Baba Aye's

To be quite clear, my continued support for the NLC at this point in time does not mean I take a non-critical position on its calling off the would-have-been strike. On the contrary, I feel very disappointed, like many working people in Nigeria and I do not think it was the correct step to take, despite the challenging context in which the decision was taken. My position is hinged on two important pillars that I think should inform radical action. First, it is not for us to cry (in lamentation or anger) or laugh (and clap when it seems that “yes, they are spitting fire” only). We are beholden to understanding, in a manner that puts the entire picture in perspective. Second, tactical positions need to be subordinated to the overarching strategy and our strategy informed by underlying principles. Yesterday afternoon, I expressed my support for the would-have-been strike in an interview with Sahara Reporters. Whilst doing so, I also stressed the fact that, haven issued the call, this ...

Pristine waters from time's endless seas once again, wash ashore secrets on its sands;  Where our feet mark rhythms of seasons, where we try to find reason in the darkness  of the clear waters' depths;  ...with the light of hope and the sword of efforts.   Once again, each first dips in a foot; many with the same resolutions, draped in changed garbs -or not-, from what they wore the year before.   Once again, fresh waters, like those that came before seek and embrace the feet of all living.   Once again, we crossed a chasm, behind which we left not a few; who were our betters, or worse than us, but no less deserving of dipping their feet had the storm of passing not marked their passage; one type of many rites, that pass with each year   For those lost in the vortex which rages beneath the bridge of the rainbow with crossed bones   For those to come, if we leave the home we borrowed from th...

“A tale of two September 21s” was what first came to my mind as a title for this article (and I still see it as an alternative title). I intended to trace out the similarities and differences in the significance of two events, which in different ways affected the two main components of the labor movement in Nigeria. First was September 21, 1974, when internment led to the unity of the trade union movement . Despite repression, infiltration, self-serving momentary splits, and attempts at state incorporation, the spirit of unity that emerged that day has remained alive. The second was September 21, 2005, when the death of a leading revolutionary socialist and civil society activist inspired efforts at uniting the socialist movement . After five years during which the initiative atrophied, it became clear that it had failed. It was, however, probably the longest-running attempt at establishing an alliance of the left. There are lessons to draw from this understudied period of our re...

Eddie Madunagu is undoubtedly one of the most profound and insightful socialist thinkers and publicists in Nigeria’s history. His books such as The Tragedy of the Nigerian Socialist Movement and Problems of Socialism: The Nigerian Challenge¸ which were published some four decades back present us with some of the clearest analysis of the situation of the radical and revolutionary Left in that period, probably much more sharply than any other book. Over the following decades, Comrade Eddie continued with analyses of the left and the society which we want to change. His column every Thursday was the sole reason why I bought The Guardian for most of the 1990s. It must be stressed, as many have done and will continue to do, that Eddie has not only been a theorist. He has, along with his soul mate Bene, contributed to some of the most sustained efforts at building left organisations and united fronts. They have also contributed significantly to critical thinking for new generations of...

Scores of thousands of young people took to the streets across Nigeria in October 2020, to protest police brutality. Their primary demand was for government to end the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), an elite and particularly vicious unit of the Nigeria Police Force. This mass movement was thus defined as EndSARS. It was sparked when the video of a young man who was allegedly killed by SARS operatives in Ughelli, a small city in the Niger Delta region went viral on 3 rd October. There were over twenty-eight million tweets and retweets of the video and calls for protest within three days. In Ughelli and neighbouring towns there were immediate spontaneous actions by aggrieved youth. By 8 th October, hundreds of protesters set up camp in front of the Lagos State House of Assembly in Nigeria’s most populous city and its commercial hub as well as in the city centre of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. Within a few days, these numbers had increased to thousands and demonstration...

The Coronavirus public health emergency became considered a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The pandemic has highlighted and worsened global health and social inequalities. Poor working-class people have been most affected in different parts of the world. By the beginning of February, there had been 106m recorded cases and at least 2.32m. The United States, India, Brazil, and Britain are the most affected countries. A second wave which started by the end of 2020 has been particularly debilitating with at least four variants which are more transmissible. Most political commentators expected developing countries, particularly those in Africa to be the most affected. This was because the public healthcare system is in shambles on the continent and poverty (with millions of people living closely together in slums) is so widespread. But for reasons which are not yet clear, this has luckily not been the case. But all the same there have been more than 3.5m reported cases and almost 90,000 d...

Today makes it twenty-one years since Comrade Ola Oni passed on. He was one of the greatest leaders and teachers on the Nigerian Left, from the '60s till his death. He, along with Eskor Toyo, Baba Omojola and others split from the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party in Augsut 1964 (i.e., a year and four months after SWAFP was formed) to form the Nigeria Labour Party under the leadership of Michael Imoudu (Labour Leader #1). Both SWAFP and the NLP would be smashed by the military juntas (first of General Aguinyi Ironsi's for just 6 months but more so by General Yakubu Gowon's which lasted 9 years), as all partisan formations were repressed. But the tendency they had formed would continue in different forms (as well as SWAFP's till the early '90s) till the early 2000s. With elections on the horizons for the establishment of a Second Republic in 1979, a series of two All-Nigeria Socialist Conferences were organised in 1977 and 1978, with the primary aim of formin...