APC, “mega party” of the bosses

The landscape of Nigerian elite politics might witness a turn for the better, in the view of a number of people, including some patriotic activists. This is with the merger of Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance and Congress for Progressive Change. These parties between them have ten governors in the federation. Along with Labour Party which has one gubernatorial seat, they are the parties that “control” states, apart from the Peoples Democratic Party. Senators of the Democratic Peoples Party have also joined senators from three of these parties (the APGA party machine seems to be distancing itself from the merger) in support of the emerging APC which is supposed to be an “alternative”, for the “people”. But how true is it that this “new”, so-called “mega party” of the bosses holds any hope for the working class?

The executives and legislators of these parties have not been significantly different in any way from those of the PDP in rolling out and implementing anti-poor policies and programmes. In most of the states that they constitute the government, workers’ wages are nothing to write home about, with minimum wage being less than the paltry N18,000 stipulated in the National Minimum Wage Act. And where jobs have been created these have been insecure with take home pay that cannot take a worker home.

Also, school fees in their state-owned tertiary institutions have been increased over the last few years, by up to 1,000% in some instances which include states run by the ACN which lays claim to the welfarist legacy of “Awoism”. This has resulted in tens of thousands of students from poor working class home dropping out of schools such as the Lagos State University.

The APC’s declared determination “to bring an end to corruption and insecurity” is as false as any hope of its improving the lot of the working masses. The APC-merged parties are filled with moneybags that have siphoned billions of naira from governments they have served in and contracts from other governments. The most severe of “insecurity” situations are also in some of the APC parties’ states, and as in Borno state, the seeds of insurgency were sown in collaboration with these parties when they were in “opposition”.

Why is there the illusion that APC could be the hope of the common man and woman amongst some activists, even in the working class? The most obvious reason is the PDP. It has dominated the political landscape since 1999 and its governments have stolen over N12trillion naira, with almost half of these being in the past three years alone. Yet, there is little to show in terms of improvement in the lives of the working masses.

But the PDP’s actions are as a result of the fact that it is a party formed by the bosses, in defence of the interests of the bosses. The APC is equally a party of the elite. Intent on defeating PDP, it has declared itself to be “social democratic”, promising free education and job creation. The antecedents of its merging parties however show that it is unlikely these promises will be met.

This is because parties such as PDP and APC are not just parties of the bosses in an abstract manner. The capitalist system run by the ruling elite in Nigeria and across the world is designed by them to ensure the domination and continued exploitation of working people who constitute the immense majority of the population by the few rich bosses. This system includes economic, social and political dimension, of which electoral politics is a part. Even in the most democratic electoral system, on the basis of capitalism, it is impossible for the working class to emancipate itself through general or parliamentary elections.

It takes revolutionary struggle, involving workers self-activity, through which they overthrow the bosses, and establish a government of workers and other poor people, for the working people to be liberated. Our emancipation can be won only by we, the working people ourselves, and not any party or group of the bosses. To wage this struggle, workers have to organise in increasing numbers, on the basis of a socialist programme.

It is such organisation, that SWL is an effort at building. With working class activists across the country, we stand for the struggle of working people for their self-emancipation. Fighting alongside other workers, and with like-minded organisations committed to changing the system, we realise that the major reason why the APC is emerging now can be found in the opening statement of the first public declaration of this “new” party of the bosses: “at no time in our national life has radical change become more urgent”.

This is because, both nationally and internationally, capitalism is in crisis! But the bosses want to deceive us into believing that they who are actually at the root of the problem are the solution. We must not be deceived, we say NO TO THE PARTY OF THE BOSSES! NO TO BOTH PDP AND APC!! 

February, 2013