Oyo State chapter of the Democratic Socialist Movement, DSM, on Saturday, held a public symposium in Ibadan.
At the symposim themed ‘The Rising Insecurity: Ethnic Coloration And The Way Forward,’ multiple speakers provided insights into the problems bedeviling the Nigerian state.
Speaking with newsmen after the programme, the chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress in Oyo State, Comrade Kayode Martins, said Nigerians need to rise up to the occasion by educating themselves on the role they must play to solve the problems bedeviling the country.
“It is high time we educate ourselves. Education is not limited to the four corners of the classrooms. What exactly is wrong with Nigeria. Something is wrong. People in Asorock might be pretending to have solutions but we should come up with something substantial. There is a fire on the roof and everyone of us must be at alert,” he said.
Similarly, another speaker, Comrade Kazeem Akinrinade of the Campaign for Workers’ Alternative, noted that discussions from the program indicates that Nigerians have enormous power which they must tap from.
“The need for us to be conscious enough to see that power in us. That all what is missing out is just that consciousness and immediately that consciousness is sought, we just solved that problem.”
On insecurity, the NLC chair, who was a speaker at the event, maintained that the root of the rising cases goes beyond poverty.
“I wouldn’t want to limit it to poverty alone. When a crime is committed and it is not checked in one way or the other, you have given room for further occurence. For example, on the issue of kidnapping, we tell them not to negotiate because when you give them money, you are telling them to come back for more.
“Those people that collected millions of naira the other time, if it is an issue of poverty, they wouldn’t have come back for such but we have given room for such so the government need to rise up to the occasion. Security wise, the country is in a bad shape.”
Meanwhile, the acting national chairperson of the Socialist Party of Nigeria, Abbey Trosky, says Nigerians should begin to organise themselves to ensure they are secure.
This, according to him, became pertinient because members of the ruling clas have shown they lack the capacity to do so.
“There is a need for the working people to begin to organise themselves toward ensuring there is an adequate protection of their life and properties. The general submission here is that none of the members of the ruling class is capable to guarantee an adequate protection of the life and property of the working people, so therefore, there is a need for the people to realise that,”he noted.
