PRESS RELEASE
OSUN 2026 ELECTION: WORKERS NEED A POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE, NOT THE POLITICS OF MONEY AND VIOLENCE
The Struggle is not Between the APC and Accord, But Between the Exploiters and the Working Masses
The Movement for a Socialist Alternative (MSA) condemns the growing wave of political violence, intimidation, killings, and manipulation that has characterised the build-up to the August 15, 2026, Osun State governorship election. Once again, the capitalist political class has reduced what should be a democratic process into a desperate battle for political offices, while the real issues confronting workers, youths, farmers, students, artisans, pensioners, and the poor remain ignored.
The reported killings, shootings, destruction of property, and political intimidation expose the true character of Nigeria’s bourgeois politics. Elections under capitalism have become less about programmes for improving the lives of the people and more about capturing state power for personal enrichment and control over public resources. Political offices have become highly lucrative investments because those who occupy them enjoy jumbo salaries, outrageous allowances, security votes, and numerous privileges far removed from the harsh realities facing ordinary Nigerians.
While politicians spend billions to secure electoral victory, millions of working people cannot afford decent food, transportation, healthcare, housing, or quality education. Workers continue to struggle under poor wages, pensioners are owed gratuities, unemployment continues to rise, and inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the masses. Yet the political elite continue to fight bitterly over positions that guarantee them wealth and privilege.
The events unfolding in Osun State are not isolated incidents. They reflect the crisis of Nigeria’s capitalist political system, where politics has become a business venture rather than a means of serving society. Whether under the APC, Accord, PDP, or other parties representing the interests of the capitalist elite, the fundamental problems confronting working people remain unresolved because the system itself is organised to protect the interests of a wealthy minority.
The working masses must reject the false choice presented by the competing factions of the ruling class. Our future cannot be determined by politicians who remember the people only during elections but abandon them immediately after assuming office. The real power to transform society lies with workers, youths, students, farmers, market women, artisans, and all oppressed people who collectively produce the wealth of society.
The solution to unemployment, poverty, insecurity and failing public services cannot come from another rotation of elite politicians. Workers, youths, students, farmers and the poor must organise to build their own political alternative.
The MSA therefore calls on trade unions, students’ organisations, youth groups, community associations, and all progressive forces to begin building an independent working-class political alternative capable of challenging the dominance of money politics, electoral violence, and capitalist exploitation. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) must move beyond issuing routine statements and take practical steps towards building a genuine political platform rooted in the interests of workers and the poor.
We also demand that all acts of political violence be thoroughly investigated and that those responsible be prosecuted, irrespective of their political affiliation. The security of lives and property must never be sacrificed for electoral ambition.
The crisis in Osun once again demonstrates that the problem is not simply who occupies Government House after the election, but whose interests any government serves. As long as political power remains in the hands of competing factions of the capitalist elite, poverty, unemployment, insecurity, and underdevelopment will persist.
The lasting solution lies in building a socialist alternative in which the commanding heights of the economy are placed under democratic public ownership and control, and society’s immense resources are planned and utilised to meet the needs of the majority rather than the profits and privileges of a tiny ruling minority. We therefore call on workers, youths, students, and the poor to organise, mobilise, and build a mass socialist movement capable of ending the politics of exploitation and replacing it with a government of working people, by working people, and for working people.
Signed
Jimoh Abibat
coordinator, MSA Osun state