By Jaye
Gaskia
I
have no doubt in my mind that the single most significant, most relevant, most
historically decisive, and most impactful process and event of the year 2012 is
the January Uprising, and the Occupy Nigeria Movement spawned in its wake and
which terrified the regime in particular and the thieving, light fingered
treasury looting class in general throughout the year.
But
before we go any further let me explain some concepts in the paragraph above.
The January Uprising refers to our spectacular and historic mass mobilisation
of popular anger and dissent which was triggered by the unconscionable hiking
of fuel prices in January. Triggered by the fuel price hike, but prepared by
decades of pillaging and treasury looting that left the country desolate, its
citizens impoverished and alienated, and its future left hanging in the
balance. So yes the unprecedented hike in fuel prices, and the level of unbridled
arrogance that went into the implementation of that policy [of punishing the
victim to assuage the victimizer] brought the anger in us all and made it
possible for the arduous process of awareness raising and mobilisation of the
previous six months to flower and bear fruit in the massive popular uprising,
which saw the collective mass direct action of millions of Nigerians across
more than 55 cities and towns, and sustained over more than 10 days of
continuous and ceaseless agitation. This was the January Uprising!
The
Occupy Nigeria Movement spawned by it on the other include the several new and
emergent organisations and coalitions, beyond the boundaries of the Labour
–Civil Society Coalition [LASCO – NLC, TUC, UAD & JAF] which had provided
central leadership and coordination preparatory to and during the Uprising.
This movement is in essence a movement of movements, who unconsciously
gravitated towards close collaboration during the uprising; but which has
remained a loose confederation of more or less independent movements, each
organising their own follow up actions all through 2012. This Occupy Nigeria
Movement is a generic movement, and cannot be equated with the various groups
that have since adopted that name.
Karl Marx
once wrote that ‘a spectra haunts Europe, the spectra of communism’. In similar
version, ‘there was in 2012, a spectra which haunted the Nigerian treasury
looting ruling class, and its current regime; the spectre of the January
Uprising and the Occupy Nigeria Movement spawned by it’. The few of the January
Uprising, and a possible repeat of it became the beginning of wisdom for the
ruling class and its regime. This explains why they were forced and compelled
to stumble from one mega revelation of corruption to another; and to accompany
these with contradictory steps and actions, taking in Lenin’s words each time,
‘one step forward and two steps backwards’.
Beyond
2012……
2012 was
the year in which we stood our ground, planted our feet firmly on the ground
and insisted that ‘Enough is Enough’. This stance characterised and drove
the January Uprising, but it has also characterized the blossoming of dissent,
the flowering of informed criticism of bad governance, and the groundswell of
numerous acts of mass defiance which has defined our country’s landscape since
the Uprising.
So if
2012 was the year in which we came of age in recent times with respect
expression of organised mass and popular dissent, then 2013 must become the
year in which we begin to take concrete steps to Organise and build the Pan
Nigerian Political Platform, strong enough in scope and scale to start directly
challenging these inept and historically redundant treasury looting ruling
class for power! It must become the year in which we begin to make the
transition FROM PROTEST TO POWER; the year in which we put down the structures
and lay the foundations to begin the historically arduous task to TAKE BACK
NIGERIA from the ruin of the swarm of locusts!
How do we
do this? We must organise politically, and by which I mean we must organise
political platforms, political parties; radical, alternative political
platforms and or parties!
For it is
impossible for us to liberate this country and achieve our social emancipation
relying on the platforms, structures, and parties of this treacherous light
fingered treasury looting ruling elites. Whether they are in government at any
level or in opposition, they are the same and identical. And let us not be
fooled by labels such as progressives or conservatives; with the Nigeria ruling
class these labels share identical common denominators – ProgressThieves and
ConServaThieves!
I am
aware that there are quite a number of more or less genuine efforts that are
ongoing at building such alternative party platforms. And this is good, in the words
of Mao, ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’. However, if we are ever going to have
any chance of upstaging the ruling class and its parties, at some point, there
will need to be concluded and evolved an alliance, electoral, political
alliance of all these initiatives in order to conclude a United Front Movement
Party, powerful enough to challenge and upstage the ruling class parties.
A United
Front Movement Party that is that incorporates all these various initiatives
either dissolved into it or affiliated with it.
The
underlying minimum condition is that such a movement party must be one oriented
on radical social transformation and the social emancipation of the exploited
and subordinate classes.
