For Struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY CANNOT AUTOMATICALLY GUARANTEE DEVELOPMENTS The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) supports the demand and agitation for autonomy for local governments. We however warn that the autonomy will not automatically engender development at the grassroots level except it comes by putting into power a workers and poor people’s government devoted to utilizing public resources to meet the needs
IN MEMORY OF BILLY BRIGHT ANOKWURU (1948 – 2010) “Every man’s life ends the same way. It’s only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another”– Ernest Hemingway. By Rufus Olusesan National Chairman, Campaign For Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) Like a thief in the night, like a candle in the wind,
LETTER TO THE EDITOR Who is to Blame for Incessant Strikes of Workers? Thirty-five year old Opeyemi Sonekan (not real name) was very heavy and in labour pains. She registered for anti-natal care at the government owned hospital in an urban city of Lagos State. It was her first pregnancy. The expectant mother was optimistic, hoping for a safe delivery.
EDUCATION SECTOR: Strike and Mass Struggle Imminent For a summit of all unions in the education sector to work out a plan of action By Michael Lenin Secretary, DSM OAU Branch The education sector continues to become an object of lamentation and pain to students and workers owing to its decadent state. Unarguably, other sectors are in similar ruin, but
LAUTECH: A Citadel Bedevilled With Crisis of Underfunding and Corruption The Task Before Students, Workers and Parents Towards a Permanent Solution By Alawode Motunrayo DSM LAUTECH Branch The academic activities in Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, have been on and off for the past three years, with students shut out of the campus for six months, sometimes more than that,
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION JULY 1917: The Bolsheviks “Become A Power” By Vincent Kolo chinaworker.info (CWI in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) Just over a century ago this July, 500,000 workers and soldiers marched through the Russian capital Petrograd, with tens of thousands joining marches in Moscow, Kiev and other cities. The demonstrations on 1 July (18 June according to Russia’s old
SOUTHERN CAMEROON CRISIS: The Working People Must Give the Lead By Dimeji Macaulay The media have recently beamed light on the rising secessionist movement in the Southern Cameroon and the rottenness of Paul Biya’s regime. The crisis in South Cameroon is one of the examples of rising developments of self-determination movements in Africa and many parts of the world. But
BRITAIN: Tories in Tatters Corbyn Proved Anti-Austerity Ideas Popular From the Socialist Party of England and Wales website. Theresa May’s failed election gamble is a nightmare for the capitalist class in Britain. Seven weeks ago most of Britain’s elite were hopeful that May would succeed in dramatically increasing the number of Tory MPs, thereby buttressing her government to be able
OSUN WEST BYE-ELECTION: An indicting Verdict on Anti-Poor Aregbesola Govt. PDP is no better alternative; we need a new mass party of the working and poor people By Kola Ibrahim, Secretary, SPN, Osun State The result of the recently held Osun West Senatorial By-Election is, in a way, an indicting referendum on the Aregbesola government; its policies, politics, corruption and
BIAFRA 50 YEARS AFTER: Socialists and the Struggle for Self-Determination By Chinedu Agbebire After 50 years of civil war which consumed nothing less than 3 million lives and properties worth billions of naira, the agitation for a sovereign state of Biafra has resumed with much vigor and echo. This campaign with its consequent tension was heightened on June 7, 2017
6 WEEKS AFTER, SIX STUDENTS OF LAGOS STATE MODEL COLLEGE CONTINUE TO LANGUISH IN KIDNAPPERS’ DEN ERC Demands their Immediate Rescue Calls for policies to address the social roots of kidnapping and other crimes By Nurudeen Omomeewa, ERC, Lagos State Coordinator On 25 May 2017six secondary school students of Lagos State Model College, Igbonla-Epe, were kidnapped from their dormitories. As
DOCK WORKERS FIGHT FOR THEIR 10 YEARS UNPAID WAGES; TAKE ENL TO COURT By Fidel Davinovich, DSM Ajegunle Dockworkers employed by ENL Consortium Limited, operators of terminal C and D have been on protest since March 2016 over unpaid time related wages between 2008 and 2016 as agreed collectively by the industry. ENL is one of the terminal operators after
DANGOTE GOT HIS WEALTH FROM EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS LIKE ME – SAYS IBRAHIM ABUBAKAR, FORMER EMPLOYEE AT DANGOTE CEMENT PLC. Ibrahim Abubakar was a truck officer with Dangote Cement PLC until about 5 months ago. On the morning of 4 February 2017, Abubakar and 800 other truck officers were sacked in breach of their contracts. Since then, they have organized
OTODO GBAME: Ambode/APC Government Renders Thousand Homeless on Behalf of Rich Property Tycoons By Chidinma Ibeh, DSM, Ajegunle The unfortunate and brutal invasion of the poor waterfront slum community of Otodo Gbame in Lekki by the Lagos state government has once again brought to light the plight of the poor against an insensitive government. It will be recalled that some
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN NIGERIA: A Ticking Time-Bomb By Wole Olubanji Protem Coordinator, Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) According to official statistics, and the latest data released by the nation’s Bureau of Statistics, over 28 million Nigerians are currently unemployed or underemployed. But what is more worrisome is that a large number of this unemployed population are young people between the age
4 YEARS AFTER PRIVATISATION, ELECTRICITY SUPPLY HAS GONE WORSE AMIDST EXTORTION OF CONSUMERS For Renationalisation of Electricity under Democratic Management and Control By Chinedu Bosah Almost 4 years into privatization of the power sector, electricity supply across the federation remains epileptic and the private power companies have shown lack of capacity to stabilize the sector let alone improve it. Besides,
ERGP: No Illusion in another Pro-Capitalist Agenda By Peluola Adewale To address the current economic crisis, one of the worst in the history of Nigeria, Buhari/Osinbajo government launched the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in February 2017. The plan which covers a period between 2017 and 2020 has been presented by the government and many bourgeois economists to the
MINIMUIM WAGE: Strategy to Fight, Win and Force the Implementation For a mass workers’ political party to wrest political power from the capitalist vampires By Abbey Trotsky If the 2011 minimum wage amendment Act is anything to go by, the N18, 000 minimum wage signed into law on the 25th of March, 2011 by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led government should
BUHARI/OSINBAJO GOVERNMENT: Two Years of Broken Promises By H.T. Soweto Socially, economically and politically, Nigeria is faring worse than two years ago. Every segment of the polity reeks of crises and instability. Responsible for this calamitous state of affairs is no other factor than the neo-liberal capitalist policies of the Buhari/Osinbajo APC administration as much as that of previous administrations.