Baba Aye's

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...

First, I wish to commend Social Action and AFRICMIL for initiating the annual “pro-democracy conference” series. I do believe, like many activists, that these conferences provide us opportunity to reflect on our collective past (in the struggle against military dictatorship) and present, towards enriching our perspectives on what is to be done, towards conquering the battle for democracy. It has thus within just a few years become probably the most important vehicle for inter-generational discourse on past, present and future of pro-democratic struggles in Nigeria. Such reflections which the discourse entails for us to draw lessons from our past and formulate ideas for our future battles, does naturally involve debates. And debates, particularly on our recent history would of course encompass (different) interpretations of what and what transpired and the significance of these. The 1 st conference which was held in 2018 was, I gathered, one which involved heated debates on what tra...

Scores of thousands of young people took over dozens of cities and towns in Nigeria for two weeks. This rebellion, with the slogan and hashtag #EndSARS was sparked by the reported killing of a young man by the special anti-robbery squad (SARS), in Ughelli, a town in the Niger delta region on 3 rd October. With each passing day, the supposedly “leaderless” movement waxed stronger. And while #EndSARS remained the primary and binding demand, calls for more radical measures to #EndInjustice increasingly gained support within the ranks of protesters. The regime’s efforts to break the movement with guile and attacks by its hired hands failed. In desperation, it called in the troops on 20 th October to smash the major demonstrations in Lagos, the commercial capital. According to Amnesty International “at least 12 peaceful protesters” were killed in the two major protests that day alone. The figures are probably much higher. According to protesters, soldiers carted away dozens of bodies....