Thursday 29 March 2018

NIGERIA POLICE MUST LIFT SIEGE ON NBA IKEJA OFFICE NOW AND RESPECT DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS


Wednesday March 28, 2018



PROTEST AGAINST OBNOXIOUS LAND USE CHARGE



SPN SUPPORTS NBA PLANNED PROTEST

PRESS STATEMENT
 

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) Lagos State Chapter strongly condemns the siege on the Secretariat of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch by the Police. It is undemocratic and reminiscent of the era of military dictatorship.  Therefore, we demand the immediate vacation of the NBA office by the police.


This obnoxious action of the police, apparently at the behest of Akinwunmi Ambode led APC government of Lagos State, is a repressive measure against the plan of the NBA Ikeja and civil society organizations to hold a protest march, tomorrow Thursday March 29, against the widely hated Land Use Charge Law that the Lagos Government has callously imposed on the people of the state.

The SPN fully supports the planned protest and will actively participate in it. As we stated in our last press statement, the new tax which is disproportionally anti-poor should be totally repealed.


We, therefore, condemn the threat by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police in the statement issued on Wednesday March 28 to brutally clamp down on the planned protest on Thursday March 29 ostensibly because of the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos. We consider the threat as a brazen attack on democratic and constitutional rights of any Nigerian who plans to organize or join the protest.


Indeed, the planned shutdown of the state because of the visit of the President is an aberration, which is condemnable, in any society that claims to practice democracy. So, the visit of the President is not an acceptable excuse to deny Lagosians their rights to embark on legitimate activities including peaceful protests.


We call on the police to immediately lift the siege on the NBA Ikeja office and respect the rights of NBA and CSO members to hold the protest as planned tomorrow.


 SIGNED


Rufus Olusesan                                                                                 

 Chairperson                                                                                      





MK Shoyombo

PRO







                                             

Friday 16 March 2018

LAGOS SPN CALLS FOR REPEAL OF LAGOS STATE LAND USE CHARGE LAW 2018

REDUCTION IS A DECEIT

Tax the Rich, Not the Poor

PRESS STATEMENT

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) Lagos State Chapter condemns the new land use charge recently introduced by Lagos state government and calls for the total repeal of the law. We are not swayed by the purported reduction of the charges which is a well-worn tactic to deceive the masses to believing that the government has shifted ground while it has actually settled for the originally intended figure. The masses have experienced similar tactics many times with different hikes in fuel price.

We strongly hold that the Lagos State Government does not have moral basis to impose any new tax on the people having not accounted for how the state revenue realized from the previous taxes has been spent. Yes, it is true that the state government has embarked on a few infrastructural projects, but there is utter lack of accountability and transparency in those projects as Lagosians do not know their cost.

We are aware that all the attempts by media and civil society organisations to know the costs of the projects are rebuffed. This can only mean that the costs of the projects are criminally inflated. It also suggests that the real intention behind those projects is not necessarily for public good but creating a conduit for looting of the state resources. Besides, the entire state budget is treated as a classified document while procurement process is kept as a state secret. This is not only undemocratic but also fraudulent. This is why we see the increase as a means of maintaining opulent lifestyles of political office holders both past and present.

We therefore reject the justification by Governor Ambode that the tax increase is needed in order to finance infrastructures. We believe that the current revenue of the state if judiciously and democratically managed can largely finance not only provision of physical infrastructures such as roads, railways and waterways but also quality education, health care and decent housing. To achieve this, we call for all political office holders to be placed on the salary structure of civil servants and the cancellation of criminal life pension and severance pays for former governors and other political office holders.  We also call for public works department to be well equipped and staff well trained such that they can execute any construction work and not just reduced to patching of bad portions of the road. Also importantly, all projects must be put under democratic control of elected representatives of workers, community people and relevant interest groups. All these the SPN will implement if we are in the government of Lagos

We are also of the view that the purported reduction and so-called relief in the land use charge have not addressed the issue of market valuation of properties which can be used to exploit the people by the government and its agents. In any case, we strongly hold that the masses who struggle to build houses in the face of the failure of the government in its responsibility of providing social low-cost mass housing for them must not pay any tax on property.  Besides, the failure of the government in its social responsibilities also mean that ordinary people have to provide electricity, water, children education and family health care at huge costs.  Therefore, it would be a double tragedy asking such ordinary people to pay additional tax.

We also hold that asking the ordinary people who are landlords to pay land use charge amounts to double taxation as they are not exempted from personal income tax. Indeed, many of these landlords use the rent as a means of eking out a living and pay bills that they would not have if the government plays its roles. 

However, we are not against making the rich to pay tax on properties most of which are luxury. We indeed call for progressive tax that puts more tax burden on the rich and super rich. The land use charge is not a progressive tax. It is disproportionately against ordinary people in low and medium income categories.

By and large, the SPN holds strongly that meeting the needs and aspiration of the people in terms of job creation for all, putting in place basic and functional infrastructure/amenities will require a planned economy that rest on the nationalization of the commanding heights of the economy under the working class democratic management and control. This is the only way resources on a very large scale can be channeled towards economic and social transformation devoid of profligacy, corruption and huge profitability to a few at the expense of the vast majority.  

We also see the land use charge as the continuation of anti-poor mega city agenda of the APC government of Lagos which accounts for unjust demolitions of houses, settlements, shops and workshops of the ordinary people as well as arbitrary arrest, heavy fine and imprisonment of the poor masses over sundry offences by Lagos State task force and tribunal.

We therefore call for a wider mass mobilisation of community associations, trade unions, landlords and tenants' associations, youth organizations, human right groups, professional groups to resist not only land use charge but all anti-poor attacks by the Lagos State government. .

SIGNED

Rufus Olusesan                                                                            Monsuru Soyombo
Chairperson                                                                                      Publicity Secretary
08034726127                                                                                    08189504337


Saturday 3 March 2018

NIGERIA UNDER ATTACKS: WE NEED A SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE

The first and the most important responsibility of any serious government is to guarantee security of lives and properties of the citizens and all inhabitants of the state. Any government that falls short of this is a failed government. It was on this basis that the Jonathan administration was expunged by Nigerians hoping to find solace in the present administration of General Muhammadu Buhari due to his experience as a general. As at the time of election and electioneering campaign, we had informed Nigerians according to our ideology and perspective that it is not about change in the administrators whose function is just to administer within the existing system but change in the entire system.

The hope and expectations of average Nigerians were high, our belief was that the present administration will deliver our state from the hands of insurgents, create more employment and provide adequate infrastructure so that we would have a peaceful country where everybody would sleep with our two eyes closed. 

Several attacks and abduction have been carried out on our brothers and sisters in Kaduna, Yobe, Adamawa, Borno, Benue etc. Countless Nigerians have lost their lives and properties. This shows that the present administration is either unwilling or not capable to put an end to the scourge; they are blaming the action on “Unknown Persons”. Is this how Nigerians will fold their arms and stand aloof until we all land in IDP camps or seek asylum in refugee camps in nearby countries? History will never forget our roles in the liberation or subjugation of our country.

In the wake of the New Year when everybody was expecting goodwill message to serve as succor for the fuel hike and endless queue at our filling stations across the nation, our hope was truncated by the awful news of gruesome and heinous murder of over 73 Nigerians in Gumi and Logo Local Government of Benue state which resulted in mass burial amidst rains of tears from all those who know the value of a single life. As usual, the present administration cannot apprehend the perpetrators of the dastardly act but this time blamed the killing on “herdsmen” 

On Monday 26th of February 2018 Kasuwan Magani in Kaduna state was ravaged with another violence which also claimed a lot of lives and many properties were set ablaze. The government is yet to unravel the perpetrators of the mayhem blaming the incident on “Culprits”.

The most excruciating and exasperating part of it is the recent abduction of 110 schoolgirls from the government Girls science and technology college, Dapchi, Yobe state on the 19th of February 2018. The abductors drove the students who were shouting for help according to an eye witness in their buses through roads to their destination without being noticed or apprehended by security agents. To us, it is suspicious. This time, the act is blamed on “Boko Haram”.

Lest we forget, 276 school girls were abducted from their school in the North-East Nigerian town of Chibok in 2014 by a militant group called Boko Haram. These girls are now popularly known and referred to as “Chibok Girls”. It is obvious that both the past administration (PDP) and the present administration (APC) have combined their might and forces but could not secure the release of all our girls. Although, out of the above mentioned number, over 100 Chibok girls that have been “rescued” by Buhari’s administration have been more or less replaced in the den of Boko Haram with the Dapchi girls and thereby returning us to status-quo.

In view of the above, the entire members of the Lagos State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemn in the strongest term and in solidarity will all affected citizens and their families, the barbaric attacks on innocent Nigerians, heinous abduction and gruesome butchery of Nigerians. If a general cannot combat an insurgence within the ambient of the existing system of government, then, the system is not only faulty but needs complete overhauling. We need no intervention of an oracle to ascertain the veracity that this present capitalist system of government has failed woefully. 

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) intends to re-organize and stabilize the existing security structure in Nigeria by providing all necessary arms and ammunitions capable of restraining and paralyzing all existing insurgence in the country in line with democratic controlled community defence. Our military personnel and other security agents would be adequately remunerated so that they would be willing and ready to make lots of sacrifice for our dear Nation. Our research has revealed that technologically aided aerial surveillance, controlled aerial bombardment with full artillery and standby reinforcement ready to advance as soon as they receive signal from troubled communities with immediate effect are more than enough to suppress insurgence in the country. Also, there must be adequate provision for dialogue and reconciliation where necessary. 

Having guaranteed the security of the state, we will provide free education for all citizens, build more schools, upgrade existing government schools, create more employment for our teeming population by allowing the working class to take active role in the deciding and key sectors of economy while we re-distribute the wealth generated from the state equally among the citizens without bias or sentiment. Within two years, our refineries will work at optimal capacity. We will introduce functional rail system within an integrated transport system across major cities in the country, Ajaokuta steel company would be in operation within three years. Salaries and allowances of political office holders would be reduced to that of civil servants so that more roads could be constructed, ultramodern hospitals would be provided, stable and affordable power supply would be generated for the consumption of all. Small and medium entrepreneurs will spring up at every nook and cranny of the country thereby reducing unemployment to the barest minimum. This will go a long way in boosting our economy beyond limit. Therefore, religious bigotry, ethnic jingoism, political thuggery and massive wealth aggrandizement would be eradicated thereby resulting into peaceful and enviable society.

We call on well-meaning Nigerians home and abroad to support us and join us in order to jointly build the SPN as a formidable alternative to rescue Nigeria from collapse. 

Society dies little by little when those who know the illness fold their arms waiting for conventional solution. Join The Socialist Party of Nigeria today and rescue our country. Thank you.

Com. M.K Shoyombo
SPN Publicity Secretary, Lagos State