He stated this while speaking at the Lenin Centenary International Conference held in Abuja on Monday.
Human rights activist and president candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 general elections, Omoyele Sowore, has slammed the Labour Party (LP) for being a dumping ground for politicians with questionable character in the last elections.
He stated this while speaking at the Lenin Centenary International Conference held in Abuja on Monday.
Sowore said the expectation of the Labour Party to be a revolutionary party was punctured by the influx of different politicians with terrible antecedents and character. He added that this also affected the party in providing a formidable opposition in the country.
He lamented the fragmentation and division among the opposition political parties which ought to have been in the left to provide a formidable opposition to the harsh and anti-people’s policy of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to Sowore, “What ought to have been the revolutionary Party, the Labour Party embraced most backward characters. Then I concluded at that point that in the left, there is nothing left and on the right, there is nothing right anymore in Nigeria.”
He said the AAC remained the only the ideological and revolutionary party in the country both in the character and person.
He stressed the need for the genuine political parties to come together and agree on programmes that were capable of promoting the welfare of the masses such as free education, free healthcare and decent living wages.
“I want to correct the impression given by Ernest Obi that there is no ideological party in Nigeria; it is not true. AAC is an ideological party, not only in the character but in person and indeed is also a revolutionary party but if you can’t see, it is because the left is divided against itself such that the left has so much fractured that even when we see ideology, we no longer recognise ideology.
“A lot of our left leaders today are the people who have gone far into the right and when they are lost on the right, they came back to the lowest base of the left and that is why I said nobody is left.
“We need to come together and agree on those programmes that are socialist including free education and a living wage for workers. In 2018, AAC proposed N100,000 minimum wage for workers but the workers’ party are the ones making fun of us that it will cause inflation in Nigeria.”
The AAC candidate noted that the amount stolen by the former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris under former President Muhammadu Buhari was enough to pay each worker N250,000.
While commenting on the demonisation of the women owing to the financial malfeasance going on the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and other agencies, Sowore said women had not stolen a fraction of what men in the country had stolen.
Also speaking at the event Chairperson Organising Committee for the Conference, Owei Lakemfa said apart from the capitalist system, there are other systems more humane which the country could pursue for a better society.
He blamed the government for abandoning its basic responsibility of protecting lives and properties which he said contributed to the system failure in the country.
He said “That was when the state was making contributions and industrialising. What people are doing now is the opposite, rather than industrialise and build things, they are selling what have been built.
“People like Awolowo suggested that we need a socialist system to include every body’s right to education, free health, accommodation and rural development and that was what they tried to do over the years.
“The main thing is that there are alternative ideas to what is going on the country. Rather than just increase the price of fuel, we can actually refine fuel like we have been doing before. A lot of people say the government has no business in business, then what is the exact business of government?
“The business of the government is to be able to do things for the rest of the public which they are not doing. So we are saying that we should go back. The private sector will not develop any country, they won’t go and build road for you, or schools or institutions for the public no.
“The private sector will only build things that will benefit them, so we are saying that the ideas of Lenin to develop people and ensure that nobody is exploited still remains till today. What we are doing now is dictation by the World Bank.”
