By Comrade Ogbu A. Ameh
Self-determination is recognized as a right of all peoples in the United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, known collectively as the International Bill of Human Rights.
The United Nations Charter, ratified in 1945, placed the right of self-determination into the framework of international law and diplomacy. The charter states that one of the purposes of the United Nations is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
In this direction, any group of people that deems it necessary based on prevalent conditions and the exercise of this right can justifiably apply it in their struggle for social political actualization. However, the bourgeois undertone of the pro- Biafra agitation in the present day Nigeria calls for caution among the Working Class people of Nigeria. A Biafra Sovereign State in actualization of the nationalist agitations since the end of the Civil War will be a precursor to regional civil wars that will make the Nigeria’s civil war pales in comparison.
This prediction is crystal clear as the bourgeois capitalist state will replicate itself in the Biafra state. It is against this glaring reality that the Working Class people across the country must rise in unity of force through mobilization against such agitation. The fear of political and economic marginalization as one of the grouse of the Igbo ethnic nationality is just another subterfuge for a replication of bourgeois political ruling elites in that region.
The onus falls on the Working Class people of Nigeria to identify with a progressive workers conscious political party, register a new political party or reclaim the already registered Labour Party. Workers can participate actively on these platforms to mobilize support base and contest for elective positions at the executive and legislative arms of government.
It is the ultimate panacea to the lingering antics and odium of the Nigeria’s bourgeois political elites, which keeps recreating the Biafra’s agitation over the years. Nigerian working class, students, artisans, peasants and women unite in this struggle to look forward to supporting working class member’s active participation in politics. It is a clarion with eyes on the bigger picture in 2019 for Comrades with manifestoes based on socialist ideology aimed at the gradual alteration of the capitalist social formation of Nigeria.
Ameh is a Public Affairs Analyst, Social Critics and Activist based in Akatekwe Kingdom
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