The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), Lagos State
Chapter felicitates with Nigerians on this year's occasion of the 55th
Anniversary of the flag Independence of Nigeria from British colonial rule.
However, the occasion also offers the opportunity to ask: to what extent, if
any has the fate of the poor and working masses been bettered under the
successive regimes that have come to power since 1960? The current President
Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress Federal Government came to power
on the crest of “big promises” to transform the current spate of mass
unemployment, insecurity, corruption and looting. However, while we have seen
spate of “probes” into former political office holders, the problem of
corruption remains persistent.
BUHARI'S
“CHANGE”: NOT YET UHURU FOR THE WORKING PEOPLE
Thus far, what we have seen is an attempt by the
Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC), Federal Government to use the
“anti-corruption” show trials as a smokescreen from the pressing issue of resolving
the socio-economic crisis that the entire capitalist ruling elite has dragged
the mass of working people into. The APC, which is the party that largely all
the elements in the Buhari government is drawn from is peopled by the
same-of-the-same anti-poor politicians who openly advocate neo-liberal policies
of privatization, commercialisation and deregulation or members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
whose 16 years in government were a monumental failure. Working people must not
be hoodwinked into the false propaganda that the Buhari government offers a
permanent panacea to the myriads of economic crisis bedeviling them but step up
the struggle for fundamental improvement in their socio-economic conditions.
LAGOS
STATE: MASSES IN NEED OF GENUINE ALTERNATIVE
The state of affairs under the Ambode-led All
Progressives Congress, Lagos State Government for the mass of the working
people in Lagos State has not changed for the better. Under the outgone
Fashola-led government, several draconian laws of Lagos State were passed by
the Lagos State House of Assembly that criminalise the poor and the unemployed.
The current Ambode-led administration is outdoing the former regime in
implementing these draconian laws. The “Kick Against Indiscipline” and
Monitoring and Enforcement Taskforce of Lagos State are the two vicious of the
agencies of Lagos State Government that unleash attacks on democratic rights of
the poor and unemployed.
It
has become the major occupation of these two agencies to arrest ordinary citizens
at random and charge to court for wandering and joblessness without the right
to fair hearing! In the first place, the Ambode-led Lagos State Government is
not making any practical efforts to create jobs for the millions of unemployed
people in Lagos while also harass petty traders who strive to eke out a living
and impound their wares. This anti-poor government is quick to arrest, try and
jail these ordinary Nigerians while failing in their responsibility to create
jobs for the working masses.
We of
the SPN is convinced that ordinary people in the communities must organise mass
actions against these attacks on their democratic rights. We hold that the
actions of the Ambode-led Lagos State Government cannot be separated from the
anti-poor and pro-rich “Megacity” for the “Mega-rich” project, which the APC
has been implementing in stages for the more than sixteen years it has been in
power in Lagos State.
JOIN THE
SOCIALIST PARTY OF NIGERIA
What is urgently needed is a political mass fight-back
of ordinary workers and youth. The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) is prepared
to lead this mass fight-back in the immediate period. We enjoin you to join SPN
today and be part of a political movement of ordinary workers and youth who are
taking their fate in their hands to transform the current mass penury amidst
plenty into a better life for all.
SPN Leaflet circulated in Lagos on October 1, 2015 to mark Nigeria Independence
