Nigeria was created by the British colonialists as part of its imperialist expansion in Africa, for the accumulation of capital. The colonialists did not care about the peoples they met or the modern working class of native men and women that emerged with the development of capitalist industry and colonial administration. It is however about fifty-six years now since we got the Independence to determine the colours of our flag and the tune of our national anthem. Since then, different political administrative options have been practiced by the bosses’ class, such as the presidential and parliamentary systems. But all these, including the military dictatorships have tried to safeguard the continued cancerous growth of a neo-colonial capitalist system
Politicians, both civilian and military alike go to any length to acquire and greedily secure power at all cost. Obviously, this is not out of some burning desire to serve. Party politics is the most lucrative industry in the country today, and “godfatherism” appears to be the most assured vehicle through which anybody could gain mainstream political prominence.
Nigerian lawmakers cannot see anything wrong in purchasing108 exquisite cars at a unit cost of N35 million, totalling N3.8 billion for themselves with the nation’s scarce and dwindling resources at a period when thousands of Nigerian Workers cannot get their legitimate meagre salaries from their respective state governments.
Some Governor-Senators are still receiving pensions from their respective state government coffers and at the same time enjoying rights and privileges of legislators. At the end of their political travesty at the National Assembly, they would still harness their usual standby severance benefits that will run into Billions of naira. Do we really need the Senate!
Cost of obtaining justice through our legal system is enough to drive any innocent Nigerian crazy. He/she would rather let go an infringement upon his/her Rights than approach the court for justice. Are there laws that are really made to genuinely safeguard the poor’s interests? Your NO is absolutely correct, considering the desperation at which the Nigerian Senators are trying to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, just to rescue the embattled Senate President.
The notable dividends of this change include high electricity tariff in an era of perpetual darkness which the heinous privatisation of NEPA cannot even avert; all seasons-long scarcity of fuel that has made poor citizens to spend whole days and nights queuing for fuel that is never available at the filling stations; geometrical upsurge in crime rate; and the climax of them all, the willful neglect and refusal of the States to pay workers their meagre hard earned wages. Se na like this we go dey be? NO!
The only thing that is permanent in this wide world is change. A significant proportion of Nigerians innocently welcomed the APC’s change mantra. Alas, it is a deafening slap on our faces. This slap must wake us from our slumber. We must be bold to now give that credible alternative a trial. As I said earlier, we had tried parliamentary, and we are trying presidential. The Military has shown us the best it could offer the nation.
The salient question is “why are the capitalists (the bosses) scared of socialism option!” the answer is, they would lose their tenacious grip on the means of production to the benefit of the toiling workers. It is ripe for Nigerians to adopt SOCIALISM. The bosses shall never willingly relinquish their hold on our necks because they have a mission to milk us dry until we are suffocated.
Socialism essentially is the realm of human freedom, in which the creation and re-creation of wealth is not for the accumulation of capital, but for the all-rounded development of everybody. It conserves and avoids systematic wastefulness and global warming. It is rooted in the fullest of democracy within the workplace and our communities, where representatives receive the average wages of workers and are fully recallable.
This and lots more is why the vast majority of Nigerians, working class-people were unambiguous in calling for the adoption of socialism as the political and social-economic system for Nigeria in 1986.
But the bosses will never simply give surrender to having a socialist system. Working class-people will have to fight for this system change. The road might be rough, but it leads to our liberation. The only other option is to fall of this precipice into the abyss of barbarism.
by Frances Jole
