For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria
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
MINIMUM WAGE AGITATION: TIME FOR MASS ACTIONS By Chinedu Bosah The minimum wage agitation is one that has generated so much interest amongst Nigerian workers, considering the fact that the wages currently earned can be best described as poverty wages. The issue has been characterized by conflicting stories from the government quarters and the media. This has confirmed the position
OAU MANAGEMENT: STOP VICTIMISATION OF AYO ADEMILUYI Process his Final Result and Mobilise him to Law School In what is a clear case of clampdown on freedom of the press at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Michael Faborode has ordered the final results of Ayo Ademiluyi to be withheld. Ayo, a Law student had completed all the
ADIEU! BILLY BRIGHT ANOKWURU A GENUINE AND CONSISTENT TRADE UNION LEADER Billy Bright Anokwuru died on July 20, 2010. Before his death, he was the former National President of the National Union of Shop and Distributive Employees (NUSDE) and Vice Chairman of the Labour Party in Lagos State. In this interview, Comrade Rufus Olusesan (Vice President of NUSDE and Chairman
LABOUR AND ATTAHIRU JEGA: Free And Fair Elections Are Meaningless Without A Fighting Mass Working Class Labour Party By Ayo Ademiluyi Towards the upcoming 2011 general elections, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) believes that the appointment of Attahiru Jega would perhaps ensure free and fair elections. In a communiqué issued, while welcoming the appointment of Prof. Attahiru Jega as the
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
UNILORIN 49: Victory at last Struggle must commence against attacks on democratic rights of workers and students By Lanre Akinola The struggle for the reinstatement of the 49 sacked lecturers of the University of Ilorin came to a joyful end in December 2009, when the Supreme Court ordered the immediate reinstatement of the remaining 44 sacked lecturers and payment of