Movement for Revolutionary Change (MRC)

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War and elections in Nigeria A Nigerian socialist describes what's at stake in Nigeria's elections--and what the outcomes could mean for working people.

Femi Fani-Kayode’s political turn coatism and somersault By Babatope Babalobi, Coordinator, Movement for Revolutionary Change [email protected] +2348035897435 I have never been an admirer of Femi Fani-Kayode, as such have never read any of h...

A nation in search of heroes

By Babatope Babalobi

Who should be Nigeria's Man of the Year for 2014? Who does the cap best fit? Is it possible to reach a national consensus on this issue? More importantly is the concept of the Man of the Year still relevant or significant in Nigeria's political life or should it be wiped off from the nation's political lexicon?

Many people will argue that the concept of Man of the Year has been devalued in Nigeria. Just like the National Honours, this honorific title has become politicized, bastardized, and corrupted. In the past, it was not as if there was a national consensus on who deserves the title, as several media houses simply go ahead and bestow the title on, however, they feel deems fit, based on public opinions. In recent years, the givers of the title seem not to bother about public opinion any longer, rather opinion of various political caucuses seems to hold sway.

This situation is not helped by the fact that the nation is lacking in heroes. There is a glut of selfless leaders who have made sacrifices for public good. Gone are the days of the Tai Solarins and Gani Fawehinmis who seemed to have made a vow of sacrifice, integrity, and selflessness for the public good. Everyone now seems to be involved in a rat race to grab his own share of the national cake.

Nigeria has become a highly commercialized society where every activity is denominated and decimated by consideration of monetary and pecuniary benefits.

This scenario has stifled the emergence of national heroes, now replaced by 'Nigeria idols' whose distinctive ability is their sonorous voices and tingling dancing steps. There are no more Consciences of the Nation, our Conscience is not ruled by the pocket, rather than the heart as everyone seems to be concerned about the volume of naira load it its pocket. No one seems to be interested in carrying the national burden again. Individuality has given way to publicness, privatisation has murdered national interests, and selfishness has trampled down the public good.

So back to the question: Who is Nigeria's Man of the Year 2014? Lets look at some of the people already named as such. The only announcements, I have read in the papers in this respect, is by City People magazine which named former Lagos Governor-Bola Ahmed Tinubu as its 2014 Man of The Year, and Sun newspaper named Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, as The Sun Man of the Year 2014. At a time when Nigerians are increasing divided according to political lines, these awards are open to criticism by opponents of the All Peoples Congress which the two Governors belong.

I would have named the erstwhile Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu as my Man of the Year, for his diligent coordination of the National response against the Ebola fright. But his membership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which has performed woefully at the Federal level, will make this a contestable rating. Also, many people have viewed that the hero of the taming of Ebola is the Late Dr (Mrs) Stella Adadevoh who paid the supreme price for physically restraining the American-Liberian Ebola terrorist- Late Patrick Sawyer from fleeing her First Consultant hospital and infecting other Nigerians, after he (Sawyer) was diagnosed as a carrier of the virus. Maybe the Man of the Year fits her best.

campaigner Dr (Mrs) Oby Ezekwesi would also have won my nomination for her relentlessness advocacy for the release of the girls, but I have a distrust for her recent activism, based on her past reactionary role. It would be recalled that as Federal Minister of Education under the Obasanjo regime, she forcefully canvassed for the outright sale of Federal Government Colleges to private profiteers in defiance of national condemnation of the act. People of integrity do not oscillate between reactionary and progressive principles either in and out public office.

Who else deserves to be named Man of the Year 2014? Among the All Progressive Congress Governors, Babatunde Fashola, Rauf Aregbesola and Kayode Fayemi stand out. But their constituencies are localized. Also Fashola seems to be be an old worn out tune. His dynamism in the first tenure obviously, surpassed the second. Rauf is a performing Governor no doubt, but he is stained with with controversial policies; while Fayemi's acclaimed progressivism was paradoxically 'rejected' by his own kith and kindred.

Among the Peoples Democratic Party, the Governor of Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio who build an imposing 'Nest of Champions' at a cost of N16b deserves consideration, though critics would argue this may become another white elephant project which does not increase the standard of living of the common man in the oil rich state.

The President of the Federal Republic, himself is best placed to be named Nigeria's Man of the Year, as he controls enormous resources and wide powers to effect positive change that should be felt internationally, nationally, locally, and and even at the family level. Alas, the task of rebuilding Nigeria cannot be achieved by luck, rather by careful programme planning and strict implementation; placing the ordinary people firsts, ahead of Peoples Democratic Party's (peoples') interests. With naira now nearing almost two hundred to a dollar, Good luck has evidently been squandered by Jonathan.

All said and done, the tragedy of our political life as year 2015 rolls in today, is that no living Nigerian deserves in my view to be named as Man of the Year for the previous year. This sadly explains why Nigerians fared better on January 1, 2014 than today,January 1, 2015; as no hero has emerged in the previous year to stem the continuous tide to the state to bankruptcy and decadence.

Babatope Babalobi is the Coordinator of the Movement for Revolutionary Change (MRC. [email protected] +2348035897435

Constitutional review in Nigeria: No to tenure elongation

Movement for Revolutionary Change (MRC) has called on the National Assembly to refrain from approving a six years term for the Presidency as this is tantamount to tenure elongation for President Good luck Jonathan. President Jonathan constitutional mandate is for a four years term and he must either leave office by 2015 or seek re-election. Changing the rules in the mid of his mandate is unconstitutional and its political effects will be catastrophic, said the MRC.

To Stop the Mayhem: Arm the People & Convoke SNC NOW!

The country is racing towards the abyss of what might be a multi-edged civil war as different sections of its degenerate ruling class fiddle away or worse still, stock the embers of dissension as they play the Russian Roullete of divide & rule plunder, clothed in crass patronage, nepotism & self-serving corruption.

The massacre in Kano on Saturday when the Boko Haram sect killed about 200 persons towards freeing 100 of their members illegally detained & continued killings at Bauchi are blood soaked milestones of descent into a brutish state of nature for which the Nigerian state & the bands of "elders & leaders" across the multifarous ethnic groups which it represents must be held culpable. In August last year the state governor had declared that those arrested would be released if no evidence of terror acts could be traced to them or charged to court if there were any indications of such.

While no action was taken with regards to these mere members, the terror masterminds of the group such as Kabiru "Sokoto" Umar could lounge in governors' lodges & somehow escape from the clutches of the police who have no difficulty in arresting & detaining activists.

Further, while working people across the country showed our oneness as oppressed people who have woken to the need to win our self-emancipation through struggle & solidarity during the 8-day strike, so-called "elders & leaders" of the South South & South East stoked embers of ethno-regional divisions by shamelessly attempting to reduce a question of politica economy, the material conditions of our existence which can only be worsened by the draconian increase in fuel price, to an issue of "our son". Were these not "elders" we could very well say their word were filled with arant nonsense packaged with utter disdain for the working people & youth of Nigeria.

Over the weekend, seeing the demons they have invoked swirling like banshees that would consume them more "elders & leaders" now including those of the South West call for a (Sovereign) National Conference.

It is obvious enough to any but the most dim witted of persons that Nigeria is at a crossroads & the summoning of a National Conference in some form or the other is near inevitable.

It is equally self-evident that the ruling class of "elders", "leaders", "cabals", & the different forms of covens in which the different sections of the country's ruling class are organised have singly & collectively failed. Part of this failure is the fact that it is no longer news that its armed men can no longer protect the citizenry. Indeed they can no longer protect the structures of the state's coercive apparatus such as courts, prisons, army barracks & police stations!

We are at the point where we must demand that we protect ourselves. An armed people & not some bungling ineffective bands of armed men can be our only assured basis of security. While in the medium term we must demand that the NYSC be upscaled from the boy scouts level of training that leaves our corpers as practice targets for purveyors of violence in any guise, in the immediate, we must demand that all who can vote be trained & armed to defend ourselves. The task for this would include our grassroots structures of organisation in the workplace (unions) & communities (CDAs).

And on the National Conference? Certainly we call for this & one which is SOVEREIGN! We do not want nor do we need some empty talk confab of the same old, tired, confused & destructive elements of the old order that have brought us to this precipice. The forces for change, inchoate in a sense while determined & united in resistance as demonstrated in this January of rage & upsurge would have to summon such a conference. Those whom we cannot trust to straddle the corridors of the Conference's ante room cannot be those that will convoke such as we need to bring about a rebirth of our society from the throes that rack every sinew of its body now.

Power respects only power. The power to oppress descends from the heights of high office. Its mantra is law & order & its guardians "elders" "cabals" & bands of armed men.

The power to break the chains of oppression & win our self-emancipation erupts from the grassroots furnance of mass anger & resolve as the embers of our resistance blaze into decisive fires of revolution from below.

It is the fiery power of the working people & youths, organised & armed that can put a stop to the mayhem of terrorism being perpetuated by both fundamentalist sects & the ruling class.

MRC calls for protests to oppose astronomical fuel prices The Movement for Revolutionary Change supports the decision of organised labour and civil society to challenge the new astronomical fuel increase. This is a bitter and sour bill Nigerians must refuse to swallow. We call for massive peaceful protests a ...