PRESS STATEMENT
We in the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN)
condemn in strongest terms the attack by the Boko Haram terrorist group on the
Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe state. We join the millions of the
working masses in the country to voice indignation and outrage against this
carnage. According to media reports, the death toll has risen to 59. However
this, and the subsequent savage attacks in Mainok, Mfaka and Jakana raise a big
question on the effectiveness of military expedition of Jonathan regime in the
region ostensibly against terrorism.
We hold that the resolution of the Senate for
further militarization of the North-east through the transfer of the military
headquarters to the region alongside drafting the Chief of Army Staff will not
resolve the crisis. This latest attack sprung out despite the state of
emergency in the North-eastern part of the country, which has only resulted in
attacks on democratic rights while attacks have increased.
We equally reject the proposition of National
Conference as a panacea to terrorism by President Goodluck Jonathan in his
Centenary address to the nation as a wild-goose chase. To show the negligence
and incapability of the Jonathan administration in its war on terrorism, the
Buni Yadi attack was preceded by similar attacks on three major Government
Secondary Schools and a College of Education, which because of the low level of
casualties compared to the attack on Federal Government College did not receive
enormous media attention or given proper attention.
For five years now working people have had to
endure the brunt of these attacks while the state's repressive measures,
including killing Boko Haram's founder Mohammed Yusuf after he had been
arrested, have had little effect and will continue to be incapable of defending
working people. We call on the working masses in the terror-prone states not to
put trust in the military or the state but build self-reliant defence
committees with democratic control by workers, youth and the poor in the
communities. They should also build independent and united mass actions to
reject and resist any attempt to divide working masses along ethnic and
sectarian lines. For instance, in Benue state where mass actions have been
organized against sectarian violence, such mass actions must not be allowed to
degenerate into ethnic altercation between Tivs and Fulanis, but must be seen
as a step towards a united working class self-defence action against terrorist
and sectarian elements.
We in the SPN hold that the underlying causes for
the upsurge in terrorist attacks in the North-eastern region and
ethno-sectarian violence in the North-central region is the total failure of
all the sections of the capitalist ruling elite to meet the fundamental needs
of the Nigerian society. A complete break with this rotten system is urgently
required. What is needed to be done is to build a movement so that the mass of
the working people to put in power a working peoples' government, on socialist
program, that will mobilise the enormous resources of society to meet the needs
of the overwhelming majority by placing the commanding heights of the economy
under democratic control of workers, youth and the poor masses. This is what
SPN stands for. We call on working masses to join us as we fight and work for
this alternative.
Segun Sango
National Chairperson
No comments:
Post a Comment