Baba Aye's

Comrade Baba Aye, a veteran trade unionist and activist, is Co-Convener, Coalition for Revolution (CORE) and a Council Member, 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 Member, National Implementation Committee of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), in this interview with EJIKEME OMENAZU, he speaks on the Osun political violence, travails of Omoyele Sowore, the current partisanship of the police and the judiciary, among other issues. Excerpt: Are you worried over the level of political violence in Osun State due to the August 15 governorship election in that state? The extent and virulence of the political violence rocking Osun State ahead of the August 15 elections is more than enough to worry any right-thinking person. It is a direct result of the winnertakes-all and do-or-die approach to politics that characterises the Nigerian ruling class...

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 ...

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 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 "June 12 struggle" was an interesting period in Nigeria's history. The story of the struggle goes beyond the election that was annulled and its custodian. And the story of the election and the roles different personages and organisations played in the high drama starts well before the six-year democratic revolution unfurled with the annulment.  I've written a bit about this important, somewhat tragic, somewhat farcical, but none the less definitive moment in Nigeria's history. One of the two articles one might be interested in looking up are " Nigeria: the six year revolution " which which was first published in 2008 in the Working People's Vanguard and again in 2015 in the Socialist Worker . The other is " The shadow of June 12 : June 12, the left and Nigeria's democratic revolution", which was published in the Republic in 2022 and which has been republished in its latest special print issue "Nigeria Imaginary", marking t...

We are in the middle of a spate of elections across Africa. Last year, a dozen countries went to the polls. Ten more have held elections this year, with about thirteen more to go before the end of 2019. In a formal sense, democracy appears to be sinking deep roots into the continent’s soil. Gone are the days of the last quarter of the twentieth century when military dictatorships and one-party states where the norm. However, this has not translated into the betterment of the lot of the poor masses. Two thirds of the least developed countries in the world are in Africa. This of course does not mean that everyone in those countries bear the brunt of poverty. The politicians and businessmen in countries like Congo, Mozambique and Uganda which are considered to be some of the poorest countries in the world, enjoy opulent lifestyles. The key to ostentatious wealth for these degenerate figures of the African ruling class is political power. And through hook or crook (quite often som...