BEING THE COMMUNIQUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE NATIONAL COLLECTIVE ON “THE LEFT AND THE FUTURE OF NIGERIA” HELD AT OAU CONFERENCE CENTRE OF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE IFE FROM FRIDAY 30TH- 31ST JANUARY, 2015.
RECOGNIZING
The current political crisis in the country which offers few alternative strategies or agenda for the reconstruction of a just and egalitarian society;
The lack of ideology in the current political arrangement of our country that is manifested in ruling class political parties and in their desperate struggle to gain power in the absence of clear ideological and structural agenda;
That the Nigerian state and economy have been taken over by neo-liberalism and its theology of privatization, right-sizing, corruption and other anti-people programmes ruthlessly pursued by the state;
The national security crisis which threatens the very existence of the Nigerian state;
The incompetence of the managers of the Nigerian state and their inability to appreciate the essence of the state beyond using it for their primitive capitalist accumulation;
The current status of Nigerian democracy which lacks the basic elements of even the minimum standards for liberal construction of democracy;
The continuous degeneration of our culture manifesting in the decline in the use of Nigerian languages, cultural and moral values and the politicization of ethnicity and religion;
The collapse of social institutions and the consequent gaps in social welfare which has led to the continuous impoverishment and immiseration of the Nigerian people;
The decay in the education system and the rise in counter-culture in the education system manifesting in thuggery, cultism and other reprehensible behaviour;
The complete decimation of the country’s students’ movement;
The decline of the Left and progressive ideas and their relegation to relative obscurity;
The fact that in spite of the near absence of the input of the Left in the current activities of the country there are still Leftists in the country;
The role of the Left, students and workers’ organizations and academics; who, through activism, commitment and sacrifice, played significant roles in the decolonization and demilitarization of the country;
The burden placed upon us as ideologically conscious individuals who are deeply aware and concerned about the state of our nation and our world and the reality of our environment;
UNDERSTANDING
The role of education as a vanguard for change and an oasis of intellectualism;
The current divisions among Leftist organizations and groups and the resultant weakening of an organized movement of elements of the Left;
The strength of leftist ideology and its imperative to build a Nigerian socialist state;
The strength that can be found in the unification of progressive ideological elements;
The value of leftist socialist and Marxist thought in proffering realistic and meaningful solutions to the impasse existing in Nigeria’s social, economic and political development;
The need for Nigerians to rise above religious and ethnic sentiments for the construction of a radical liberation ideology which encompasses all and protects the rights of every citizen no matter their religion;
The hope that has been historically placed in the students and workers movement as the nation’s vanguard of change;
The need for solid revolutionary theory to guide the movement of the Left towards the realization of the emancipation of the Nigerian people from the shackles which currently bind them;
That revolutionary movements and activism require honesty, sincerity and discipline among cadres;
IDENTIFYING THE ROLE OF THE LEFT IN
Deconstructing government policies and programmes and offering critical and constructive analysis through the expression of an alternative agenda;
Offering viable and practicable solutions to the problems being faced by Nigeria today;
Re-examining and re-constructing socialist thought and its applicability to the real problems facing us as a country and a continent;
WE COMMIT OURSELVES TO
Re-creating and repositioning the Left through the re-building of organizational structures, programmes and policies which reflect the values and ideology of the Left;
Reviving national consciousness towards Pan-Africanist, socialist thought;
Rebuilding the workers, students and ideological movements through ideological orientation and practical training;
The theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism;
Training and mentoring a generation of young Leftists;
Creating new curricula and integrating socialism and Marxism into the current curricula and ideological discourses in the country;
Establishing and building a viable leftist pan-Nigerian organization with membership that cuts across gender, generation, region, religion and socioeconomic class to rally Nigerians and conscientize them to the reality of their condition, awaken them to the need for action and mobilize them to effective revolutionary action;
Building of political leftist institutions and a Leftist political party with the aim of eventually taking political power;
Convening a summit of the Left to urgently address the myriad of problems confronting the country and for the implementation of the above stated resolutions.
Professor Dipo Salami
Chair, Local Organising Committee
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