Baba Aye's

The 2027 general elections are around the corner. The elections will take place amidst the worst economic distress for working people in recent history. This is compounded by mounting insecurity and social crisis. Nonetheless, politicians have started warming up for campaign. Different sections of the ruling class are coming up as usual with empty promises. But now more than ever, the working masses, the marginalised youth, and oppressed people across the country need an alternative that challenges the systematic rottenness of social, economic, and political life. Issues shaping 2027 A recent poll by Business Day confirmed that, towards the 2027 elections, the topmost concerns of Nigerians are the economy and security. This is not at all surprising. While there has been economic growth since the Bola Tinubu administration of the APC regime came into power in 2023, the lives of poor working-class people have got worse. It is now more difficult for the vast majority of the population to ...

With the recent defections across party lines, both in the states and the National Assembly, how do you think such parties like ADC, PDP, SDP, LP and APGA will perform in 2027? One thing that these defections have shown is that there is essentially no difference between these nominally different parties. They all represent the same class of exploiters and oppressors of the people that have made life hell on earth for the poor working people in Nigeria. Thus, not surprisingly, when you look at their ideologies, programmes and perspectives, they are all in favour of making the rich richer whilst paying lip service to the people all in the name of seeking votes from us. For example for PDP, SDP, LP and APGA, you will see that in their 2023 manifesto, they were all for removing the fuel subsidy instead of addressing the corruption in it. And this was just one of the several neoliberal policy positions in those manifestos. As for ADC, it is a repackaged format of mainly former PDP stalwar...

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...

As 2025 ended and 2026 began, how would you describe Nigerians’ lives in the outgone year? Last year was a terrible year for poor working people in Nigeria. For the few that were still lucky to have salaried work, their wages could hardly take them home. House rents shot through the sky. For many people, their rents doubled between 2024 and 2025. Insecurity made travelling and even living in people’s homes a challenge of survival. While the economy did grow, it was only to the benefit of the few rich and powerful people, who became richer while the poor became poorer.  Would you say there are signs that the New Year will be better for the Nigerians? There are signs for sure that this year will be better for rich people. In the second week of the year, the news filtered in that the NGX, which is the Nigerian Stock Exchange, crossed the centi-trillion naira mark for the first time. While this hides the impact of things like the devaluation of the naira, regarding actual value, ...

What is your take on Donald Trump's declaration of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) over alleged killing of Christians? Donald Trump is playing a political card laced in hypocrisy, deceit, arrogance and imperialist interests. One cannot but laugh when he talks of wanting to come to the aid of “cherished Christians”. Three percent of the Christians in Gaza are amongst the sixty-nine thousand people that were killed in that strip in the course of two years of Israel’s genocidal campaign. But he has not only not been concerned about them, he has stood firmly against calling the war on Gaza the genocide it is. Trump and other politicians like Ted Cruz and Riley are just playing politics with this matter. On one hand, they are appealing to their white evangelical base. On the other hand Trump and indeed the American state as a whole are playing a card that Western imperialism has played time and again for centuries now, under the guise of what the British poet Rudyard ...

As Nigeria commemorated its 65th Independence Day anniversary, I spoke with Ejikeme Omenazu of the Independent newspapers on several issues dwelling on the history and current situation of Nigeria, ranging from how far the country has fared, to the Civil War, the so-called indivisibilty of Nigeria, the non-difference-difference, if I may of the different sections of the local ruling class, the travails of Omoyele Sowore and Aliko Dangote's union bursting antics.  It is now 65 years after Nigeria's independence; how has the country fared so far? It depends on the question of which class you are talking about. Nigeria has fared badly for working-class people. At independence, workers, poor farmers and the urban poor were not as badly off as they are now. Hunger and insecurity did not stalk the land. They yearned for things to be better. They had high hopes that with independence, their lives would become better still. But it did not take them long to see that this was not goin...

The Bola Tinubu administration has been on the saddle for two years. How do you see the state of the nation in these two years? My point of departure in responding to that question would be to draw from Malcolm X. He said something to the effect that there are two nations in every nation. The nation of the exploited and oppressed on one hand and the nation of the exploiter and oppressed on the other. For the poor working masses in Nigeria, the last two years have been terrible. Life has become terribly worse, and mere survival a great challenge. The cost of living has shot through the roof. The take home pay of workers cannot take them home. The 2024 minimum wage is meaningless. It is merely nominal. In real terms it is a wage cut compared to the 2019 minimum wage. But for the super-rich. Tinubu has been a blessing. As Oxfam pointed out in its inequality report earlier this year, this class of Nigerians wealth tripled between 2023 when Tinubu came to power and last year. Their riches...