These Are Difficult Times For Nigerians - Bàbá Ayé*

The Bola Tinubu administration has been on the saddle for two years. How do you see the state of the nation in these two years?

My point of departure in responding to that question would be to draw from Malcolm X. He said something to the effect that there are two nations in every nation. The nation of the exploited and oppressed on one hand and the nation of the exploiter and oppressed on the other. For the poor working masses in Nigeria, the last two years have been terrible. Life has become terribly worse, and mere survival a great challenge. The cost of living has shot through the roof. The take home pay of workers cannot take them home. The 2024 minimum wage is meaningless. It is merely nominal. In real terms it is a wage cut compared to the 2019 minimum wage. But for the super-rich. Tinubu has been a blessing. As Oxfam pointed out in its inequality report earlier this year, this class of Nigerians wealth tripled between 2023 when Tinubu came to power and last year. Their riches increased by over $2 trillion. US dollars o! The extent of social inequality under this administration’s reign is incredible. And we are just talking of the economic dimensions of things. When you go to physical insecurity that is another story, and a serious one too. Poor people who cannot afford bodyguards or police officers assigned to them are being killed. Just a few days ago, Amnesty International informed that over 10,000 people have been killed in the north alone since Tinubu came to power.

 

What would you consider the major achievements of the Tinubu's government?

Tinubu has recorded significant achievements for and on behalf of the ruling class of capitalists and for imperialism. I just mentioned how he has helped the national ruling class to expand their wealth base by up to $2 trillion. He successfully implemented the formal removal of fuel subsidies, which has always been a demand of the IMF to Nigeria and many other developing countries, despite the social and economic impact on the poor working people. He repaid $3.4 billion which Nigeria borrowed from the IMF during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though we cannot really see what the APC governments did with that loan other than to end up more in private pockets like the palliatives that we saw in warehouses and being shared as souvenirs in parties. He has also, successfully, for want of a better word, ensured that the naira is grossly devalued, in line with the desires of the international financial institutions.

 

In what areas do you think President Tinubu's administration did not perform?

Tinubu has performed well for his class, the class of exploiters and oppressors. But he has failed to make life better for the immense majority of the population, the exploited working people. He has failed to bring down the cost of food despite policies like easing costs of importation of food which by the way is also impacting negatively on local farmers. Even his masters in Washington, that is the IMF and World Bank have admitted the fact that the cost of food is still very high. Poultry farmers have gone on record to say people are not patronising them and several of them are folding up. Egg, egg, ordinary egg, is too costly for working people to buy now, not to talk of fowl. Tinubu has failed the masse all round, including  to address the worrisome case of insecurity of lives and livelihoods, despite all his empty promises to get this done.

In terms of reforms under the current administration, which ones world you say impacted positively on the lives of citizens?

His reforms have impacted positively on the lives of some citizens for sure. These are the one per cent of billionaires and multimillionaires who have gotten nauseatingly richer while the mass of the people sink deeper into the cesspit of pauperisation, sufferation, starvation, and frustration.

 

How do you see the National Assembly under the current dispensation

The National Assembly is Tinubu’s Assembly. If he asks them to jump, they will ask “how high sir?” There is nothing good to expect from such a National Assembly. And this is not surprising at all. The background of the Senate President Mr Godswill Akpabio is food for thought. This is someone who was alleged to have withdrawn some N40 billion from the purse of Akwa Ibom when he was governor between 2007 and 2015, when money was money, not today’s billions. When he crossed over to the APC that came to power at the end of his term, all his sins were forgiven and the EFCC let him off the hook. Then he became Minister of the Niger Delta with the “off the mic” drama. And as Senate President he does not only dish out monied prayers, but has now been cut in the crosshairs of palpable allegations of sexual harassment. What can you expect from that National Assembly?

 

Would you say the judiciary has lived up to expectation in the period under review?

Forget all what you were taught in school about Montesquieu and the separation of powers. The judiciary like the executive and legislative arms of government all serve the same purpose which is to ensure the continued rule of the class of oppressors. Now, this is not to dismiss that some gains in how they operate in doing this have not been won through struggle by our class. Democratic rights were not simply given by the ruling class anywhere. They represent the condensed gains from struggles of earlier generations of working-class people, women, youth and all those who stood up to fight for and extend our civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. But the specificity of how these bodies at any point in time, and in particular the judiciary in light of your question operate is also partly shaped by the nature of those that are in power. This is clear in some ways. In the United States of parts of North America for example, you see how Republicans or Democrats slant the perspective of the Supreme Court with nominations. In Nigeria, when you have a Machiavellian Czar like Tinubu in power, he does everything possible to rig the table to align with his interest. There could however be judicial activism to push back against even more powerful dictators than him. But I have not seen anything like that over the last two years.

 

Two years into the current administration, emphasis has shifted to the 2027 general elections rather than governance. Do you think the political class are fair to the citizens by this attitude?

My brother, wetin concern them concern fairness to citizens, for goodness sake? We are talking of power you are talking about their being concerned with fairness. Is it those that are more concerned with making themselves richer despite all the wealth they had already amassed over making sure that no child goes to bed hungry in a country where almost sixteen million children are facing hunger that will be concerned about citizens. They are more concerned with power in its political and economic form. That is to say each section of the ruling class, is always primarily interested in being the one at the steering wheel on behalf of the ruling class as a whole. And in a country like Nigeria where the surest source of wealth is access to the state  purse, they are even more committed to do or die electoral politics. Finally, I must say that I  prefer to define them as what they are; the ruling class and not political class. There is no class that is not in a sense political, especially when it acts as a class for itself. Unfortunately, because the dominant ideas in any society are those of the dominant classes, the exploited classes do not always act for themselves. They fall under the ideological hegemony of the ruling class. But the ruling class is consistently political, acting for itself even when its sections are fighting each other for who is champion within that context.

 

How do you see the current defections of opposition politicians to the ruling APC and ongoing endorsements of President Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election?

It is not surprising at all. Tinubu is someone that doesn’t leave things to chance. He will rather kill a fly with a sledge hammer than allow a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, if you will. So, he is doing everything possible to undermine any form of bourgeois opposition to his re-election bid. But all that been said, this only goes to show that there is no essential difference between all the major parties of the bosses. Even the Labour Party that some still have illusions in as a party that does or could represent the interests of working-class people has shown with the dance of some of its players as well to APC.

 

What is your take on the ongoing realignment of opposition forces against President Tinubu and his party, APC, as the nation marches towards the 2027 election?

These so-called opposition forces do not have any essential difference with APC and Tinubu. Look at the manifestos of Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso in 2023. They were all based on neoliberal policies like that of Tinubu. They only want to take over from Tinubu to do more or less the same things he is doing. None of them stand for the common woman and man, the poor working people. They all represent the exploitative, elitist interests of the ruling class, which they are part of anyway.

 

Do you see power changing hands in the coming Anambra election? If so, which party do you think has what it takes to take over from the Prof Soludo’s APGA?

Power is going to change hands in Anambra and in Nigeria as a whole. The oppressed will stand up and break their chains. The party driving this revolutionary struggle is the African Action Congress, AAC. And we are very proud of our candidate in Anambra state, Chioma Ifemeludike. She is an Amazon that the working-class people in Anambra will be proud of. 

* Interview on Page 22 of the 1 June 2025 edition of the Sunday Independent