Baba Aye's

INTRODUCTION “Africa Rising” is one of the main catch phrases in International Political Economy, in recent times. It captures the fact that “Nowhere in the world do you get the kind of returns you get in Africa”, as Mr Olabisi Onasanya, the Group CEO of First Bank of Nigeria put it, during the World Economic Forum on Africa, held at Abuja in May 2014. But, in the face of such huge profits for big business, nowhere in the world do we have the kind of poverty that confronts poor working people as in Africa, fostering inequality. Resources that could be made available for the provision of public services have been drained out of the continent both illicitly and “legally” through unfair taxation systems that multinational corporations exploit to the detriment and often with the support of African states. Within African countries as well, spurred by the tax consensus which the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other multilateral economic institutions promote, the

( Being the text of a media conference addressed by Comrade Baba Aye, National Convener of the United Action for Democracy on Saturday, September 19, 2015, to commemorate the 10th year annivesary of the martyrdom of Chima Ubani & Tunji Oyeleru, at the National Secretariat of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Ikeja Lagos) Chima Ubani at one of the anti-deregulation rallies, shortly before his death Sisters and brothers from the Fourth Estate of the Realm, comrades and compatriots, colleagues and friends, I welcome you all to this media conference on behalf of the National Coordinating Committee of the United Action for Democracy. We are here as part of the activities to commemorate a decade of the martyrdom of Chima Ubani and Tunji Oyeleru. Drawing from the inspiration of their lives and deaths, we are charged with raising the banner of working people’s struggle, for a better society, high. The two patriots died in an auto crash at Potiskum,