Omoyele
Sowore and the 2023 general elections
Free Sowore now!
By Salako Kayode
It is three years now since the APC regime led
by Maj Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) arrested Omoyele Sowore, “Sahara Reporters”
publisher and National Chair of the “African Action Congress” (AAC).
Omoyele Sowore was arrested at midnight on
August 3, 2019, while in preparation for a protest which was titled “Revolution
Now”. The arrest of Sowore was followed by massive resistance locally but also
internationally. Despite Court orders the Department of State Services (DSS)
refused to release him for several months. After sustained pressure he was
released on 5 December 2019. But he was re-arrested in the Court premises
within a few hours of been released! Sowore was finally released on 24 December
2019 with stringent conditions. These included that he has to stay in Federal
Capital Territory. Till today the trumped-up charges against him have not been
removed, the case has been adjourned many times.
The trumped-up charges against Sowore and the
claim by the government that Sowore acted treasonably for calling for a protest
titled “RevolutionNow” have been rejected by Justice Maureen Onyetenu of the
Federal High Court, Lagos. The Court ruled that “RevolutionNow” campaigners
acted within their constitutional rights in calling and organizing the
campaign. In the past the president Muhammadu Buhari, as a presidential candidate
of CPC in 2011, had also called for revolution. Similarly, former president
Olusegun Obasanjo has also called for revolution. We therefore demand the immediate
and unconditional release of Sowore.
Those
who aren’t happy with Sowore’s role in exposing corrupt politicians have continued
attacking him. The most recent bizarre attack on
Omoyele Sowore’s was the deactivation on the country’s electronic biometrical
system of his international passport, voter card, national identity card and
driver’s license. They were only reactivated after a series of campaigns that
exerted pressure on the government. This kind of attack is outrageous and a
gross violation of most basic human and democratic rights.
This attack is just another one
out of many that have been carried out against him since his arrest in August,
2019. These attacks include: restricting him to Abuja for over two years now;
sponsoring thugs to attack him at court premises on different occasions; even
firing shots at him as was the case in May last year when police officer
Ataline Daniel shot at Sowore during a protest at Unity Fountain.
As Nigeria is moving toward general elections, Omoyele
Sowore has declared that he will stand as a candidate for the February 25th
2023 presidential elections. The governorship and state assembly elections will
be held on March 11, 2023.
These elections will mark the seventh general elections
since the beginning of the current civil rule since 1999. The important part of
this is that the high hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people from the
regime have been dashed into the dust bowl. Almost eight years now all of the
promises made by the Buhari Muhammad and “All Progressive Congress” (APC) have
been broken and replaced with hardship and frustration, high cost of living,
increases in electricity tariffs, fuel scarcity, high level of insecurity and
unemployment.
The crisis is endless and the search for an alternative
can push many people to turn to Sowore, although there are still pockets of
crisis in the African Action Congress (AAC).
Political
Crisis
Omoyele Sowore, the AAC presidential candidate, a
former student leader and publisher of the well-known “Sahara Reporters”, is
unarguably the most prominent among young people seeking an alternative. His
campaign, which rests primarily on the youth population, aims to challenge the
establishment in leading the country forward, basing himself on the popular
masses and a left approach.
Apart from being a fighter for youth and
people’s rights, what is also very important is that Sowore has declared that
he is going to run his campaign on a socialist programme.
As Vanguard News (March 1, 2022) wrote:
"Sowore has formally announced his
intention to contest for the position of president in the 2023 general elections.
While making the declaration in Abuja on Tuesday, he said that he would run a
socialist government focusing on worker’s welfare, free education, job creation
and pension reforms" .
The AAC
leadership crisis
Although Omoyele Sowore has declared his candidature,
things are quite unclear and contradictory inside the AAC.
Sowore was the elected and founding national chair of
the AAC while Leonard Nzenwa was the national secretary. While Omoyele was in
DSS detention, Leonard Nzenwa called an NEC meeting of the party and got himself
elected as chairman. As soon as he got elected he expelled Omoyele Sowore and
some other party cadres! This generated a revolt among the ranks of the party
members – many accusing Leonard Nzenwa of being a state agent trying to hijack
the party in conjunction with the decisions of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).
Leonard Nzenwa has disowned Omoyele Sowore who has
declared his intention to run for president in 2023 under the platform of the
party, saying that Sowore was expelled from the party in 2019 and cannot
contest for any election on its platform. There is an appeal case in Court and
that will determine if Sowore will be on the ballot for the 2023 presidential
race. If Sowore does not win at the appeal, then there will be no radical and
pro-working-class candidate on the ballot, and that is why it is important to
fight for Sowore’s victory
For
a socialist programme
During his declaration on Tuesday 1st
March 2022 at the Women Development Centre in CBD Area of Abuja, over one thousand
Nigerians filled the hall. It was a memorable gathering and filled with
energetic young people who are dissatisfied with the corrupt ruling class that
both the APC and PDP represent.
Sowore while making the
declaration, said that he would run a socialist government focusing on workers’
welfare, free education, job creation, and pension reforms. He stated: “Nigerian
workers, a living wage is coming your way. What I am saying to you is that an
N100,000 monthly minimum wage is too small (for Nigerian workers today).
Nigerian students, help is coming your way because we will give you free and
qualitative education with bursary, grants, and scholarships. To the unemployed
young people of Nigeria, I can only promise you one thing – jobs. I am also
going to reform the pension system.”
To us, in Revolutionary
Socialist Movement (RSM), these are very important demands that reflect the
needs of the suffering Nigerian people. But good intentions are not enough. The
struggle for the socialist transformation of Nigeria requires a programme that
includes nationalization of the banks and of the key sectors of the economy.
This is the only way to be able to satisfy the needs of the popular masses and
their demands, i.e., by taking away the main means of productions and
distribution of wealth from the hands of the greedy, parasitic and corrupt
billionaires. Nationalisation of the key sectors, as we very often stress, must
be combined with democratic control and management by workers and ordinary
people. As socialists, therefore, we give critical support to Sowore.
It is likely that his campaign ahead of the 2023
general elections will receive support from very big numbers of class-conscious
people, socialists and genuine activists. His candidature will enable many people
who come from different backgrounds and are fighting on different fronts and
issues to come together and join in struggle, with a common view to achieve a social
and political change.
Our position as RSM is that only through the socialist
transformation of Nigerian society can we bring about lasting change and fight
against increasing capitalist barbarism. Lots of young people are yearning for
change and many of them will navigate towards the Sowore campaign – though such
a mood will become clear only after the appeal court judgment. Electing young
people does not atomically solve the problem because there are already young
people elected presently in All Peoples Congress (APC) and the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) and didn’t do anything fundamentally different from the
policies of their parties.
The struggle ahead of us is a struggle between the
rich and the poor, a struggle of classes. It is taking place now, ahead of the 2023
general elections and will continue after the elections in case one of the major
capitalist political parties wins. We must be ready to build the momentum of
struggle, because there is no hope under the two political parties of big business.
If Sowore gets the party ticket, we will need to ready to use this opportunity
to build the movement and the necessary momentum to bring about political changes.
No comments:
Post a Comment