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Socialist Democracy September - October 2003  Index

In June, soon after he was sworn in for a second term, President Obasanjo promised Nigerians that he was henceforth to be a brand new president. Three months after that statement was made, the Nigerian masses now know for better what it means to have a "born-again" president.

Rather than having a reprieve from the excruciating poverty and hardship which they experienced during Obasanjo's first term, the Nigerian working people and youth are facing new attacks on their living and working conditions by the Obasanjo regime and the state governments of the biggest pro-rich capitalist parties, the PDP, AD and ANPP. Many working class people who had mistakenly voted for these parties in the last elections for one reason or the other are now full of regret.

The first big salvo against the working masses from the regime was the 82% hike in fuel prices which provoked nationwide protests and an eight-day general strike by the trade unions. Though the regime was compelled to reduce the increment to 54%, it is warning again that another fuel price increase might come soon in order to ensure "regular supply" as they often claim. In actual fact, petrol can be obtained at the official price of N34 in only Lagos and Abuja while in all parts of the country diesel and kerosine are selling for as much as between N48-N60 instead of N34 and N32 per litre respectively. The result has been escalation in the price of goods and services, hike in the cost of living and more suffering for the downtrodden masses.

Furthermore, if the regime has its way, thousands of public sector jobs will disappear over the next four years as the government plans another round of retrenchment in the federal public service. In the Nigerian Railways Corporation alone, 50% of its workforce are to be sacked in order to prepare the corporation for privatisation.

In continuation of its policies which enrich the wealthy few while further impoverishing the poor working masses, the privatisation of Nigeria Airways, the railways, NEPA, steel mills, and other public companies under which public assets will be sold to multinational corporations and the local capitalists at rock-bottom prices are to be pursued with more vigour. Thousands of jobs will be erased to enable the sharks who are buying up our collective wealth to make maximum profits. And as if to display his unwavering commitment to the implementation of the anti-poor, neo-liberal capitalist policies of the IMF and the World Bank, Obasanjo has appointed a former IMF top official as the new finance minister.

Politically, the country is not fairing better. We are repeatedly being told that the country is practising "democracy". But what type of democracy is it in which the governments of all the ruling parties conspired and refuse to organise elections into local governments since December 2002? Instead, they have, in contravention of the constitution and the democratic rights of the electorate, appointed their cronies into "caretaker committees" to run and loot local councils. In some cases, these hand-picked individuals are politicians who are candidates of these elitist parties for local council elections. What a brazen rape on our democratic rights! This is aside from the unprecedented rigging and manipulations that characterised the last general elections.

The ordinary Nigerian continues, on a daily basis, to suffer harassments, brutalities and other violations of their rights from the police and other security agencies. The beating of a journalist with the Daily Independent newspaper into a state of coma by armed mobile policemen attached to vice-president Atiku Abubakar, at the recent coronation ceremony of the new Oba of Lagos, is a typical example of what an average Nigerian experiences on a regular basis. The same "executive lawlessness" could be seen in the invasion of the Ojota motor garage by armed policemen acting on the order of the Lagos State government.

Meanwhile, the Obasanjo regime and all sections of the capitalist ruling class in general have no solution to the innumerable socio-economic crises confronting the country. The economy continues to stagnate and unemployment is on the rise. Hundreds of people have been killed in the renewed wave of communal violence in the Warri area. But while the ruling class puts the rest of us on poverty ration and creates conditions that breed ethnic and religious conflicts, they live opulently through their super-profit, huge salaries and allowances, and billions of naira earned from kickbacks from inflated contracts.

But all the rottenness outlined above are basically the inevitable manifestations of a chronically sick neo-colonial capitalist system. Like in all capitalist societies, the goal of economic management and governance is not to satisfy the needs of majority of the populace particularly the working people, but to maximise profits and increase the wealth of a minority rich few. That is why the system means unending poverty, misery and hardship for overwhelming majority of the society in the midst of potential abundance. Uplifting the living standards of the masses and improving education, health, housing, roads and providing other basic necessities is the last in the calculations of these capitalist vampires.

About 15 years ago, Obasanjo tried to make name for himself by criticising the SAP policies (deregulation, commercialisation, privatisation, currency devaluation, etc) of the General Babangida regime which inflicted enormous hardship on the poorest sections of the populace. He called for "SAP with human face." A decade and a half later, a regime of the same Obasanjo, based as it is on the capitalist system, has been busy implementing the same anti-poor, pro-rich policies and programmes. This, more than anything, shows that there is no hope for a better life for the working masses under this system.

Therefore, the working masses and our organisations - the trade unions, NLC, NANS, NCP, etc. - must brace up to resist the renewed attacks on our rights and living standards by the ruling class and the Obasanjo administration. We must never be tired in organising mass protests, industrial actions and campaigns in the community, to fight against the renewed capitalist economic and political onslaughts on the working people. The trade unions and the NLC leadership in particular must put in place and implement a comprehensive programme of mass mobilisation and action to stop privatisation and the retrenchment of workers. The massive eight-day general strike in July against the hike in fuel price shows the enormous power of the working people and their readiness to fight for their rights if the leadership of the working class organisations are prepared to give the necessary lead.

But above all, these new attacks on the poor people by the ruling class raises, once again, the need for the labour movement to provide an alternative socio-economic and political agenda different from and fundamentally opposed to the capitalist system. More than ever before, there is an urgent need to build an independent mass working people's political party with a democratic socialist programme. Such a party will have to unequivocally reject and be implacably opposed to capitalism and its anti-poor policies if it is to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the suffering majority. The satisfaction of human needs and not the greed of a wealthy few must form the basis of its programme, with the public ownership of the commanding sectors of the economy, such as the big industries, oil companies and banks, under the democratic control and management of the working class. Such a political party is what is needed as a platform to both mobilise mass resistance against the capitalist attacks on the working people and build a mass movement to transform society along socialist line.

Only a workers� and poor peasants� government formed by such a party can implement the necessary socialist measures enumerated above.

We in the Democratic Socialist Movement call again on the leadership of the NLC and trade unions to stop giving any form of support for the Obasanjo regime and other capitalist governments, policies and parties. Instead, a special conference of trade unions, students' unions, community organisations, women and youth groups, socialists, working people�s organisations like the National Conscience Party (NCP), etc, should be organised, as a matter of urgency, to discuss how to build an independent working people�s political platform. The NCP leadership should also take initiatives along this direction. This is the only way that can lead to a permanent end to the vicious cycle of fuel price increases, mass retrenchment, mass poverty, communal clashes, corruption and political instability.

On July 10, 2003, the unusual happened in Anambra State. The newly elected governor of the state in person of Dr. Chris Ngige was first arrested in his office and later abducted and detained by a contingent of 200 policemen led by an Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of zone 9, Mr. Raphael Ige. While still in detention, the state House of Assembly hurriedly met and accepted the letter of resignation purportedly written by Ngige. In a jiffy, Ngige's deputy, Dr Okechukwu Ude with the connivance of the house immediately declared himself the new governor "so as to avoid a vacuum".

Even by Nigeria's standard, a country that had spent almost 30 out of the 43 years of its post -independence period under military rule, the July 10 event in Anambra, in sheer brazenness, was on unusual happened. Unlike classical military coup, the Anambra event was a coup not made to overthrow the constitution, but one made in the name and under the provisions of the constitution! Prior to this coup, there was no any known disagreement on policies by the PDP leadership in Anambra state. It was therefore a big jolt to many people across the country to learn of the abortive, military-like attempt made to remove governor Ngige who had only spent 42 days in power on the day of the coup.

Many commentators across parties, including the PDP had unreservedly condemned the abortive criminal plot. Demands have been variously made for the arrest and prosecution of the self-confessed leader of this coup plot, in person of one Chief Chris Uba, Ngige's political godfather, together with all those that may had one way or the other participated or contributed towards this brazen assault on the constitution and by extension the collective democratic rights of the working masses across the country.

Many have correctly argued that if the makers of Anambra coup are not tried and punished, some other elements, or these same elements might someday and somewhere else decided to repeat the Anambra saga, even against the central government and, who knows, with better luck, they may achieve greater success next time around. To all those that remember or know the unrelenting poverty and perpetual political brutality of the military years, the abortive coup in Anambra represents a mortal danger not just to civil rule but the collective democratic rights of the masses.

It is not something that should just be swept under the carpet. Unfortunately however, the cacophonic demands being made across the country on President Olusegun Obasanjo and the PDP government for the arrest and arraignment for criminal trial of Chris Uba and his lieutenants-in-crime, are demands that can never be seriously contemplated, let alone being thoroughly executed by these self-serving elements.

From whatever angle one looks at the Anambra coup, one fact remains incontrovertible: the masses or masses welfare, democratic rights, etc, count for little or nothing to the coup plotters and or those plotted against. The reason that has so far been advanced to justify the July 10 coup is that Ngige no longer enjoyed the goodwill of his political godfather (Uba) and other patrons. Right from his first to his 42nd day in office, when the coup in issue took place, Ngige was practically held hostage by the coup plotters.

The coup plotters� group made sure he did nothing without their approval. Consequently, he was never able to pick his commissioners because his godfather had not had enough time to address such a trivial issue.

Suffice to note, the governor had not been idle. Without commissioners, without doing anything positive for the masses, the governor had been busy pandering to every whim and caprices of his godfather. Ngige speaks: "They came to demand that I pay them N3 billion. And I said where do I get N3 billion to give you. They said that was the money to secure my loyalty or to make me conform (emphasis in the original). They said whenever you remember that you are owing us N3 billion, you will conform to certain things. They said you wont leave this room, you must get your checkbook. Give us N3 billion, you might sign this agreement. They said if you wouldn�t sign the document, then give us N1.5 billion cheque in two places. I said okay, l agree � After I got sworn-in, they came again. I have to pay N870 million. He said the construction work he was doing � Mbadinuju did not pay him for some months now. That he has irrevocable payment standing order (ISPO) for N10 million every month on the project. Before l could say Jack Robinson, my Account General, emerged from a corner. They had prepared a paper addressed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying I had directed that such money be paid, N10 million be paid for 87 months � I told him � I will be governor for 48 months and I can only do an ISPO that would carry me for 48 months for you, which translates to N480 million." (The Guardian, July 21, 2003, page 9).

When asked by Senator David Mark, during a session of the special senate committee investigating the Anambra coup, why he had been playing along with the group when he knew they were of questionable character and why he did not resist the group, Ngige had said: "You can either decide to face them headlong or decide to wear them out". Through this statement, Ngige seeks to portray himself as a decent person who only innocently found himself in the midst of looters and was just playing along so that these elements may publicly show their true colours.

Nothing can be farther from the truth. The truth in fact is much less flattering. Ngige was just acting like many middle class/capitalist hustlers would have done in the giving circumstances. He was never bothered that the agenda of his political mentors was primarily designed to loot the Anambra state treasury dry. All his calculations were based on the assumption that he himself as the chief front man-in-crime will have enough opportunity to make a loot of his own. He, apparently beclouded by greediness did not foresee a situation where his godfather might decided to ditch him for another fall guy. His statement quoted above is thus nothing but an afterthought.

If the mindless, mercenary-like, gangster-robbers politics of the Uba and Ngige camps are reprehensible, the way and manner with which the entire saga had been treated by the PDP-led federal and Anambra State governments lucidly underline the serious dangers to the economic and political rights of the working masses for every extra second, minutes, days, months and years spent in power by these capitalist elements. Beyond the setting up series of panels which lack judicial power by the senate and the PDP at the central level, nobody has been arrested, let alone put on trial in connection with this daylight coup.

In fact the coup leader, Uba, has been busy addressing press conferences with video coverage, to justify the conducts of his group. Presently, he is reported to have travelled out of the country. Immediately after the abortive coup, the PDP leadership at the central level not only condemned the coup, it in fact announced the expulsion from the party of certain members of the Uba gang. Few days later, while inaugurating a panel to investigate the coup, the party's National Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbe, told a shocked populace that PDP was ready to pardon (even without trial) all those involved in the coup provided they agree that they made a mistake.

Some have agreed that Uba and his group is untouchable because Obasanjo's wife, Stella, is a relation of Uba's wife. Socialists, working class activists and youths must go beneath this superficial level of reasoning. The real reason why Uba and his gang are not being touched is principally because almost all the governors across the country and even the President got to their positions through financial bribery, official manipulation, and rigging largely facilitated by and with the active collaboration of their mentors, godfathers, locally and internationally. None of the top political officials in the country today is an independent agent.

If it is not Adedibu in Oyo State, it will be Olusola Saraki in Kwara State, or the Oni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade, Sunday Afolabi, Iyiola Omisore, etc, in Osun State or Atiku in Lagos State. The list is identical everywhere. None of the so-called set of elected leaders across the country can honestly claim to have got to their positions through free and fair electoral processes. The "election" of Ngige himself as governor was a fabricated fraud. This is why even the "born again" government of Ngige can never make serious efforts to prosecute Uba and co, even though it has all the powers under the criminal code to do so. Mr. Chuma Nzeribe, a PDP member of House of Representatives and a top member of the Uba gang had in fact threatened, while testifying before the senate committee, to expose the fraud behind Ngige's "election" as governor, apparently if their group is not left alone. Hear him: "I have graphic details of how we won and how we didn't win the elections in Anambra" (The Guardian, July 18, 2003, P2).

We consider highly undemocratic the practice whereby local government chairmen, governors, chief executives of industries, presidents, etc are invested with arbitrary and wide powers to decide the economic and political fates of millions without resort to any genuine democratic checks and balances.

Socialists of course do not subscribe to the bourgeois utopia of placing individual powers of office holders over the party and on all matters of life and deaths. We have always advocated and we still do today that all policies and their mode of implementation must always be democratically decided by every rank and file party members in or out of power.

The crisis in Anambra State is just a reflection of the political situation and crisis across the country. It is not just an Anambra rot. If it were, the central government would have by now arrested and put on trial all those involved in the criminal conduct. All the PDP governments at central and state levels have more pecks in their own eyes and as such could not be validly accused of not helping to remove the peck from the eyes of Anambra .The capitalist opposition parties tragically equally do not stand for something different and credible.

lf this is not the case, they could have used the crisis in Anambra to fight for a change of government and policies not only in Anambra but across the country. Tragically their own opposition to PDP elements and governments is centred on their own personal interests not the interests of the majority.

These capitalist opposition parties (ANPP, AD, APGA, NDP etc) just like the PDP agree totally with the imperialist/capitalist privatisation/liberalization agenda, sale of the commanding heights of the economy to private individuals, and corporations, mass retrenchment of workers, low wages, incessant hike in fuel prices, commercialisation of education, health care, housing transportation, telecommunications, etc. They are not opposed to treasury looting and political manipulations. These they themselves already do in every economic and political sphere where they hold sway. The main grouse they have against their colleagues in PDP is that they have less opportunity to loot and manipulate as much as those who control the central government can do.

Herein precisely lies the tragedy for the working masses. We have at the central level and in 28 states PDP governments made up mostly of mindless mercenaries, treasury looters and political manipulators. The remaining other 8 states are equally under the control of elements whose greatest ambition is to be strong or opportune enough to be the country's main looters and oppressors.

Sadly this tragic phenomenon will continue for as long as the working masses are unable to build an independent political party of their own which in policies and methodologies will be totally opposed to capitalist parties and elements and whose central goal will be (through a workers and poor peasant government) the running of the economy and polity in a way that will permanently guarantee the economic and political needs and rights of the working masses.

The NLC leaders along-side other elements had seriously condemned the coup and demanded the arrest and trial of all those involved in the dastardly act. In the given political situation however, this is just and empty demand. You cannot reasonably expect any justice from looters and political manipulators. Instead of sowing illusion that the capitalist elements and their system can work in a fair, rational and logical basis, which the Anambra saga has once again contradicted, the NLC leadership should be prepared to take responsibility to build a mass working peoples' party with genuine pro-masses programme and active presence across the country with a view to chase out the capitalist gangsters in power in Anambra State and all over the country.

If we were to go by the alleged overwhelming popularity of Governor Bola Tinubu in Lagos State, the drums and the cymbals ought to have been rolled out by the people on their own volition to celebrate the first 100 days of his second term.

In reality however it was the inner caucus of the ruling Alliance for Democracy in the state that celebrated among themselves. The ruling cabal dared not go public.

The reasons are not far fetched. Within the short period of the second term, the Tinubu administration has bared its fangs. Markets are to be forcefully shut at 6 pm, a measure that will certainly deny many self-employed the only means of livelihood. The state claims this is to stop robbery but it is not addressing the main causes of criminal activities like joblessness, high cost of living, etc. If anything, it is set to compound the problem.

The state is one of those saying it cannot pay the recently agreed 12.5 percent pay rise by the Federal Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). It should not be forgotten that in order to implement the last wage increases, the administration sacked thousands of workers including labour leaders who led the agitation for the payment of a N7, 500 minimum wage by the state.

Where the Tinubu administration is concerned, it is profit first and people's welfare second or never. For example, having apparently sold the popular Ojota motor park to a private interest, the regime went ahead to forcefully eject the transporters using the place giving them less than 24 hours to obey an illegal quit order. The invading soldiers and policemen raped young girls and old women alike and arrested and detained close to two hundred people. Recall that this same administration, pretending to want to develop the utterly neglected Ajegunle ghetto had started attempting to pull down houses and schools without making any alternative arrangement. The people, of course, saw through and resisted the ruse: Tinubu wanted the land for the rich. The same way Maroko, another Lagos suburb, was pulled down for the rich while the poor 300,000 displaced residents were never properly rehabilitated.

Elsewhere, LASTMA, its traffic management agency, remains a terror and bribe taking squad. Many are picked for road offences but few are ever tried. In between the scene of offence and the court, bribes continue to exchange hands. But it is actually difficult to stop traffic offences under a situation where virtually the entire road network is in a state of disrepair. So bad are the roads that one is left to wonder what became of the billions of Naira voted for road construction in Tinubu's first term.

But the Tinubu style is all too familiar: promise high heavens and neglect basic things that could change the life of the people for better. An example is the promise of a fourth mainland bridge to link the elite occupied Victoria Island with mainland Ikorodu while many inter-state and intra-city roads are left unattended to.

Meanwhile, the other time, Enron, the bankrupted American electricity company was supposed to supply and improve electricity in Lagos State through a so-called Independent Power Supply system. Today, the effect is hardly noticeable.

The truth is that such billion naira projects will facilitate the giving and taking of kickbacks whereas a massive and masses oriented program of public works could limit such.

So, why will the working people see any need for wide jubilation when a so-called Oracle computer system has even led to a collapse of the process of paying salaries such that they are now delayed?

But while the poor masses grumble, Tinubu remains a darling of the American capitalists and imperialists who he has been wooing to come and invest in and take over major sectors of the Lagos State economy. The mechanism by which they will carry out the so-called investment is privatization and commercialization, the kind of policies that translate to job cuts, job losses and higher tariffs.

All the above point to likely more attacks on the working class and youth in the state. The working masses should be ready to face the challenge by organizing mass resistance to these anti-poor policies. Organizations like the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and the National Conscience Party (NCP), that have traditionally mobilized against the Tinubu administration and its anti-poor and repressive policies should be supported by workers, students, youths, women and others who have been victims of attacks on the poor in Lagos.

The civil servants in Lagos State may be in for another four years of agony under the governorship of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The pensioners in Lagos state are no exception. Most workers that were unjustifiably retrenched or retired by Tinubu's government are yet to be paid their full entitlements. Very few that were lucky to have received their gratuities are yet to be receiving stipends being given them as pensions.

It will be recalled that Comrade Ayodele Akele, the chairman, Lagos State Council of Industrial Unions (COIU), the arrow head of the struggle for the implementation of the new minimum wage of N7,500 was one of the victims of the unjust retrenchment in the Lagos civil service by the AD government of Bola Tinubu.

Many of the retired civil servants in Lagos state who spoke with us wondered why a government should be indifferent to the suffering of workers. They asked whether the excuse of paucity of fund by the government is tenable.

Meanwhile, the Bola Tinubu government has enough money to appoint several advisers, engage in unnecessary overseas trips, build an unnecessary fourth mainland bridge at the expense of many bad roads in the state.

Another civil servant who works in Alausa secretariat put his words this way: "It seems the government does not belief we have our family to take care of and the need for us to feed ourselves, hence they pay our salary anytime they feel like. Many leave allowances are still being owed and in fact, we are more or less beggars as to receive our salaries and entitlements".

The teachers are not left behind. A teacher in one of the secondary schools in Agege Local Government actually confirmed that with August going to an end, their July salary was yet to be paid. We actually investigated and confirmed that May salary was paid just about three weeks ago while June salary was paid about two weeks ago.

The DSM demands that all salary arrears, allowances and pensions should be paid without further delay while subsequent ones should be paid as at when due. If Tinubu cannot fulfil this basic function of government, the working people should demand that he resigns immediately. We shall continue to support the workers and pensioners in fighting for their legitimate rights.

The Lagos State chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP) has condemned in its entirety the armed invasion of the Ojota New Garage Motor Park by mobile policemen.

The August 16, 2003 invasion and occupation of the garage was ordered by the Lagos State Government. It was carried out ostensibly to forestall a likely breach of public peace and security of lives and property as a result of alleged disputes between rival road transport unions. But the invasion actually resulted in the assault, rape, vandalisation and looting of properties worth hundreds of thousands of naira. About 200 vehicles and over 200 people were detained illegally at the Alausa Secretariat of the Lagos State Government.

Contrary to the claims of the Lagos State Government that the invasion was prompted by alleged disputes among the transport union workers, investigations revealed that the invasion was prompted by the selfish calculations to convert the public land on which the motor park is situated to private companies and individuals! To say the least, the government's lie and conduct on this issue constitutes a grave danger to the survival of Nigeria's so-called nascent democracy.

The NCP said that even if for any reason the government wanted to eject the road transport workers from the park in issue, its approach of armed invasion and occupation of the park only after giving three days� notice, without any court order is totally illegal and in the circumstances constituted a crude violation of the relevant laws governing recovery of premises and together with that of the fundamental rights of the victims of this executive recklessness.

This heartless and anti-poor action of the Lagos State Government shows why the masses should be more critical and stop voting for corrupt, pro-rich, elitist politicians during elections. Instead we should put all efforts together to build and vote for a genuine, pro-masses political party. The party calls on the labour movement, human right groups and all men and women of good conscience to rise up in unison to condemn and fight this creeping civilian dictatorship.

The NCP demands:

*an independent public enquiry made up of representatives of the trade unions, human right groups, road transport workers, etc, to investigate this bestial invasion in all ramifications and to determine the conducts of the Lagos State Government, the police and all those that directly or indirectly instigated this sordid act with a view to bring them to book to forestall a repeat in future.

*the immediate and unconditional release of all the persons and vehicles detained in connection with the invasion

*all those directly and indirectly involved in this dastardly act should be tried and punished under the relevant laws of the land.

*immediate withdrawal of the invading police contingent presently stationed at the Ojota New Garage.

*public financed hospital treatments for all those who were raped and otherwise assaulted during the moment of madness in issue.

*adequate financial compensation for all the victims of this needless official brigandage and state terrorism.

*an immediate halt to all attempts at selling, leasing or transferring to private hands the public land presently housing the Ojota New Garage.

Recently, all state governors and the president who emerged in the flawed and massively rigged and globally criticized general elections, celebrated their 100 days in office with pomp and pageantry. The 100 days in office was marked by flamboyant congratulatory messages in the mass media.

While the various congratulatory messages gave the impression of a rosy and eventful 100 days in office, the reality on ground contradicts the rosy picture painted by the various congratulatory messages sponsored by hangers-on, political jobbers, contractors and associates of those in public offices.

Since the last general elections, the conditions of life for the vast majority of Nigerians have gone from bad to worse with hunger, unemployment, ever rising cost of living, poverty, inflation arising from the increase in the pump price of petroleum products, insecurity of life and property, armed robbery, ethnic violence, etc being the lot of the masses.

Rather than ameliorating the sufferings and pains of the masses, governance at all levels in the country has become one huge burden on the people because of the various anti-people policies and pronouncements of those in government. Daily, the pains, sufferings and hardship confronting the masses increase with no hope of the situation changing for the better underlining the helplessness of the conventional politicians and political parties to proffer solution to these problems.

Instead of ameliorating the terrible living conditions of the masses, governments at all levels is rather keen on pushing them further down the drains of economic and social misery and snuffing lives out of the Nigerian masses. An excellent example being the insistence of the Obasanjo government to further increase the pump price of petroleum products despite the mass opposition to the move and in spite of the deteriorating condition of life that the last increases engendered.

The Nigerian masses have at critical periods and juncture, shown themselves prepared and ready to resist and reject the yoke called governance and its anti-people policies as the last general strike and protests against the increase in the prices of petroleum products has shown. What is however lacking is how to transform the revulsion of the masses against the traditional usurpers of public institutions, who use public office to inflict pains on the masses, into concrete political action to sweep them out of public office. The absence of a genuinely mass-based political platform with a pro-masses agenda that can mobilize the masses and channel their revulsion against the present decadent status quo for the purpose of installing a genuinely pro-masses government in power is what is holding the masses back.

Of the thirty registered political parties presently in the country, the National Conscience Party (NCP) no doubt, stands out clearly as a most popular party with a pro-poor and pro-masses programmes and manifestoes.

However, the rigged victory of the moneybag parties and seemingly poor performance of the NCP has understandably led to a mood of disappointment among a certain layer of the masses and NCP activists in particular.

The principal reason for the NCP results is that the party has not yet got sufficient influence and roots among the working masses and in most working class and rural communities that would have enabled it to win the elections. In several local governments and wards, especially outside Lagos State, the party is yet to establish viable structure.

The very short time between NCP registration (December 2002) by the electoral commission and the time of the elections (April 2003), the shortage of necessary manpower and finance were also factors which negatively affected NCP's performance.

The main challenge before the party membership at this period is to correct these weaknesses and build the party as a fighting grassroot mass party with presence in every ward, street and home through systematic campaign on issues affecting the working masses. Only the building of such a formidable presence can ensure victory for the party and the masses and neutralise the effects of vote buying and check rigging by the main capitalist parties.

The party needs to do a whole lot of work to rebuild and strengthen the party structures and transform it into a genuinely mass based political platform with structures in the communities, streets and neighbourhoods.

Building the NCP as a mass based political party implies setting up units of the party in streets, neighbourhood and communities with mandates to champion and intervene in issues confronting neighbourhoods and communities like police harassment and extortions, insensitivity of government officials to the problems of neighbourhood and communities, anti-people and anti-poor government policies, etc. It implies neighbourhood and community units of the party serving as points of contact to supporters and potential members of the party and equally serving as avenues for educating the masses on the party's programmes and manifestoes and other important issues of public interest in a language that is understandable and accessible to the community/neighbourhood. Building NCP as a community based party entails using the units of the party in the communities to discuss and dissect governmental policies as well as alternatives of the NCP to the pro-rich policies of the conventional political parties and politicians.

The task of building the NCP as a mass based political party is a sine qua non for positioning the party as a credible alternative come 2007 elections and beyond. The popular sentiment among the masses who see the party as a party of the future will be a mirage except it is realized that the future starts now and that concrete steps need to be taken to position the party for the take over of political power through consciously entrenching the party in communities and neighbourhoods.

Also essential is the need for the NCP to embrace a full socialist programme without which it would be incapable of implementing its 10-care programme and fulfil the yearnings of the working masses.

This task of building the party no doubt cannot be undertaken without finance. The challenge here is for the party to reach out to change seeking elements in the society, an increasing number of whom could be convinced to support the party financially.

It would have to be realised that the cost of changing society like the task of changing society cannot be borne by a group of few individuals but by the widest possible number of genuine change seeking elements in society. The party must open its doors to tap into the goodwill it enjoys among the masses and sections of the society who are sympathisers of the party to finance the task of building the party into a mass-based political formation that can lead the masses to take over political power from the present crop of visionless, myopic and selfish ruling class and their political parties whose inability to better the lot of the masses and take society forward have been proven beyond doubt time and time again.

A section of the Nigerian workers of the Anglo-Dutch multinational oil corporation, Shell Petroleum Development Company, under the aegis of the Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), on Wednesday 27 August embarked on a two weeks industrial action to protest against what they termed the "globalisation mission" of the company in Nigeria.

Simply put, the workers were protesting the planned retrenchment of workers and the discriminations against Nigerian workers as part of the company's plan to downsize its workforce as a result of its globalisation scheme. Other complaints of the Shell branch of the PENGASSAN include the introduction of Shell Services International (SSIN) and the Integrated Business System Application (IBS SAP) which the union accused Shell of locating at The Hague in Netherlands all aimed at streamlining Shell's operations in Africa and boost its profit.

The strike actions which affected the company's operations in Lagos, Warri and Port Harcourt threatened the oil production activities of Shell which is responsible for about a half of the country's oil output.

Though the strike was called off on September 11, following the intervention of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Managing Director, Mr. Gaius Obaseki, it was nonetheless an important indication of a growing awareness among Nigerian oil workers of the rapacious exploitation by multinational corporations, in this case the oil companies, under the nomenclature of globalisation. It is against this profit greed that millions of protesters have come out in anti-globalisation protests all over Europe and America.

To defeat the globalisation policies of Shell however, the PENGASSAN must link up with other workers� unions in the petroleum and other sectors of the economy who are daily victims of the profit greediness of the various multinational corporations dominating the economy of Nigeria. It must work with unions of Shell workers in other countries to build an international workers� resistance against this Shell anti-working class policy.

Above all, there is a need to understanding that the whole process of capitalist globalisation is part of a comprehensive neo-liberal capitalist attacks on the living and working conditions of the working class across the world, resulting in job losses, falling real wages, destruction of the environment, and a general worsening conditions of life for the working people. This is to enable the multinational corporations to boost their profit which is being undermined by the global capitalist economic recession. Hence the necessity for the trade unions and the labour movement in general to put forward an alternative socio-economic agenda based on an end to capitalism and the domination and rule of the multinational corporations. Instead, the labour movement must fight for the common ownership of the society�s collective wealth and their democratic management by the working people in order to guarantee job security and provide the basic needs of the working masses.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the federal government have finally signed an agreement for a 12.5% wage increase. Though the NLC is supposed to represent all Nigerian workers, the state governments and private employers are saying that they are not bound by the agreement as they were not parties to the negotiations.

This new agreement can be traced to the agreement signed in May 2000 which provided for increases of 25% in May 2001 and 15% in May 2002. But this agreement was violated by the Obasanjo government which gave poor economic conditions as the reason why it could not increase wages.

Therefore, the increase of 12.5%, even if fully implemented, is a drop in the ocean compared to the agreement which the federal government signed in May 2000 and it is coming two years behind schedule. This is despite the annual double-digit inflation rate in the country caused by policies of deregulation, incessant fuel price increase, devaluation of the naira, etc. Thus the wage increase will have very little if any effect at all in improving the living standards of working class families. In fact, the 12.5% increment is not across the board; only the least paid workers will get 12.5% while others will get much less.

Also, the last increase in May 2000 was only implemented half-heartedly by both the private sector and many state governments. A large chunk of the working class was left out of the increase. It is possible that once again this scenario will be repeated with the new agreement. Already, the Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, has said that his government has no money to effect any wage increase.

Also the implementation of the last agreement was followed by the retrenchment of thousands of workers particularly civil servants. In Lagos State alone, about 15,000 workers were sacked.

It is therefore be clear that the mere signing of an agreement does not mean that it will be implemented by the employers of labour. As miserably and inadequate as the agreed increment is, it will take mass struggles to get the employers to pay them.

The trade unions and the NLC should therefore be prepared to organise mass actions against any recalcitrant employer of labour who refuses to abide the agreement. In addition, unlike how the trade unions and the NLC abandoned workers who lost their jobs in the course of implementation of the year 2000 agreement, labour should resist any attempt to sack workers because of the implementation of the new salary increase.

Comrade Samuel Tunji Olowokere, newly elected chairman of the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), primary schools units in Ajeromi Ifelodun local government area, has had his victory dance cut short when six days afterwards he was issued a sack letter on the false pretext of a "reorganization exercise currently going on in the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA)".

This sack is a pure act of victimisation and intimidation against a staff who has never been found wanting in the discharge of his official duties. And it is clear to all that no reorganization exercise whatsoever is going on since Olowokere alone has been singled out. His sack is not unconnected to the fact that he was elected NASU chairman on 10 point cardinal manifesto aimed at turning the union around, to become more focused and committed to protecting and defending workers� right and to struggle for improvement in the welfare of staff. That he was sacked not before but after his victory in the election confirms this to be the real reason why the LGEA had him sacked.

In actual fact, he had been summoned by the educational secretary, Akpata, who had interrogated him and said that it was an act of subordination on his office and person for Olowokere to have become active in the politics of the union without prior consultation with him. This is highly unbecoming and a flagrant infringement of Olowokere's right and that of every other civil servant to belong to a union, partake in its activities, and to vote and to be voted for.

The DSM therefore calls on the LGEA to reverse their action and immediately recall Olowokere, without any loss of pay. Also, NASU and educational unions should take up the reinstatement campaign of Olowokere.

Send letter of protests and demanding his immediate recall now to:

Educational Secretary,

Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government

Education Authority,

Awodi-Ora School Complex,

Ajegunle,

Lagos State.

The eventual recall of Dr. Oyebade Olowogboyega, the immediate past president of Osun State chapter of National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), who was unjustly dismissed by the former Alliance For Democracy (AD) government in the state in 2001 by new state governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the PDP is a victory for the working people. Apart from Olowogboyega, about 600 workers were also reported to have been reinstated by the new governor.

Olowogboyega was unjustly sacked for his leading role in the struggle for the implementation of the N6,500 minimum wage agreed to by the government and NLC leadership in 1999. Apart from Olowogboyega who was the arrowhead, about 11,000 public servants, including teachers, were sacked by the then AD government on the usual excuse that the state government could not afford the payment of the new wage.

In addition to those who have been reinstated, the new governor has set up a panel to review the cases of other affected workers with a view to recalling them.

The workers should be saluted for their heroic struggles and perseverance which is what has compelled the new government to re-examine the case.

The workers and their leadership should not however be carried away by the 'magnanimity' of the current government in reinstating their colleagues and leaders. There is a need for caution and vigilance by the workers� leaders in managing the present victory vis-�-vis their relations with the ruling PDP government. Already, Mr. Peter Ade-Ajayi, the state NLC chairman, has been appointed as a special adviser to the governor. This is clearly part of a strategy by the new government in the state to buy off the trade unions.

Workers� leaders should note that notwithstanding its initial good relations with them, put under the same circumstance and condition, the present government would likely act the same way its predecessor did. Instead of dissolving themselves into the bourgeois PDP government in the state or giving political support to it, what should pre-occupy the attention of the workers especially their leaders is how to fight for their members� interests as well as build an alternative working class political platform to the present bourgeois PDP government which can take away, within a tinkle of an eye, all the present victories if confronted with workers legitimate demands in the near future.

With the PDP�s neo-liberal policies of privatisation and commercialisation of every sector of the economy, it is just a matter of time before Oyinlola government in the state starts to attack all the gains and victories won by the workers. Only through a workers and poor peasants� government, with the commanding sectors of the economy nationalised under the democratic control and management of the workers themselves can permanent decent living and working conditions be guaranteed and an end be put to victimisation of labour activists.

Niger Delta is Nigeria's own Middle East, the rich oil belt providing about 90% of the foreign exchange earnings. The irony however is that while providing this amount of wealth to the country, it is repaid with squalor and unpardonable neglect. This is what has made the Niger Delta a flashpoint of non-ending agitations and disturbances. Warri is however in the front run of beating all other trouble-spots in the Niger Delta to becoming 'our own little Sudan', with a worrisome war that has been on since 1997.

What is responsible for this state of permanent hostilities among the three ethnic nationalities of the Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri who have over the centuries have not only lived together in harmony but have inter-married among themselves. The governments, both past and present, have through one policy or the other ignited the crisis which is principally fueled by the fear of the domination of one ethnic nationality over the other.

The upgrading of monarchial stool of Olu of Itsekiri to that of Olu of Warri in 1953 by the then Western Region Government has remained a sore point to the other ethnic nationalities who historically see the Itsekiri as a later-day immigrants. This however is neither here nor there. The question however to raise is: what is the whole essence of the Olu of Warri or even any other traditional ruler in a modern society and in a country, which claims to be a republic?

The above speaks volume of the weakness of bourgeois ruling elite in neo-colonial countries, who while aping their counterparts in Europe and America cannot march or repeat the historical examples of their fore-runners who rose up in revolution beheading their monarchs to grind feudalism to the archives of history..

These anachronism of feudalism (the Olus, Obas, Alafin, Oni, Emirs, Sultans, Obis, etc, the so-called 'fathers of the people') have continued to exist so that through them the bourgeois ruling elite can foster on us their pretentious and unpopular rule.

In 1997, since the crisis took a new turn, with the Ijaws and the Itsekiri, taking on each other resulting into the death of more than a thousand, thousands of other injured and 50,000 rendered homeless with the burning of 20 towns and villages. It was precipitated by the relocation of the headquarters of the new Warri South West Local Council from Ogbe-Ijoh (Ijaw) to Ogidigben (Itsekiri). But this has since been reversed in 1999, without in any way dousing the tension, or bringing a permanent peace to Warri.

The present bid to create separate local government councils for all the ethnic nationalities would in the end only benefit the separate elites of various ethnic nationalities at the expense of the collective majority of their working masses. As with other local governments in other parts, a large chunk of the resources would disappear into the private pockets of the elites and their cronies.

Given the fact that deprivation is a common denominator for all the working masses in all parts of the country, the stakes are higher in Warri and the Niger delta region. The majority of the working masses and the elites unlike in other part of the country do not enjoy the minimal crumbs from the table- the petro-dollars of this rich belt goes into the coffers of the national treasury to enrich other major ruling elites, especially, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo elites who dominate the national polity. The fact that the three other ethnic nationalities involved in the Warri crisis are characterised as minorities means that they could only get little or nothing from the national cake.

This largely is the thinking of the present Obasanjo regime, and as such has gone out of its way to assuage this elitist ill feeling of political deprivation by offering two ministerial post to Dr. Roland Oritsejafor (Minister of State for Defence) Itsekiri and Mr. Boderich Bozimo (Minister of Police Affairs) Ijaw, both from Warri.

What this means is that the poor, the very wretched of the earth, who suffer these decades of deprivation, who see their earth sprout millions of dollars and yet are inflicted with the pangs of poverty, illiteracy, disease, collapse of basic infrastructure, bad roads, electrical power outage, lack of pipe borne water, all resulting into slow and early death, who are the main casualties in the unending war of arson and spiral killing, practically do not count in the thinking of the Obasanjo regime as has been the case with all previous regimes.

Their concern for peace is not the creation of an atmosphere that would allow for the working masses to better their condition of existence, but for the oil well in Warri and indeed the whole of the Niger Delta to keep flowing. If it were possible for the war to continue without in anyway disturbing the continued exploitations of the oil reserve what business would the ruling class have with wanting peace in Warri when business as usual is flowing.

The government, both past and present, overtly and covertly, encouraged the rivalry among the various ethnic nationalities, financing and arming one against the other. This tactic was an Abacha hallmark that was visible to all in the case of Andoni against Ogoni for the simple reason that this would not allow the various communities to concert their collective effort in a united struggle against the regime for a higher stake in the oil-wealth of the Niger Delta.

But this tactic, in the case of Warri, has dialectically turned into its opposite, as a full blown war has resulted into a shut down of the oil wells in the last five months resulting into oil revenue loss of N149.3 billion. This explains why speculation is rife that the regime is contemplating to invite the US marines over the protection of the oil wells in the whole of Niger Delta. Obasanjo has since, in the interim drafted a military task force of the Army, Navy and state security services headed by Brigadier Elias Zamani, without discussion or approval of the National Assembly in an operation tagged "Restore Hope into Warri" to the area.

Would this be the path to peace in Warri? Interestingly, it would turn out to be an illusion. The "hope" that would be "restored" is that of fat cats of the various oil companies, who for the past five months have had the oil wells shut. According to James Ibori, the governor of Delta State, "this taskforce are not only here for the Warri crisis, rather, they will also go into the riverine area to checkmate the activities of the illegal bunkers and vandalisation of pipelines". They are therefore principally in Warri to ensure that waterways are safe for continuation of oil exploitation.

This would of course also restore hope and guarantee the continued looting of the oil wealth of the country by the ruling elite, who would go to any length as was in the case of the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other eight Ogoni activists of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People. It is only a question of time before this military taskforce becomes an occupational force and it is the masses that would be made to suffer additional siege from these armed men who themselves are victims of the neo-colonial capitalist arrangement of the ruling elite, whose interest they are in Warri to protect.

They would ultimately bargain with their weapons against the unarmed civilian population who they are already terrorizing, as a dozen or so have died from their bullets. Meanwhile, these innocent civilians were not combatants in any of the warring factions. The roadblocks would become tollgates, where passing vehicles would have to settle them for "peace keeping" or face incessant harassment.

As to the question of bunkering, occupational forces beg the question. The bunkerers are highly placed individuals, highly connected to persons in the corridors of power. If they are not directly fronting for those in power, they become a safeway guide for the bunkerers. Unfortunately, the peace-talks have not given any room for the victims of the conflict or those directly involved in the ground battle any democratic representation except for the self-appointed elders who are miles away from the gun battles and in some cases are the direct sponsors of these conflicts. What this means is that once the elites from the three ethnic nationalities arrived at a "sharing formula" that would accommodate all of them, this would mean that the youths and victims would be left to themselves.

The militant youths, who would no longer enjoy the patronage of their sponsors, would be forced to turn their guns for their own use and make their own gains directly from the oil companies. What this implies is that without a conscious political movement to redress the crisis and transformed these militias to an armed wing that is democratically under the control and checks of such a mass organisation for the defense of its public functions, they would ultimately be put to use for either criminal or terrorist purpose by turning against the state, the oil companies or against their former masters and sponsors or the people themselves at a later time.

A lasting peace to bring an end to the worrisome war in Warri for all and bring the three ethnic groups to live together in harmony is only possible if the economic needs of the majority of the people in Ijaw, Itsekiri or Urhobo are met and life made to become meaningful and free from the daily stress, as food, work, housing, water, education, healthcare, electricity and all other basic necessities are made available in sufficient quantity and quality for all.

Given the present neo-colonial capitalist arrangement of the Nigerian economy, wherein the commanding sectors of the economy, e.g. the oil industry, remains the private concerns of the oil companies and their loyalists, the political office holders, for self-aggrandizement, the above would remain an impossibility even if the ethnic nationalities were to become distinct political entities.

The task therefore, is for the working masses, the oppressed people and youth of the three ethnic nationalities to unite with themselves, not just in the rest of the Niger Delta, but in the whole of Nigeria in a Pan-Nigerian working people political formation, to wage a joint struggle to dislodge capitalism from our backwater, via a social revolution that would usher in a democratic socialist arrangement which would place commanding heights of the economy under the democratic management and control of a workers and poor farmers government.

* Immediate withdrawal of military force of occupation headed by Brigadier Elias Zamani

* The right of the ethnic groups to a democratic defence militia that shall be under the democratic control and checks of the community.

* An end to the monopolist domination of politics by the elites, by the formation of a working peoples party with a socialist programme to take over political power.

* For a democratic elected Sovereign National Conference with representatives from all social groups on the basis of their numerical strength to decide the way forward for Nigeria.

* A workers, poor farmers, and oppressed people government.

* Nationalisation of the oil industry and the entire commanding sectors of the economy under workers� democratic control and management.

It is with shock that most Nigerians received the news that the Obasanjo government might increase prices of petroleum products again very soon, for the fourth time in less than five years and just three months after the last unpopular increment that led to nationwide protests and a general strike.

In June 2003, President Obasanjo increased the prices of petroleum products from N26 to N40 which caused another nationwide strike that lasted for 8 days.

But while responding to questions from journalists during his last monthly media chat, President Obasanjo insisted that, for the country to move forward, the prices of petroleum products must be increased once again.

His view was also backed by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who, while speaking at the recent coronation ceremony of Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos said: "for the country to develop, we must undertake some fundamental but painful reforms".

In June, 2000 and January, 2002, when President Obasanjo increased prices of petroleum products, his argument was that he wanted to stop smuggling and illegal bunkering of petroleum products to neighbouring countries. But the big smugglers whose smuggling is done by bunker-ships and hunker-trailers are not ghosts but have 1001 web link with the ruling class.

Also, the argument completely turned logic up-side down. An increase in petroleum prices in Nigeria automatically increased the petroleum prices in neighbouring countries since their only source of the products is Nigeria.

But the major reason behind the incessant fuel price hike is the attempt to liberalise the down-stream sector of the oil industry. By so doing, the prices of petroleum products will have to be increased in order to usher in fabulous profit for the capitalist investors.

This brings to the fore: what has happened to the country's four refineries? This is a question the present administration has refused to answer.

To the chairman of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Committee (PPPRC), Rasheed Gbadamosi, the inefficiency of NNPC is a reason why the four refineries were unable to operate at full capacity. What Gbadamosi is yet to tell us is that between the working masses and the federal government, who controls and who is to be held responsible for the wreckage and sabotage of the refineries? It is unacceptable to make the working masses pay for the criminal tendencies of the ruling class.

The same Obasanjo government said it had sunk about N89 billion ($700m) into the refineries for turnaround maintenance.

Till this moment, the federal government has not explained to the masses what happened to the N89 billion. Who was this project contracted to and to what extent has the work being done? What is really happening is that the refineries do not work because if the refineries operate at full capacity, where are the profits to be made by the capitalist investors who want to import and make big profits at the expense of the working masses.

For the past four years, the cost of goods and services have risen by more than 200%. Nigerians are becoming more miserable and poor because of the indescribable and unimaginable hardship brought upon the working class by the Obasanjo led government. Each time the government increases the pump prices, it has a multiplier effect on every other good and service.

Currently, the price of kerosene is N32 but it is being sold at N87 per litre in Lagos and it is not even available at all in many other towns and cities.

Today, the dollar exchanges for N143 as against N86 in 1999 when this regime came to power. That is the reason why 70% of 140 million in Nigeria live below poverty line. This implies that 70% live on less than $1 (N143) on a daily basis.

That is why it is simply crazy for President Obasanjo to say that the only way to move this country forward is to increase the prices of petroleum products once again. This is nothing but another attempt to guarantee big profits for the capitalist investors at the expense of the working people.

The working class people must understand that for this political and economic terrorism to stop, they must begin to organise an independent mass based working class political party that will wrestle power from the ruling class.

The wealth of this nation is not created in Aso-Rock, national and state houses of assembly, boardrooms, etc. Rather, the wealth is created in the factories, mines, workshops, etc. And it is only the working class who are in the best position to democratically control and manage the resources and wealth for the benefit of all and sundry.

Until the working class people wrestle political power from the super-rich capitalist ruling class, the working class people should be rest assured that more attack is going to continually come from the Obasanjo-led government or any capitalist government whatsoever, not only in the oil industry, but from every other sector, e.g. Nigerian Airways, Nigeria Port Authority, NEPA, civil service, etc.

The working class people should not only defend themselves by demonstrations, picketing, strikes, etc. In as much as these kinds of struggles are important, they offer temporary and not a permanent solution.

A permanent solution is in dire need because the attack from the ruling capitalist class is endless and it takes different forms: privatisation, massive sack of workers, commercialisation of all social amenities, unjustifiable increase in price of petroleum products, etc.

The only choice left for the working class people, masses and the peasants is a socialist arrangement whereby the working class people will play a leading role alongside the masses/peasants to nationalise the commanding sectors of the economy and democratically control and manage the economic resources and wealth for the benefit of the vast majority of the citizenry. All these can be made possible if the working class begin to see and organise ourselves as the only viable alternative to the capitalist ruling class and consciously build a mass based workers' party under the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and/or other progressive political formations like the National Conscience Party (NCP) to take over political power from the present ruling class.

The Agege local government chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP) has protested against incessant police harassment and extortion of money from residents of the area.

In a petition sent to the area commander of Area G police command, the party said extortion of money and harassment of innocent people by the police is in the area now taking an alarming rate.

The policemen now make life unbearable for people who work or reside in Agege and those who pass through Agege in their day-to-day activities. The policemen have now taken it as a custom to enter into residential premises, shops and artisans' workshops, conduct searches indiscriminately, arrest and detain people against whom no known crime has been established. Such illegally arrested people are only set free after collecting huge sums of money from them.

It is now a daily affair to find some mobile policemen in front of government college, Agege and another set of policemen at Alagba round about extorting money from motorists. These policemen turned themselves into despots and their mode of operation is nothing less of terrorism. Guns are pointed at drivers. They caused traffic hold-up and passersby, passengers and drivers dare not say anything for fear of their lives. The "Okada" riders who carry just only one passenger are not spared. None of them passes without parting with at least N20. This phenomenon is not limited to these areas mentioned alone; it goes on like that in Dopemu, Capitol Junction, Alfa Nla and Pen cinema.

While we do not agree with people who give this N20 note, majority of them will not be blamed if one is opportuned to witness how these policemen intimidate them with guns and more so, we are all living witnesses to the number of people that have been killed by policemen because they failed to part with N20.

Again on Tuesday July 29, 2003, six policemen entered a mechanic workshop at Ashipa/Omotoye Street, Orile-Agege supposedly to conduct routine investigation. Despite the fact that these policemen could not find any irregularity after examining their logbooks and records, they still arrested three apprentices by name Nurudeen Ogunbowale, Friday Ojo and Musulumi Lawal. They were taken to Abattoir police station and locked up in police cell. The apprentices' master was forced to part with huge sums of money at the police station before the three illegally detained young men were released.

Also on Friday 1st August, 2003, another team of policemen invaded the premises of 162, Ipaja Road, Agbotikuyo, Agege and arrested two young men, Rufus Olalere and Adeola Kudeti who work in a barbing salon located within the premises. They were taken to Elere police station and detained for almost four hours and were only released after being forced to pay a sum of N1,000 (One thousand naira)

The police harassment of innocent citizens cannot be divorced from the dehumanizing condition under which the policemen operate. Most time, their salaries are not paid on time while facilities to work with are either dilapidated and or not available. Mobile policemen are drafted from far north and east without provision for their accommodation, and their allowances not regularly paid. It is all this bulk of pent up frustration and anger that they pass to the innocent working masses who are as frustrated as police.

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing". We, the Agege Local Government chapter of NCP will not fold our hands and watch our people who have been over impoverished by government of the day to be continuously harassed, illegally detained, extorted and treated inhumanly. We are therefore calling on the relevant police authorities to take decisive action to stop these illegal acts.

While our party, the NCP is committed to a better welfare package and salaries for men and women of Nigerian police force and Nigerian workers, and we are committed to the struggle to abolish poverty and to create a better society in which all Nigerians will have access to social justice and good quality of life, we shall not hesitate to use all political and legal means at our disposal to stop brutalisation of innocent working people and youths.

The policemen should see the working masses as people of their class, suffering same harsh economic conditions; they should therefore, through an organised form, direct their anger against our common enemy the capitalist, anti-people PDP government.

The labour movement should also fight for better working conditions for the rank and file of the police, with prompt payment of salaries and allowances, decent accommodation for all, and the right for form a police trade union to represent their interests like other workers.

It was only a few months ago that a triumphant George W. Bush stood on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln and proclaimed the war in Iraq was "over." From the start of his presidency, Bush Junior has been determined (indeed obsessed) to avoid the fate of his father, who won the first Gulf War in 1991 only to go down in defeat against Bill Clinton in 1992 because of the floundering domestic economy. Clearly, this Bush hoped that the combination of a quick, dramatic victory in Iraq and the latest tax cut package would spur economic recovery and ensure victory in 2004. But this scenario is already beginning to unravel. The quagmire in Iraq, the mounting American casualties, the increasing cost of the occupation, and the revelations about the lies told by Bush and Co. in the build-up to war are all leading to increasing disquiet in large sections of the population.

But Bush's main problem is the absence of any real economic recovery, and especially the disastrous loss of jobs during his presidency to date. More than 2.5 million jobs have been lost in the US since 2000, and unless there is a truly dramatic turnaround in the next year, Bush will have presided over the worst phase of job destruction since Herbert Hoover.

The analogy with Hoover may turn out to be even more apt if the economy - rather than sputtering along as it currently is - experiences a sharp downturn. This could happen for one of several reasons, including: the bursting of the mortgage refinancing bubble, which has played a big role in sustaining consumer spending; a sharp fall in the value of the dollar, which would wreak havoc in international financial markets; a "deflationary spiral" where prices drop sharply, leading to a big drop in profits, mass layoffs, etc.

In short, George Bush faces serious and potentially accumulating problems abroad and at home, which could undermine his position.

But that is not much reassurance when one looks at the damage which has already been caused by this extremely reactionary president and the Republicans who have firm control over both houses of Congress. Millions of workers, women, young people, and people of color have become increasingly alarmed by the massive tax cuts for the rich, the ensuing record federal budget deficit, the devastating attacks on environmental protections and civil liberties, and the racist, anti-woman, anti-gay agenda of the "Christian right" which has such a large influence on this administration.

What is less widely understood is that all of this is part of a much broader "conservative agenda" of the right wing of the Republican Party that currently dominates the party as a whole. Their "grand ambition," as one commentator called it recently, is nothing less than to destroy what remains of the limited welfare state created in the US in the 20th century as a result of the pressure of the working class.

This grand ambition includes a whole number of specific goals. For example, the conservatives want to remove any element of a graduated income tax. This would be replaced, in their dreams, by a flat tax or, even better, by a stiff sales tax. They want to remove all taxes on dividends, which they describe as "double taxation." And they are also considering replacing all pension funds with individual tax-exempt "lifetime savings accounts."

In addition, the conservatives intend to transfer the administration of as many social programs as possible from the federal government to state governments, and then steadily reduce subsidies to states. Ultimately, if states can't pay for the programs, then people will be left to fend for themselves or depend on charity. This is connected to another central goal, which is to "restore" the role of churches and the family in society to what it was a hundred years ago.

The conservatives want to cut back regulation of businesses to the absolute minimum, and, in one extreme proposal, to actually make the government pay corporations for any loss of profits due to new regulations. The conservative ideologues of course don't believe that all of this will be accomplished by 2004, but they believe that they have made a lot of progress under Bush Jr.

Their most dramatic successes have been on the tax front. Since Bush has taken office, tax cuts for the rich have been enacted worth $1.7 trillion over the next decade.

On other fronts, Congress has already transferred the administration of Medicaid to the states, so that many states, facing their worst fiscal crisis since the 1930's, are making eligibility more difficult and cutting people off the rolls. People are literally dying because of this.

And the Republicans have moved a long way towards implementing their "school voucher" program which, under the guise of providing parents with "choice," is really a way of channeling public money towards private schools.

The two areas where conservatives definitely want to see increased government spending is for the military, so they can pursue further imperialist adventures abroad, and for domestic surveillance. The latter is supposedly aimed at rooting out terrorists, but it is already clear that the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security can and will be used against any serious dissent, including trade union activists, people fighting racism, or socialists.

This is a deeply reactionary agenda, and socialists agree completely with those who say that a key priority of progressive activists and the labor movement in the next period must be to build a movement to defeat Bush and the conservatives.

The real question is how this movement will be built and what its strategy will be. Many people now argue that the key thing is to defeat Bush in the 2004 elections, and that virtually any Democrat would be better. The key problem with this view is that it actually underestimates the threat posed by the conservative agenda.

Their "grand ambition" is not simply the brainchild of a few right-wing kooks, although there are plenty of those around Bush. Rather, it broadly reflects the determination of the ruling class since the end of the post-World War II boom to restore corporate profitability in a period of economic stagnation and possible slump, by sharply reducing taxation on the rich and drastically cutting expenditure on social benefits for working people, like pensions, health care, etc.

While the Bush White House may be the most thoroughly corporate-dominated in modern times, the Democrats are also a party of Corporate America to the core - despite the populist rhetoric they may use between now and the elections. Once in office they, like Clinton before them, will bow to the pressure of their corporate masters.

Bush is actually picking up where Democratic President Clinton left off. Clinton presided over the greatest polarization of wealth in America since the 1930's. It was Clinton who aggressively pushed through NAFTA, the WTO, and the destruction of Welfare.

The Bush Administration is continuing this agenda but attempting to dramatically step up the pace and scale of attacks. Bush's policies and brazen tactics are even alarming sections of the ruling establishment who have raised concerns about the political and social consequences.

All previous historical experience shows that the only way to defeat a determined offensive of the ruling class is through social struggle, and that the key force which can challenge the corporations and their political stooges is the working class.

There must be an immediate struggle against cutbacks in social programs at the local level, as well as a broad movement to resist further attacks on civil liberties, the environment, etc. The movement must use the weapons of mass demonstrations and strike action, first of all at the local level.

The leadership of the trade unions must be shaken up, and there will have to be a return to the methods of class struggle which were used to build the unions in the first place. If the labor movement begins to show that it is determined to resist this new ruling class offensive, it will win the support of wide sections of the population and also find it much easier to recruit and rebuild its ranks.

The alternative to a determined fight will be enormous defeats for working people, whether Bush stays or is replaced by a Democrat. And if there is a new movement of social resistance, it begs the question: why should working people not build their own political party to fight down the line for their interests, and to break with the corporate parties once and for all?

The economic situation around here is pathetic. Official figures for inflation are 340% but economic analysts say that the actual figure is over 400%. The government tampers with figures in order to hide the seriousness of the situation. Prices of basic commodities keep going up. Every new stock has a new price sometimes double the old one. For example, the price of a loaf of bread went from Zimbabwean $300 to $1200 last month. The inflation is mainly because of the government's poor and suppressive monetary policies.

This is worsened by the crippling foreign currency shortage also a result of poor policing. An example of this is the fact that the value of the dollar against other currencies is officially fixed at artificial levels by the government, of $56 against the $US disregarding the stock market. This is also the main cause of forex shortages and a thriving black market.

Currently there are serious cash shortages of bank notes. Daily, there are long queues at banking halls for a maximum withdrawal of $5 000 yet some individuals get salaries of $300 000. Many workers haven't had their salaries for July to date. The banks get only $500 000 a day from the reserve bank. Once that is finished people have to come the following day and queue gain sometimes for up to 4 hours. Workers are now failing to pay rents and rates and also to travel because of unavailability of cash. This is a potentially explosive situation as workers are getting frustrated by the government's failures to find solutions while giving empty promises to inject more money into the market. They had promised to inject $50 billion by mid June which they never did. Some think the shortage is intentional because the government wants to ease inflation.

This might be just another of their dirty tactics and poor policies. There was violent last week at one of the queues at Beverly bank as people's patients ran out. This was dispersed by the brutal riot police beating up desperate people with baton sticks. Many individuals now do shopping with credit cards but the shops which offer the facility are too few causing long queues there too. Others especially shop owners and big businesses have resorted to keeping money in safes further worsening the situation. To force people to deposit money into banks the government has announced that its changing the current $500 note introducing a new one and the current one won't be in use after 60 days.

The economic situation now is where the rich mostly capitalist big businesses get richer and the poor majority get poorer. Because of shortage of many goods, those who have access to them are taking advantage of those who don't by selling them at exorbitant prices. These are the ones likely to be gaining on the stock exchange though many firms are suffering from foreign currency shortages which are hindering their activities. Micro finance firms are also gaining on the stock exchange by taking advantage of cash strapped workers by giving loans at interest rates as high as 60%. Other government officials who grabbed farming land are exporting the products to get foreign currency yet the majority are starving. Others are exchanging maize the staple food here for soap, clothes, cooking oil etc with peasant subsistence farmers. After this exploitation they then export the grain to neighboring countries which ironically have better food reserves.

The current political hot issue is the talks between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the ruling ZANU party to form a power sharing government. This is a ZANU tactic to dissolve opposition parties. This is exactly what they did to PF-ZAPU the main opposition party of late 80's when they signed the 'Unity Accord' sealing ZANU's dominance. The details of the talks are being kept secret. To force MDC into talks they leveled false charges against its leaders with penalties of the death sentence if found guilty.

The MDC leaders, to save their souls betrayed the masses and workers by agreeing to the talks indicating their lack of commitment to serve the people and their selfishness. This also showed that they are not willing to suffer for the sake of the majority which they claim to represent. This has had the effect of reducing their support base as people feel betrayed. The ZCTU (workers union) has distanced itself from current events and never said anything concerning these talks. They seem to have decided to carry on with their business as if nothing is happening. I think its because they feel that many people support the MDC so if they openly criticize the MDC they fear loosing the support of MDC supporters. This is because they think most workers are on MDC's side. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) actually now seems to exist in name only as workers and the government ignore it, creating the need for a more dedicated union which represents and fights for the workers.

There is also talk of Mugabe resigning. Many ZANU PF members have come forward as candidates for the presidency. There were also reports of infighting within ZANU as members fight to be successors of Mugabe. The majority of people feel it is just a tactic to stop mass actions aimed at removing Mugabe from power. The only sign it might be real is Mugabe�s passing of bill after bill most of them to guarantee his safety if he leaves office. An example is a bill passed which makes a former president over 80 years immune from prosecution.

There is a growing resistance to the occupation of Iraq by the US, Britain and other imperialist forces. This is typified not only by the almost daily attacks on US soldiers but more significantly in mass demonstrations against the collapse of social and economic infrastructures, the shortage of water, electricity, brutalities by the occupation armies, the rise in crimes, etc. 77 US soldiers have been killed since George Bush officially declared an end to the war on 1st May, 2003. Hardly a week goes without a demonstration of thousands of Iraqis against the occupation.

The US forces are now facing a guerilla war. With ten to twenty serious attacks everyday, local US commanders admitted that the attacks were heavier than during the war, more carefully targeted and carried out more skillfully. The killing of Saddam son�s, Uday and Quray, on 22nd July notwithstanding, attacks on US and British forces, has continued to increase with two or more US troops being killed everyday.

On August 7th, a car bomb, a new weapon in the Iraq conflict exploded outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing 11 and injuring 65 people. On 19th August, a massive truck-bomb exploded outside the Baghdad headquarters of the UN, killing at least 20 and injuring over 100 people. This was a turning point, demonstrating the strength of resistance forces and the inability of the US dominated occupation to control and stabilize the situation. The UN is seen as an arm of US occupation in Iraq.

Another round of about 20 people were killed by a car bomb in the Shiite holy city of Najaf . Among them was a leading Shia Moslem politician, Ayatollah Mohammed Esq Baqr al-Hakim.

A Middle East correspondent, Robert Risk commended that "America's war of liberation is over, Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is about to begin. In essence, the real and frightening story starts now". The chaos, water shortages, looting and general disintegration of Iraq, compounded by the massive bombing and shelling campaigns have reinforced the intense opposition to the US as an occupying force. There are widespread comments even in bourgeois press of the "inept" character of this occupation which saw troops standing by while widespread looting, robberies and intimidation unfold. The Iraqi middle class is in particular, who were supposed to be the most welcoming section of society, a firm social basis for a new regime, have become embittered by the post Saddam situation.

Developments in the country since the US occupation has confirmed the position of genuine socialists and other pro-labour and anti-war activists that the war was solely waged to protect and advance the economic and strategic interests of US imperialism in Iraq and the entire Middle East. In a move reminiscent of colonial rule, US officials and their cronies now head ministries and other government agencies in Iraq. One of their key mandates is the dismantling of the state sector and the privatisation of major public companies particularly the vital oil industry. Tens of thousands of civilian workers and ordinary soldiers have been sacked. Under proposals from US companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel, Iraq's oil revenue will be utilised as security for billions of dollars of loans. These debts will be used by the US and imperialism in general to keep control of Iraq and steal her oil wealth. The dictatorship of Saddam has been replaced by exploitation and oppression by the multinational corporations and the occupying imperialist powers.

On the basis of capitalism, the end of the Saddam regime and the US occupation will not bring genuine democracy and stability to Iraq. Contradictions such as national/religious antagonism long suppressed by the Saddam dictatorship have come to the fore.

For instance, in the absence of an independent working class movement against the US invasion, Islamic fundamentalism has become a major factor. Serious strategists of imperialism has already raised the fear that an Islamic government hostile to US and western interests could be elected in Iraq, contributing further to instability in the Middle East. So, in the final analysis, the US victory in Iraq has not solved any problem for imperialism or enhance regional or global peace contrary to the propaganda of Bush and company.

The crisis all over the world portrays the rottenness of the capitalist system. Lenin has once said that "capitalism is an horror without end". As long as the present system exists, there bound to be crisis all over the world. Capitalism is leading humanity to disaster. The profit ridden needs to be overthrown, we have to work towards changing the system.

Socialists all over the world have a special duty to fight against the occupation of Iraq. We call for the withdrawal of all occupying forces. The transformation of Iraq is the task of the Iraqi people. The alternative to imperialism, capitalism and feudal and tribal exploiters is, in our view, a socialist revolution with the aim of establishing a socialist democracy, with a democratic planned economy under the democratic control of the working people, guaranteeing the right to self-determination for all national minorities. The struggle for socialism, moreover, has to be based on an internationalist perspective, supporting the struggle of workers, peasants and all other oppressed section of the society.

With the increasing number of attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, it is becoming clear that Bush has led the U.S. into a quagmire and that the anger of soldiers and their families is growing. At least 62 U.S. soldiers have been killed in combat since Bush declared the war over, and 177 have died since the war began - even more than in the 1991 Gulf War. However, if all U.S. deaths are counted including "non-combat" deaths (suicides, illness, etc.), at least 270 have died.

But the untold story is that of the wounded. While the Pentagon puts the number at 827, Lieutenant Colonel Allen DeLane, who supervises airlifts of the wounded to a U.S. base, told The Guardian the real number is at least 4000, many missing an arm or a leg.

The U.S. military is already seriously over-stretched with the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. And with the deteriorating situation in Iraq, the U.S. is having difficulties putting together the multinational force that was supposed to partially replace U.S. troops.

The morale of troops is low to non-existent. The British Observer recently quoted Private Isaac Kinblade of the 671st Engineer Company as saying, "Somewhere down the line, we became an occupation force in [Iraqi] eyes. We don't feel like heroes any more. The rules of engagement are crippling. We are outnumbered. We are exhausted. We are in over our heads. The President says, 'Bring 'em on.' The generals say we don't need more troops. Well, they're not over here."

Some soldiers were promised that they would be going home by now, but due to the situation those promises have been broken several times. This has fuelled the anger of soldiers' families. At Fort Stewart, Georgia, earlier this summer, a colonel had to be escorted out of a session with 800 spouses (mostly wives). Lucia Braxton, director of community services at Fort Stewart, described the spouses as "crying, cussing, yelling, and screaming for their men to come back." Organized groups like Military Families Speak Out are also becoming increasingly active.

In addition to the problems facing soldiers now, others will develop later on, including the effects of using depleted uranium munitions, the lack of jobs and housing for returning soldiers, and cutbacks in veterans' benefits.

Of course, the effects on countries that are occupied are even worse. Vietnam is still affected by Agent Orange, and Bosnia and Afghanistan are still affected by depleted uranium, as is Iraq from the first Gulf War.

It is indeed time for the troops to come home, but that is not enough. There must be massive aid given to the people of Iraq to rebuild their shattered country, and there must be jobs, housing, and proper health care for returning veterans.

On the 7th of August 2003, the state government of Ekiti State gave the management of Omolayo hostel, situated in the University of Ado-Ekiti a week ultimatum to renovate the place or get it closed down until further notice.

This was a backdrop of a concerted effort of the executives of the hostel to inform the whole world on the dilemma of the occupants of the hostel. The hostel which was commissioned and let out in 2001 has become an eyesore and booby trap to students.

The leaking decking, stinking nature and railing of the staircase were among other things which need to be pulled down and a new one reconstructed. The hostel which was given out for N5,500 and N8,000 for 6 bedded and 2 bedded respectively have witnessed from inception till date about 14 cases of people falling from the stair case with fatal injuries. The recent case is that of a female student who had two of her teethes removed as result of the fall. There are also cases of encroachment by reptiles and the worst of it all, is the fact that if care is not taken, there might be an epidemic especially in the girls hostel as a result of the stinking nature of the hostel.

It should however be noted that this struggle started during the Adebayo (AD) led state administration but all attempts to track the management of the hostel down were frustrated by the state government, which issued an order then that no media house in the state must grant Omolayo-exco interview about the state of their hostel. Also, the Omolayo executives refused to organise protests as that would have served as another means of forcing the management of the hostel down to putting the welfare of their tenants before profits.

The situation in this hostel has confirmed the ruins inherent in the placement of the basic infrastructure needed for social development in a country into private hands where immediate profit will be prioritised. Hence, the need for the retrieval of this hostel from the management and the state government for public use. It should be placed under the democratic management and control of the representatives of the state government, the school authority and students. This alone is what would prevent corruption and greed, the pretext on which today's government is selling off the wealth of the people into private hands. The state government should renovate it and let it out to student at affordable prices as against the exorbitant prices placed on it by the present management of the hostel in collaboration with the Oyebode led authority.

The members of Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) in Lagos State Polytechnic has condemned dictatorial and tyrannical manner in which the school management proscribed the students' union and closed the institution for five weeks. This was sequel to an attack on Mr. Amosun, a lecturer at the computer science department by some unidentified elements on matriculation day at Ikorodu campus. This action the management said was to facilitate the work of a four-member committee set-up to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incident. This committee has no students' representatives.

In a statement issued on the closure, the DSM states that the military era of fiat command is supposed to have ended and that every decision and action taken by the management, which will directly or indirectly affect the entire students, must involve students' representatives.

"Although DSM is totally against using secret cults and any other group for that matter to pursue or conduct a personal vendetta against perceived or imagined rivals and individuals, we are absolutely committed to supporting the rights of students to freely associate with one another, form assemblies of like-minds, express themselves in every peaceful means, and belong to any association like DSM, that best meet their yearnings and aspirations on campus without interference from the school authority in whatever form.

"It is based on this that, we condemn the management unwholesome action of banning the students' union and equally demand the immediate reinstatement without delay. The school management, we want to say without fear or favour (not minding the doctored students' union constitution), have no right whatsoever to arrogate to herself the powers of banning and proscribing a legally elected students' union."

The DSM called for mass opposition to any attempt to clamp down of the democratic rights of students by the authorities under the pretext pf fighting cultism.

"We of the DSM call on the entire students of Lagos poly to rise up to the occasion and join us to fight for a better academic environment where our collective rights as human beings will be respected and guaranteed. For if we dare to struggle, we might win but if we do not, we have lost already. We enjoin the entire students to demand for:

*Immediate and unconditional reinstatement of the union.

*No to police post on our campuses as proposed by the rector.

*No to all outrageous increment in fees

*Inclusion of students in all decision and policy-making organs of the institution.

*Provision of cars and communication facilities to the security to enhance their performance.

*Provision of recreational facilities to students to enhance our productivity.

*Provision of buses to convey the students to their various lecture venues.

*The immediate release of the report of the committee set up to investigate the July 25th incidence.

*Proper funding of the educational systems."

Interested members can join DSM LASPOTECH branch at the agric department every Wednesday by 4:30 pm and also through the e-mail: [email protected]

The trial of 41 students of the Lagos State Polytechnic who were charged to court over their participation in the mass protests against the fuel price increase in July has been adjourned to 13th October, 2003 by the Yaba magistrate court in Lagos. Among the students is Eko John Nicholas, a member of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM).

The students were arrested on the last day of the protest, Monday 7th July 2003. On the said day, the students were stopped at Yaba roundabout by the police on their way to their Satellite campus in Surulere. They were thoroughly tear-gassed and beaten as a result of which many of the students sustained injuries. Thereafter they were taken to Panti Police Station in Yaba. There they spent 3 days before they were finally taken to court.

The LASPOTECH 41 should be set free as they did not commit any crime. Peaceful protest is a legitimate right.

The OAU branch of DSM on 29th July organised a public symposium on the state of the country. Among the issues examined at the programme are the 2003 elections, the recent general strike against fuel price hike and the crisis in the education sector.

The comrades as part of their preparation for the programme went round the various halls of residence and lecture halls to mobilize for the programme, both a day before and on the morning of the programme.

The major speakers were Dr. Dipo Fashina (ASUU National President), Aj. Dagga Tolar, (editor of Socialist Democracy, the organ of the organisation), Seni Ajayi and the students union president, Akinwumi Olawoyin (both leading members of Campaign for Workers� Alternative, CWA) and Olamide Olatunji (the NCP OAU branch coordinator).

The venue of the symposium, Awo Hall caf�taria was filled up with about 300-400, with a fair crowd standing outside, all the available seats having being occupied. The first speaker was Aj. Dagga Tolar who reviewed the general strike. He explained the solidarity it created among the working people and that this shows again that only the labour movement can unite the mass of the Nigerian working people across all ethnic and religious divide, and lead other oppressed strata to change society. But unfortunately the NLC leadership, because of their pro-capitalist outlook had failed to draw the necessary conclusion of the need for an alternative independent working class political alternative to the capitalist ruling class and their rotten capitalist system. He called on the NLC leaders to break with the ruling parties and instead organise a conference of trade union activists, pro-labour groups, socialists, students and NCP to discuss further on the need for a political organ for the working people and work out the strategies for its realisation.

Only this can bring an end to the incessant attacks on the poor working people by the capitalist ruling class through increases in fuel price, privatisation of public assets, commercialisation of social services, retrenchment of workers, etc.

Dagga also called for the solidarity struggle of all other working people in all other sectors with educational workers for one-day general strike to raise the major demands of ASUU and other unions in the education sector to halt continued crippling of the educational sector.

On the recent anti-fee struggle in OAU, he pointed out that while not doubting the good intentions of the union leadership, the tactics and method of the leadership should not have been one that sought to replace themselves for the mass of the studentry, who were under pressure to resume their studies after about a year of sitting at home. The best approach would have been a patient campaign among the studentry on why the fees need to be opposed, combined with picketing by willing students while explaining the need to change society in order to put a permanent end to the crisis in education and the general socio-economic and political crises facing the society. The method of just a few activists attempting to use force to prevent thousands of students from paying the fees can only play into the hands of the school authorities.

The ASUU president, Dr. Fashina, who also spoke at great length, explained that Obasanjo and co, were not the listening type and that we should expect more such arrogance and disdain for the well-being of the people from the government. He gave statistics to justify the ASUU strike and that they were left with no other option. He said that inspite of the so-called defeat, given the same situation, they would be forced to resort to the same method. He told students that the 6 months strike must be seen as part of the sacrifice we all must make if things must change. Other speakers who spoke afterwards corroborated one point or the other highlighted by the first two speakers.

100 copies of the special edition of Socialist Democracy (SD) on the lessons of the general strike were sold, alongside 65 copies of the full size edition of the paper. 30 new members indicated their willingness to join the organisation by putting down their names, departments and room numbers.

The experience of the last 8-day general strike called by the NLC shows the enormous power of the working class.

Our first semester examination was to commence 3 day to the beginning of the strike. While mobilizing students of our school for the strike, the AOCOED students' union leadership branded us as "terrorists, touts, thugs, cultists", etc. We believed that apart from mobilizing students to partake in the strike which is a collective struggle against the hike in the prices of petroleum products, the strike would definitely affect us as students since transport and other amenities would be paralysed as a result. Majority of students don't live around the school area and might find it difficult to get to school and may miss their exams which these so-called union leaders wrongfully were desperate to allow to continue during the strike.

While the strike had come and gone, the DSM AOCOED branch is using this medium to call on the entire students to put pressure on the union to fight for an enabling environment for learning through 24 hours constant light, functional toilets, reduction in the exorbitant prices of handouts, provision of functional laboratories for the science and vocational schools and to fight cultism on the campus.

Instead of ensuring that long-overdue elections into local government councils are organised across the country, the Obasanjo government, supported by his party, the PDP, recently set up a Presidential Technical Committee to review the local government system in Nigeria. This measure has also been supported by most state governors and none of the other big capitalist parties like the ANPP, AD, APGA, NDP, etc, have shown any serious opposition to it.

Inaugurating the committee, Obasanjo adduced "three disturbing trends, among others, which had been identified with the recent inception of democratic dispensation in the country". These are: "the non-performance or gross under-performance of the local governments, the high costs of electioneering campaigns to individual political contestants in Nigeria, and fragmentation and continued fragmentation of local government councils including impractical division of towns and cities into unworkable mini-local government".

It is not in doubt that since 1976 when local governments became statutorily recognised third tier of government with a share of the national revenues, powers and functions, it had witnessed mutilation leading to proliferation of local government councils created for political considerations and rarely for developmental purpose. Corruption, inefficiency and in some cases, communal strife were the outcome of these local government councils created as they were managed by corruption politicians and military appointees who could not compete successfully at the state or federal level and whose last consideration is the genuine development of the local communities. Rather, local governments have become drain pipes through which a layer of the corrupt capitalist elite line their pockets with public funds while little or no development programmes are implemented.

But these problems highlighted by the president are symptomatic of the pervasive political, economic and social degeneration of all the tiers of government and their agencies. Corruption and mismanagement is not limited to the local councils alone. Mindful of the fact that these 774 local government councils were managed by representatives of the three political parties, PDP, ANPP and AD, they mirror the corruption, ineptitude and anti-people programmes of these pro-capitalist parties and politicians. Yet, no chairman or councilor had been successfully put on trial and convicted for this corruption in the past four years of Obasanjo's "anti-corruption" government. This is understandable as it would have amounted to the kettle calling pot black. So the proposed so-called local government reform is the height of hypocrisy by the Obasanjo regime and the ruling class.

By postponing elections at the local government pending the so-called restructuring, Obasanjo, the PDP and all the big capitalist parties have acted unconstitutionally and violated the democratic rights of Nigerians. Section 7 of the 1999 constitution says "the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils in under this constitution guaranteed�". But since April last year, the councils have been run by unelected appointees of governors and their political parties.

What is needed is total transformation of the Nigerian polity and economy. As a step towards this we call for the convocation of a democratically-elected Sovereign National Conference (SNC) comprising elected representatives of social groups such as workers, peasant farmers, traders, rank-and-file of the armed forces and police, professionals and ethnic nationalities according to their numerical strength to deliberate and decide on the way forward for the country and draw up a new constitution. Even at that, only a socialist, planned economy under the democratic control and management of the working class can guarantee socio-economic welfare of the masses. Anything short of this is mere palliative.

In addition, the labour movement, the NCP, labour and youth activists, and pro-democracy and human rights groups should step up the campaign for immediate elections into the local government councils across the country and for a stop to this creeping civilian dictatorship.

Again, as experienced in year 2001, the University of Ibadan was placed under universities authorities' sponsored cultists on 9th and 10th September. This time around, the duo of Mr. Akin Kiyesi and Mr. Idebi Kayode (aka Militant Brother) were recruited by the chief security officer (CSO) of the university Mr. Bello, to maintain "peace" on campus by dispersing the students' union congress slated for Tuesday September 9th 2003 with guns, axes, matchets, charms etc and stopping a planned lecture boycott.

The lecture boycott were majorly meant to protest against the bad welfare conditions on campus such as non-issuance of ID cards, epileptic supply of electricity, colourful, tasteful and odourful water, general state of insecurity on campus as handsets, vehicles are snatched at will, bad roads, non-payment and selective payment of salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff which is about leading to another strike action, etc.

Hence, the vice-chancellor, Prof. Ayodele Falase, paid these cultists through the CSO to stop the congress by all means and put in place a Peace Caretaker Committee with representation of all cult groups to forcely replaced the Lawal Akeem (Aluta)-led students' union leadership by maiming or killing some particular student leaders such as Lawal Akeem (Aluta), Alayande Stephen, Ola Adeosun, Olawoyin Akintunde (Struggle) etc. This assignment was carried out by the cult groups on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th September 2003 before, during and after the congress by shooting sporadically in Indy, Zik, Tedder, Awo, Idia halls of residence, the Students' Union Building and the central mosque. This is coupled with matcheting of students, hijacking of vehicles, and harassing of staff and students.

These cult elements burgled the students' union offices, and carted away valuables like huge sum of money, a computer set, megaphone, three GSM handsets. They equally burnt important and historical documents of the union and personal belonging of union officials. On 10th September, 2003 a major resolute resistance of UI students was built around the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) Jihad Against Cultism which led to the arrest of three of the cultists caught with their guns, matchet etc. They are presently in police custody having paraded them on NTA television at Ibadan.

Expectedly, the UI administration has not come out with any official statement on the issue neither there has been a report from the security unit because it will amount to shooting itself in the leg.

*Immediate removal of the vice chancellor, Prof. Ayodele Falase for hobnobbing and romancing with cultists on campus

*The federal government should set-up a panel of enquiry comprising the representatives of teaching and non- teaching staff, students' body, human rights groups, and other stakeholders to look into this crisis. For we shall not wait for repeat of July 10 1999 OAU saga before we cry out.

*Immediate actions and interventions on the aforementioned demands of the congress.

*A mass movement of students and workers to be built to flush out cult groups from the university.

*Immediate beefing-up of the security network on campus through self-defence and intelligence committees to be set up by students and staff in every hall and faculty

Write and send your protest letters to:

(i) The Vice-chancellor,

University of Ibadan,

Ibadan, Oyo State.

(ii) The Minister of Education,

Federal Ministry of Education,

Federal Capital Territory,

Abuja.