Baba Aye's

United Action for Democracy condemns the dastardly bombings in suburbs of Abuja on Friday by Boko Haram, and sympathises with family members of the scores of poor people whose lives were cut short in their prime in these attacks. We must however consider this as a clarion call for thinking out of the box. The sloganeering and unsubstantiated claims of the ruling All Progressives Congress that such cowardly acts will not stop the sect’s defeat appear hollow and annoying, considering its posturing on the Boko Haram insurgency, when it was an opposition party. Over 1,200 Nigerians have been killed by Boko Haram since APC came to power. There is little basis for confidence that many more will not face a similar fate. To present the sect’s tactics of urban guerrilla warfare as something new is equally being disingenuous. On the contrary, this was the norm for Boko Haram until mid-2014 when it was inspired by the territorial expansion of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And indeed, most of ...

Dear DK, Thanx my brother, but I must say over to us all . The challenges ahead stare us all in the face, to bring our country's ship home...or at least genuinely strive to. I would also not say I am a 'veteran'. When people who have given their hearts, their souls, their strengths, their minds to the cause of a better society, from their youths still remain unbowed as 'senior citizens', the least we can do, is to keep the torch ablaze. When we fight, we fight not just for ourselves and the future of our children, we fight that the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain and that our veterans shall have hope that they have not fought in vain. Our veterans are the Eskor Toyos, Hassan Summonus, Edwin Madunagus, Balarabe Musas, Baba Omojolas, Ali Chiromas, Gani Fawehinmis, Ishola Williams, Jonathan Ihondes, Toye Olorodes, Idowu Awopetus, Abayomi Feirreiras, Festus Iyayis...to mention a few, please. I am more concerned here in discussing on your thesis on the ...

Dear John Dada, Thanx for yours, from the penumbra of internet activism on this serve, or as you could put it the zone of 'lurkers' (lol)...who none the less are not any less concerned or in agony about the fate of our dear country than those of us that choose to be 'basket mouths', not just for the fun of it though!.I had come to the conclusions of broader concern on the serve than shows itself through debates here not from speculation but from off serve interactions with a number of persons, I never knew where on the serve, many of whom I never knew before, in diverse manners, especially during the debates when I was in Germany. From the site link, you provided I must say it does seem, Fantsuam Foundation is bringing more than just tuwo and amala to some tables. Bringing happiness to hearts, hope to souls, does also make a the difference in situations of poverty, and stigmatization of persons living with HIV. Such function of civil society programmes aimed at ameliora...

I must say above any other thing, I do agree with you, Sam and join you in calling on your two colleagues to join in and put together the Working Paper. You actually occupy the primary baton-changing position having served in the convening triumvirate and now being the only one of the earlier three in this next and immediate phase. With regards to the CDC triumvirate, I must say that, that is another thing entirely. I would have been of the opinion that communiques should be adopted at meetings and taken away by those in attendance. If for any reason, 'i's are to be dotted and 't's to be crossed it should not be more than days after the conference. The longer a communique's issuance is dated from the conference whose resolutions it embodies the more questions of legitimacy, mandate and relevance arise. That haven been said, I see no reason why Hilary and co should not now release it this week. While really, there might be lessons to learn from your excursion into th...

Dear Sina and Biola, First I must say to Sina that time never gets on any person or revolutionary group's side. On the contrary, we have to get to the side of time. The old GG (as against the Darah we now know) spoke at a guest lecture we organized on the PAYCO platform in 1992. An analogy he used stuck in my mind. He considered the revolution as the biblical groom that five wise and five foolish maidens were waiting for. The five wise maidens represented a revolutionary movement's existence and readiness. The foolish ones whose oil had run out of course were the 'revolutionaries' full of lots of talk and little or no oil to last the night. How many times will we say all we need is to get organised more than ever only to repeat it again year in, year out? And Biola, I not only pointed out our 'past failed efforts'. Any movement or revolutionary tradition without such is one that never really exists...The problem is not even just that of our continued current and...

Otive, TA & All, On getting the postings of OI and TA, I went back to the Concept Note, TA's submission, my submission and all the email exchanges in the process leading to March 21. I then put down the first line above. It however struck me that I would not have the time to make the statement I will now make then, since I had to pay attention to practical engagements including making my own inputs into materials for the new minimum wage campaign starting on Wednesday and a programme that took me through the whole of yesterday. I consider the issues involved, flowing from Otive's as very important with regards to the post-March 21 inertia and, as he put it, 'beyond the FOI listserve', bearing on our capacity as intellectuals and activist to move our society closer to its transformation. It is in this light that I make this submission. Before going on though, in the course of going through the emails, I could not but get to wonder at the silence of persons who had ma...