Baba Aye's

What is your take on the controversies over the real-time e-transmission of election results?  The controversies surrounding the transmission of elections say a lot about the nature of electoral politics in Nigeria. You can recall the court rulings in 2023 that the IReV could not be considered as the coalition centre. And electronic transmission of election results was deemed to be at the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). We all know who benefited most from the non-electronic transmission of results in 2023 and also stands to benefit by not enabling the transmission as a compulsory element of the 2026 Electoral Act. It is the ruling party. So, not surprisingly, opposition parties from the same ruling class of bosses joined the chorus of calls to make e-transmission compulsory. But, their point of departure is not the same as that of civil society organisations and the only party which represents a revolutionary alternative in the country is the A...

Since the Fourth Republic, the Leftists have been find­ing it difficult to ascend to political power in Nigeria. The late founder of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Chief Gani Fawehinmi and many of his followers tried several times. But, they could not win elections until the party was delisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Several Leftist political parties which could not make much im­pression were also delisted when the INEC pruned the number of political parties to 18. Presently only the African Action Con­gress (AAC), formed by Omoyele Sowore, is standing as the major political platform of the Leftists. Gbenga Komolafe, a veteran ac­tivist and the General Secretary, Federation of Informal Workers’ Organisations of Nigeria (FI­WON), who spoke to Sunday In­dependent, said the Progressive Left activists, politicians, parti­sans, and polemicists have been very loud about their critique of the neo-colonial order, now well entrenched and institutionali...

You are a Co-Convener of the Coalition for Revolution (CORE) that organised peaceful protests across the country for a revolution that was expected to usher in a positive change in the lives of Nigerians. What is the state of CORE and the other affiliates now? The series of peaceful protests you are talking about comprise the #RevolutionNow campaign, which was launched on 5 August 2019 with a nationwide #DayOfRage protest. The campaign helped to catalyse the reawakening of a spirit of revolt against the oppressive rule of the APC in particular and the exploiter ruling class and their repressive apparatus in general. It contributed significantly to igniting the #EndSARS rebellion in October 2020. A lot has happened since, with both the coalition and its affiliates. CORE unfurled the campaign in the wake of a resolution adopted by the African Action Congress (AAC). The Take It Back movement of the AAC, as you know, was a member-organisation of CORE. In fact, it was one of the two blo...

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...