Aj Dagga Tolar

With a General Election just at the turn of the corner, the polity is awash with various permutations as to who would succeed Buhari as the titular head of the ruling class in Aso Rock. Already various candidates in the two major billionaire parties of the APC and the PDP have announced their intention to contest by seeking the mandate of their party to be the flag bearer at the general election that would hold in the first quarter of 2023.

This is in the face of the utter failure of the Buhari regime to meet any of its promises of uplifting the living conditions of the working masses as promised when it came to power. The Buhari regime will be leaving behind a worse state of insecurity, with kidnapping and banditry cutting across the entire landscape of the country. The Islamic insurgency of Boko Haram and ISWAP is still potently strong, if not stronger than when it came into power. The Wall Street Journal even reported last year that the Buhari regime paid bandits a sum of 20 Million as “beg beg money” so that bandits who are in possession of aircraft missiles would not use them during the president’s visit to Katsina last year. You can begin to wonder what the working masses go through when their relatives are kidnapped. The attack of the Abuja-Kaduna bound train left eight-person dead and hundreds kidnapped, so far not a word from the government in an effort to free those kidnapped.

Nor has any marked improvement occurred in any sector of the economy, from the oil and gas sector, no step was taken to develop the capability of the control of this sector to impact and benefit the working masses from the huge wealth made from it. The passing of the Petroleum Industrial Act in 2021 HAS DONE NOTHING WHATSOEVER to change the fortunes in favour of the working masses. No functional or new refineries to confront the question of fuel shortage, the country imports fuel for local consumption, condemning the working masses to the same dosage of the worst prescription of taking out more blood from a patient suffering from blood shortage that the Buhari regime had imposed on the working masses, of continuous increase in petroleum products subjected to market forces of the international oil price, even in the face of poverty wages for the working masses. From the oil sector through to the education; all the staff unions are on strike, and the government is seemingly without any clue as to what needs to be done. The debt profile has risen to an alarming figure of 38 million dollars.  

This is the background for the contest for the seat of power come 2023 among various camps of the ruling class, with a series of permutations renting the air both in the APC and the PDP, among which including the southern presidency, Igbo presidency, we have also heard of a supposed deal in the APC to have Buhari hand over power to Tinubu for his support in the previous election, even though this has been denied. So the battle would get messier, already the Tinubu machinery is divided against itself, with Tinubu already declaring his intention to contest, and his protégé The Vice president Osibajo also throwing his hat in the race.

We are face to face with a war of spoils. Even with Jonathan on the eve of declaring to contest in the APC, the same party that routed him out of power. Serving governors like Wike and ex-governors have also declared their intention, Wike of River state, Tambuwa of Sokoto, David Umahi of Ebonyi state, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, alongside ex-governors like Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, BUKOLA Saraki, a one time Senate President as well. As well as Abubakar Atiku, who contested against Buhari in 2019.

One thing that is clear is that there is nothing to distinguish all of these candidates from themselves, they are all supporters of neoliberal capitalism, who think that the private sector should be allowed to completely take over control of the key sectors of the economy. They are at the same time or at one time in government and presided over this policy and capitalist direction of the Buhari regime. Even for pretence, they are incapable of coming out publicly to oppose the Buhari regime, rather they are all queuing to convince the presidency for its support, knowing that wherever the president chooses to support with the resources of the state is most likely to win the election.

The point here is that the 2023 general elections from the point of view of the working masses are another disaster waiting to happen, whoever is anointed to succeed the Buhari regime would definitely continue with the policy thrust and fail to break with capitalism would only make things worse in the country. 

Already the Supreme court has provided legal bite for the position of the ruling elites, to ensure that only members of the billionaire club will completely dominate the electoral process, following the deregistration of 70 political parties by INEC, including the Socialist Party of Nigeria, for the spurious and untenable excuse that they did not win any election at the polls in 2019, and by so doing leaving Bourgeoisie complete control of political power to do as they so fit. No one should be deceived whatever hot air is exchanged among them, they would settle those who lose out to ensure a unity of the entire class or will the disagreement and rancour force the military to intervene political either before or after the GENERAL ELECTIONS. Whatever happens, it is the working masses who would be at the receiving end. This is why it is the working class that must get organized. 

The APC and PDP have demonstrated that it is not a party for the working masses, they cannot come into it with any version of anti-capitalist programme or reforms agenda in favour of the working masses, not when the nomination fee for the presidency is as high as 100 million Naira completely priced out of the range of the working masses. The APC and PDP like all bourgeoisie parties only grant the working masses the right to vote and not the right to be voted for. This is why Movement for a Socialist Alternative MSA calls on the working masses to consciously take the step to cease their membership or support of these parties, and do not vote or endorse them in whatever form. And at the same time call for a radical step of building a party of the working people.

The labour leaders have in the past not helped matters by failing to provide the necessary leadership to lead the working masses to confront the ruling elites and their anti-people policies of deregulation and privatization. Call off of General strike like was done in September 2020, and protest too in February 2022 is one of the greatest disservice of the labour leaders to the possibility of building a mass movement against the Buhari regime and the entire ruling class. If anything even the working masses is sufficiently schooled to know that the ruling elites do not rule in any sense to meet their needs and aspiration and have drawn all of the necessary conclusion that they must organise.

The same is true of the working class youth who in 2020 organised the #EndSARS protest only to realize in the midst of the protest that all issues are interconnected to the grand failure of the Buhari regime and the entire ruling class. It was at this state that the Military was brought in to shoot and kill peaceful protesters at the Lekki tollgate. But in any way the key lesson from this struggle is that religion, ethnic nationality can be put aside to unite the working class youth and this can also be achieved with the working class providing the leadership, uniting all, youths and students, poor peasant farmers, all strata of the oppressed poor, and as well as soliciting for the support of the military rank and file and the police in a united struggle against the ruling class to dislodge them from power, and bring about a break with capitalism. 

The working masses so organized can then heroically step forward to build the country anew, develop the means of production to the necessary possible height, create jobs and meet all of the needs and aspirations of the working masses. It must be pointed that the Labour Party as presently constituted cannot serve this purpose, while not entirely opposed to steps to claim the party for the working masses, and transform it into a party of struggle. The MSA posits that the process of taking steps in that direction cannot wait till after the election. It must start now, with the necessary political education, and orientation. A full-scale campaign for an independent political platform of the working masses, employing the support and structure of the trade unions to bring it about.