“THE NIGERIAN STATE AND THE CRISES OF CAPITALISM”

A Book Review by Femi Obayori

PREAMBLE

“The Nigerian State and the Crises of Capitalism” is the title of the book before us. The
author leaves no one in doubt as to his intention. Balogun, Babatunde has written a book on the
crises of capitalism and how they have manifested or reflected in the operations and realities of
the Nigerian state. The title gives the impression of an author who does not have the patience of
surrounding his message in palisades of ambiguity. He purports to speak straight to the question
posed, perhaps because he, apart from being a practical mobiliser of the ordinary people, is also
someone conscious of the tendency on the part of readers in the cyber age to be impatient with
the imperfectly direct. How far he has been able to keep faith with this titular impressionism and
utilised it to convey his message without mortgaging artistic form for content and content for
artistic form is the fulcrum upon which this review seeks to establish a balance.

EXTERNAL FORM

The book is a 292-page work, a substantial tome by the standard of books that roll off the
printing press these days. In terms of external form, it is well bound. The front cover has a green
(actually lemon green)-white-green background; something to remind us of the Nigerian flag.
“The Crises of Capitalism” in red - colour of danger or crises, if you like. But beyond these
subliminal messages, is the graphic depiction in the Nigerian map which dominates the lower
mid-section of the cover: rocket-propelled grenade and machine gun-wielding militants;
dilapidated, death trap roads; squalid conditions in school; and labour-led popular protest. Such
is the graphical presentation of the crisis of capitalism as manifested in Nigeria – collapse of
state apparatus, collapse of infrastructure, neglect of the youth and the future and unrelenting
resistance on the part of the people.

The back cover is no less revealing and appealing – lemon green cover blobs of briefs About the
Author and About the Book and a passport size photograph of the author inset.

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The internal form is no less appealing - carefully chosen bold type (new times Roman) with
generous margins which are well aligned. The chapter titles are bold and the pages carry
headers. Simply put, the touch of professionalism in the design of the work is self-evident.

THE MESSAGE

The book is made up of two parts - Section One and Section Two. Section One, which I will call
the kernel of this work, has twelve chapters and covers a total of 198 pages. Section Two runs
from page 199 to page 269. The remaining pages from 271 to 292 consist of the index.

There is a preface where the leaves the reader in no doubt as to what to expect. The book was
motivated by the need to address the various political convulsions the country had gone through
since independence which, of course, resulted from its chosen capitalist economy. The author
demonstrates that increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) pari passu with increasing poverty
is not just a feature of Nigeria but an immanent law of capitalism. Here, he begins an
unrelenting attack on neo-liberalism and says boldly that socialism, a system predicated on the
collection effort of the people, is the viable alternative.

Section One

The first chapter, “Introduction: The Nigeria State and the Crises of Capitalism,” instructively
opens with a quotation from Karl Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party “The history of all
hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” Here, the author asserts that the ruling
classes in Nigeria are handmaidens of imperialism who have not been able to identify the real
problem of Nigeria. According to him, capitalism as a system of private or corporate ownership
of capital goods exists in different forms depending on the extent to which the price mechanism
is used, the degree of competitiveness, and government intervention in market. It is
characterised by unequal development, manifesting as exclusive appropriation of means of
production by one class, international stratification and strife.

Well know authorities such as Samir Amin, Wallerstein and Ebenezer Babatope are some of the
resources drawn upon to hit the point home. Contrasting with socialism, which is based on public
ownership in the means of production and driven by the need to use the product for the benefit of
all.

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Further into this chapter, from page 8 onwards, the author traces the history of how the various
nations and nationalities that make up the present Nigeria were drawn into the capitalists fold by
war, religion and monetary control spanning prohibition of all traditional currencies, introduction
of the British pound sterling, new taxation and a new tariff system. Identifying clearly four
different stages of exploitation of Africa, namely, period of European slave trade; period of
company mercantile capitalism; period of colonial domination; and period of colonialism, he
showed that the Amalgamation of 1914 which birthed the Nigeria we have today was purely in
the political economics interest of the colonizer with the consent of the people.

According to him, the independence of 1960 has not changed this reality and the result for the
people has been monumental corruption, bad governance, poor planning, absence of law and
order, injustice, collapse of infrastructure and unemployment. Unemployment affects over 60
percent of the youth and over 70 percent of the population lives in squalor. The contradiction
between town and country, an endemic disease of capitalism, is clearly manifested. The result is
a society that is highly factionalised based on kleptomania and “chop-I-chop” and “Nigerians are
either too poor or too rich”.

But if the reader allows himself to get too excited by such succinct delivery on our reality and is
already losing his breath, then he or she needs to summon a doctor in order to be able to read
through the remaining part of this chapter. At page 18 the author comes with a masterful
declaration “The bomb of corruption and bad governance has exploded and all Nigerians are
feeling the consequences.” He therefore goes further to tell us that “after critical measures of
programmes of successive political administrations since independence at rescuing the nation
from its current state and the brick walls it met I come to the conclusion that it is only a socialist
ideology based government that can save Nigeria from the blood sucking neoliberal economic
system”. He also does not leave us in doubt that he favours a non-violent peaceful, revolution,
through the ballot. The remaining part of the introductory chapter is devoted to an overview of
the chapters is Section One.

Chapter two – “Corruption and Misgovernance in Nigeria,” shows clearly how Nigeria was
conceived in corruption, born in corruption, nurtured in corruption and about to expire in
corruption - capitalist corruption. According to the author, “the amalgamation of the Northern
and Southern protectorates was the first act of corruption in Nigeria” (pg. 24). Lamenting how

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“money culture” has taken over the polity, he exposes how the military and civilian arms of the
Nigerian ruling class have collaborated in the rapacious looting of the country’s economy. This
chapter also delves into the types of corruption commonly faced in Nigeria, namely, Bribery,
Nepotism, Embezzlement, Extortion and Influential peddling, with the net affect being
“impoverishment of the mass of the people, underdevelopment of the entrepreneurial class, the
development of an elite lacking in the control of the means of production.” Overall, corruption
compromises development anti-corruption crusades whether by EFCC, ICPC and the like are not
succeeding and could not have succeeded in the circumstance. Instead, the author shows clearly
that EFCC has become a political tool for the victimisation of political opponents. According to
the author, capitalisms as a system of wholesale organised corruption cannot find any meaningful
solution to corruption. Socialist system of government is the answer, he concludes.

In Chapter Three – “Nigeria and the Burden of Insecurity,” the author takes time to catalogue the
major security problems confronting Nigeria namely, political and electioneering conflicts, social
and economic agitations, ethno-religious crises, ethnic utilities, boundary disputes, cultism and
organised crimes. He examines the implications for individual and national survival and pins
everything down to the twin cause of bad leadership and corruption. Our institutions and
leadership are non-accountable, non-democratic and non-people friendly.

But, interestingly, in this chapter the author says a lot of improvement could still be made even
within the context of capitalist system that Nigeria operates. The security forces, he suggests,
need to upgrade their machineries.

In the chapter “Political Office Holders’ Pay; Official Rape of the Treasury,” the author
addresses a matter that has been bothering the minds of both progressive politicians and the
ordinary masses alike. Here he makes so many daunting statements. For example, “It is high
time that our politicians understand that the country is not rich.” Here we have an avalanche of
fact and figures on how a rapacious ruling elite peopling both the legislative and executive arms
of government carry out expropriation of the entire society by primitive accumulation. Such
rape, according to him, is perpetrated under the guise of security vote. His immediate solution to
this lies in “working out a ceiling system for the remuneration of public servants and tying same
to what is obtainable in certain professions.”

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In Chapter Five –“Ethnic Rivalry, a Threat to National Sovereignty,” the author posits that ethnic
rivalry manifests in every group regarding the other as competitor for everything and not a
compatriot. He takes the reader through a broad array of notions that underpin the national
question. He dispels as illusory the liberal thought that ethnicity and sub-nationalism would
disappear in the currency of modernization (p. 77). Ethnicity is, according to him, an important
subset of the national question. He, however, points out that neither the military nor the civilian
governments, post independence, can absolve themselves of the responsibility for heightening of
ethnic tension and conflict.

Having itemised the consequences of contemporary ethnic nationalism, including wastage of

human resources, increasing gaps in social relations, threat to security of life and property among
others, the author goes ahead to make clear and likely to be controversial declarations: “I believe
in the unity and indivisibility of Nigeria,” “I am not an admirer of advocacy of a Sovereign
National Conference of Ethnic Nationalities” e.t.c. But in any case, he wants the Nigerian state to
be reconstituted so at to endow it with a modicum of neutrality, objectivity and justice in its
operation. Purposeful leadership is a requirement, according to him, for tackling the challenges
which multi-ethnic nationalism poses for governance.

In the next two chapters, Six and Seven, the author takes a look at how capitalist crises have
manifested in party politics in Nigeria. “PDP Hegemony and the Manipulation of a Multi-Party
System in Nigeria” takes a look at how the dark cloud of one party state has loomed over the
political landscape since the First Republic till date and the unpalatable consequence for the
future of democracy in Nigeria. “Selective Democracy: Nigeria Experience Since 1999”
examines the danger posed by lack of internal democracy, imposition of candidates and
godfatherism. The objectivity of the author as a public analyst is brought to bear here as even the
so-called progressive party ACN was not spared. He takes a swipe at the party for lack of
internal democracy.

Notably, a large section is devoted to a rather didactic discourse on internal democracy with
clearly itemised criteria for and implication of lack of internal democracy. Finally, he gives five
approaches to resolving the problem. For him strong, virtile, focused, mass based political parties
are required for national development.

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Chapter Eight – “Boko Haram, Another Face of Biafra,” more than demonstrate the capacity of
the author to take on contemporary issues with the ease of well honed journalist’s tools. The
opening lines say it all “Nigeria is a country of cyclical crisis. The history, dynamics and
challenges of our development are deeply rooted in tension, conflicts, instability and insecurity
…” This chapter is no doubt the product of painstaking research given the details on the origin
and dynamics of Boko Haram, particularly the sociological and political context.

The political economist and historical materialist in the author are brought to the fore here, just
as his capacity for daunting proclamations: “at the risk of simplifying the security challenges in
the country, our biggest single national security crisis is not Boko Haram. It is the total state
failure, corruption and criminalization of the state. We can condemn Boko Haram for their resort
to violence and terror tactics, but we cannot deny the context and circumstances behind their
emergence” (pg. 32). And while not ignoring immediate solutions to the problem, the author
once again does not fail here too drum it to our ears that socialism is the alternative to capitalism.

“Removal of Oil Subsidy and its Resistance: Battle for the Soul of a Nation” presents once more
in a more refreshing way, properly situated in the context of this book, common notions on oil
subsidy. For the author, it is no exaggeration to qualify the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria as a
curse rather than a blessing (pg. 138). With highly revealing data, he shows that subsidy is the
result of infrastructural failures plaguing the country. He shows clearly that there was never a
time there was subsidy in the country; what remains the recurring decimal is corruption in the oil
industry.

After concluding this chapter by making appeal to the working people to be passionate about the
course of the enthroning people’s government that will be able to use the country’s oil wealth for
the people’s welfare, the author zooms headlong to the next chapter “Labour Movement and the
Nigerian State.” The author traces the history of the labour movement in Nigeria, how it has
grown from a movement defending the interest of workers to a veritable platform for people’s
struggle just as is the case in the rest of the world. The assault on the movement by successive
military administrations and the raging bull of globalisation are accorded due attention. How this
has shaped the movement is highlighted and the strategic roles and thrust of trade unions

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enumerated. He does not also fail to see the strategic role of building alliance and coalition with
civil society organizations. But we are also told that the Labour Party is only “labour” in name.
Finally, the author stresses the need for the labour movement to critically engage neoliberalism
and focus on enthroning socialist government.

In Chapter Eleven – “Capitalism and its Failure.” The author returns with renewed vigour and
vehemence, more didactically, to the central theme of this work, The Crises of Capitalism. Its
origin is traced, the various stages, viz., Financial Capitalism , Industrial Capitalism, Monopoly
Colonialism and its new faces of Welfarism and State Capitalism clearly elucidated. And having
made a masterful use of recent resources in the literature home and abroad, he alerts the reader to
the drive towards second colonisation and the need for the youth and working people to unite in
fighting the scourge of capitalism and substitute it with socialism.

In the last chapter of Section One - “Socialism, Panacea to Nigeria’s Woes” the author takes a
brief lash at the squalor, irrationality and dehumanising degeneration that is capitalism before
going ahead to define socialism, his often reiterated alternative.

And as though conscious of the questions readers might raise based of socialist experiences in
the defunct Soviet Union and its satellites, he is quick to clarify the type of socialism he
advocates. First, he wants us to admit that socialism cannot be achieved in one country, but must
spread all over the world and become international for it to be sustainable and to survive. “Chief
means of production must be brought under the democratic management and control of genuine
peoples’ representatives; it would be a multiparty system with guarantee of all democratic rights,
including freedom of the press and freedom of religion among others (pg. 186). Finally, he takes
the reader through what he calls “the strategies for the enthronement of socialism in Nigeria.”

Now, simply put, the first part of Section One is a sound elucidation of the manifestations of the
crises of capitalism in the Nigerian state. It is well researched. The chapters are well ordered,
coherent and follow a clear charted path, which will leave no reader in doubt as to the intellectual
and journalistic acumen of the author. After such superlative and in-depth rendition, one would
have expected the book to end, but then like I said, there is a second part, which is a collection of

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newspaper articles, as any keen reader would see. Such a definitive book should just have ended
at page 199. But then as a reviewer, justice would not have been done without taking a look, if
only a cursory one, at the chapters in section two.

Section Two
All the articles in Section Two are no doubt carefully crafted, concise and based on
incontrovertible facts. The first three articles in this section return the reader to the well trodden
path of conflicts and security. The impact of the Nigerian military on the political Landscape
from the Country’s Independence to Date examines the metamorphoses of role of the military.
For effective discharge of their calling, the author opines that the military needs to stay clear of
politics.

Unjust Killings in Jos: Threat to National Unity and Security and Mend and the Pillage of
Nigeria show the inability of the Nigerian State to cope with security issues arising from ethnic
and community conflict/violence. The government is admonished to pay more attention to
dealing with the causes rather than effects.

Two articles, “Prioritisation of Education: Antidote to Nigeria’s Technological Backwardness”

and “Unemployment of Youths, Bane of Terrorism in Nigeria” focus on youth empowerment
through appropriate education and creation of employment opportunities. Here, the author’s
socialistic bend as against the neoliberalism being promoted by the western powers and their
Nigeria comprador bourgeois lackeys is brought to bear without any declaration or label.
Education cannot be left in private hands and it is the responsibility of the State to keep the youth
employed or the society faces perdition.

“Pension Funds Loot: Administrative Rape of Workers’ Gratuity” and “Gender Imbalance, Bane
of Mental Poverty in Nigeria” are two short articles which I think are well written but deserve
even deeper treatment than accorded then here. These are subjects which speak to the
psychological dimension of the crises of capitalism; there is a mass psychotic, mass madness
dimension to it which I will encourage the author to explore perhaps in future edition of this
work.

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The remaining six articles in Section Two from “Political Violence and the 2011 General
Election” through “Restoration of Stolen Mandate in Osun: Judicial Commitment to the
Sustenance of Democracy in Nigeria” reads like a catalogue of travails. And you begin to
wonder whether a people need must go through all of that to choose their leaders. On a lighter
note, in the last lines of this section the author congratulates the people of Osun State, the Action
Congress of Nigeria, progressives and the Judiciary in its stride to consolidate democracy. I think
I should as well join him in congratulating Ogbeni himself for his personal perseverance,
resilience and doggedness. As the Yoruba would say, when on sees and elephant, let us confess
to seeing an elephant, who dares say “Oh, I could see a slight object” when an elephant happens
by?

THE DOWNSIDE
No doubt an outstanding work, there are areas where I believe much improvements could have
been made. One very apparent shortcoming of this work is its lack of graphic presentation of
facts. “The crises of capitalism” is better understood in terms of economic wellbeing.
Unemployment rates, inflation rates and indices of development have to be statically presented.
The very substructure on which the crises in the superstructure are foundationed is not well
represented in this work. Even where the facts are copiously presented, as in “Political
OfficeHolders’ Pay; Official Rape of the Treasury” (page. 53 – 69), tables, graphs, pie charts and
other pictorial representations are not just there, thus making the whole thing boring like a
catalogue of bad harvests.

Also, there are a few rather bombastic statements: for instance at page 83 he says “I believe in
the unity and indivisibility of Nigeria,” as if there is something divine about the unity and as if
history, even recent history, has not given the lie to such divine illusions in other parts of the
world – Eastern Europe, East Timor, Sudan e.t.c. This to me is undialectical, stands history on its
head and plays into the hands of Nigerian ruling hegemonists who benefit from the present rot.

At page 112, the author writes that, “ultimately, political parties promote national interests.
Therefore, where a party promotes sectional interest or personal interests, it ceases to be a

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political party.” But we all know that this is not necessarily true. Indeed, one of the problems in
Nigeria is the illusion that all parties must be national.

However, the most important area where I think the author and publisher need must address is
the typographical errors with which this great work is adorned. Even names of some public
figures are miss-pelt in places. For instance, at page 6 Ebinezer instead of Ebenezer, at page 28
ola and Oni instead of Ola Oni, at page 55 Demeji Bankole instead of Dimeji Bankole. Some
tenses also have to be overhauled. Every work of writing, whether literary or political, is an art
and must be beautiful both in its internal and external forms. And the writer must never tire to
perfect his work, as Juan Ramon Jimenez says in The Perfectionist or even rewrite himself in the
words of Barbara Godorecci (After Machiavelli: Rewriting and the Hermeneutic Attitude).
Writing is not a one-off thing. It is a continuous process of birth and rebirth.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.

Conclusively, this is a great work. It is definitive and lucid enough. It is a commendable

contribution to the national and global intellectual resources from a young man in an age when
many of our youth are already lost to the yahoo scourge and political brigandage. I therefore
recommend it to all categories of people seeking genuine and people-friendly alternative to the
current rot called Nigeria as presently constituted. The youth, workers, women and students need
to read it. Also, our friends in government, socialists, Marxists and all manners of progressives
who find themselves pragmatically constrained to participate in bourgeois politics need to drink
from the free fount supplied by this young man Babatunde Balogun, so that the right road is not
lost to them and they may not be swept off the rickety bridge of populism by the floodwater of
illusion while riding on a cockroach’s horse.

- Comrade Femi Obayori

11th March, 2014

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