Owei Lakemfa and Salvador Ousmane write about a vibrant conference held in Abuja on the politics, life and ideas of Lenin. The conference involved a rich array of discussion and debate about socialist and working class politics in Nigeria, Africa and the world. Students, researchers and activists, discussed the relevance of Lenin’s revolutionary ideas for the deep and on-going political and economic crisis in Nigeria.
By Owei Lakemfa and Salvador Ousmane
A major international conference from January 22-23, 2024 was held in Abuja on the 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the leader of the first socialist revolution.
The two-day conference with over 300 attending discussed the legacy and continued relevance of Lenin’s ideas. This included a number of international participants, veteran socialists and labour leaders in Nigeria, but importantly a number of young students.
The chairperson of the International Lenin Centenary Coordinating Committee was Owei Lakemfa a well-known commentator on current events in Nigeria and former Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), the umbrella trade union centre in Africa.
Lakemfa said that the conference would, among other topics, examined Marxism-Leninism as a tool for analysing neo-liberalism, multilateralism, the rise of bodies like the BRICS, globalisation and the contemporary world and why the so-called socialist countries collapsed in 1989-1991 and if Marxism-Leninism can be used to analyse, understand and tackle the current challenges of democracy and underdevelopment in Africa and whether it is still emancipatory and relevant today.
The organisers stated that:
Lenin’s example, led to the explosion of revolutions in the world including those in Vietnam, Kampuchea, North Korea, Laos, the Chinese Revolution led by Chairman Mao, the Castro-led Cuban Revolution, the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua and the Venezuelan Revolution led by Hugo Chavez.
In Africa, the defunct USSR which provided training, logistics, arms and funding, was crucial to the success of the liberation movements and independence for Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.
Lenin, lawyer, theoretician, strategist, tactician and organiser was perhaps the greatest advocate of working peoples’ power in the 20th Century and one of the greatest thinkers and intellectuals of that century.
The keynote address on the “Labour aristocracy and the denouement of democratic politics in Nigeria” was provided by Nuhu Yaqub, the former Vice Chancellor of universities in both Abuja and Sokoto.
Solidarity messages were presented from a range of organisations, including the Nigeria Labour Congress. Joe Ajaero, its president, said “It is clear that without the work of Lenin and his group, all the beautiful Marxian postulations may not have found traction in the real world economy…” He went on to say: “Leninism’s emphasis on the class struggle and the need for a revolutionary vanguard to address the concerns of the working class remains relevant. In the face of transnational corporations and global economic disparities, Leninist ideas encourage us to scrutinise power structures and advocate for social justice.” He added: “The Leninist lens, with its focus on imperialism and the exploitation of the working class, remains a potent tool for analyzing the root causes of social inequality…The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few is a challenge that transcends borders, and Leninist principles encourage us to explore collective solutions that address the systemic issues underlying global disparities.”
Twenty six papers were presented at the conference. In the first session, these included introductory papers from two veteran socialists, Dipo Fashina, former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the university lecturers trade union and Edwin Madunagu a former lecturer in mathematics and a prolific writer. These were followed by a paper by Drew Povey, on “Lenin supported strikes as seeds of working class self-emancipation” and one by Issa Aremu a former textile workers leader.
Other papers presented at the Conference included Biodun Olamosu’s “National question and the quest for social change”. Olamosu is a researcher, writer and publisher, and has appeared frequently in ROAPE. He talked about the need to unite the working class of Nigeria and to counteract those fanning the flames of ethnic chauvinism.
Saleh Mari Maina spoke on “Globalisation, imperialism and the fate of the Nigerian working class” a paper which emphasised that the Nigerian left is fragmented and needs a unified platform to guide its socialist transformation by the working class and other oppressed classes. While Adelaja Odukoya presented a paper on “Escaping underdevelopment: charting a new path for Africa’s development in times of neoliberalism”..
The final session on focused on the way forward and was chaired by labour leader, Huawa Mustapha. Benson Upah of the Nigeria Labour Congress, noted that the left had been on retreat and asked what we could do to re-invigorate the it without romanticising the past. He argued for the need to connect Leninism with the local environment while avoiding mutual blame by labour, students and civil society.
Femi Aborisade called for change from the current catastrophic state of Nigeria. He argued that the current President Bola Tinubu is the worst in history from the point of view of the working class. Aborisade said there is the need to invest in full-time organisers to build a vanguard party.
Osagie Obayawana, a veteran lawyer, called for a committee to agree on a minimum program and to get workers, farmers, traders and students to work together in workplaces, schools and communities towards capturing state power.
The conference ended with rousing singing of solidarity songs.
Owei Lakemfa and Salvador Ousmane are Nigerian socialists who have spent years involved in activism, socialist organising and the development of radical organisations and ideas for an anti-capitalist future in Africa.
