Only
the coming to power of a Workers and Poor People’s government armed
with Socialist Programme can save Nigeria
PRESS STATEMENT
The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN)
totally agrees with former president Olusegun Obasanjo that President
Muhammadu Buhari and APC do not in any way deserve a second term.
We strongly hold that Buhari and APC have worsened living conditions of
average Nigerians since they assumed power because of their capitalist
neo-liberal agenda.
However, we also hold the view that
former President Obasanjo is not qualified to propose any solution to Nigeria’s
problem being one of the principal architects of the misfortune of this country. We
warn the working masses not to fall for Obasanjo’s deceptive agenda to portray
himself as a prophet of change. Indeed any change process driven by
Obasanjo or any anti-poor capitalist politicians will produce the same
harrowing suffering and infrastructure decay as currently obtains under Buhari
government. Indeed contrary to the pontification of Obasanjo he
contributed immensely to the ruination of Nigerian economy and the current
mess.
As a result of anti-poor neo-liberal
program and monumental corruption of his administration, Obasanjo left all
sectors of the economy in a very sorry state after eight years. All federal
roads including those in his Southwest and home state of Ogun were left to
ruin. The whopping $16bn he reportedly spent on power sector largely went down the
drain and he did not build new refineries despite huge oil and gas wealth at
his disposal. Indeed, a World Bank report revealed that under Obasanjo only one
percent Nigerians appropriate 80 percent of oil and gas wealth. The only
signature “achievement” of Obasanjo is gifting of $12bn for a settlement of an
odious debt, whose accumulation he started as a military leader, to imperialist
agencies and their rich backers. This partly explains why he has become a
darling of the world imperialism. Obasanjo boosted in 2016 that his government
produced 25 billionaires and that was done in the midst of growing poverty,
misery, inequality and chaos.
In addition, former President
Obasanjo has been instrumental in the choice of every anti-poor Presidents
since he left power in 2007. Obasanjo brought in and vigorously campaigned for
President Yaradua, he supported President Jonathan and most recently he threw
his weight behind the candidature of President Buhari in 2015. All of these
presidents performed woefully and under their administrations, the living
standards of the working people went from bad to worse. Based on the
above-mentioned reasons, former President Obasanjo is as responsible for the
woes of Nigeria as much as the Buhari administration.
Instead of being deceived once
again, the working masses and youth must be prepared to use the 2019 general
elections to not only vote out Buhari and APC but also to replace them
with a political party and candidates that stands for socialist programmes
which are the only solutions to Nigeria’s problems. The Socialist Party of
Nigeria (SPN) will stand candidates in the 2019 general elections. Our candidates
will campaign on socialist programme which entails an emergency plan of action
to take ownership and deploy Nigeria’s enormous resources and wealth to provide
free and functional education, free and functional health care, public
infrastructures, promote rapid industrialization and job creation, promote an
improved living standard through payment of living wage and pension as well as
adequate benefits to the unemployed. We call on all Nigerians desirous of
real and genuine change to join our party en-masse and get ready to use their
PVCs to vote out the APC, PDP and other anti-poor on parties and vote
in candidates of the SPN.
Also importantly, we hold that it is
the failure of the leadership of the labour movement to lead the masses in a
serious fight against the anti-poor policies of Buhari government and start
building a working people political alternative that has created a vacuum that
Obasanjo and other certified enemies of working masses and the poor are trying
to occupy. For instance, for the past three months the country has been gripped
with chronic fuel scarcity and the labour leadership has chosen to see no
evils. A similar attitude has been demonstrated over non-payment of
salaries by many state governments as well as on the demand for a new minimum
wage.
But it is not too late for the
labour movement to lead masses aright. We therefore call on the
leadership of labour and masses organizations to declare a 24-hour general
strike and nationwide mass protest on current fuel scarcity with demand for new
public refineries, unpaid salaries, minimum wage and farmer-herder clashes that
have led to killings in many parts of the country.
More importantly, workers and the
poor masses must realize the major lesson from the failure of Buhari government
in whom many Nigerians including some labour leaders invested huge illusion and
hope as well as legendary hypocrisy and opportunism of Obasanjo is the absence
a mass working people political alternative on a socialist program. We
therefore call on leadership of labour and masses organizations to immediately
initiate the process of building such a political platform including
convocation of a conference of trade unions, socialist organisations, left
parties, pro-masses organisations and individual radical activists. We of the
Socialist Party of Nigeria are ready to be part of such effort and play an
active role.
Chinedu
Bosah
National
Secretary
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