Baba Aye's

Goke Akinrinde of the CWA majestically receiving participants The Campaign for Workers and Youth Alternative (CWA), the Nigerian section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) held a symposium with the theme “The 2019 General Elections & the impending Nigerian Revolution” on 8 December 2018. It posted its report of the meeting a few days later. The   the intention of the symposium, according to its organisers was t"o provoke a debate among the Left on the state and stage of class struggle in Nigeria and the best way to prepare for the impending class war". This is itself a good thing. The report threw up debate with a handful of comrades involved. I joined the fray at the point where there seemed to be contradictions between the conclusions in the course of discussion at the symposium by some of the leaders of the CWA and others that participated in it. For example, Akinrogunde Goke Tosin claimed that “whereas the discourse tilted towards an ackno...

We are in the middle of a spate of elections across Africa. Last year, a dozen countries went to the polls. Ten more have held elections this year, with about thirteen more to go before the end of 2019. In a formal sense, democracy appears to be sinking deep roots into the continent’s soil. Gone are the days of the last quarter of the twentieth century when military dictatorships and one-party states where the norm. However, this has not translated into the betterment of the lot of the poor masses. Two thirds of the least developed countries in the world are in Africa. This of course does not mean that everyone in those countries bear the brunt of poverty. The politicians and businessmen in countries like Congo, Mozambique and Uganda which are considered to be some of the poorest countries in the world, enjoy opulent lifestyles. The key to ostentatious wealth for these degenerate figures of the African ruling class is political power. And through hook or crook (quite often som...

The Great Anti-SAP Revolts and thereinafter 1989 was one of those years that represent a turning point in history. A wind of mass anger threw away authoritarian regimes behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, students took over Tiananmen Square in China, the Berlin Wall fell paving the way towards German re-unification. And in Nigeria, there was a mass upsurge like none other since 1 October 1960. This was a revolt against the structural adjustment programme and the legendary spate of corruption of the General Ibrahim Babangida-led junta, in the midst of rising poverty. From 24 May, all hell was let loose for almost two weeks. Students ignited a wildfire of action, with the first spark struck at Benin, where Uniben students took to the streets. This immediately spread to Ibadan and then Ilorin, where activist students mobilised thousands of students from UI and Unilorin (and Kwara Poly) respectively on to the streets. They were joined in no time by other angry youths. Ea...