CULT GROUPS’ ATTACKS, LOCKDOWN EXTENSION AND ORGANISING FOR THE REVOLUTION BY AYO ADEMILUYI

The past three days have seen avalanche of attacks on middle-class and working class people by rampaging right-wing cult groups , out to Rob houses  and loot shops as hunger bites during the lockdown to contain the  spread of Coronavirus. For the most insensitive speech ever, President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the country yesterday, Monday 13th April, 2020 and extended the lockdown by 2 weeks in Lagos, Ogun States and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Needless to say, most states who are lockdown based on orders of their respective States’ governments will join the bandwagon.

Questions abound but some are : who are the cult groups and what social component do they represent? Why the attacks on equally hungry working class and middle class households? What do the formation of Vigilante Committees represent? What are the tasks facing revolutionary activists in the period ahead?

Nothing more confirms the fact that the Coronavirus crisis scenario has been turned to a big sleath by the ruling class parties than the cult groups’ attacks. Huge billions allegedly spend on “poorest of the poor” have gone “audio” (in Nigerian lingo) and gone to the pockets of the “richest of the rich”. Indeed, “hunger virus” took over from Coronavirus.

The cult groups are made up of lumpen proletarian youths, who are victims of prolonged capitalist misrule. Decades of neglect of public education, collapse of industries and   large-scale unemployment , results of neo-liberal policies of privatisation, commercialisation and liberalisation has unfurled a street army.

The attendant failure of government to provide genuine palliatives during the lockdown exhausted the patience and benefit of doubt that most working class people gave this regime. It was clear something was about to give way. It was just a matter of time.

VIGILANTE COMMITTEES MUST ORGANISE YOUTH INTO ACTION

The formation of Vigilante on inter-ethnic and inter-religious basis confirm the instinctive social capacity of oppressed layers to understand that collective solidarity is important in combating physical attacks. The speed of the sprout of these Vigilante Committees show the possibility for social solidarity in the period of physical distancing.

The task ahead is to strengthen the Vigilante Committees ans rally them on statewide basis both in Lagos and Ogun States to set out to engage their respective States’ governments for access and control of essential supplies such as food , drugs, testing equipment and so forth.

The Vigilante Committees must also be openly and democratically run with appeal to the youths in the Communities to join its ranks in all processes of decision making on all matters of food, drugs and testing equipment and location of Isolation Centres.

It is in this way that the social base of the right-wing cult groups can be deflated and many of their layers won over to the side of the working and oppressed people maintaining barricades in their respective communities.

This is absolutely not rocket science . In Ajah, arguably a stronghold of cult groups which have seen a big battle on Saturday, 11th April, 2020, the Vigilante Committees won over many of the disoriented youth in the cult groups to their side of the barricades through discussion on and provision of food and other essential supplies through collective contribution. This is a music of the future.

LOCKDOWN EXTENSION WITH REPRESSION WILL LEAD TO BIGGER ANARCHY

The announcement of two weeks extension of the lockdown  by President Muhammadu Buhari was received with anger and protests at most barriacdes during the night. However , the response of the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioners of Police in both Lagos and Ogun States show that the state is not correctly reading the handwriting on the wall.

Take the two Commissioners of Police and Ogun States for instance. The Channels TV website confirmed that the duo said the whole unrest are “cult clashes” and “bonfires” should stop.

What the two Commissioners fail to recognise is that the role of the police has been side-stepped with the emergence of the Vigilante Committees . It would take double repression of the barricades of the Vigilante Committees and the rampaging right-wing groups to reinforce their authority. That will be an unwinnable war for the police will its well-known numerical and structural weaknesses .

The Inspector General of Police , on his part , is credited with the statement of deploying two Intervention  squads into Lagos and Ogun States. This is a replay of strong arm tactics against social crisis.

Without genuine palliatives getting to the common and ordinary people , the unrests will continue unabated. The failure of the war on Boko Haram despite huge investment of State funds without concrete social welfare programmes is there for all to see.

BUILD VIGILANTE COMMITTEES INTO ORGANS OF ACTION AND CONTROL

The way forward is to strengthen the Vigilante Committees that have emerged thus far into organs of coordination and control of distribution of essential supplies and organisation of street and neighbourhood protests in the coming period.

The Vigilante Committees must be rallied into statewide structures in Ogun and Lagos States that can call “days of action” when necessary and flexibly apply tactics in engaging their respective States’ governments and more importantly the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The only way out is STRUGGLE and the field is green and ripen for revolutionary activists to seize the moment and channel the boiling anger on the streets into a rolling unstoppable Revolutionary mass movement that can alter the events of the coming period in the interests of the oppressed and working people.

AYO ADEMILUYI

Langbasa-Ajah Barricade , Eti-Osa Local Government

14/04/2020