Participants at the Colloquium in honor of Prof Abubakar Momoh, acclaimed professor of political theory have called for “Economic Restructuring” to ensure that the resources of the country are deployed to genuinely empower the people.”
“The elite is now deceiving the people that all we need to do to make Nigeria a better place is by “Restructuring” the polity. But you can’t talk about “”Political Restructuring” without talking about “Economic Restructuring””, said Human Rights Activist, Mr Femi Falana and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Falana who was chairman of the event held at the main auditorium of Lagos State University, (LASU), Ojo said, “There is no Governor who’s not more powerful than the President because they decide who becomes a Councilor to Senator. Local Government system has collapsed, they have taken over the funds of the local governments, they also have security vote and they have become monsters”.
He argued that the people must not shy away from the debate. “Let us join the debate by raising critical questions. Can we restructure the economy by taking oil blocs from individuals and give them to the states and LGs?”, he quipped.
Prof Omotoye Olorode who spoke on the main theme titled, “Nigeria In Crisis: Rethinking Economic Policies And Posing Alternative Developmental And Political Options”, argued that the ascendancy of US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister, Theresa May after the Brexit vote and President Emmanuel Macron in France has sounded the death knell on “Social Democracy” in Europe and America.
“That you had Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn campaigning respectively in the US and the UK on the basis of a socialist platform and making some significant strides is some point that we have no other alternative”, said Olorode, former chairman Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Obafemi Awolowo branch.
“Neo-liberal policies have been at the heart of all the crises of Nigeria”, he said.
“The elite sold the banks, roads, airports, power stations, airlines etc. They cancelled centralized feeding in the tertiary institutions and sacked 10,000 workers from the Catering Department.
“That’s why I laughed when the same elite said it wanted to feed the students in the primary and secondary schools”.
Reminding the audience about Momoh’s radical scholarship which was very critical about “neo-liberalism”, Issa Aremu, general secretary of National Union of Textiles, Garments and Tailoring (NUTGT) said, “We need to change our Constitution to make it possible for people to contest elections wherever they lived, arguing that nobody knew where Momoh came from as he was at home everywhere”.
Ngozi Iwere, executive director of Community Life Project who was miffed that the calls to rejig the mass movement have always been like a revolving door each time any activist died, cautioned “we cannot build a mass movement without linking up to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)”.
“How are you going to be building a broad based organization without these organizations?”, she queried.
President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Biodun Ogunyemi said the passing of Momoh, has posed a challenge to the entire Labour movement.
“Losing such an indefatigable scholar, shall we mourn or cry? Weep not for Momoh for he came, he saw and he conquered”.
Decrying the rising cost of education, which he said is now being priced beyond the reach of many students and their parents, Ogunyemi said, “ASUU was ready to work with Labor, civil society organizations and other allies to defend the rights of our people to education”.
Former President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Mr Lanre Arogundade who spoke on “Students’ Movement in Retrospect: The Way Forward”, said it may be unfair to characterize “his era in the students movement as golden while perceiving the present era as not golden”.
“My view is that at every point in time, let’s situate the struggle within specific context”. Arguing further, Arogundade who’s the Coordinator, International Press Centre said, “In those days, it took 48 hours for the campus to be shut but these days just mere disagreement with the outcome of a students’ election can lead to the shutting of the campus. In those days, it was a battle of ideas while these days, elections are fought with bullets”.
President of the University of Ibadan Students Union, Mr Aderemi Ojo who said the chord between his union and ASUU, SANU and NASU attracted the ire of the university management, which later clamped down on those unions, said, “we need to encourage organizations to speak against the oppression of the common people”.
Two prominent scholars, Prof Brown Onuoha of the University of Lagos and Prof Abolade Adeniji spoke on “National Question Amidst Rising Ethnic And Political Tensions.”
Onuoha argued that the Nigerian federation was peculiar, as its ethnic constituents were never consulted when the Northern and Southern Protectorates were cobbled together in 1914 for purely economic reasons.
He said that rather than address the fears of the minority groups as contained in the report of the Willinks Commission set up in the 50s, the military compounded the minority question by not only criminalizing leaders of the agitations in the oil rich Niger Delta but hanged Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP).
Adeniji, a professor of History at LASU however said, “Nigeria is a beautiful country and we all need to do whatever we can to keep it together”.
Contending that the 20th Century has not been fair on small countries, he said, “Every nation has its own problems, the problems of Nigeria cannot be solved today. We all have our unfulfilled dreams. Nnamdi Kanu may make all the noise but don’t be surprised if he says he wants to be governor of Imo state”.
Referring to the report of the National Conference held in 2014 that came up with some recommendations, which should be adopted as a working document, Adeniji said, “we can have a conversation on the basis of that working document”.
The Colloquium which was attended by the Vice Chancellor of LASU, Prof Lanre Fagbohun, the former Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, Prof Nuhu Yakubu, former ASUU President, Dr Dipo Fashina and Momoh’s younger brother, Mr Farook Momoh among many others, featured tributes and solidarity songs by Labor, students and other civil society organizations.
Momoh, a former dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, LASU was also a former National Treasurer of ASUU. A highly resourceful, rigorous and engaging scholar, he was visiting professor both at the University of Helsinki, Finland and University of Uppsala, Sweden.
He was also a former chairman of ASUU, LASU branch. Until his death on May 29, 2017, he was director general, National Electoral Institute, Abuja.
PIX: L-R Dipo Fasina, Mrs Ngozi Iwere, Lanre Arogundade, Professor Omotoye Olorode and Farook Momoh
