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For struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria |
Committee for a Workers' International
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Socialist DemocracyMay 2006 PEOPLES' POWER IN ACTION AS NOSAMU STREET BARS MOLUEBy Lanre Saheed and Emeka Bosah, DSM and NCP members, Ajeromi Ifelodun, Local Government Area, Lagos StateThe importance of having class fighters and socialist activists resident in ones street was again brought to the fore recently in the struggle to stop the unlawful and inconvenient usage of Nosamu Street as Molue buses park. We played enormous role in successfully mobilising the people of the Nosamu street in Ajegunle to exercise their collective power in action to bring an end to the use of our street as a park by the Molue buses plying the Ajegunle Ebute Ero route. All attempts before now by the people of the street to bring an end to the use of Nosamu street as a Molue park, through appeals to the Local Government Council and the Molue Bus operators to return to their previous park, which is even more spacious and free following the reconstruction of the Boundary Market, had proved abortive. This is in spite of the series of documented evidences of damage that this has brought to the road, drainage, electric poles, properties, and the continuous emission of carbon monoxide with danger it constitutes to the health of people. Interestingly, this was reversed on the 17th of March when the power of the people was put into action, following another accident involving a Molue bus with plate number XA178-JGB, which saw two persons Mrs. Mary Okpara and Joan Okwudili injured and hospitalised. The people immediately decided to put people power into play. We helped to mobilise the entirety of the street in a mass meeting and passed a resolution to bring an end to the use of their street as a park. To enforce this resolution, funds were raised for an immediate iron wedge construction to bar the Molue Operators from the use of the street. Subsequently, a protest march was organised on the 20th of March to the local government secretariat to convey the decision of the members of the street. The chairman of the Ajeromi/Ifelodun local council, Rabiu Oluwa, however pleaded that the Molue Operators be allowed to return to Nosamu for another two weeks under the monitoring of the council but this was outrightly rejected by the Nosamu people. Even the police who were subsequently called in, surprisingly, have been extremely cautious, so as not to be seen acting against the decision of the people of Nosamu. The District Police Officer (DPO), Omololu Bishi, and the Superior Traffic Officer Mrs. Bankole, made it clear that they would not be part of any action aimed at forcefully returning the Molue Operators back to Nosamu without the express approval of the people of the street. This is a practical demonstration of peoples' power. We in the DSM therefore support and endorse the actions of the people of Nosamu street and demand compensation to cover the medical expenses of the two victims and other sundry expenses,. We equally call on the local council to rearranging the Boundary Market Park in such a way that would create adequate space for the Molue Operators. The lesson to draw from this is that only when the working people are organised to take the running of society in their own hands that society can truly be organised in the interest of the people.
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