By Prince Justice Faloye
Chief MKO Abiola is credited for bringing about this current democratic disposition by dying for his 1993 presidential mandate that was denied, which eventually led to the 1999 Constitution and return to civilian rule. Though the person of MKO Abiola has been accorded his due respect for his noble struggle with the commeration of June 13, Democracy Day etc but these are all cosmetic. Chief MKO Abiola was refused his mandate not because of his person as a Yoruba, being a likable philanthropist, CIA or Baba Kola, but for his governance ideology and perspectives.
His mandate was refused because of his social democratic values that extended from slave reparations to economic welfarism, which was all about spreading the welfare from the few rich and powerful to create abundance for all. I was in London UK when he came to see the British government but was snubbed down to the level of Minister for Overseas Development, Baroness Chalker. The Rothchilds publication, The Economist, authoratively stated that Western Powers had turned their backs on him despite previous relationship, because they couldn’t afford to have a populist (with socialist ideals) leading the most populous Black nation, especially one asking for slavery reparations from what used to be labelled the Slave Coast.
MKO Abiola Social Democratic ideals would permanently liberate Nigeria and the Black Race from Western global economic hegemony, so it is not only Abiola’s personality that needs to be adorned but the social democratic party that retains those values. Just like the personalization of the ideological South African struggles to Mandela, Nigerians have been blinded to their liberation with the personalization or tribalization of social democracy virtues. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the first to introduce social democracy in Nigeria with his free education, free healthcare, massive social housing estates to uplift the poor. However, despite the clear precise meaning of Afenifere as social democracy, some want to paint it as a Yoruba irredentist group.
There are just two ideological directions governance can take, either neoliberalism (capitalism, money for a few) or social democracy (socialism, abundance for all). Though ancient African civilizations with abundant resources had practiced a crude form of social democracy, the economies of the arid and freezing wildernesses of Eurasia were sustained by conquest and exploitation by a few, institutionalized with religion to become feudalism. It is out of their feudalism that Western capitalism evolved a new economic system based on agriculture plantation slavery whereby people of other races were used to subsidize the Western economy as slaves.
When the slave plantation agriculture economic system evolved into industrialization that didn’t need slaves, White poverty increased due to the restricted use of subsidized African labour. Only a few industrialists continued to prosper and they were not geared to subsidizing socially beneficial production. Despite the available technologies, the private sector couldn’t make cars and radios available to consumers until First World War, when the Western governments subsidized the production of armoured vehicles and over 2,000 other war products that were converted after the War to consumer goods like cars, radio etc which brought an era of prosperity that lasted for a decade until the 1929 Great Depression. Russia that didn’t subsidize its war production fell to socialist revolutions immediately after the war.
With the 1929 Great Economic Depression, Western nations realized that subsidies had to be brought in to uplift the people. Starting with US President FD Roosevelt 1933 New Deal to UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee, economic welfarism was infused into their democracies to bring about social democracy. This brought about the greatest wealth creation and transfer ever in their countries until the Mid-Seventies that the brakes were pulled and they were reversed to discriminative capitalism for a few, now known as neoliberalism. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan pushed neoliberalism at home and abroad, as General Obasanjo was compelled to start it in Nigeria by first withdrawing education subsidies.
During the social democratic economic welfarism era of 1933 to 1978, newly independent African nations had the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo adopt it to uplift his Western region economically, but was restricted from power at the center. With the State Capture of Nigeria by its Western backed army, Social Democrats and socialists were chased underground or killed. With plans to return to democracy, the army banned those to the left of the center, and Afenifere had to camouflage their ideology by choosing army boys like Tinubu as flagbearers.
Chief MKO Abiola came through a different route, being a friend of the West and the Western indoctrinated African army, he was able to wriggle his way to power before his social democratic virtues were revealed, leading to the cancelling of the election results. So despite honouring Abiola post mortem, the real issue of how to uplift everyone in Nigeria remains. To make sure social democracy was sidelined, General Obasanjo that started neoliberalism was brought back to power.
President Tinubu came in to implement the harshest of neoliberal economic policies that increased poverty to two thirds, as productivity slumped and income per head fell to slavery/colonial levels. Neoliberalism thrives on individualism and tribal emilokan prebendalism. Based on the fallacies of free markets and perfect competition, Neoliberalism advocates handing over government responsibilities to the private sector, leading to the few rich getting richer while more people got poorer. It discards the economic logic that subsidies provides income and employment multiplier effects across the economy.
Only a social democratic party has the right ideology to bring about abundance for all as being advocated by its current presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo. The rest of the Presidential Candidates are just tribal representatives of neocolonial neoliberalism. Even though some might cringe comparing Awolowo to MKO Abiola because of his close ties with Western Powers or Islamic North, it is not about the persons or tribe of MKO Abiola, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi or Abubakar Atiku, but the ideology of social democracy and its universal tenets which SDP continues to advocate decades after the death of MKO Abiola.
The citizens of Social Democratic nations like Sweden, Norway, Germany have better quality of living than those of neoliberal UK and USA. So Nigerians don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be economically empowered, the template is being pushed by Social Democratic Party SDP created by Afenifere. If social democracy and economic welfarism are not allowed, then like 1917 Russia Nigeria will face violent socialist revolutions since Neoliberalism ultimately leads to social unrest due to obscene levels of poverty and income inequalitity.
Prince Justice Faloye President ASHE Foundation, Afenifere National Publicity Secretary.
