Leaflet circulated on
Wednesday August 9, 2017 by the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) Lagos State
University (LASU) Chapter at the Youth Summit organized by the parliament of
the students union of the university.
No doubt,
given the present parlous state of the country politically, socially and
economically, it will be agreed by all that Nigeria needs an urgent
restructuring. However, what we must understand is that restructuring itself is
not a new idea in the history of Nigeria.
Before now
in Nigeria, we have experienced regional governments, state creation,
parliamentary system presidential system, unitary system and now we have a
federal system which shows that Nigeria has been restructured at different
times in history. So nothing that is being canvassed today by members of the
ruling elite in favour of restructuring is actually new. Unfortunately, despite
the restructuring undertaken at different times in the past, agitations over
marginalization and domination have continued.
The reason
for this state of affairs is because none of the restructuring carried out in
the past endeavored to address the fundamental root of oppression, inequality,
underdevelopment and marginalization which is the neo-colonial capitalist
economic system handed down by Nigeria's erstwhile Colonial masters. As a
result, the crises of inequality, underdevelopment and marginalization have
always multiplied with each step taken by the ruling elite to redefine the
forms of relationship and cohabitation among the different ethnic nationalities
making up Nigeria and the political system that best suits our complexity.
FALSE
ARGUMENTS
Even today,
the restructuring argument continues to suffer from this major and fundamental
weakness. For instance, notable proponents of restructuring like former Vice
President Atiku Abubakar still continue to give the impression that all that is
needed to make Nigeria work fairly is simply to devolve power from the centre
to the states, review the revenue sharing formula, and create state police.
This argument is to give the impression that the primary reason Nigeria is not
working is simply because power and resources are too much at the centre. If we
were to agree without conceding to this argument, the question we must ask is
what have the 36 state governors done with the powers and resources granted to
them under the current federal system to uplift their people?
To answer
this question, all you need to do is take just a cursory look at the conditions
of working people and youth in each of the 36 states. According to reports,
more than 20 states owe workers and retirees several backlogs of salary and
pension arrears. Today, all the state governors are united in opposition
against the demand of the labour movement for an increase in the national
minimum wage to N56, 000. Equally, all the state governors are implementing
anti-poor policies of education underfunding, privatization and
commercialization. Instead of using public resources to pay workers' salaries
and fund essential services, many of the state governors embark on white
elephant projects simply to loot public resources. Corruption and nepotism are
the hallmark in state governance.
NO MEMBER OF
THE RULING ELITE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
If these are
the scorecards of state governments under the present federal system, then what
is the guarantee that once more powers and resources are devolved to them they
would perform differently? In fact when it comes to issues of resources, state
governments in the South South region where the shout of marginalization is the
loudest today receive monthly at least 30% of the allocations to the states,
especially during the oil price boom, apart from special intervention funds
from NNDC and Ministry of Niger Delta,
yet there is no significant development to point to in these states.
What this therefore means is that the solution goes beyond mere political
restructuring. We also need to restructure socio-economically by ensuring that
we enthrone an alternative socio-economic system that seeks to use Nigeria's
vast human and mineral resources to meet the needs of the vast majority.
Most agitations
and social crises all over the country such as pro-Biafra agitations, Boko
Haram, kidnapping, Niger Delta Militancy, Bado killings, etc. are fuelled by
socio-economic crisis such as unemployment, poverty, economic hardship, low
standards of living etc. Of course, if unemployment crisis is resolved and the
standard of living in the country is better off, ethnic and religious
agitations will have very few foot soldiers.
Of course,
this would not mean that once this is done that ethnic and religious agitation
would automatically disappear or there would be no more need for a Sovereign
National Conference (SNC) dominated by elected representatives of the working
and oppressed people to renegotiate Nigeria's unity. What it does mean is that
for real unity to exist in Nigeria and for development to go to all nooks and
crannies of the country, we need far more than devolution of powers or creation
of state police. Rather we need a revolutionary overturn of the socio-economic
system of capitalism which is based on exploitation of the mass majority by a
handful because this is the root cause of the disharmony and imbalance in the
country whether socially, economically and politically.
CAPITALISM
IS THE ROOT CAUSE
As Oxfam
recently puts it, five (5) Nigerians own between themselves so much wealth than
is enough to end poverty in Nigeria. Without taking this enormous wealth from
this people and putting it into use to fund education, health and social
services and create jobs, there is no way it would be possible to lift the
millions in poverty out of it.
Therefore
for us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) and the Democratic Socialist
Movement (DSM), the only true and genuine restructuring is one that ensures
that jobs are provided for the unemployed, workers' salaries and retirees'
pensions are paid as at when due, public education and health are properly
funded and democratically managed, the outrageous salaries and allowances of
political office holders reduced to a level not higher than the national
minimum wage, N56, 000 minimum wage and all anti-poor policies of deregulation,
privatization and commercialization reversed and the commanding heights of the
economy placed under public democratic control and management.
No member of
the capitalist ruling elite from any part of the country can implement a
genuine programme for restructuring along the lines canvassed above. Rather for
them, restructuring is a slogan to canvass for their own self-serving interests
and ambitions.
Only the
working class can carry out genuine political and economic restructuring and
transformation of the country. The only unifying class of all oppressed layers
of the country is the working class irrespective of religion or tribe. This is
the only class, by virtue of its position in the economy that can carry out a
revolutionary transformation of Nigeria. But it can only do so if it first and
foremost transforms its own weak and pro-capitalist leadership to those that
are ready to challenge capitalism and goes on to build a mass workers' political
party rooted among all oppressed layers in the country to lead the movement to
change the country.
OUR ROLES AS
YOUTH IN NATIONAL REBIRTH
Of course
the youths have major role to play in national rebirth, because the youths are
the bedrock and future of every society. Therefore our roles as youth is first
and foremost to develop ourselves ideologically in awareness of the class
struggle and secondly is to organize ourselves to begin to challenge all
anti-poor policies and ally the working class to struggle to end capitalism and
enthrone a democratic socialist order. This is the only way that the
contradictions of the present system can be resolved under which good standards
livings can be guaranteed for the mass of the Nigerian people.
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