ONLY SOCIALIST POLICIES CAN GET IT OUT OF THE WOODS
TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE CONVENED ON JUNE 15, 2016, BY THE
SOCIALIST PARTY OF NIGERIA (SPN) ON THE STATE OF THE NATION AND ONE YEAR OF
BUHARI'S ADMINISTRATION.
INTRODUCTION
We of the SPN have decided to
convene this press conference in fulfillment of our historic and political
responsibility to express our views and concerns at this important juncture in
the state of affairs of our Nation. We also consider it imperative to examine
and analyze the first year of the administration of the Buhari/APC government
vis-à-vis its so-called change agenda and the impact on the working class and
the poor masses.
Against the above background, we
wish to begin by stating a fact which has now become undisputable, which is
that the condition of living for the vast majority of Nigerians has become
increasingly difficult due to rising prices of goods, commodities, food items,
the rising cost of education, the rising cost of health care, insecurity and
massive job losses, The resultant effect of this rising cost of living is
growing poverty.
The second undisputable fact is that
civil unrests, militant activities and ethnic agitations have brought to the
fore once again the undemocratic character of the Nigerian federation and the
unresolved nationality questions that has been there since the amalgamation of
1914 under Lord Lugard. Indeed, to say that Nigeria is on the edge of a
precipice might be an understatement.
You will agree with us that many did
not expect this to be the lot of Nigerians under a government that one year ago
rode into power under the banner of change. But what the sordid state of
affairs has so far shown is that the Buhari led federal government and the
respective state governments controlled by the APC, PDP, and APGA obviously
lack the capacity to resolve the myriad of economic problems and hardship
confronting the vast majority of the working masses and the poor. Instead of the
people they are supposed to be serving, their commitment is to capitalism and
its agencies, the IMF and World Bank whose anti-poor policies of privatization,
deregulation and cuts in social spending they have been implementing. Yet,
fundamentally speaking, this in our view can only make an already bad situation
worse.
What the state of affairs has also
shown is that without both a democratic negotiation of Nigeria and putting
control of its resources into the hands of working people, the Nation will
continue to be hunted by the specter of disintegration every now and then
especially whenever political power at the centre shifts from one geo-political
region to another.
THE
ECONOMY
Currently, 27 state governments out
of 36 and Abuja, the FCT, owe their workers backlog of salaries even after they
had been bailed out to the tune of billions of Naira by the Federal government.
Lack of payment of entitlements also remains the lot of federal and state
pensioners who are apparently dying in their hundreds. Yet high inflation has
completely made mess of the national minimum wage of N18,000.
Workers and pensioners in their
millions are therefore suffering for no fault of theirs other than the fact
that key political office holders and the ruling elite have run the economy
aground through outright looting, implementation of anti-people policies and
award of jumbo salaries and allowances to themselves. This has worsened the
impact of the continuing world economic crisis. Yes, the ongoing turmoil in
world capitalism is a key factor in oil dependent Nigeria's crisis, but the
continuing looting by the parasitic elite is making things even worse.To show
the utter bias and flagrant disregard for the interest of workers and
pensioners, even as the country's economy is on the brink of a technical
recession, jumbo emolument of key political office holders (Presidents,
ministers, legislators, governors etc.,) are guaranteed and paid as at when due
while workers suffer. On the basis of capitalism, all animals are certainly not
equal. In addition, the more worrisome aspect is the fact that government at
all levels prioritises the payment of questionable debts owed to
contractors,importers, banks and financial houses arising from inflated
contracts and loans that mostly benefited friends and collaborators of key
political office holders far ahead of workers' salaries and emoluments. The
pattern is for the Banks to deduct huge sums of money at first line charge to
the state revenues and these guarantees the interest of few privileged persons
ahead of the suffering working masses. Workers are creditors to the state as
well and need to be paid as at well due.
It is equally worrisome that
whenever workers demand their rights through protests and strike actions, the
ruling classes embark on ruthless attacks and suppression using the police and
other state agents to harass, intimidate, arrest and detain.
An example – a bad one at that – was
what happened in Oyo state where seven State leaders of the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) and activists were arrested and detained at Agodi Prisons on the
orders of the Ajimobi-led APC government. This was nothing other than the
undermining of the inalienable rights to freedom of speech, thought and
assembly. Once again, the SPN declares its solidarity for the struggle of Oyo
state working masses against the totally irresponsible decision of the
Ajimobi/APC-led state government to private public schools as well as for
payment of backlog of salaries and allowances owed civil servants and
pensioners. In addition, we strongly believe that the irresponsible act of
clamping labour leaders in prison for challenging government anti-poor policies
should not be allowed to go unchallenged.
The current rising cost of living is
largely occasioned by crises ravaging the economy including but not limited to
the collapsing value of the Naira. Many bourgeois economists have called for
devaluation as the only way of stabilizing the Naira while the Buhari/APC
government has studiously opposed this. Our position in the SPN is that neither
devaluation nor maintaining the Naira at its current value would fundamentally
resolve the prevailing conundrum. Indeed no solution can be found to the
economic crisis ravaging Nigeria within the precinct of capitalism. Neither
side in the divisions within the government over whether or not to devalue have
an answer in the interests of working people as they all defend capitalism. The
currency crisis represents the crisis of the national economy, not the other
way round. The only way to address this problem is to begin a national planned
economy, built upon public ownership of the key companies in the economy and
national resources, that drives forward massive investment in basic
infrastructures and industrialization that will move the economy forward while
driving development. This is the only way to move the economy that is largely
import dependent to a sustainable economy that will not be completely dominated
by the imperialist dominated world market and forced torabidly chase after
forex for the sake of importing goods that can easily be produced locally.
It is a shame thatNigeria is a net
importer of food. Since the discovery of oil in the 1950s, the Nigerian ruling
elite has neglected the agricultural sector which used to be the mainstay of
the economy. Nigeria was the world largest cocoa exporter in 1960 but cocoa
production has since nosedived to about 43% by the year 2000. Production and
export of other cash crops like groundnuts, cotton and rubber has also
plummeted. This increasing neglect of the agriculture sector is largely
responsible for the rising cost of foodand the hunger that currently ravages
the land. The much touted diversification of the economy into agriculture is a
ruse and amount to grandstanding if the budgetary capital allocation to
agriculture, which is a paltry N47 billion is anything to go by. To attain the
much vaunted sustainable development the agricultural sector will require
massive investment into the sector to set up public funded plantations,
encourage cooperatives among farmers with active support of the government and
link the agrarian revolution with industrialization.
In this regard the Buhari
government's N500 billion social investment programme can only make very little
impact. This programme is not only limited in nature, it is merely a makeshift
intervention with no plan for long term sustainability. For instance, 500,000
graduates will be recruited and trained to work mostly in primary and secondary
schools as teachers for two years and get monthly salary of N23,000. Firstly,
N23,000 monthly salary is a poverty wage that can hardly meet some of the basic
needs including education, health care, transportation, housing etc. Secondly,
some of the applicants are not trained teachers and may not actually be motivated
to teach but only applied just to temporarily escape the mass joblessness in
the society. Thirdly, the scheme will only last for two years with no plan for
its sustenance. Lastly even if implemented it will only make a small dent in
huge numbers unemployed or under-employed.
Meanwhile many of the states have
opted out of the school feeding programme because they claimed inability to
meet their counterpart funding, which threatens the program. Similar fate
awaits the teaching scheme if the states are obligated to partner in the
sustenance or given other major roles to play. Schemes can only be used to
address a temporary problem and not a long term systemic unemployment crisis.
The much touted private sector
cannot sustainably develop the Nigerian economy because of its profit agenda.
Many private establishments are sacking workers because of the rising cost of
production due to forex crisis and huge infrastructural deficit. Banks alone
have sacked about 2000 workers and threaten to sack more and it is the same
sector that was given a bailout of over 3 trillion six years ago.
In view of all these we wish to
reiterate our stance that only a nationalized planned economy under democratic
management of workers and consumers that can develop the economy and create
massive jobs, otherwise the collective resources of the society will continue
to go to private pockets.
We therefore call on Labour to
energetically demand the nationalization of the commanding sectors of the
economy including oil and gas, solid mineral resources, banking etc. to be
placed under peoples and public ownership.
This
should be linked to campaigning for the following:
- That there should be a public probe of all contracts and loans by elected panel of workers, pro-labour organisations and other social groups to enable the public ascertain the genuine nature of the heavy debt burdens by the states and the federal government and refuse to pay the false debts;.
- That all workers and pensioners being owed should be paid without any further delay;
- That the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) must organize sustained national mass action in response to the unpaid salaries crisis starting with a one-day warning national public sector strike.
- That NLC should begin the struggle for increments in workers' salary across board to enable workers meet the challenges posed by the rising cost of living. The N18,000 minimum wage is not only a poverty wage, it is an aberration.
- That NLC must ensure that any wage template that must be agreed upon should be living wage and must be increased in line with subsequent inflationary trend
- That NLC should demand the reduction of unjustified jumbo allowances by political office holders across board down to the wages of an average skilled civil servant as we do not see the logic wherein an extreme few will earn jumbo salaries while the vast majorities are condemned to poverty wages.
NIGER
DELTA MILITANCY AND BIAFRA AGITATION
Militancy has staged a dramatic
comeback in Nigeria's Niger Delta. Between 2008 and 2009, it was the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and now the Niger Delta Avengers
(NDA) who since February 10, 2016 have blown up one pipeline after another and
forcing a significant reduction in the production of crude oil. The Nigerian
military has also responded in typical fashion by militarizing the communities
and claiming its readiness to crush the rebellion although the government has
now announced a two-week ceasefire to negotiate with the militants.
Working people are already counting
the costs of brutal invasion by the armed forces in search of the so-called
avengers. As it is so often the case the people are torn between the devil and
the deep sea as neither side are in the final analysis fighting for their
interests but selfish interests at the centre of which is control of oil
resources.
Oil spillage and pollution by the
multinational oil companies have gone on unabated; according to "Poison
and Fire" documentary 1.5 million tons of oil has been spilled into farms,
rivers and forest since 1950s, thereby distorting the ecosystem and economic
activities like farming, fishing etc. United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) scientists discovered that at least 10 Ogoni communities had been
drinking water contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons for years, and
this is the fate of many communities in the Niger Delta.
Yet, it must be recalled that all
previous policies have only scratched the problem on the surface including the
setting up of the Niger Delta Development Commission in the year 2000 (a body
funded to carry out some projects in the oil communities but which has also
turned conduit pipe for some corrupt bourgeois politicians from the region),
the 13% derivatives (earnings from oil) given to the oil producing states and
the amnesty program that began in 2009 and which has since gulped over N250
billion targeted at mostly bribing some of top militants and their foot
soldiers out of militancy.
Against this background no amount of
repackaged amnesty as a fallout of negotiation will resolve the present
problems except massive investment in basic infrastructure to create mass
productive jobs, cleanup of the entire Niger Delta region by the oil companies,
end oil spillage and gas flaring, pay adequate compensation to communities and
families whose farm lands and fishing ponds/rivers were destroyed by oil
exploration and the implementation of other pro-masses policies.
Regardless of the motives of the
militants, what is indisputable is that the working masses of Niger Delta are
suffering and they yearn for freedom from the destruction of their lands and
their lives by oil multinationals guarded by the guns of the Nigerian
government. Against this background, the SPN fully supports the agitation of
the Niger Delta people for better living condition, clean up of the
environment, productive and gainful employment for the teeming jobless people.
In the pursuit of these demands especially against a violent capitalist state
that has shown at different times that it is prepared to deploy the army and
other instruments of repression to defend the profit interest of oil
multinationals against the people, we recognize the right of the people to take
up arms in order to defend themselves against the violence of the state. But
this can only be achieved through building of mass movements rooted in the
communities and not through individual terrorism which is the way to describe
the method of the Niger Delta Avengers. We strongly believe that individual
terrorism can never be a replacement for mass action and furthermore mass
involvement and activity is essential if the different peoples living in the
Delta are going to be united in common struggle. Therefore, we also emphasize
that it is only the mass struggle of the people with socialist policies that
can wage a spirited and sustained battle that will lift the entire Niger Delta
region out of the bestial living conditions that prevails there.
SPN supports the agitation of the
Niger Delta people for better living condition, clean environment, productive
and gainful employment for the teeming jobless people including, when
necessary, the taking up of arms to defend themselves. But we also emphasize
that it is only the mass struggle of the people under democratic control armed
with socialist policies that can wage a spirited and sustained battle that will
lift the entire Niger Delta region out of the bestial living conditions.
Although the Niger Delta Avengers,
like MEND, are demanding resource control among other demands so also are the
ruling elite in Niger Delta and southern part of the country. Demand for
resource control by a region or ethnic group does not answer the question of
which class will exercise that control? The reality however is that under
capitalism, the so-called resource control or increased funding for the states
will not meet the needs of vast majority. In actual fact, these competing
ruling elites are only agitating for increased funding that will guarantee
their privileges and life of opulence. In reality, resource control is not
possible in a situation where the profit of multinational and national oil
companies dominate the production and exploration of oil. Only nationalization
of the oil companies both in the upstream and downstream alongside the nationalization
of other commanding heights of the economy under democratic management of the
working class and communities can usher in genuine and democratic resource
control of the vast majority of the people as against the current control by
tiny multinational oil companies, their collaborating national companies and
the ruling elite.
The killing of unarmed Independent
People of Biafra (IPOB), Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State
of Biafra (MASSOB) and Biafra Independence Movement (BIM) agitators by soldiers
and police men on May 30, 2016 like the previous killings is mindless and the
height of brutality by the federal government. At least 17 people were killed
and 50 injured and according to Amnesty International researchers some of those
killed were shot at the back, which is an indication that they were fleeing
when they shot. We want to state that members of the IPOB, MASSOB and BIM have
the democratic right to agitate for issues of concern to them including the
right to secede. We condemn the heavy handedness of the Nigerian Police and
Military that has led to the killing of innocent and defenseless protestors,
arrest and detention of many. The Buhari government should be held responsible
for the killings and attacks of innocent Biafra agitators.
When there is popular support and
agitation for self-rule or secession then the people themselves should
democratically decide their future via a referendum or other vote. The SPN
supports the united struggle of Nigerian working people to fundamentally change
the country but, insisting that unity must be voluntary, defends the right to
self-determination. However we warnthat secession is not an end in itself but a
means to an end, any self-determination struggle that does not pose an
alternative socialist program including working class democratic control of
natural and human resources to meet the needs of all will continue to grapple
with crisis created by capitalism. In the east we do not share in the one-sided
position that separation is an automatic solution to the sufferings of the mass
of the Igbo people. Neither do we approve of hate propaganda and similar
divisive rhetoric which tries to paint ordinary working people of other ethnic
groups as potential enemies of Igbo people and, if any separation does take
place, we fully defend all the rights of any peoples who are minorities in any
new entities that are created.
Therefore the real cause of
inequality and suffering is capitalism and it is this system of wage slavery
that the entire working and poor people across the country should unite to
defeat. Hence, a Biafra state under unjust capitalist rule would at best
continue to sustain the present inequality, poverty and even attack democratic
rights. Hence, we demand:
- The immediate and unconditional release of NnamdiKanu and other incarcerated Biafran activists;
- An end to further attacks on protesters across the country; and
- the convocation of a democratic referendum or other vote on secession by everyone living in the concerned areas.
CONCLUSION
We are concluding this press
conference with a position that one year of Buhari/APC administration has
yielded no fundamental change for the working masses and youth of this country.
Indeed compared to a year ago, the hunger, poverty and joblessness ravaging the
land as increased. So also has the darkness as the privatization of the power
sector has failed to address the crisis of power shortage. No doubt, it has
been a year of unrelenting and endless suffering for ordinary Nigerians. In our
view, the Buhari-led government will not meet the aspiration of Nigerians
primarily because of the capitalist and pro-rich policies and programs
(privatization, deregulation etc.) it has adopted. If these policies are
allowed to continue, the already precarious socio-economic and political crises
will further deteriorate. We have already seen how thousands of jobless youths
and school drop outs have now constituted themselves into various armed gangs
and cult groups terrorizing communities, robbing, kidnapping, maiming and
killing. To avert the current danger and other ones that loom, what is urgently
needed at this historical epoch of our country is the formation of a pan
Nigeria mass working class party that will contest for power on the template of
democratically using Nigeria's natural and human resources to meet the needs of
all.
Segun Sango
National Chairperson
Chinedu Bosah
National Secretary
