
\par 
\par Another possible development in the coming period is the staging of a \'93radical\'94
 coup by junior rank military officers, similar to the Jerry Rawling's second military coup in Ghana in 1981. Since the change in the global political situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union and other Stalinist s
tates, popular, radical military regimes are no longer the fashion in the \'93Third\'94 World\'94
 countries. There is also the local fact that no junior rank officers led coup has ever succeeded in coming to power to form government. In January 1966, Major Kaduna N
zeogwu and his colleagues only succeeded in killing certain principal officers of the state but the succeeding military government was formed by top military officers. In February 1976, the Lt. Col. Dimka led coup succeeded in killing the then military he
ad of state, General Murtala Mohammed but were never able to come to power.
\par 
\par The Major Gideon Okar led coup of 1990 was described by General Ibrahim Babangida, the then head of ruling military junta as the most bloodied in the history of Nigeria. Significan
tly too, the authors were not able to physically arrest or eliminate the principal state officers let alone being able to form a government.
\par 
\par The unresolved nationality question is also one factor that at the moment tends to militate against military coups
 either by the tops of the military or the junior ranks. For instance, if a military coup occurs today and its leaders are mainly perceived as representatives of a particular nationality that could set in motion an aggravated nationality crisis which coul
d
 engulfed not only the coup plotters but the country as an entity. Right now, the House of Representatives has passed a resolution asking President Obasanjo to resign within two weeks or be prepared for an impeachment. In response to this constitutionally
 
legitimate process, some pan-Yoruba nationalist groups have been threatening secession of Yorubas from Nigeria should Obasanjo be impeached by elements seen as representatives of the Hausa-Fulani nationality. Nonetheless, it is not entirely ruled that und
e
r the impact of severe economic and social crisis, and where the working class could not take political power, junior military officers could stage a coup with an honest intention of cleaning the Aegean stable. Such a regime could take measures against co
rrupt members of the elite and even capitalist and imperialist interests. 
\par 
\par Understandably, such a regime will meet instant opposition from the local capitalists and their imperialist masters, who will take measures to undermine and eventually replace it wi
th an outright, reliable capitalist government. At the same time, unless the regime is prepared to break fully with capitalism and imperialism, it will not be able to satisfy the aspirations and needs of the masses for any long period, particularly given 
the increased imperialist domination of the world and greater pressure for deregulation and privatisation from multinational corporations, IMF, World Bank, etc., in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s16\qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {Socialists will support any action take
n by the regime that serves the interests of the masses and against capitalism and imperialism. But support for such actions would not mean socialists participating in or supporting such a military regime. We would explain that partial measures, while per
h
aps providing temporary relief, could not solve the fundamental problems of society. Only a programme for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the transformation of society along socialist lines could lay the basis for a lasting solution. Such a pro
g
ramme could only be based upon the democratic control and management of every sector of society by elected representatives of the working masses (including youth and the armed forces) and the establishment of workers' and poor peasants government. It is o
n
ly this socialist approach that can prevent the reactionary forces of capitalism and landordism from regaining their lost positions and privileges by either overthrowing a radical regime or subverting it from within, a process they successfully carried ou
t in Ghana after 1982.
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CHAPTER FIVE- THE NATIONAL QUESTION
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b 
\par 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {NATIONALIST AND RELIGIOUS OPTIONS
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par The rapid growth in nationalism and religion is caused by the desperate search  for solution to the problem of mass poverty, hunger, diseases, unemployment, c
rimes and insecurity by the masses, especially given the failure of the labour leadership to provide an alternative on how the crises could be permanently resolved. Also, various sections of the ruling class have continued to play ethnic and religious car
ds in order to maintain political control.
\par 
\par The past three years have been largely dominated by ethnic/religious strife and violence. In the core north, there has been a geometric rise in Islamic fundamentalism. This period has also witnessed an astronomica
l rise in Christian fundamentalism across the country, most especially in the south. Perhaps more than at any other time in Nigeria, both before and after independence, the past three years has witnessed a more widespread clamour for the restructuring of 
the country itself. Nationalist organisations of all hues and cries sprang up and almost instantly began to experience phenomenal growth and support of members of the different nationalities.
\par 
\par This is the period when the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), Egbes
u Boys, Bakassi Boys, Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, etc. began their fiery but phenomenal growth and activities. As at today intra/inter ethnic cum religions strife and violence have resulted in the premature death of tens o
f thousands of Nigerians. Their death were usually caused by the warring nationalist/religious groups themselves and very largely and usually too, by the capitalist state apparatus of coercion like the army and police.
\par 
\par At the moment, the nationalist/religi
ons agitations seem to have gone to the back stage of politics. You no longer see vehicle convoys of the OPC, Bakassi Boys, and Egbesu boys going for rallies or any of their other assorted activities. The time now seemed so far away when the security of t
h
e country, particularly in the south, was virtually left in the hands of nationalist militias of the OPC, Bakassi Boys, etc. In some states, these groups have actually become private militias of the state governors, a dangerous phenomenon to the labour mo
vement in particular and society in general.
\par 
\par Also, the fierce opposition which greeted the introduction of Sharia criminal code in the core North by christians and the non muslim Nigerians has for now assumed a subtle feature of resignation. Even the polit
icians that introduced Sharia have had to take public feeling into consideration in the day-to-day execution of Sharia. Two instances should be given.
\par 
\par Mallam Jangbedi was the first victim of the new sharia criminal code. He had his right hand chopped off 
after he was tried by an Islamic court and found guilty for an offence of cow theft. Sensing the apparent apprehension and repulsion of the masses of even the muslim dominated state of Zamfara, the government had to in fact turn Jangbedi into a celebrity.
 
After Jangbedi's hand had been chopped off, and subsequently discharged from hospital, he was lodged into an hotel for a week, with all expenses paid for by the government! Finally, when Jangbedi was to go back to his village, he received a cash gift of N
10,000 from the government. In addition, a government-owned 504 station wagon car took him and the provisions bought for him to his village!
\par 
\par Another prominent victim of the new sharia criminal code was Safiyat, a 32 year old lady from Sokoto State. Her own
 offence was getting pregnant without having a husband. Tried by an Islamic court, she was found guilty and sentenced to death by stoning. Faced with massive waves of opposition both home and abroad, another sharia court of appeal has set Safiyat free, on
 some technical legal grounds.
\par 
\par Do all these suggest that the various nationalist groups have abandoned their goals. Have we seen the worst of religious strife and violence? Do Christian and Islamic fundamentalism have a correct scientific appreciation of t
he origin and solution to the problems of mass poverty and political repression which dominate the lives of the vast majority of their adherents and the working masses as a whole? Anytime there is an outbreak/escalation of intra, inter ethnic/religious st
rife and violence, the standard practice of the capitalist government is to send around police and soldiers to quell what is usually seen as \'93disturbance\'94 or \'93riot\'94. Is it this \'93fire for fire\'94
 philosophy that is behind the relative quietness of the present period?
\par 
\par There can be no doubt now that nationalist agitations have taken the back stage of politics. However, it is very important to note that none of the basic issues that gave rise to these movements, in the first instance, have been posed, let alone r
esolved. 
\par 
\par The fundamental problem of mass poverty and destitution which is making the masses of the different nationalities to feel that their material and cultural conditions will be better if their destines are in the hands of their own nationalities, i
s not even being admitted by PDP, APP and AD. Daily, the governments formed by these pro-rich parties bombard the masses with paid adverts claiming fantastic achievements in all aspects of social life and economy. Again, just like in the past, the current
 
capitalist governments across the country have heedlessly continued with the fruitless counter productive policy of suppressing agitations with superior firepower instead of that of honest inquiry and resolution. Needless to stress, nationalist agitations
 that presently seem to have receded will come back to front stage of polity with greater fury than was witnessed in our recent past.
\par 
\par Of course, as has been demonstrated in the recent past, this will not necessarily make it possible for nationalist aims to
 be achieved. The past period has shown what important role bravery can play in struggle. Within a very short period of time, the legendary bravery of the OPC, Bakassi Boys, Egbesu Boys, Arewa Consultative Forum, etc. shot these organisations into nationa
l and international limelight. They were the talk of the town. You were either for or against them. In any event, no worthwhile political trend could ignore their goals and methodologies.
\par 
\par But notwithstanding this legendary bravery, the activities of these 
organisations have presently declined without any of their objectives being realised. The country is still run as a feudal, divine fiefdom in which nobody can do anything to alter, either in forms or contents. For sometime now there has been a serious agi
tation for what is variously called \'93restructuring\'94, \'93true federalism\'94, \'93resource control\'94
, etc. Starting from the Abacha era and up till now, there has been a demand for the division of the country into six geo-political zones, in which these zones will control presidency in turn.
\par 
\par So far none of the topical demands and agitations of the nationalists have been accepted as valid by the powers-that-be and as things stand, this is likely to be the position for sometime to come. The reasons for this little or n
o alteration of the status quo, despite brave and self-sacrificing struggles and battles by the various nationalist groups, are socialists must thoroughly understand.
\par 
\par First and foremost, socialists have a duty to warn the working masses that the justness 
of a cause on its own cannot automatically guarantee massive support or victory. As ever, socialists support the democratic right of nations to self- determination including secession if that is the democratic wish of people of a given nation or group of 
nations from within Nigeria.
\par 
\par However, socialists must not shy away from frankly telling the nationalists that simply breaking Nigeria into whatever number of structures or independent units will not primarily address the problem of mass poverty which is pr
imarily caused by the global capitalist system. Socialists must warn the working masses that it is possible to have a Nigeria broken into several independent national or geographical components and still have widespread poverty in these respective new ent
itles/republics/ empires.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {INDEPENDENT REPUBLICS
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Therefore, socialists have to always pose the national question in both cultural and social dimensions. Take the clamour for the Oodua Republic as an example. On its own, this is a very legitimate and democr
atic objective. But situated within the realm of concrete historical features of today's Nigeria, it becomes obvious that only with a democratic socialist agenda can ensure that such a republic brings meaningful changes to the well-being and political rig
h
ts of the Yoruba masses, as well as safeguarding the rights of non-Yoruba minorities living within the region. The same condition is applicable to agitation for Biafra in the South East and demands for autonomy or separation in South-South and other geo-p
olitical zones in Nigeria.
\par 
\par In the past three years at least Lagos has been the centre of OPC's agitations and activities. Although historically a predominantly Yoruba city, Lagos is easily the most cosmopolitan of Nigerian cities. Any nationalist trend or 
agitation that fails to take this factor into consideration is therefore doomed to create more problems for the working masses of even the Yoruba extraction than the envisaged benefits of separation.
\par 
\par The OPC rallying call is that all Yoruba sons and daughters should come back home to establish an Oodua Republic. Implicit in this slogan is a demand that all non-Yoruba origin people should go back to their own \'93homes\'94
. Needless to stress this bourgeois way of posing the question will always encounter lukewar
m if not outright hostilities of non- Yoruba people of the envisaged Oduduwa Republic. Even elements of Yoruba extraction who live and work in other parts of Nigeria and as such have no other practical homes and means of livelihood cannot be expected to s
incerely and enthusiastically support this kind of political agenda.
\par 
\par As shown by the experience of the past three years, the vast majority of the Yoruba masses living and working in the envisaged geographical entity of the Oodua Republic themselves at best
 have been very lukewarm to the OPC's campaigns and activities. This, in no small measure, is largely due to the bourgeois and undemocratic manner with which the OPC's objectives are being pursued.
\par 
\par Without any attempt at convoking a democratic conference 
or organising referendum of the people of the Yoruba race, different Yoruba nationalist groups have sprung up, many with intolerable, anti-democratic constitutions. Instead of an approach which seeks to systematically mobilise the different strata of the 
Yoruba working masses, you have one that places emphasis on supernatural forces. Myths are spread about ancient \'93 powers\'94
 possessed by the Yoruba race which can make people invulnerable to gun shots and machete attacks. Like every reductionist bourgeois tre
nd, the OPC and many other Yoruba nationalist trends present the mass poverty of the Yoruba masses as something peculiar to the race, and not a phenomenon prevalent amongst the working masses of the diverse nationalities that make up Nigeria. The same uns
cientific approach is used by MASSOB and many other nationalist groups.
\par 
\par But in their day-to-day existence, the working masses are able to see that their class enemies cut across tribes, nations and countries. This is partly the reason behind the huge succe
sses achieved by the two general strikes called by the NLC in the past three years. Therefore, to the extent that the various nationalist groups fail to emphasise collective struggles for democracy and social emancipation of the entire and divergent worki
n
g class masses of Nigeria, to the same extent are they denied the crucial support of their respective working masses. And if it should be stressed, it is this organic weakness that is responsible for the palpable triumph of government perspective of suppr
ession of nationalist agitations.
\par 
\par But if the working class movement is defeated, or shows no way out of the crisis, then the nationalist organisations can win working class support. This is the danger facing the labour movement. Labour has to fight this da
nger by both seriously fighting capitalism and putting forward demands that meet the national aspirations of the different nationalities. But for socialists, even if we come to the conclusion that the time had come for us to call for the break-up of Niger
i
a, we would do so on class lines. For example, as the socialists in Britain, members of the CWI, advocate for a socialist independent Scotland and a socialist federation of the British Isles. Even if calling for a break-up, we would still call for common 
workers' struggles and explain the internationalist approach essential for the victory of socialism.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {RESOURCE CONTROL
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par The 1999 constitution has a provision that not less than 13% of revenues generated from natural resources of any given area must be paid 
to the area concerned by the central government. This very minimal provision has now even been sidetracked by the Obasanjo capitalist government. This has been done via the artificial demarcation between revenues generated from onshore and offshore oil ex
p
loration. Regrettably, though not unexpectedly, the Supreme Court has given a ridiculous judgement to sabotage this modest constitutional provision. According to this ruling, the oil found within the territory of a state, including its neighbouring shallo
w water, is onshore and the respective state is entitled to be paid 13% derivation revenues, whereas oil sourced from deep water belongs to no states but Nigeria as a whole.
\par 
\par Hence for the selfish capitalist/nationalist interests of the elites of the major 
Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo nationalities that dominate the economy and polity of Nigeria, logic must be overturned. We are now being told that if Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta States, etc. do not form part of the geographical entity called Nigeria, somebody f
rom Sokoto, Kano, Ibadan, Ilorin, Minna etc can come to the deep sea of the states bordering on the Atlantic in southern Nigeria to claim ownership of oil or any other material thing for that matter. 
\par 
\par The attitudes of the working masses to the agitation fo
r resource control differ from one part of the country to the other. The masses in the non-oil producing states are either apathetic towards it or opposed to it. To this layer, the whole demand is seen as something which would reduce the revenue being ear
n
ed by Nigeria with the attendant negative effects this is likely to have on their own living standards. On the other hand, the masses in the oil producing states support or have sympathy for the agitation for resource control. To them, this is the only wa
y out of the prevailing endemic mass poverty in the oil-producing areas. 
\par 
\par Socialists supports the democratic aspiration of the masses in the oil-producing areas to have control over the resources which are being presently exploited and looted by the multin
ational corporations and the Nigerian capitalist elite. However, in its present conception and articulation, the \'93resource control\'94
 agitation is largely a bourgeois phenomenon. Under the present arrangement, increase in revenues to the oil producing states
 will bring little or no material benefit to the lives of the masses. Instead, more millionaires will be created from amongst the friends and families of the capitalist elites in power in the oil producing areas.
\par 
\par In essence, it is only if the agitation fo
r resource control is posed in the context of making the working masses to fully and democratically control the natural resources of nature and the commanding heights of the economy with a view to satisfy and guarantee the basic needs of every body as opp
osed to the prevailing capitalist system whose central goal is the generation of profits to a few insatiable capitalist sharks that it can have a meaningful impact in the lives of the masses.
\par 
\par But as it is written above, the re-emergence of nationalist agit
ations on a greater scale is a very likely development in the coming period. However, unless these agitations are given working class orientation and the activities of the nationalist movements are thoroughly democratised, they will merely serve to deepen
 the suffering and agonies of the working masses vis-avis their quest for social and political emancipation.
\par 
\par As socialists, we call for the democratisation of all struggles and we oppose undemocratic organisations. We also advocate the need for an orientat
ion towards the working class and struggle for socialism by oppressed nationalities, students, etc. But a vital necessity is rebuilding a fighting workers movement that can take up these national issues, but not showing any signs of nationalism. Our attit
u
de to nationalist organisations depends on whether they are splitting the workers' movement or representing the first steps of a new movement. For example, we would oppose an attempt to split NANS along nationalist lines or the creation of an Oodua Studen
ts Association. But if an OSA did emerge as the major student body in the south-west then we may be forced to work with it in at least a united front fashion.
\par 
\par The experience of the past three years has shown that nationalist groups can be as deadly against
 the working masses of their own nationality in the same way they behave towards those from other nationalities. For instance factional crisis within the OPC alone has resulted in the premature deaths of hundreds of persons in the past three years. This s
ectarian approach has only succeeded in alienating the mass of the Yoruba working masses from the OPC phenomenon and this makes them easier targets of physical attack by the state. 
\par 
\par Instead of the agenda which seek to exclusively resolve the economic and p
olitical plights of the working masses of a given nation or country, socialists must develop one which seeks to combine the struggle for the cultural and democratic rights of the working masses of a given nation or country with that of the masses of the o
ther nationalities and the world working masses as a whole. Only this kind of approach can successfully defeat the exploitative and oppressive rule of imperialism and finance capital world wide.
\par 
\par If this approach is not followed, nationalist agitations will
 always succumb to the divide and rule antics of the capitalist state. While it will always be easier for the capitalist state to out shoot isolated armed nationalist groups, same cannot be successfully contemplated against a well-mobilised, democraticall
y-controlled movement of the working masses, especially one which will not hesitate to use arms to defend its interest, against the selfish and undemocratic interests of the capitalist class, whenever such situation arises. 
\par 
\par However, unless the working cla
ss stamps its outlook and authority on the polity, more determined nationalist groups will develop or re-emerge in the not too distant future, whose motto will be violence unlimited. Similarly, the current retreat on the stoning of Safiyat for adultery mu
st not be interpreted to mean that Sharia no longer constitutes a serious obstacle to the building of a virile, pan-Nigeria working class movement.
\par 
\par As socialists, we have always advocated the complete separation of the state from religion. We have always a
dvocated against state religion. We regard religion as a personal question and defend the rights of believers to carry out their religions. For years DSM has been demanding immediate stoppage of the practice where government uses public money to build chu
r
ches and mosques, and sends or subsidies pilgrimages to Mecca, Rome or Jerusalem. Our reasons are based on two broad, related premises. One, religion generally gives the impression that riches and wretchedness are the way God, the creator, orders things. 
H
owever, this scientifically, is a fallacious theory. The earth and the universe as a whole are endowed with inexhaustible resources and potentials. As things are today, the human race has the resources and technical capacity to rid the world of hunger, ho
m
elessness, curable diseases, illiteracy, isolation (occasioned by restricted transportation and communication services), national narrowness, etc, which presently constitute the essence of capitalist civilisation. The main reason why this is not the case 
a
nd not likely to become the case is that there are out there a few capitalist elements and corporations who feel that the world resources must be used not to satisfy the needs of the people of the world but be left for the capricious and selfish goals of 
the capitalists.
\par 
\par Socialists must make it abundantly clear that this is not the making of any God or Creator. We must stress the fact that on the basis of the existing resources and techniques, our earth can conveniently support ten times the present popula
tion of the world. 
\par 
\par Of course, a layer of the masses within and outside the Sharia states innocently believes that the Islamic penal code is the solution to crimes and corruption. But Sharia, as it is, is not only a political adventure; it constitutes a s
erious breach of the democratic rights of Muslim and non-Muslim Nigerians. As a rule, whoever pays the piper, dictates the tune. Thus, Sharia, as it is a government creation, will only be interpreted on the basis of the fancies of whichever faction or cre
e
d of Islam that is at anytime in control of state power. Under the Sharia criminal code, two women are required to give evidence to be  equivalent of one given by an adult male Muslim. If a muslim and a christian are jointly accused of committing an offen
c
e, an adult, male Muslim co-accused may be left off the hook and acquitted if he is prepared to swear his innocence on Koran. Similar option is however not given to a christian or somebody who holds a different belief.  Under Sharia someone who steals a c
o
w gets his or her hand chopped off but members of the capitalist ruling class who steal millions and billions of naira of public money are never punished because, according to the present authors of political Sharia, the first is a crime while the second 
category represents a breach of trust.  
\par 
\par At a stage sooner than anticipated by political Sharia advocates, the working masses across national, religious and class divides will wake up and fight these blatant discriminations embodied in the Sharia criminal 
code. But unless socialists and the working masses in general are able to come up with viable political alternative and platform, which is capable and prepared to mobilise the entire energy and resources of the masses along the struggle for genuine social
 and political emancipation a new, more virulent Sharia movement is inevitable in Nigeria.
\par 
\par If, as is most likely, the prevailing global capitalist crisis goes deeper and or its negative effects lasted longer, and if the labour movement is not able to posit
ively use the generalised, transnational mass poverty, which this is having on the living standard of the working masses, of the diverse nations that make up Nigeria, then the emergence of a more vicious, right-wing political Sharia is an inevitability. T
h
at is the kind of time you would encounter Islamic clerics who are going to argue that a more ruthless implement action of Sharia criminal code is the way forward for mankind. However, if it must be stressed, this will be nothing but the continuation of m
a
ss poverty and political repression for the working masses. As opposed to a religious struggle which tends to divide the working masses along sectarian lines, what is needed is a pan-Nigerian internationalist working class movement whose central objective
s
 will be the struggle to replace the current man-eats-man, individualist capitalist system with a humane, democratic socialist ideals where the satisfaction of all the economic and political needs of every person on earth will be the sole and primary yard
stick of economic management and governance.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {SNC OR NC
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par In contrast to this approach, there are those who simply hold the view that the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) or National Conference (NC) will automatically straighten out any s
ocio-political problems faced by the working masses. A truly democratically elected Sovereign National Conference may address some of the critical questions ravaging the country today. But if the country or its new fashion or units remain within the frame
work of global capitalist network, it will mean that little or nothing can be positively done to better the material well-being and democratic rights of the masses by such an SNC.
\par 
\par Therefore, the SNC must not be about sovereignty where the masses are only a
llowed to choose between one set of exploiters and tyrants or the other. For an SNC to be meaningful to the masses, it must be capable of raising and taking measures which are capable of enforcing the democratic, working class control and management of al
l
 resources and technical manpower of the society in the interest of all as opposed to that of a few as it is under capitalism. This is why all the various sections of the capitalist ruling class including its Afenifere AD extraction have not been able to 
c
onsistently champion the convocation of an SNC, or an NC. Not even the south-south bourgeois, who is supposed to be more radical, given the fact that  most revenues come from his area while little development ever occurs, is prepared to risk his prevailin
g privileges for an uncertain and very difficult ideal. Their reasons are not far fetched. Their present luxury and privileges are reality while the outcome of an SNC or even NC is a gamble.
\par 
\par For one, they are not prepared to propose to the conference that 
privatisation must stop and that the commanding heights of the economy be placed under democratic and public ownership of the working people where production will be planned for the use of all and not profits for a few as it is the case under capitalist d
ispensation.
\par 
\par Yes, each faction of the ruling class is ready to support an SNC/NC if it is certain that its class interest will eventually be better protected. The south-south bourgeois for instance will want to have exclusive control of the oil wealth of t
he Delta region, to the exclusion of his counterparts across the country. But if making an immediate move in this direction will risk provoking a situation where he stands to lose his personal material wealth, a southern bourgeois or any bourgeois from ot
her nationalities will rather band together with other fellow, capitalist partners-in-crime, to sabotage the genuine national and economic aspirations of the Deltan masses. 
\par 
\par For this reason, neither Afenifere nor its south-south bourgeois counterparts can consistently fight for \'93true federalism\'94 or \'93resource control.\'94
 This is because to do this will of necessity demand the involvement of the working masses in the aims and implementation of such an SNC agendum. But if the truth must be told, this (i.e. invol
ving the masses in aims and implementation of any crusade by members of the capitalist class) will be the last, voluntary option that any bourgeois movement will ever take. Only the working masses who are the victims of mass poverty and destitution can be
 consistently interested in any genuine, democratic agenda which seeks to truly democratise the economy and politics of society.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s16\qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
This is why labour and youth activists and socialists should canvass for a truly democratically-elected  Sovereign National Con
ference (SNC). This type of conference should be dominated by elected representatives of the working people as its composition should be according to the numerical strength of the various social groups in the country. It will among other things, decide on
 
the way forward for the country and agree on a new constitution. Even then, while such an SNC may represent a step forward from the present military-imposed arrangement, the working masses and labour activists need to struggle for a workers' and poor farm
ers' government that will implement a socialist and anti-capitalist programme. It is only this type of government that can guarantee lasting improvements in the political rights and economic and social conditions of the masses.
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\brdrb\brdrs\brdrw15\brsp20 \aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par }\pard \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {CHAPTER SIX- THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par 
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par For the suffering masses, only the working class and the labour movement have shown that there is still hope for humanity. Within a period of two and a half years, the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) called two
 general strikes that were overwhelmingly supported by the working masses and youths across the country. Severally and collectively, the huge successes recorded by these strikes show two main points. One, it shows beyond all reasonable doubt that the labo
u
ring masses will not just passively sit down while their lives are being destroyed, in the name of privatisation and deregulation, just to protect the unjust and obscene profits and privileges of the minority capitalist class. Two, these strikes have show
n beyond any reasonable doubt that if mobilised around concrete, beneficial issues, the working masses across the country are capable of rising beyond narrow national or religious divides, to resolutely pursue a common agenda.
\par 
\par The June 2000 general strike 
was very unique in the sense that the strike was virtually supported by most Nigerians, including governors and members of the National Assembly. The strike was so successful that the government was forced to totally withdraw its price increases on kerose
ne and diesel while the increment of N10 on petrol was reduced to N2. As a matter of fact, an 100% reversal could have been achieved if not that the Adams Oshiomhole-led NLC leadership decided \'93not to humiliate\'94 the Obasanjo government.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {JANUARY 2002 GENERAL STRIKE
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par The January 2002 strike, from the beginning was a different ball game. The strike took place against stiff opposition of and condemnation by the vast majority of members of the capitalist ruling class. All state apparatuses of propaganda and coer
cion were used to ensure the failure of the strike. Scores of labour leaders and activists were arrested and charged to court in government's desperate bid to break the strike. The Obasanjo regime eventually went to court to get the strike declared illega
l, an order which was granted by the latter. Ostensibly because of this court order, the NLC leadership suspended the strike after two days.
\par 
\par Despite these insidious, anti-working class, anti-poor, capitalist orchestrated attacks, the call for a strike by t
he NLC was overwhelmingly honoured across the country. Here are some of the headlines and comments made by some prominent bourgeois newspapers while reporting the strike: The P.M. News of January 16, 2002 screamed: \'93LAGOS, ABUJA, KADUNA SHUT DOWN\'94
. While The Punch of January, 17, 2002, reporting the first day of the strike in its front page, used the headline: \'93Strike paralyses activities nationwide\'94.
\par 
\par According to The Punch reporters \'93social and economic activities across the country were paralysed on Wedn
esday as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) began a general strike aimed at forcing the Federal Government to reconsider the recent increases in fuel prices. Offices, banks, filling stations, schools and markets remained shut in most commercial cities whil
e police kept watch over practically empty roads\'94. The Guardian reporters filled a similar reports: \'93
A nationwide strike ordered by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to protest increase in the prices of petroleum products brought the Nigerian economy to a n
ear paralysis yesterday. Workers in both the private and public sectors in most states of the federation responded positively to labour's directive by staying at home. Traders locked their shops, while commercial motor operators went off the roads. Market
s were closed and government offices deserted in most of the state capitals. Business activities were paralysed and the highways void of heavy vehicular movement, a major feature of the state\'94.
\par 
\par Unfortunately however, this epic strike did not achieve any re
versal of the increase in the prices of petroleum products. What happened? What went wrong? What effect is this result likely to have on future struggles and strikes? These and some other related questions need to be posed and thoroughly analysed by socia
lists and labour activists in general.
\par 
\par The strike held in most parts of the country on the 16th and 17th January, paralysing economic activities in the country. The enthusiastic solidarity of the vast majority of the Nigerian masses while the strike lasted
 is quite overwhelming. From the market women and men to artisans, farmers, etc, the condemnations of the increment of fuel prices were unanimous. On the 17th however, it was becoming clear that the strike was weakening. For instance, in Lagos, more peopl
e
 attempted to go to their work places while there were more vehicles on the road. It is however pertinent to ask the question: why was the strike beginning to decline? The answers to this question present important lessons for the working class in Nigeria
 on the programme of the trade unions as well as tactics and method of industrial action as a means of fighting back the system. 
\par 
\par First and foremost, the ambiguous position and pronouncement of the Nigeria Labour Congress leadership on the question of priv
atisation, deregulation and commercialisation prior to the strike did a lot of damage by creating confusion about the position of the NLC leadership and doubt about whether it was prepared to fight back. The NLC leadership supports the idea of deregulatio
n while opposing increases in the prices of petroleum products. For any informed observer, it is clear that price increases is the natural end of any process of deregulation, commercialisation and privatisation. 
\par 
\par The NLC leadership's participation in the N
ational Council on Privatisation that has been overseeing the sales of public assets has also had the same effect. Secondly, unlike the period before the 2000 price increase of petroleum products when the NLC had embarked on mass education and conscientis
a
tion of workers and the masses through rallies, leaflets, posters, etc, the last strike action was devoid of any sustained attempt at educating the masses and carrying them along. The period between when the NLC Central Working Committee took the decision
 
to embark on strike and the actual commencement of the strike was too short for any meaningful mass education and mobilisation of the masses to have taken place. Also contributing to weakening of the strike is the lack of grassroot action committees. Thes
e
 committees would have served as the vehicle for mass mobilisation and education of the masses. These local action committees will give directives and take leadership of the masses in various localities to prevent the struggle from being hijacked by agent
s
- provocateurs and thugs. The action committees could also organise the provision of the essentials of daily life such as food supply, fuel, transportation, etc., Among other things, this will show in practice the ability of the working class to manage th
e economy and organise society.
\par 
\par Thirdly, the peculiar economic circumstance of an average Nigerian needs to be considered in the use of strike as a method of political struggle. The vast majority of Nigerian masses are daily wage earners either as market w
omen/men, self-employed artisan, peasants, etc. For this vast majority of the working people, eking out an existence is a daily struggle. Survival for them depends solely on going out daily. The daily wage earnings of a majority of the masses cannot meet 
t
heir basic daily needs talkless of saving for the next day or a week. Under this condition of enormous daily economic stress, sustaining an indefinite strike that would require people to stay at home for days is a herculean task. To be successful, an inde
f
inite strike has to be led with determination and linked to a programme and strategy for ending the present status-quo and the transformation of society. Socialists advocate limited strike actions (say of 24 or 48 hours duration) as they serve as means to
 
mobilise the masses and warn the employers/state. After a number of protest actions, the question will naturally be posed of the need to step up or escalate the action to a higher level. But we oppose the idea of limited actions or an indefinite series of
 
limited protests being used by labour leaders as safety values to let workers vent their anger.  Equally counter-productive is the stay-at-home character of the strike. This tactic of an indefinite 'stay at home' strike always isolate the workers at home 
and thus weaken strikes.
\par 
\par Given the above weaknesses in the tactics of the NLC leadership, adherence to the strike by the working masses would most likely had increasingly declined if it had not be called off in deference to the court order.
\par 
\par But of even mo
re crucial and fundamental importance is the programme and policies being advocated by the NLC leadership and its general outlook. More than what any theoretical exposition can achieve, the January, 2002 general strike showed that in the final analysis, c
a
pitalism can and should be overthrown and not reformed by the working masses. As far as Obasanjo and his clique of local and foreign capitalist elements are concerned, wherever capitalist profits and privileges are at stake, the working masses can go to b
l
azes! While it lasted, the strike totally paralysed economic and political activities in all the key sectors across the country. Yet, Obasanjo and his capitalist backers arrogantly and callously ignored the opinion of the vast majority of the working mass
es who participated in the strike.
\par 
\par This does not mean that mass struggles cannot, both now and in the future, win temporary concessions from the capitalists. Under the impact of mass struggles, the capitalist class can retreat and give temporary concession
s in order to buy time as Obasanjo did in June 2000. It is most likely that if the NLC had fully mobilised the masses, both politically and organisationally, and then defied the undemocratic court order, Obasanjo regime might have been compelled to grant 
some concessions.
\par 
\par It should be stressed that the vicious response of Obasanjo and the ruling class is nothing but an open declaration of class war by the minority capitalist class against the vast majority of mankind, the ordinary working class people. The
refore, labour also needs a leadership that is not only courageous but one which combines courage with sufficient revolutionary vision required for victory in the inevitable struggle between capital and labour.
\par 
\par }\pard\plain \s1\qj \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {THE NLC LEADERSHIP
\par }\pard\plain \qj \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {
\par Unlike the ponderous, op
enly right-wing leadership of the NLC of Pascal Bafyau's era, the current NLC president, Adams Oshiomhole, has brought robust flair to debate on labour and other relevant socio-political issues. This feature was effectively utilised during this struggle, 
just as in other NLC campaigns. Cogent facts and figures were brought out by the NLC to show the unjust nature of the increases, as well as their counter-productive nature.
\par 
\par However, the NLC leadership's propaganda and programme suffer from a fundamental we
akness. Every one of its programme and policy is always based on the illusory perspective of wanting to make capitalism and its managers perform better, in the interest of the working masses! The NLC leaders have retreated from their mid-1980s\rquote 
 acceptance of socialism as the objective of the labour movement and today see no alternative to capitalism. Hence, the labour leaders are unwilling to let struggles develop to a point where they challenge the whole capitalist system.
\par 
\par As mentioned earlier, its opposi
tion to the price increases is neither principled nor consistent. Yes, the NLC leadership has waged marvelous campaigns against the deregulation of the oil sector. The same leadership is however in support of the privatisation of NITEL, NEPA and other pub
lic enterprises regarded as \'93non-functional\'94
. Not surprisingly, this contradictory position has taken toll on the leadership's consistency. Prior to the increase which provoked the strike in review, Oshiomhole has been quoted several times stating that the 
NLC will not object to marginal increase in the prices. Naturally, there was some kind of confusion and resignation amongst the working masses when the new increases were first announced by the government.
\par 
\par Government and strategists of capital no doubt mu
st have envisaged a failed strike action given the apparent contradictions and confusions inherent in labour leadership's positions. Against this background therefore, the huge support given to the NLC's strike call by the vast majority of the working mas
ses across the country, reflects more the deep-seated anger of the masses against the corrupt gang of capitalist elements in power, than an acceptance of the inconsistent ideological standpoint of the NLC leadership.
\pa