Sunday, 2 June 2019

ANOTHER BUHARI'S FOUR YEAR TERM: NIGERIAN MASSES MUST BRACE FOR STRUGGLE


PRESS STATEMENT

The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) expresses solidarity to workers, unemployed youths and the working masses who watched on dispiritedly as President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in for a new term of four years on May 29, 2019.

The masses of this country are justified to have not been excited by the prospects of another Buhari's four-year term. The previous four years under President Muhammadu Buhari was characterized by the manifestation of the failure of a capitalist government as equally obtained under his predecessors. With increasing poverty, rising unemployment, inflation, poor funding of education and health care, etc, the government has imposed untold hardship on the Nigerian people .
   
As a capitalist government, the Buhari's government has demonstrated that it is not committed to a planned economic system that would expand the manufacturing and industrial base of this country, and create jobs and prosperity for our youth population. Just like former presidents before him, President Buhari has kept intact the old order of anti-poor capitalist system in the country, deepening inequality and hence fostering poverty, restiveness and insecurity that have all recently pervaded the country.

As a result of the intractable crisis of capitalism, the masses should expect the intensification of the capitalist attacks on their living conditions. Indeed, President Buhari and the CBN Governor Emefiele have warned of harder times ahead. Already, there have been hints from official quarters of the plan to increase fuel price, VAT, etc. Therefore, the working masses must be prepared to resist these as well as other policies that will worsen the already terrible quality of life. Trade unions and workers must ensure that the new minimum wage is fully implemented without the retrenchment of a single worker. The working people and youths must also fight for proper funding of education and health care. The electricity privatization has proved to be a monumental failure. So, side by side with the struggle of the community people against the fraudulent estimated billing, the masses must fight for the return of the power sector into public ownership. Besides, to avert the debacle of the old NEPA, the renationalized power sector must be under the democratic control of workers and consumers.  By and large, the masses must not be prepared to suffer for the privilege and greed of the capitalist elites. We must also demand an end to jumbo pays and fraudulent contract-system through which the capitalist elite officially loot the resources of the country.

The results of the 2019 general elections show the dissatisfaction of the working people not only for Buhari but also his main capitalist challenger Abubakar Atiku and all anti-poor politicians at all levels. In other words, many Nigerians have concluded that there is no fundamental difference between the main parties: APC and PDP and nothing fundamentally good for the masses will come from them.This is why the elections, both federal and state, recorded the lowest voters' turnout since the return to civil rule. Therefore, the emergence of President Buhari was due to the ideological sameness of the main parties and the absence of a mass working peoples’ party with radical programme that would break with capitalism. This why we call on trade unions, workers, artisans, youths and the working masses in general to join the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) in order to build it as a mass working people that is capable of wresting political power from the thieving capitalist elites at all levels and putting in their place a workers government armed with socialist policies which would plan the economy such that it will develop the country and meet the needs of the vast majority.


Abiodun Bamigboye                                                 Chinedu Bosah
Acting National Chairperson                                      National Secretary



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