By Olaseni Ajai and Baba Aye
The Nigerian economy has been hit be a double blow this month – the developing coronavirus epidemic and the collapse of world oil prices. The state is Africa’s biggest oil producer and, with Africa’s largest population, at 200 million, is now facing severe recession. Although there have been up to now fewer than 300 Covid-19 cases recorded and under ten deaths, the finance minister warned this week of severe economic and social damage. The socialist movement has reacted to the imminent crisis with its own statement, this from the Nigerian Coalition for Revolution (CORE), published two days ago
Covid-19 pandemic: only a mass-orientated and democratically controlled response can save the situation.
The sudden death of Abba Kyari, the former Chief of Staff to the Buhari regime on April 17 2020, due toCovid-19, concretely smashes any doubt about the presence and dangers posed by the coronavirus in Nigeria and clearly exposes the appalling state of the Nigerian healthcare, due to years of grossly inadequate funding of public health. We are not surprised by mass anger and lack of public sympathy towards the former Chief of Staff’s demise, as he was rightly seen to be part of the neo-colonial capitalist class and of the regime responsible for the underdevelopment and plundering of the country.
Lives of million on the line
TheCovid-19 pandemic is a global public health and social-economic crisis. A major catastrophe is looming in Nigeria and Africa, as the lives of millions of people are on the line. This is not due to human inability to fight the pandemic but to conditions created over decades by plundering and the mismanagement of the economy by the Nigerian ruling capitalist elites who constitute less than 1% of the population and who produce nothing, but expropriate the wealth produced by the working people.
It is estimated that between 40 and 70 percent of the world population would be infected by the coronavirus if far-reaching decisive steps are not taken and with a sense of urgency. With an estimated global case mortality ratio of 5.7% that means between 118 million and 311 million people could die. Based on these projections between 5 and 11 million lives could be at risk in Nigeria if urgent steps are not immediately taken to fight the pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa is poised to be the next epicentre of the pandemic. The situation in Africa is worsened because corrupt neo-colonial capitalist regimes have held power over the past six decades and have continued to impose numerous anti-masses capitalist programs, in active collaboration with imperialism, furthering the crude exploitation of the continent.
Healthcare infrastructure in tatters
What is clear today is that the power to defeat this pandemic and move society forward out of crisis resides exclusively in the hands of the working and exploited masses and not in the hands of the corrupt capitalist politicians, top bankers and billionaires. Those in the forefront of fighting this pandemic today are the healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, street cleaners, delivery workers, workers producing essential materials, etc, and those mismanaging the response remain the corrupt capitalist politicians in power.
Decades of plundering and mismanagement by the Nigerian ruling elites have created a situation where the healthcare infrastructure is in tatters and personnel are hardly in place to adequately respond to this disaster.
Capitalists across the world are quick to blame the virus alone for the current social and economic turmoil, even when it is obvious that the virus only exposes the crisis-ridden nature of the economic and social conditions of capitalism created over decades and indeed centuries of exploitation of the working masses.
That Abba Kyari had to be flown out of Abuja for treatment confirms the hopeless state of the hospitals in Abuja, which is the nation’s capital. Currently, the latest data from the WHO reveals that Nigeria’s physician-to-patient ratio is 4 doctors per 10,000 patients. In several centres outside the major cities, the ratio is as high as 4 doctors to 200,000 patients. The situation is particularly hopeless in northern Nigeria, where the number of hospitals and medical personnel is insignificant in most states. This is so because of years of depriving the youth of accessible, quality education.
Buhari regime paralysed in the face of the virus
The coronavirus is deadly and incurable (for now) and spreads faster than wildfire, manifesting itself in a prolonged manner that is fatal. The best-proven way to fight it now, has been proactive mobilization of the scientific community and medical personnel, together with lockdowns/restrictions and social distancing rules with palliatives and the channelization of industry towards producing essentials needed for the fight and run the society. Wuhan, the first epicentre of the disease, was recently reopened after 76 days of lockdown, which the Chinese state imposed along with other measures.
In spite of all the early warnings, the Buhari national regime, and the various regimes of the ruling elites at state and local level, remain disabled to confront this pandemic.
At the time that the first case of Covid-19 got into Nigeria, the National Assembly and the Buhari regime were busy pushing through various anti-working class programs such as the Finance Bill, A Social Media Bill, approving huge foreign debt, approving billions to be spent on themselves, preparing to increase electricity tariffs, and so on. The same applies to state and local government councils.
It is also important to acknowledge that the virus mostly came into the country through key members of the ruling elites. Had the regime embarked on a program of mass monitoring at the ports, free mass testing and quarantine, it could have isolated the earliest cases and prevented the virus from spreading. This was impossible because of several factors, including the VIP status of key super-spreaders of the virus.
Nigeria now the Poverty Capital of the world
The failure to contain the virus at the earliest stage led to the massive spread, currently ongoing, and an increase in deaths nationally. This is criminal. Right now, practically all corners of the country have the infection.
We are in no way surprised that the various actions taken by the Buhari regime and the state regimes have woefully failed to address the crisis, and in fact, they have succeeded in inflicting serious pain on the masses and worsening the situation. The declarations by Buhari, in his April 13 2020 speech, will not change the situation for the better.
It is necessary to restate that decades of crude exploitation and imposition of all sorts of anti-working class programs (such as currency devaluation, privatisation, etc) have led to a collapse of social and physical infrastructure, created a handful of super-rich elements and mass poverty. Nigeria is currently the poverty capital of the world. Lockdown and social distancing are concretely impossible amid the chaos created by the Nigerian ruling capitalist elites over the years.
The lockdown imposed on the country within the past weeks by the Buhari regime and state governments have been without any form of serious palliatives to the mass majority; the little provided directly was looted, as usual, by corrupt officials. This lockdown cannot work and will not work under a regime that has no human face.
So-called donations by billionaires
The so-called ‘donations’ by the Nigerian billionaires are inadequate in the face of the needs of millions. It is important to note that those currently donating billions actually pay next to nothing in income tax, thanks to the tax holiday granted by this regime. It is on record that no Nigerian billionaire pays more than N10 million as income tax a year! [N10m is equivalent to just over £20,000]
It is not a few billions needed, but trillions, which is easy to get if the control of the wealth of the society is placed under democratic control and used for the collective good of all. Currently, over N190 trillion worth of goods and service are produced in Nigeria, according to the GDP figures.
Within the past weeks, since the crises intensified, over a trillion naira bailout has been given to the super-rich due to the crash in the stock exchange and hundreds of billions of Naira cannot be accounted for due to looting by politicians.
Only 8,000 tests in a nation of 200 million
Currently, there are less than 200 functional ventilators in a country of over 200 million people, and the number of specialists capable of operating them are less than 88. There are insignificant numbers of hospital beds and personal protection equipment (PPE) for medical and health personnel. The price of facemasks has gone totally out of reach for the mass majority. Communities do not have access to water, not to talk about hand-sanitizers. The isolation centres said to be built round the country are nothing but a terrible joke. The security situation has further degenerated in several centres making social distancing impossible as the masses must organize their community defence from criminals who themselves have been forced out due to mass poverty.
As we speak, only 8,300 tests have been carried out nationally, which make its impossible to know how far the virus has spread in the country. Lies and propaganda are currently the order of the day while the virus continues to spread, and the economy continues to collapse.
All these make the solution available far more terrible than the pandemic itself and implies that as time goes on the working people and youth would have no choice but to take their destiny in their own hands.
There cannot be a partial solution to the current pandemic and neo-colonial capitalist economic crises. The price of oil has crashed, and national economy is going deeper in recession and depression.
Mass intervention by workers and youth
It is certain that there will be spikes in the Covid-19 pandemic and there will be urgent needs for hospitalization. The current regimes of the super-rich and their neo-colonial capitalist system have failed and will continue to fail humanity. Only the mass intervention of the working masses and youth can save the situation.
Unfortunately, the leadership of the trade unions, particularly the three trade union centres in Nigeria, the NLC, TUC and ULC, have not lived up to their historic responsibilities, to say the least. They have not adequately risen to defend the interests of rank and file workers. At a time when they are supposed to lead the working people in struggle against the atrocities of the ruling elites, they are found wanting.
The central union leaderships have only flooded media space with demands, without any program of action if they are not met, which is currently the case. It is clear that the working people must fight to reclaim and self-organise from below, towards defending their rights and promoting their own class interests.
The Coalition for Revolution, CORE, therefore, calls on working class activists to get involved in the struggle and to fight, along with all strata of the masses through their unions and organizations by demanding:
• The setting up of workers and rural poor action committees nationally, to coordinate response to the current crises.
• Free mass-testing nationally and treatment of all victims of Covid-19.
• Adequate palliatives and bailout for all, which should be democratically worked-out and distributed by committees of action of the masses.
• The nationalisation of all essential industries under democratic control of the working class.
• System change, NOW! #Revolution Now
Signed
Olaseni Ajai and Baba Aye, Co-Conveners, CORE
April 24, 2020
