Speech of the RSM at the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Benin (PCB)

REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST MOVEMENT (RSM)

Speech delivered at the Congress of the Communist Party of Benin (PCB) held at Cotonou on the 21-22 December, 2023

Theme: Facing the upheaval of the world order and the risk of a third world war

Sub Theme: Facing the outbreak of the anti-imperialist Patriotic Revolution at the African level

Solidarity Greetings Comrades

I bring you Solidarity greetings from the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement (RSM)  in Nigeria. RSM is a socialist organisation built on the principles of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and a host of others and fighting for a socialist world by building a movement that can put the resources of  Nigeria, Africa and the world as a whole into collective usage to meet the needs of the millions of people rather than the greed of few.

At a time like this, the world is facing a record-high level of oppression and suffering evidenced by the increased rate of poverty, malnutrition, disease outbreaks, war and inflation. World imperialists spearheaded by the World Bank and International Monetary Funds (IMF) have continued to worsen the matter by imposing and recommending more anti-people policies to protect the wealth and businesses of the few billionaire capitalists. We cannot start to mention several of the oppressive policies of the world imperialists, especially in Africa.

Meanwhile, African countries have not been silent either. As we have seen in Burkina Faso and  Niger, the military has taken over the governments, ending the ruling of the leaders who have subjected their people to suffering amidst enough human and natural resources and making attempts to put an end to the ruling and power of the imperialists in their countries. As things stand, the widespread poverty I. Africa is a result of neo-colonialism and the rotten capitalist system.

In Nigeria, events have not been so different from what is obtainable across the other African countries. Even, the fact that the newly-elected president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was voted the Chairman of ECOWAS has brought the country to the forefront in West Africa. Just as we saw the stringent position Tinubu faced during the military takeover in Niger where he was hinged on a tough decision to make; either to support his international imperialist allies or respect the resolution of the Nigerians.

Comrades, we must oppose war on Niger, we must oppose sanctions,  sanctions will only affect ordinary people,  as we are seeing in Cuba and Venezuela and we must reject military regimes because they’re not going to solve the problems of our people, we must organise to build a pan Africa working class alternative.  That’s why we’re here today comrades to extend our solidarity with groups fighting for a better continent and Africa.

Ever since the swearing of Tinubu in Nigeria on May 29, 2023, things have gone from bad to worse for the majority of the working and toiling people. For instance, the immediate declaration of subsidy removal on PMS has imposed further hardship on the mass of the people. According to the presidency, subsidy on PMS has to be removed to save up funds for further development. Also, the regular speech of the Nigerian ruling elites is that some persons hide under the subsidy to loot the country’s wealth. However, our organization and a few other left organizations have continued to pose to the government to jail the subsidy fraudsters instead of subjecting the innocent millions of people to the adverse effect of subsidy removal.

Months after the subsidy was adamantly removed, the only concession the labour movement could win was a paltry temporal N35,000 wage award (palliative) for the federal workers for 6 months. Presently, less than 1/5 of the 36 states in the country are ready to implement similar palliative measures in their states. Being an oil-producing state, Nigeria cannot boast of a single working refinery despite all of the glaring needs for it.

Also, the fraudulent policy of conditional funds transfer to poor people in Nigeria has not been implemented even though we believe it is another way of looting the collective wealth of the country. We have asked several times for the FG to publish the details of the beneficiaries and the conditions for selecting them.

The astronomic cost of getting education and incessant insecurity issues are further loopholes in Tinubu’s capitalist style of governance. More than half of the federal institutions in Nigeria have increased their fees by over 300% while the remaining institutions are warming up for a new session before announcing fee increments. Banditry, kidnapping and other insurrections have maintained a record-high rate since the inception of Tinubu as the president.

These are a few of the testimonies of the fact that Nigeria and other African countries cannot start to experience significant improvements if our collective resources continue to be managed by the puppets of the international imperialists who largely recommend policies that will ensure there is no disruption to the international market order and the profit of the big capitalists.

All of the events happening in Nigeria and other African states are pointing towards the need for a Socialist Confederation of Africa where African countries can start to harness their wealth for the collective benefit and emancipation of their people. Ultimately, this means that the left organizations in every African country need to start raising their flag, higher than before, and continue to unite people together for a socialist government. At Revolutionary Socialist Movement (RSM), we are committed to this course and we have, on several occasions, risen for the unity of the people under a socialist program. Here today, I have with me some of our papers which contain a few of our interventions and perspectives in Nigeria, Africa and the World at large.

Thank you