Nigerian government should build more refineries under democratic control and management of the people to end age-long crisis in the oil sector, activists have demanded.
The activists in a virtual public discourse to reflect on the 10 years of Occupy Nigeria with the theme, “Ten years from ‘Occupy Nigeria’ When the Masses “Stormed Heaven: Lessons for Today” orgnised by the Revolutionary Socialist Movement (RSM), noted that only building functional refineries with good management would provide solution to the perennial crises in the country’s oil sector, including fuel scarcity and fraudulent payment of oil subsidy.
A participant in the online public discourse and the National Organiser of RSM, Dimeji Macaulay, called on federal government to end crises in the oil sector by build functional refineries and democratizing it.
Macaulay said that “ten years after Occupy Nigeria, what Nigerians have seen is suffering and SURE P didn’t assure anybody of anything.”
He called for nationalization of key sectors of the economy under democratic management and control of the working people.
Comrade Abbey Trotsky, the National Chairman of Socialist Party of Nigeria, accused Nigeria’s ruling class of being responsible for the crises bedeviling the oil sector.
According to him, despite the January 2012 Occupy Nigeria Mass Movement that shook the country to its foundation, today, Nigeria crises remain the same and unfortunately, the labour leaders were not ready to build a political alternative to rescue Nigerian from the hands of the rogue ruling class.
Similarly, Comrade Marthin added that the struggle of Occupy Nigeria showed that Nigerians were ready to fight back but that the crises were persisting because the ruling class in Nigeria were being used from administration to administration.
“The trade union leaders will continue to do the little they’re doing and we can urge them to do more. Practically, all key sectors of the economy are in worrisome stage; the health sector is in shambles, there is the ASUU strike in education sector,” Marthin said.
Among other speakers at the event were Prof Omotoye Olorode, who, in his contribution, said with the present situation in Nigeria, it was clear that Nigeria needed to be salvaged from the hands of the present ruling capitalist class because “what they’re doing is primitive accumulation of wealth.”
“Because instead of building new refineries, they’re paying businessmen to export oil and pay then again to import it after refining in another country.
“Nigeria roads are bad, and as we speak, we have dirty premium motor spirit (PMS) and also queues are everywhere in Nigeria.
“We have more than enough resources to take care of our people but what we have is greed of the ruling class that have no ideals of what to do with Power,” Olorode said.
