Ahead of national elections and beyond, progressives across Nigeria have met in Abuja with a resolve to form a mass workers and labouring masses’ political party.
According to a statement issued yesterday by activists, Prof. Toye Olorode, Jaye Gaskiya, and Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), the forces behind the new movement were drawn from trade unions, civil society, students, farmers and peasants from across the 36 states of the Federation.
The promoters said the new movement would wrestle Nigeria from a rainbow coalition of dishonest, corrupt and reactionary politicians currently driving the country to a shipwreck through mass corruption and exploitation of the primordial fault lines for personal fortunes..
The new movement said it would replace hope with despair by uniting the working people and the masses beyond the narrow prism of ethnicity and religion with the hope of attaining a new Nigerian renaissance.
The new group was named The Peoples’ Alternative Political Movement, with a socialist ideology tailored to transform the new-colonial Nigerian economy.
“The new movement will build a new country based on justice, equity and protection of the dignity of mankind irrespective of ethnicity, faith or creed. We shall make Nigeria great again and put the country back on her status as the giant of Africa’, the promoters said as part of their mission statement. Falana, labour icon and co-Chair of the Committee, Olorode and Committee Secretary, Gaskiya a foremost activist said the communiqué was issued by some 30 groups that convened the meeting.
The movement expressed worry that Nigeria, characterised by extreme poverty, arms proliferation, religious intolerance, the rise of hate and ethnic nationalism was moving towards social upheavals due to exploitation of the people, greed and avarice of a spineless political class that has reached its wits end.
The meeting had in attendance present and past labour leaders with a diverse presence of peasants and farmers unions from across the country.
In the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting held at the Women Development Centre in Abuja the groups said the ‘Common Political Platform’ would be established as a tool for political engagement, social intervention and contestation for political power.
At the summit were: Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Joint Action Front (JAF), Coalition for Revolution (CORE), Take Back Nigeria, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE), National Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria (FIWON), Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Socialist Labour (SL), Socialist Workers and Youth League (SWL), Civil Rights Council (CRC), Social Mobilisation Project (SMP), More Action Less Talk (MALT), Protest to Power (P2P), Human Rights Defenders and Protectors (HRD), Social Action (SA), in Social Accountability and Environmental Sustainability Initiative (SAESI), National Youth Democratic Association (NYDA), Nigerian Youth Choice (NYC), Youth Alternative Leadership Movement of Nigeria (YALMON), Tubali Development Association (TDA).
