SPN CONDEMNS WUSE II BOMBING

 AND OTHER TERRORIST ATTACKS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

PRESS STATEMENT

Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemns the June 25, 2014 bombing of Banex Shopping Plaza in Wuse 11, Abuja that led to the death of 21 persons while injuring 17 others. Among the casualties is Suleiman Bisalla, Managing Editor (Northern Operations) of the New Telegraph. We commiserate with the families of the dead, injured as well as those who lost properties. As a matter of fact, the Wuse II bombing took place close to the national secretariat of the SPN.

Tragically the Wuse II bombing is only the latest in the renewed wave of terrorist attacks outside the Northeast Nigeria. Apart from this attack, in the last one week there have been bombings in Kaduna and Kano. Besides, this explosion is the third in Abuja in the last two months. On top of this is the continued abduction of over 200 Chibok girls by Boko Haram and ceaseless assaults on the North east by the terrorist group despite the state of emergency and the purported heightening of military operations including imperialist assistance in the region  

The recent bombings and the previous ones continue to demonstrate how incapable the government and the entire ruling elite are in curtailing these mindless terrorist activities that have continued to cause many deaths, injuries and displacement mostly of poor children, women and working class elements. While the rich can afford to surround themselves with massive security or relocate abroad, it is the poor working masses that daily face the brunt of terrorist activities across Nigeria.

The working people must therefore begin to organize resistance through democratically controlled mass self-defence committees at communities, parks, markets, etc to protect ordinary people against terrorist activities. These self-defence measures must be with the purpose of uniting the working masses across religious and ethnic lines to prevent the terrorists sowing division and provoking sectarian clashes and conflicts. Such joint bodies should be linked with the struggle for decent jobs, living wage, basic infrastructure and decent living conditions for all.

We in the SPN therefore challenge the leaderships of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to lead a mass resistance of the working masses against the relentless wave of terrorist attacks and the neo-liberal policies that fuel them through a one-day general strike and mass protests. The Labour movement must also demand an end to wanton killings and unlawful detention of innocent people by the security operatives under the guise of fighting Boko Haram.

The working masses should however understand that the struggle against terrorism cannot and should not be separated from the larger struggle to rid Nigeria of the exploitative and pauperizing capitalist rule of the millionaires. It cannot also be separated from the need to democratically negotiate and decide Nigeria’s future given the underlying nationality crisis in the country. These two fundamental tasks can only be genuinely carried out by a working class and youth led government basing itself on the socialist ideas of working peoples’ ownership, control and management of the commanding heights of the economy and the right to self-determination.

In this wise, SPN wishes to emphasize that governments that cannot defend the lives and properties of ordinary people against terrorist activities do not deserve to remain power. It is not only the PDP that has failed in this respect but all the anti-poor parties in government at various levels including the All Progressives Congress (APC) as it is the common anti-poor, neo-liberal capitalist program they all subscribe to that continue to provide fertile ground for recruitment into terrorist activities .

SPN again therefore calls on the leadership of the trade union movement to stop its collaborationist tendencies with the ruling classes by embracing the need to build a working class political alternative to contest and wrest power from the thieving, anti-poor ruling elites with the aim of using the huge resources of the society for the benefit of the vast majority. It is the urgent need to provide a striking example in this direction that our party SPN has been formed and recently applied for registration with INEC.

Segun Sango

National Chairperson