Continued from Part 1
SFC reached out and became critical in the metamorphosis of the resistance movement in the 1980s and 1990s
BY 1979, Comrade Segun Osoba already had/built contacts with radical scholars, socialist professionals, and labour activists like Wahab Goodluck, Michael Imuodu, Mokwugo Okoye, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Tunji Otegbeye, Baba Omojola, Ola Oni, Omafume Onoge, Bala Usman, Eskor Toyo, Gambo Sawaba, Ikenna Nzimiro, etc.
When our own generation arrived Ife and met Comrade Osoba, he already engaged in radical organizing with a segment of the rump of the Action Group intellectuals who were dominant in the leadership of the University of Ife faculty at that time. It will suffice to say that Comrade Osoba was to the “far left” of this dominant group as was evident in Comrade Osoba’s intervention, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s response to him (Osoba), at the University of Ife 10th Anniversary Symposium in 1972 (see Toye Olorode “A review of the University of Ife Anniversary Symposium: The First Decade”, Ife Dialogue Vol. 1 No. 2 Dec. 1972/Jan. 1973: pp. 54-59).
The SFC, in which Comrade Osoba commanded massive respect and authority of leadership without being declared “THE LEADER”, was thus embedded in ASUU; ASUU became embedded in the NLC; and the NLC of Hassan Sunmonu (and later, Alli Chiroma) built a formidable relationship with the students’ movement—a relationship that led the resistance in the 1979-1983 civilian-rule interregnum and the military dictatorship between 1984 and 1988 when organized labor abandoned ship definitively.
But the overall response of our movement to the increasing virulence of what A. M. Babu called: “The two Vultures” (imperialism and the local bourgeoisie) is tragically diffuse! Our task, which is defined by what we consider Comrade Segun Osoba’s “legacy” – the tendency in our movement – is the one that continues to enable, in time and space, the coherence of the movement. The Osoba legacy then is a quantum phenomenon. It is one in which the individual, the collective, the moments, and the movement coverage in Vision, Contemplation and Action for Socialist Transformation of our country and our world!
By 1980, the SFC already reached out to the Zaria Group and the Bala Mohammed Memorial Committee (BMMC) through a delegation led by Comrade Osoba; part of the mission of the SFC delegation was to restore and enhance unity among ABU comrades. The delegation met and held discussions with Hajia Gambo Sawaba. It tried to meet Comrade Alhaji Abdulkadri Balarabe Musa, the then Governor of Kaduna State, without success. Socialist Forum, the SFC journal was already reaching socialist and progressive groups and comrades outside Ife; including Ibadan, Zaria, Maiduguri, Lagos, Calabar, Ilorin, and Nsukka. The SFC, as part of the National Democratic Movement Against Fascism (NDM) also anchored the publishing and distribution of a newspaper—Liberation News—the organ of NDM.
In July 1983, a Special Issue of the Socialist Forum on the 1983 General Elections “Reformism in Nigeria: Possibility and Limits (An Assessment of the Registered Political Parties)” was published by the Socialist Forum Collective. Excerpts of the exchange on that issue of the Socialist Forum between BMMC and SFC (led by Comrade Segun Osoba), especially as the publication concerned PRP, are produced below. SFC observed in the Special issue, inter alia, as follows:
Since independence our fatherland and the common people of our country have been suffering from foreign and domestic exploitation. Day after day we see this exploitation increase.
The exploitation of the people is carried on by big chiefs who oppress the peasantry, by landlords, by the new class of capitalists and by imperialists.
We here solemnly reiterate the recommendation of the sub-committee of the Constitution Drafting Committee that spoke clearly, truly and unequivocally in the interest of the common people: “Within the context of a participatory democracy informed by the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Justice, the state shall, as a long-term goal, strive towards a socialist order based on public ownership and fundamental objective of the Nigerian state and people.
The people are workers, peasants, students, women all who do not live off the sweat of their citizens. The exploiters are landlords, feudal chiefs, capitalists, and all those in high places who practise graft, corruption and nepotism. To the gang of exploiters belong the neo-colonialists.
It is important, before going further, to see how Nigerians have recently reacted to the registered parties. Among the poor classes – the workers and the peasants, the idea has been growing that not one of the registered parties is a party organised by the poor people in their own interest. Among workers, there is a growing feeling that the registered parties, which stand the chance of winning Federal Power—the NPN, UPN, NPP – have all united against the working class in rejecting important working class demands, and will continue to do so.
Among some on the left, the choice of action for 1983 has been guided by the idea that support for some ruling parties is necessary to advance the struggle of the poor classes. Some are calling for support on behalf of the Progressive Parties Alliance (the PPA), made up of the UPN, NPP, and GNPP. They believe that democracy has better chances of survival in Nigeria when the NPN has been defeated. Thus, the prospects of democracy in Nigeria are tied by them together with the fluctuations of ruling class politics.
The NPN, UPN, GNPP and the PRP are reformist parties because their political practice and their programmes conform with the two features of reformism just mentioned.
The question is not whether there can be radical reformist movements in Nigeria. There are. It is not whether radical reformist movements have anything to contribute to the emancipation of the people of Nigeria. They do. The question is about the potential of radical reformism as a strategy for those who have seen its limits in the light of the political and economic set-up in our country.
The crucial factor in all this is that the radical reformist movement at present has no solid class base, and it does not seem to be building one.
Even here, we cannot predict tidy prospects unless we can predict the likely trends in the economies of the capitalist powers.
This alternative comes out of the insecurity of radical reformism in parts, and the likely course of the political development of the working class. This prospect depends on several factors, crucial among them the abandonment of the reformist strategy as a strategy for the liberation of Nigeria.
In January 1984, BMMC responded as follows:
We find that your analyses of the nature of Nigerian society, its direction, and your assessment of the meaning of the political struggles that have been taking place in it, are shallow, and particularly lacking in substance and specificity.
-the lack of an examination of the configuration, the inner nature, and the inter-relationships of the social classes making up contemporary;
-the lack of an awareness of the significance of the existence of different nationalities in the country and uneven pattern of Nigeria’s underdevelopment;
-the almost total avoidance of the actual trajectory of the historical experience of the people of Nigeria.
The SFC responded:
BMMC’s dismissal of several aspects of our analysis in the Reformism document as “superficial”, “pedestrian”, “on the surface”, “shallow” etc. arises partly from this deliberate misunderstanding of our purposes. This dismissive attitude of the BMM also has to do with an unjustifiable and unpardonable ignorance (or it deliberate misunderstanding again?) of a cardinal principle of the editorial policy of the Socialist Forum. This principle relates to the presentation of facts and arguments in such a simple and uninvolved language and form that they would be accessible to significant sections of the decisive classes who have little formal western education and even less familiarity with the jargon of sociology and economics.
Consequently, our intention in the Reformism document, as in all our publications was not to attain a highfalutin level of academic discourse and analysis which our BMMC academics would be able to endorse, but rather to communicate reasonably clearly and adequately with much less privileged members of Nigerian society.
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It is important to aver that in spite of the “heat” arising from the debate on the “limits of reformism”, a meeting between BMMC and SFC took place in Ife in 1984 to sort out the points of discord. The rapprochement never went further. Happily, Comrade Balarabe Musa (ABM) received a copy of the SFC “Reformism…” in detention, where the Muhammadu Buhari dictatorship kept him for no reason whatsoever according to the letter ABM wrote to SFC from detention detailing the sources of all he had. Comrade ABM subsequently had a meeting with SFC at Ile-Ife and in Lagos to chart paths of collaboration in the struggles ahead.
About the time of the ASUU State of the Economy of Nigeria Conference (at the University of Benin, Benin City), a significant segment of the SFC with other socialist formations across Nigeria’s university campuses that was also active in ASUU linked up with one of the radical wings of Nigeria’s Students Movement to form the Socialist Congress of Nigeria (SCON) thus enabling bolstering of the ring we referred to earlier as the triad.
Segun Osoba: SFC, Socialist Congress of Nigeria (SCON) and the Struggle Against Military Dictatorship
By 1983/1984 the crises of the more definitive assertion of neocolonial ideology and the appertaining policies surfaced as IMF/ World Bank Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). Resistance to this development, as we noted above, grew rapidly especially since 1981 when NLC publicised Workers’ Charter and the student’s movement issued NANS Charter of Demands. In April (19th-13th) 1984, ASUU’s Conference on The State of the Nigeria Economy issued a powerful and prophetic communiqué – “How to Save Nigeria” – signed on behalf of the conference by Dr. Mike Obadan and Dr. Festus Iyayi (members of the Conference LOC), Comrade Jonathan Ihonde, (National Deputy President of the NLC), and Comrade Dr. G.G. Darah (of Ife ASUU Branch) and the Secretary of the Communiqué Committee of the Conference.
The conference in a way set the tone for the struggle against imperialism and the agency of the Nigerian ruling class which fronted for its military wing from mid-1980s to the close of the 1990s. According to the opening paragraph of the Conference Communiqué (ASUU, 1984): “The Conference was attended by participants from all the Nigerian Universities, Labour unions, Students’ unions, Financial Institutions and experts from different specialized fields. The conference was held at a time of grave economic crises, the worst ever in Nigeria.”
From the foregoing, it should be quite obvious that the growth, development and outreach of the circle of radical scholars at Ife from about 1970 was systematic with Comrade Segun Osoba being at the centre of the very processes.
About the time of the ASUU State of the Economy of Nigeria Conference (at the University of Benin, Benin City), a significant segment of the SFC with other socialist formations across Nigeria’s university campuses that was also active in ASUU linked up with one of the radical wings of Nigeria’s Students Movement to form the Socialist Congress of Nigeria (SCON) thus enabling bolstering of the ring we referred to earlier as the triad.
Segun Osoba’s intervention as a scholar, socialist labour activist and mentor in Nigeria’s university system coincided with the peak of the struggle between definitive attempts to restore education sectors as an instrument of neo-colonial oppression and the struggle to deploy the sector as an instrument of liberation. By 1991 when Comrade Osoba retired from the University of Ife, a stalemate (if not a defeat of the victims) had arisen.
It was the triad that anchored the massive working class response to the “ABU Killings” by the Nigeria Police on May 23, 1986 and the NLC-led mass rallies of June 4, 1986 over which the President of NLC, Comrade Alli Chiroma, and several ASUU activists and students 9including some at Ife) were arrested and detained across Nigeria. The outcome of that historical conjuncture was Military government’s de-affiliation of ASUU from the NLC and the systematic government siege against the labour movement until NLC was banned in 1988. Organised labour has since not recovered from that conjuncture!
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Segun Osoba’s generation (actually segments of it) as individuals and as collectivities across our country, immersed in an intergenerational mix, intervened in the complex conflict between the promise [assumed legitimately by anti-colonial forces] of peoples’ liberation and sovereignty, and the forces that continue to be subversive of that promise in Nigeria and across Africa.
That promise, which emerged from the struggles of the triad referred to earlier on, compelled its own actuation by those segments of the indigenous bourgeoisie that inherited post-colonial state power. This process of actuating the promise of independence was stifled across Africa by the very nature of neo-colonialism which, to paraphrase Kwame Nkrumah (1965), has continued to deploy imperialist power without responsibility and to impose exploitation without redress!
In 1990, one year before Comrade Osoba’s retirement, he was in the Caribbean when he was declared wanted by Ibrahim Babangida’s military dictatorship haven been accused of participating in the Gideon Okar attempted coup d’etat of April, 21, 1990. Part of the complaints of those behind the coup attempt was the then proposed World Bank loan to Nigerian Universities against which students and academic staff were mobilising and agitating. We had a very hard time persuading Comrade Osoba to remain in exile until the coast was clear late in 1990. The rest, as they say, is now history.
Along with other forces and organisations of the victims of neo-colonialism, the conscientised segments of the education sector of ruling class cultural apparati responded appropriately to Paulo Freire’s (1972) surmise that: “The starting point of organizing the programme content of education or political action must be the present, existential, concrete situation, reflecting the aspiration of the people.”
Segun Osoba’s intervention as a scholar, socialist labour activist and mentor in Nigeria’s university system coincided with the peak of the struggle between definitive attempts to restore education sectors as an instrument of neo-colonial oppression and the struggle to deploy the sector as an instrument of liberation. By 1991 when Comrade Osoba retired from the University of Ife, a stalemate (if not a defeat of the victims) had arisen.
In 1990, one year before Comrade Osoba’s retirement, he was in the Caribbean when he was declared wanted by Ibrahim Babangida’s military dictatorship haven been accused of participating in the Gideon Okar attempted coup d’etat of April, 21, 1990. Part of the complaints of those behind the coup attempt was the then proposed World Bank loan to Nigerian Universities against which students and academic staff were mobilising and agitating. We had a very hard time persuading Comrade Osoba to remain in exile until the coast was clear late in 1990. The rest, as they say, is now history.
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Comrade Dr. Segun Osoba’s prognosis (formulated as part of our collective) of the future of our universities and of Nigeria, i.e., that the future was being actively subverted by local and offshore agents of international finance capital and their cultural apparati, had been shown to be more than prophetic.
We need to put it on record that the success of SFC’s overall success, including link-up with organisations in liberation struggles, was due, in no small measure, to Comrade Dr. Segun Osoba’s attention to details, warm and unassuming personality, confidence, decorum in debates and discussions, unpretentious empathy; a combination of rigour and simplicity, generosity and frugality, respect for truth and courage of conviction. All of these broke down barriers and enabled contact with non-Nigerian members of faculty and students.
Comrade Osoba also insisted consistently that we must act and build locally, nationally and globally. That had been the model of unity in action towards results that are reproducible and that are transmissible in time and space. We have remained faithful to that model in the organisations in which we are active today.
The SFC and Comrade Segun Osoba: Partnering with Freedom Fighters (ANC, EPLF, SWAPO)
The tasks that arose from the Marxist slogan: “Workers of the World, Unite!” naturally became a significant component of the intervention of the Socialist Forum Collective.
The Collective was particularly active with the freedom fighters’ movements on our continent, and at a time that became critical in their evolution. As we observed earlier on, one of the main features of the academic communities in Nigeria since the first Nigerian universities were founded in the 1950s and early 1960s was the international character of both the student body and the faculty. This international character also generated international weltanschict, curiosity and active interest about international events and affairs among Nigerian academics and students.
The SFC, naturally, developed a policy of active support and advocacy especially for liberation struggles in the Africa of the 1970s and 1980s. The SFC, thus, had direct relations with the African National Congress (ANC) which had a Nigerian mission (headed by Thabo Mbeki, at a point), South West Peoples Organization (SWAPO) and the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). Considerable attention was given to these organizations in the Socialist Forum including a special number on the ANC and other anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa. One of our comrades (Dr, Dipo Fashina), actually visited Eritrea in the era of the liberation struggles of the 1980s. In January 1982, the SFC celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the foundation of the ANC with activities which included a five-kilometer procession to the Palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi.
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We must mention that the SFC was in active collaboration with international students’ associations such as the Nigeria-African National Congress (ANC) Friendship Association (NAFCA).
We need to put it on record that the success of SFC’s overall success, including link-up with organisations in liberation struggles, was due, in no small measure, to Comrade Dr. Segun Osoba’s attention to details, warm and unassuming personality, confidence, decorum in debates and discussions, unpretentious empathy; a combination of rigour and simplicity, generosity and frugality, respect for truth and courage of conviction. All of these broke down barriers and enabled contact with non-Nigerian members of faculty and students.
We, may mention, among those who facilitated our international contacts, and with whom Comrade Osoba built personal friendship, Seretse Choabi and Thandi Rankwe (South Africa), Pepe Roberts, Jeff Hunt (British), Bereket Fehetsazion, Ishaq Woldeab (Eritrea), Olaleye Yai (Benin Republic), Comrade Chris Theodoropoulos (Greece), Barry Hallen (USA), Walter Stewart (Caribbean), Okot B’Tek (Uganda), David Rubadiri (Malawi); and a closer circle of friends and comrades – Ermina Davies (who designed the cover for Ife Dialogue), Eileen Wilson, Rodney Burton, Pierre Mutambuka, etc.
Conclusion: A moribund ruling class; a diffuse resistance – Segun Osoba Legacy of Collectivism, Openness, Long View, Courage, intellectual rigour, and Strategic Patience.
The post-colonial crisis of underdevelopment was predictable; it was predicted. The victims of the crisis resisted valiantly using all legal weapons and those they considered legitimate, even if not legal. This struggle had its flows and ebbs but it continues.
It may be true that the Nigerian ruling class is moribund, but it continues to be able to impose its hegemony. Hegemonies are, of course, invariably most virulent when they are moribund, discredited and naked. Their legitimacy and capacity to exercise state power become less and less credible.
Comrade Dr Segun Osoba led a segment of that struggle actively from 1970 to the early 1990s when he retired from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. That leadership entailed actual organization including educational and resistance struggles of various segments of the labour movement. That leadership entailed building, block by block, as we narrated in the body of those paper.
The strategic goal of the segment of our movement, led by Comrade Osoba, had always been organising with working people towards Socialist Transformation of Nigeria. The logic of the goal prescribes suspicion of short cuts, and organizing through learning and teaching at all levels and in all situations.
We are aware that class struggle, which we must wage relentlessly, will continuously force the ruling class to accept and implement “reforms” here and there (including occasional pretentious to welfare state/social democracy). But we are also aware that both the demands from imperialism, and Nigeria’s ruling class preoccupation with private (largely primitive) accumulation will always stultify reforms and pretentious to welfare state programmes; this had been the limitations even in the capitalist metropolises!
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The logic of our strategic vision, arising from all of the foregoing, persuades us that while we do not oppose the amelioration achievable with “reforms”, the strategic goal of working people’s struggle is taking of state power by all means necessary! Urgent and adequate preparations through intensive class action are necessary for attaining and maintaining that goal. None of these are possible via compromises with ruling class political programmes!
It may be true that the Nigerian ruling class is moribund, but it continues to be able to impose its hegemony. Hegemonies are, of course, invariably most virulent when they are moribund, discredited and naked. Their legitimacy and capacity to exercise state power become less and less credible.
But the overall response of our movement to the increasing virulence of what A. M. Babu called: “The two Vultures” (imperialism and the local bourgeoisie) is tragically diffuse! Our task, which is defined by what we consider Comrade Segun Osoba’s “legacy” – the tendency in our movement – is the one that continues to enable, in time and space, the coherence of the movement. The Osoba legacy then is a quantum phenomenon. It is one in which the individual, the collective, the moments, and the movement coverage in Vision, Contemplation and Action for Socialist Transformation of our country and our world!
Dedication
This contribution to the Segun Osoba Conference is dedicated especially to all those who got “roped into the fray” because they care for activists in our movement and who gave us unconditional support—our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings, our extended families, our friends, our colleagues and, even, those we have never met!
Concluded.
Emeritus Prof. Olorode, progressive intellectual and elder statesman, is Member, Secretariat Collective, Campaign for Socialist Transformation of Nigeria (CAST-Nigeria) Campaign Organisation. He contributed this article to the Segun Osoba Conference held recently. Prof Olorode can be reached via email: omotoopo@gmail.com
Comrade Awopetu retired as Professor of Zoology at OAU, Ilé Ifẹ where he was a member of the Ifẹ Collective. He was Branch Chair of ASUU at Ifẹ and, later, National Treasurer of ASUU. He is an active labour and public intellectual; a member of SCON (Socialist Congress of Nigeria).
