Baba Aye's

The remains of Festus Iyayi await the silence of soils that is mother earth’s final embrace, barely a day from now. I still find it difficult to put words on paper somewhat on the great mind with a large heart that Comrade Festus was, and will continue to be, as an inspiration to us, and those that will come after us. A lot has been said and written about his life, and his death, not the least during the tributes session of the ceremonies for his last journey, which started two days ago. A lot more will still be said, indeed, have to be said. I wouldn’t know if “tribute” would be the most apt word to describe what I now try to write here. But I cannot think of any more appropriate term, really. When I heard the news some two hours after his brutal killing in what initially seemed to be an accident, numbness was what came over me. This was partly due to my state of health at the time. Arriving from the NUMSA International Colloquium four days earlier, I hit the road in to take an in

The National Chairman Labour Party (LP) LP National Office Ladoke Akintola Boulevard Garki II Dear Chairman, IN DEFENCE OF THE 3 RD LP CONVENTION HOLDING BY OR BEFORE DECEMBER 19, AND AGAINST A THIRD TERM BID By December 19, 2013, it will be four years since the 2 nd Convention of our Party was held at the Labour House, Abuja, where you were returned to run for a second term of office as the National Chairman, haven been elected into the office on February 28, 2004, at the 1 st LP Convention which held at the National Women Centre, Abuja. At this juncture, all well-meaning party members, and supporters are looking forward to the convocation of the 3 rd LP Convention and you handing over as National Chairman after spending almost a decade in that highly exalted office. I am constrained to have to point out the obvious, due to some unclear signals that you just might be interested in self-perpetuation as the party chairman: such a step would not augur well f

INTRODUCTION The world has been in severe turmoil now for six years. Staring as a “financial crisis”, the global economy entered into a “Great Recession”, the likes of which has never been witnessed since the “Great Depression” of the 1930s, in 2008-2009. While the world economy has come out of that recession, we now witness what has been described as the “Great Stagnation” [1] with an economic crisis that has thrown hundreds of millions of persons into the abyss of unemployment and rendered millions homeless. The global economic crisis has impacted on different countries in different ways and to different extents, depending on the way and manner they are integrated into the world economy. But hardly any country can claim to be aloof from its adverse consequences, as “globalisation” intertwines the fates of peoples from the farthest reach of into one broad mosaic of a community of fate. This does not mean that everyone in the multiplicity of countries and regions of the world

INTRODUCTION The Federal Government of Nigeria initiated what it describes as a “transformation agenda” when President Goodluck Jonathan took up the reins of office after the 2011 elections. It would seem that the Jonathan administration was keying into the frustrations of Nigerians with the worsening social-economic conditions of the immense majority of the population and the perennial state of instability of the nation. But essentially, despite feverish claims to the contrary, little if anything has changed. Nigeria still relies majorly on the exploitation of crude oil for its revenue (with probably more of such revenue entering private pockets than the collective coffers), unemployment is on the increase, poverty, and disillusionment stalk the land, along with violence ethno-regional conflicts, particularly in the north eastern region. The country has had considerable growth despite the storm of the global economic crisis. This has led the elite to attempts at sowing the ill