There can be no deceiving the working people anymore that the country is on course or that, given additional time, any good fortune can come out of this fourth republic.

Definitely, the current bourgeois democracy being practiced, with its “demonstration of craze/craze demonstration”, cannot in anyway improve the lot and living conditions of the common people.

The mismanagement of the affairs of the country, its economy, social life and security has manifested in all spheres of life and impacted heavily on the living condition of the mass of the people.

The economy is at its worst state in decades, with an increasing debt profile of close to $100 Billion, if not more now.

In spite of the country’s abundant raw material and human resources for steel manufacturing, the sector is non-functional, electricity supply is at its lowest ebb, with the country unable to generate enough for domestic use and the national grid collapsing at regular intervals, plunging the country into total darkness; the sixth time in 2022.

In spite of being one of the largest exporters of crude oil globally, Nigeria cannot at the moment boast of just one functional refinery. And, but for the approaching general elections in the country, and scared of invoking the wrath of the working masses upon itself, the Buhari regime would have gone ahead to announce an increase in the pump price of petrol, as it balloons the bogey of fuel subsidy to unexpected heights. In place of that, there has been the twists and turns of fuel scarcity here and there with the attendant implications for movement and prices of goods and services.

Insecurity has now become a norm, with 3, 478 killed and 2, 256 abducted between December 2021 alone and now, according to a report in the PUNCH newspaper, the Nigerian government’s hands are literally up in the air with Buhari himself in a state of sheer helplessness.

The neglect which the working masses have suffered in all of their concerns and issues has been compounded by the rising incidents of kidnapping, raids on communities by bandits and other criminal acts that are setting the people against one another along religious and ethnic lines.

Can Nigerians therefore trust the Buhari regime that has one of the worst records in the management of the affairs of the country to preside over an election that would produce a great leader and not same of the same or even worse?

Already, a review of the presidential flag bearers of the parties and how they emerged portends clear danger both for the fourth republic and for governance in general. Apart from not pretending to offer any alternative or make any commitment whatsoever to break from the neoliberal capitalist bent of the Buhari regime, the large scale monitisation of the parties primaries, with tickets won by those with the highest bargaining power, is a clear indication of the continued entrenchment of the self-serving interest of the bourgeois and the entire ruling class. Their version of democracy is simply a game of power grab among the super-rich.

Tinubu or Atiku Same of the same Guaranteed to Maintain Status Quo of Rot

Against all the odds and permutations, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reputed to be one of the major financiers of the ruling party, the APC won the party’s presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections with 1,271 out of a total of 2,322 votes. And with Buhari lately not choosing to bring to play the weight and financial muscle of the presidency on the APC primaries, the coast was clear for Tinubu to come out victorious.

The same Tinubu who supervised and managed the financial war chest of the APC in the last general election, bullion van backed and the major bourgeoisie power bloc in the southwest was also alleged to have offered $25, 000 each to delegates in a highly monitised contest. He brushed aside Osinbajo the Vice President who it was rumoured also offered $5, 000 to delegates to be voted for and other aspirants in the party, which included the transportation minister and former governor of oil rich Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, as well as Senate President, Ahmed Lawan who were alleged to have also offered $10, 000 to some of the delegates.

At the side of the major bourgeois opposition political party, the PDP, where Abubakar Atiku emerged as its presidential flag bearer, the situation was not any different.

Delegates allegedly went away with a minimum of $50,000 each, with each of the aspirants, Atiku, Wike, Saraki, and Tambuwal doling out $20, 000, $15, 000, $10, 000, $10, 000 respectively. One of the aspirants, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, had stepped down pointing to the fact that the process was “obscenely monetised”. The error must not be made that this is an aspirants’ affair.

The parties themselves did exactly the same, with the APC collecting 100 million Naira from each of its 28 aspirants and PDP collecting 40 million Naira from its own 13 aspirants. THIS DAY newspaper gave a conservative estimated sum of “N30 billion” made by the APC alone from sale of form for all the primaries. This is a clear indication that the right available to the working masses is the mere right to vote, the right to be voted for on a programme put forward by the working masses themselves to defend their interest will never see the light of day in Nigeria’s fourth Republic.

To confirm it, the electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deregistered pro-working people parties like the Socialist Party of Nigeria, with the Supreme Court affirming same, in spite of the constitution’s guaranteed democratic right of freedom of association. This is classic bourgeois democracy for all.

Power has become an organized syndicate that only members of the billionaires’ club or whosoever they endorse can aspire to.

They are resolute and unpretentious in their resolve to strengthen their grip on power, sustain neo liberal policies of capitalist ruling class and continuous privatization and deregulation of the economy. They hold the wealth and resources of the country exclusively to themselves through a looting spree and primitive accumulation of capital as opposed to using the same to develop the means of production and aiming towards meeting the needs and aspirations of the working masses.

So between APC’s Tinubu and PDP’s Atiku, one a former governor, the other a former Vice President with all of their bloated egos and desperation for power by all means; the country is set to witness a clash of two billionaires, the first war of dollars in Nigeria, with all of the added unabashed disdain for the wellbeing of the working masses, outside of just requiring them to step out and vote. These two present themselves as of the same stock of the ruling class which has continued to nod and affirm their willingness to continue with the status quo of rot and hopelessness that the country is awash with.

Democracy for Sale

The recently held Ekiti Governorship election paints all of the picture we should expect in the coming general election, with all of the major parties paying voters to come out to vote. These politicians know quite well that they are not seeking power with any intention to significantly improve the living conditions of the working masses. They as well as know that the masses are abreast of this fact and are left with no other choice than to draw them out with a bribe of cash.

In a country with no social protection scheme for the underprivileged or unemployment benefits for the army of the unemployed, poverty becomes a weapon with which to capture a large number of the poor who are desperately seeking to earn at least a meal for a day, if they come out to vote.

Within the logic of the need to survive held by the poorest of the poor rests the conclusion that election period is the only time they would ever get anything from members of the ruling class. Hence, they sell their votes. As if to confirm this cynical and contemptuous scheme of the ruling class, Tinubu, the presidential flagbearer of the APC, in the campaign trail publicly said: “Vote to collect money. Whoever does not vote APC cannot collect money. If you don’t vote for APC, you will not collect money”.

Yet even with all of the cash that is available, the capacity of the ruling class to mobilise for elections is suspect. Ekiti again bears this out: voters’ turnout was clearly below average. With only 360,753 voters out of a total registered voters of 988,923 turning up to participate in the election. This was a huge drop of 17. 8% compared to the 2018 elections. So the winner Biodun Oyebanji of the APC pulled votes of 187,057 amounts to a mere 18.9% of eligible voters, from a total percentage of 36.5% voters’ turnout. It follows therefore that the apathy continues, with 63.5% of voters uninterested in coming to the polling booth. A clear indication that the mass of the people has drawn the conclusion that none of the parties are indeed worthy of the sweat of their brow.

The same picture can be gleaned from the November 11, 2021, Anambra governorship election where only 10% of the registered voters totaling 253,388 of a total registered voters of 2, 466, 638 voters cast their votes. While the working masses know what they don’t want and continue to vote with their bottom – sitting at home, the fact remains that disengagement from politics would not on its own turn things around.

Without the working masses getting involved in politics and organising themselves in their millions, building an independent political platform for the common people, with socialist programmes through which they can democratically nationalise the key sectors of the economy under the control and management of the working people, there is no route out of the cesspit into which the ruling class has pushed the country and the people.

The major aim of the mass of the people should be to dislodge the ruling class and bring an end to the capitalist economy. Only then will the current state of affairs be transformed. This is the only way forward, which is why the MSA calls on workers, and poor farmers, youth and students not to invest in another illusion of the possibility of either Tinubu or Atiku making a change.

The task to rescue Nigeria cannot be for those who are responsible for putting it in this state of rot or for those who profit from keeping it in continuous paralysis. It is a task chiefly for the working masses.

Nor can we sow illusions in the possibility of Peter Obi, who is currently like Buhari in 2015 enjoying the same manner of fervent support among a growing layer of youths and change seekers in the hope that he would be the president that would rescue the country from being shipwrecked by  failure of governance by the ruling class.