Baba Aye's

Comrade Baba Aye, a veteran trade expert and activist, is Co-Convener of the Coalition for Revolution (CORE) and a Council Member of Progressive International (PI). Baba Aye, former Deputy National Secretary, Labour Party (LP) and former National Convener, United Action for Democracy (UAD), during the June 12 struggle and a member of the National Implementation Committee of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), in this interview with EJIKEME OMENAZU , speaks on the 66th Independence anniversary from a socialist point of view. Excerpt: Nigerians are in the Independence anniversary week. Looking at the state of the nation, do you think the 66th Independence anniversary is worth celebrating? The exit of colonial rulers could not have but, been a welcome development in 1960. Even today, we cannot discountenance it as a historic moment, despite reservations we do have about its significance and rightly so. The working masses – workers, peasants, poor women and marginalised youths – who ralli...

The arrest of Omoyele Sowore on Monday, 22 June underscores the highhandedness of Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who had unjustly revoked Sowore’s bail a week earlier. But it also does more than that; it is yet another demonstration of the draconian nature of the Nigerian state. We are often told that the court is the last hope of the common wo/man. But, like all other apparatus of state, including the military, police, and prisons, it primarily serves the interests of the ruling class and is aimed at repressing any force that stands up against the power of our oppressors. This arrest like the earlier ones, is yet another dastardly attempt to repress Sowore and the revolutionary politics he stands for. And just like the plethora oof earlier arrests. It will not work. Putting the current arrest in perspective For the records this otherwise comical drama of repression needs to be put into proper context. The not-so-secret police in Nigeria otherwise legally...