I should correct a major error being made when a discourse of this nature comes up, when people say, “We have done enough talks and what is required is action”. The fact is that we have done much of wrong talks to wrong audiences, and very little of the real talk to a misunderstood audience. Fela Anikulapo is one Nigerian and African patriot that had done much of the real talk to a misunderstood audience. Check it out in “Army Arrangement”, “Sorrow, Tears and Blood”, “Authority Stealing”, “International Thief Thief”, “Suffering and Smiling”, etc.  Without the real talk to the real actors, there can never be the real action.

Having read the brilliant expositions of Professor Adele Jinadu’s First Unrevised Draft given to me last night as one of the Discussants, I cannot attempt writing another paper; but as a revolutionary involved in daily political struggle, I will try to point out some practical lessons, which the lecture has brought to the fore.

The lecture draws inspiration from the moral environment on which core democratic values are anchored; but it must be emphasized that the moral environment is a creation of the socio-economic foundation. Marxist-Leninist political economy and further works by Che Guevara in Socialism and Man, and Economic Thoughts have established the primacy of the economy as the base on which the moral force rests in transforming the society. Thus, my intervention is from the point of view of economic relations, the real foundation upon which the legal and moral superstructures of the society are founded.

While I agree with the analysis of Professor Jinadu on the prevalence in the Nigeria polity, my point of departure is that the real question is: Who control the economy and for whom? Answering this question is critical to understanding our topic of discourse and the struggle for resource control and resource distribution.

1.    First, is to say that Democracy in Nigeria should be discussed in the context of production or economic relations for the following reasons:

1.1 The various attempts to build democracy in Nigeria since the self-rule regional governments of the 1950s through the 60s to the 1979 – 83 civilian regime, and the IBB-Abacha-Abdulsalam military’s ‘demonstration of craziness’ arrangements of 1989 – 93, 1995 – 98, and 1998 to date; is anchored on capitalism (i.e. capitalist socio-economic relations). Hence, the democracy being built on such economic foundation will:

·         Logically erode the social charter in the 1999 Constitution that states as part of its economic goals that “wealth shall not be concentrated in few hands at the expense of the majority”.

·         Definitely undermine the ‘rule of law” once the policy is to further primitive accumulation and deny the working people access to equitable shares of the commonwealth.

·         Promote illusions and deceptive ephemeral alliances of the oppressed and the oppressors such as the June 12 struggle, electoral/constitutional reforms network, make-Jonathan-acting president comedy, etc.

·         Produce a smart Soludo who needed to bury his head in the PDP as one of the new generation rulers in the making in order to protect his loots from the CBN. El-Rufai and Ribadu are being haunted now by the EFCC on their loots because they have temporarily chosen to rebel against the cycle of thieves that produced them.

·         Celebrate a Maryam Babangida et all as a heroine on the despicable ground that she brought glamour to the office of the first lady, whereas her so-called ‘Better Life for Rural Women’ was another platform to SAP the majority Nigerians, loot and misappropriate our collective wealth between 1985 and 93.

1.2 Nigeria still operates as a new-colony of Britain and America and therefore produce generations of lean-on-me and Uncle Tom rulers that must swallow any political and economic formula dictated by Britain and America.

·         Flowing from this, Nigeria rulers have perfected the “do or die” strategy of imperialism, which started in 1961 with the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and other African patriots whose models of leadership would have paved way for democratic transformation of the African political space. In its own style, the Nigerian ruling cabal, particularly since 2000 focused on assassination of perceived political enemies, with Dipo Dina being the latest victim. As at August 2006, the UAD listed 44 such cases of unresolved politically motivated murders.

Nigeria democratic quest is not even yet at the level of the 18th Century Europe’s franchise or universal adult suffrage. Neither is it at the level of the models of Ghana, South Africa, etc., we are quick at making examples of what go around us without understanding the concrete historical and socio-economic realities shaping such. The so-called capitalist models of democracies that we labour to ‘borrow’ or ‘copy’ from in Europe and America were nurtured by class struggles which resulted in one form of bourgeois revolution or the other, and some social welfare concessions, which the people desperately struggle to either sustain or advance. The examples were:
·         British revolution of 1642 – 1649

·         American War of Independence – 1775 – 1783, Civil war (1861 – 65)

·         French revolution of 1789 – 1893, Civil war and Paris Commune

·         Haiti (1st Black revolution) 1789 – 1804,

·         Peasants war in Germany, and

·         Revolutions across Europe from the 1830s to the Paris Commune of 1871

Ethnic divisiveness is a major limitation to building democracy in Nigeria. Only the Socialist revolution has provided answer to this question with the Constitution of the USSR having a Secession Clause, which allowed the independent republics to secede without a fight.
Interestingly my intervention is concluded on an event that was concluded on the eve of this lecture, the recognition of Jonathan as the acting president. Let me share with you what I wrote 3 days ago: “we have been so much used to deceits, hypocrisy and falsehoods that once there is a moment of truth, we all tremble. This explains why a very minor constitutional issue of the absence of Yardy (who is incapacitated and faced with imminent death) has now become the only issue being discussed, which if we had a National Assembly that is serious and not consumed by how to loot their shares of the commonwealth, would have been resolved. Let’s change the discourse. Is it the absence of Yardy that say some states should not pay the TSS owed primary and secondary school teachers or that agreements reached with ASUU should not be honoured? What of the demand by Labour for a new national minimum wage or the electoral reform bills before the National Assembly? Yet despite that Yardy is sick, states and local governments receive their monthly allocations, and the looting spree continued, while the majority Nigerians continue in deprivation…”
Democracy will not emerge in Nigeria from the standpoint of the regulated and paid protests/meetings that put people on the streets on the terms of the oppressors. If we want democracy, we have to go back to memory lane to take a cue from the real democratic struggles we waged in recent past – Education is a Right and not a privilege & Academic Freedom (1978, 84, 86, 89 - 93), National Minimum Living Wage (1981), Nigeria not for Sale (1980s), Anti-SAP (1986-9), July 5 – 7, 1993 Mass Protests, Anti-Deregulation & Privatisation Strikes/Protests, Struggle for System Change (1999 to date), etc.

If there is any reason to save Nigeria, it is to organize and mobilize Nigerians to wage a revolution to rid the polity of the IBB, OBJ, Yar’Adua and Badluck Jonathan, Dangote and Otedola and others who serve as fronts for looting the resources of the nation.

Interventions by Comrade Abiodun Aremu (Joint-Secretary of Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) and immediate past Convener of United Action for Democracy (UAD) at the 4th Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti Memorial Lecture, held in Lagos, February 10, 2010