The MSA held its customary year-end Symposium/get together on Saturday, December 30, 2023, marking it as an annual tradition. The event drew participants from diverse backgrounds, including traders, community leaders, students, and working-class youths. The symposium delved into a thought-provoking discussion covering the state of the economy of the country, living conditions, and potential pathways forward. The enlightening discourse concluded with a joyful and festive celebration.            

The event was kick-started as comrades sang and danced to various solidarity songs, after which a brief introduction of MSA and members was done. Comrade Lateef Adams, gave a comprehensive critic on the Tinubu regime, with cogent analyses on the various anti-peoples policies, the destructive effects on the Nigerian economy and standard of living of Nigerians masses.

The year 2023, according him, was characterized with huge capitalist crises; Naira scarcity, subsidy removal, hike in tuition fees, rigged elections, closure of markets, increase in suicide rate, frivolous spending by the ruling elites and a 2024 budget proposal that would further worsen living conditions of the Nigerian mass.

Evaluating the macro aspect of the economy, in relation to the forex saga and ease of doing businesses as proclaimed by the Emi-lo-kan administration, most firms (both multinational and local manufacturing firm) have either closed down or left the country, while workers, women, young people are losing their jobs and finding it difficult to earn a living to meet up with basic needs of life.

More so, he spoke on insecurity, kidnapping, banditry, farmers and herders clashes, illegal mining of mineral resources, that has led to, continuous killings of innocent Nigerians in various parts of the country, like Plateau state where more than two hundred people were killed on the eve of Christmas, noting that the regime and its continuous increase in spending on arms and ammunition cannot resolve or reduce the level of insecurity in various parts of the country.

Political education and elignthenment of the mass, cadres and members, are needed to play frontal roles, for the Solidarity Network for Workers’ Right and Campaign for Student and Youth’s Right, in other to advance the interest of the working people towards socialist agitations. 

Organizational activities such as visitations to factories,  higher institutions, paper sales, lunching of  campaigns, branch meetings, writing of articles for the organizations and the websites are task that are needed,  to advance the work of the organization.

He summarize by proposing  an urgent need for a political alternative, armed with Marxist philosophy, that will educate, enlighten, and defend the interest of the working masses, towards a socialist  revolution,  that will liberate humanity from war, hunger, disease and poverty.

Comrade Sly commended the organization for organizing the symposium and proposed that what is needed at the grass root was  to mobilize and build a political platform that will offer need for further and continuous discussion on all fronts to practically advance the proposal by comrade Adams in preparing for the revolution.

Comrade Joseph of the Ajegunle Justice Forum, proposed the need for members of MSA to join the Labour Party as a basis of building a political alternative. 

Dagga Tolar, who gave the sum-up, partly responed to the proposal and call to join the LP. He gave an historical background of the formation of the Labour Party, and how it was abandoned by labour leaders and allowed to be hijacked by corrupt bourgeois capitalist politicians from other capitalist parties, who could not compete with the dollarization of their party primaries, and use the LP to achieve their ambitious bid for power. This explains the coming of Peter Obi (a defender of Big Business) to the LP, on the eve of the 2023 general election, and succeeding in winning the presidential ticket of the party.

The Movement for Socialist Alternative, have consistently clamoured, for a political alternative armed with socialist ideology and manifesto, and a pro-working peoples’ programme which led to why we were active in the National conscience party NCP and the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN).

 The position of MSA, to observed activities of the LP, was to carefully and objectively analyze the party, as members of the ruling parties from APC and PDP, hijacked the party, and swarmed it with anti-peoples motives and ambition, at the expense of defending the labour and student charter of demands of the labour movement that also is in line with the ideas and aspirations of MSA.

 Interestingly, events in the LP has been characterized by leadership tussle for selfish reasons, allegation of bribery and corruption and support for anti-people policies like subsidy removal, privatization, deregulation among others at the expense of the Nigerians voters, since Peter Obi chose not to subscribe to even a variant of social democracy like was the case with Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group in the first republic and Unity Party of Nigeria in the second republic.

The question of not joining the Labour Party in the last general election, was principally based on the fact of not providing support for right wing elements, who didn’t stand for anything fundamentally different from the pro-capitalist politicians in the ruling parties. While agreeing that the struggle for a political alternative for the working masses will not take a straight course, and that it must not necessarily be initially anchored on the principle of socialism. Marxists in joining such a mass formation will not share any of the illusions of the working masses in capitalism or in so called “friends of the masses”, and as well as demand that the party cannot merely be an electoral platform but strives to be a party of struggle to providing leadership for the aspirations of the workers and youth all over the country.

Marxists will also insist on the right to canvass the need for a Socialist Alternative programme and policies, for rank and file workers to get organize inside it, with the to be candidates of the party, will be subjected to earning the wages of an average skill worker and defend the interest of the common man, as against the interest of International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Music of Afro-beat legend Fela Anikulapo and tracks from Dagga Tolar’s new albums of “REVOLUTION” and “STAIN” were played to round up the event, while three copies of the papers were sold, and new contacts who attended the symposium promised to attend the organization subsequent activities.