For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria
AMCON: LAW TO SANCTION RECKLESNESS IN BANKS’ PASSES By Chinedu Bosah President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the establishment of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) on Monday 19, 2010. The firm which is aptly described as ‘Bad Bank’ by the Financial Times is to absorb most of the existing N1.2 trillion non-performing loans and other bad loans in
VAT INCREASE: ANOTHER NEO-LIBERAL CAPITALIST ATTACK ON THE WORKING PEOPLE By Kola Ibrahim Just like its predecessors, the Goodluck Jonathan/PDP government, in line with its anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist agenda, has concluded plans to unleash further attacks on the working and poor people with the recent increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT). According to a report in the ThisDay newspaper
STATE CREATION: IS IT THE SOLUTION TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC CRISES? By Kola Ibrahim In the colonial period towards the independence, the various nationalist bourgeois political class, as a way of ensuring their political influence had canvassed for regional governments as the best means of bringing their ‘people’ into the limelight of civilization. But aside the fact that the regionalization of the
MASSIVE FAILURE IN NECO AND WAEC EXAMINATIONS: SYMPTOMS OF CHRONIC DECAY IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR By H.T. Soweto The mass failure in the 2009 National Examination Council (NECO) November/December and 2010 May/June WAEC has shown that Nigeria’s education sector is tumbling down a hill. The National Examination Council (NECO) released its Nov/Dec 2009 SSSCE result showing that only 4, 223
POST UTME: CAN IT RESOLVE THE CRISIS OF MERIT? By Keye Ewebiyi Post-UME or what is now called Post-UTME was introduced in 2005 because the Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) as a means of ascertaining the merit of admission seekers had become corrupted and discredited. The Post-UTME is meant to be an additional test organised by tertiary institutions to screen students
GOODLUCK JONATHAN PRESIDENCY: CAN NIGERIA EXPERIENCE POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVED LIVING CONDITIONS? After much hullabaloo, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan became president of Nigeria on May 6, 2010, consequent upon the death of President Musa Yar’Adua, who died in office after a protracted terminal ailment. As usual, several bourgeois analysts and plain self seekers, who always support any government in power, have
AUTHORITY-SPONSORED ATTACKS ON SOCIALIST STUDENTS IN OAU We demand immediate reinstatement of Adeleke Olorunwa Emmanuel (Goddey) By Barryblacky In what qualified as a massive witch-hunt of student socialists, pro-management officials of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Students’ Union have launched violent attacks on members of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and other left organisations on the campus. About ten members
2011 GENERAL ELECTIONS: IS NIGERIA ABOUT TO BREAK A 50-YEAR OLD JINX? Going by what President Goodluck Jonathan and Professor Attahiru Jega, the newly appointed Electoral Commission Chairman have been saying, Nigerians are expected to have truly free and fair elections come 2011 general elections. Hear the President: “When we nominated Prof. Attahiru Jega as the Chairman of INEC, some
3-MONTH STRIKE OF LECTURERS AT TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN OSUN STATE Government Must Meet Workers’ Demands For Students To Resume For over 3 months now, workers in all four Osun State-owned Tertiary Institutions, including the Osun State Polytechnic Iree, Osun State College of Technology Esa-Oke and the two Osun State Colleges of Education at Ilesa and Ila have been on strike
History: 70th anniversary of the assasination of Leon Trotsky Coming mass revolts will see workers and youth look to Trotsky’s ideas Peter Taaffe, General Secretary Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales) Seventy years ago the greatest living revolutionary of the time, Leon Trotsky, was murdered by Josef Stalin’s hit man Ramon Mercader. There had been a number of failed previous
WORKERS` STRIKES IN OYO STATE: A call for a United Action and Working People Political Alternative By Abbey Trotsky The perennial economic cum political attacks every pro-capitalist government now characteristically unleashes on workers and other categories of toiling working masses has kept throwing up repeated resistance from workers in Oyo state. In the last five months, workers in different sectors
South Africa: 1.3 million public servants in one-day warning strike Longer strike may follow after negotiations on Thursday Liv Shange, Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM – CWI in South Africa) Approximately 20,000 workers marched in Tshwane and 15,000 in Cape Town on Tuesday, 10 August, as 1.3 million public sector workers, organised in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)
Don’t Hand Over Labour Party to Moneybags Trade Unions must condemn the outrageous nomination fees, and actively build and fund the Party By Peluola Adewale On the surface the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Labour Party held on May 5, 2010 in Akure Ondo raises hope of the resolve of the party leadership to reposition it as a
UNIBEN: Newly Registered ERC branch holds symposium The newly registered branch of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) held its maiden program on Wednesday 28th July 2010 at the Twin Lecture Theatre 11, Social Sciences of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) Benin Edo State. The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) was formed by the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) as a platform to
2011 Election: Workers Must Go for Political Power Perennially faced with poverty and joblessness, high costs of education and health and general despair, more and more Nigerians on the streets, in the markets, on radio and TV phone-in programs and even churches and mosques etc – could be heard saying one thing: what Nigeria needs now is a revolution. This
MAY DAY: The Need to Build the Labour Party as a Genuine Working Peoples’ Political Platform By Kola Ibrahim As workers in Nigeria celebrate this year’s Workers’ Day, the political challenges before the working and poor people are more vital today than ever before. That the capitalist political class has severally and collectively plundered the huge resources of the nation,
LIVING WAGE FOR NIGERIAN WORKERS: LONG OVERDUE NLC, TUC Must Remain Steadfast on the Struggle By Chinedu Bosah Minimum wage which started in late 2008 has not moved beyond promises from the federal government and the recent setting up of a tripartite committee made up of labour, federal government and private sector employers. On the committee the Labour representatives are
DEREGULATION: Labour Must Maintain its Age-long Opposition Tragically for Nigeria’s workers and poor, it appears that the Labour leaders have opted for subterfuge as a strategy in the struggle against deregulation. While they have continued to put a façade feigning commitment to the struggle, their conduct has only pointed at inclination to dump the struggle. Unfortunately, this they believe they
MINDLESS POLICE KILLINGS IN AJEGUNLE: Enough is Enough! By Aderemi Ismail For over 20 years the residents of Ajegunle, one of the most densely populated poorest communities of Lagos State, have been subjected to searing police terror. But this came to head with the killings of Charles Okorafor on April 1, 2010 and, later, of Tunde Olotu, who had joined
US: One year of Obama – What has changed? By Tony Wilson, Socialist Alternative, (CWI in the USA) This was written in January 2010, more recent articles from the US are available on Socialist Alternative’s website: http://www.socialistalternative.org One year ago, millions of Americans were in the streets cheering the election of Obama as the end of Republican policies and the