Baba Aye's

GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: PERSPECTIVE FOR THE LABOUR MOVEMENT * by Baba Ayelabola** 1.0 INTRODUCTION It gives me great pleasure to present this paper at a critical point in the history of Nigeria . When Comrade Kessie Moodley told me a few days back to “think of” writing a paper on “the Nigerian Elections; lessons for the trade unions”. I had mixed feelings. The time I had considering earlier tasks on ground that had to be consummated before the MHWUN study tour to South Africa was quite short. On the other hand, I felt it was a germaine opportunity for us to collectively reflect on “the national tragedy” that the recent poll was, with a view to sharpening our understanding on “what is to be done?” and more importantly; challenging us to necessary action based on working class perspective of the situation. I have taken the liberty to sort of broaden the title the paper would have had to cover the Labour Movement and not just the trade unions. This consci

Omolade, Your skeptism or cynicism is not out of place. Who would just jump onto the bandwagon without looking carefully. But, if you have been following debates and conversations on this listserve you will realise that no one scripted this to work out this way. Many of the collaborators on this initiatives were interlocutors who disagreed on the way forward. I for one sounded pessimistic about FOI in Nigeria and argued that unless there is a political revolution of a sort, a revolution that brings the real people into ownership of politics there can be no context for transformative politics. You know better than I do on this point. Omolade, you and I are products of the students' movement. We later joined the human rights movement and traveled out of the country to learn more. I am back to Nigeria and you are yet to return. I believe when you finish your study you will join us- the frustrated and dehumanized ex-that, ex-this. But, the point is that those who returned and those o