Baba Aye's

With the recent defections across party lines, both in the states and the National Assembly, how do you think such parties like ADC, PDP, SDP, LP and APGA will perform in 2027? One thing that these defections have shown is that there is essentially no difference between these nominally different parties. They all represent the same class of exploiters and oppressors of the people that have made life hell on earth for the poor working people in Nigeria. Thus, not surprisingly, when you look at their ideologies, programmes and perspectives, they are all in favour of making the rich richer whilst paying lip service to the people all in the name of seeking votes from us. For example for PDP, SDP, LP and APGA, you will see that in their 2023 manifesto, they were all for removing the fuel subsidy instead of addressing the corruption in it. And this was just one of the several neoliberal policy positions in those manifestos. As for ADC, it is a repackaged format of mainly former PDP stalwar...

What is your take on the controversies over the real-time e-transmission of election results?  The controversies surrounding the transmission of elections say a lot about the nature of electoral politics in Nigeria. You can recall the court rulings in 2023 that the IReV could not be considered as the coalition centre. And electronic transmission of election results was deemed to be at the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). We all know who benefited most from the non-electronic transmission of results in 2023 and also stands to benefit by not enabling the transmission as a compulsory element of the 2026 Electoral Act. It is the ruling party. So, not surprisingly, opposition parties from the same ruling class of bosses joined the chorus of calls to make e-transmission compulsory. But, their point of departure is not the same as that of civil society organisations and the only party which represents a revolutionary alternative in the country is the A...

As 2025 ended and 2026 began, how would you describe Nigerians’ lives in the outgone year? Last year was a terrible year for poor working people in Nigeria. For the few that were still lucky to have salaried work, their wages could hardly take them home. House rents shot through the sky. For many people, their rents doubled between 2024 and 2025. Insecurity made travelling and even living in people’s homes a challenge of survival. While the economy did grow, it was only to the benefit of the few rich and powerful people, who became richer while the poor became poorer.  Would you say there are signs that the New Year will be better for the Nigerians? There are signs for sure that this year will be better for rich people. In the second week of the year, the news filtered in that the NGX, which is the Nigerian Stock Exchange, crossed the centi-trillion naira mark for the first time. While this hides the impact of things like the devaluation of the naira, regarding actual value, ...