Efio-Ita Nyok|23 November 2015|12:05am
About the later part of last week, the Personal Assistant -Media, to Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State, Mr. Inok Solomon, took to his social media account (Facebook) to rationalise the administrative policies of his principal within the context of Marxism. His attempt has been adjudged by a Cross River born Canadian based University don, Obasesam Okoi, to be inept and puerile.
If we recall, a similar fate attended the same Inok Solomon when he attempted to employ Marx to justify the political activities of Ayade. Then, he met serious profound backlash in Emmanuel 'Eau' Undie who lampooned him for wrongfully invoking the intellectual temper of the legendary Karl Marx.
Below is an excerpt of the reaction of Okoi:
*'My brother Inok Solomon. Please let's have a civil conversation because I usually don't comment on things like this for personal reasons. But if I must be frank with you, your analysis of Marx is a complete departure from Marx's thinking on class structure in relation to
capitalism and economic development and a serious contradiction with Ayade's economic rhetoric.
Marx did not undermine capitalism. In fact he believes capitalism was necessary for the development of civil society and he saw class
conflict emerging from the tensions between employers who own the means of production and the workers who sell their labor power for wages.
Isn't this what Ayade is doing by building a garment factory? Isn't this exactly what Marx had
criticized? Marx was uncomfortable because he believes the proletariats are being exploited because they are not rewarded according to their
full potential. This was the reason he proposed communism as the ideal form of government.
Just yesterday you made a serious effort to convince us that Ayade's economic policy is likened to John
Maynard Keynes or economic keynesianism. Today its Marxism. Have you taken a step back to
evaluate these ideological underpinnings before connecting them with Ayade's rhetoric? Are you
trying to identify Ayade with communism? Or what?
I don't understand this article one bit. You've said a lot but very little about economic development. You
see why some of us believe the governor is confused? Maybe you – the media team are confusing the public because this analysis is
contradictory and laughable to an enlightened citizen.
Please don't just cite quotations from classical thinkers to back up Ayade, make sure you understand what these thinkers are talking about. This will save this government all the public
embarrassment.
When a governor and his government gathers unintelligent set of wannabes policy advocates to
talk on and defend government policy directions, the public are led into a direction-less and confusing
debates.'
What follows is Mr Solomon's exegesis on Marxism that earlier on prompted the reaction of Mr. Okoi:
*X-Raying Governor Ayade's Project Cross River with the eyes of Karl Marx.
By Inok Solomon.
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people"- Karl Marx.
"Government must have Business with Business"-
Ayade.
The ideas of Marx have never been more relevant than they are today.
It is 132 years since the death of Karl Marx. But why should we commemorate a man who died in
1883? According to Alan Wood, "when we speak of the relevance of Karl Marx today we refer not to
cemeteries but to ideas—ideas that have withstood the test of time and have now emerged triumphant,
as even some of the enemies of Marxism have been reluctantly forced to accept. The economic
collapse of 2008 showed who was outdated, and it was certainly not Karl Marx".
Why is Karl Marx Ideas of importance today in Cross River State? Simply put, Cross Riverians are fearful of their future. At this moment, many have left reasoning and are holding so strong to
judgements that have serious economic cancer. Given our stand today, we only need to balance our
economic approaches to great economic thinking. Sighting said, "We are in an era of more education
than flash governance, a period of compulsory Manuel for every citizen".
Not so long ago, Gordon Brown confidently proclaimed “the end of boom and bust”. After the crash of 2008 he was forced to eat his words. The crisis of the euro shows that the bourgeoisie has no idea how to solve the problems of Greece, Spain
and Italy which in turn threaten the future of the European common currency and even the EU itself.
This can easily be the catalyst for a new collapse on a world scale, which will be even deeper than
the crisis of 2008.
In July 2009, after the start of the recession The Economist held a seminar in London to discuss the
question: What is wrong with Economics? This revealed that for a growing number of economists
mainstream theory has no relevance. Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman made an astonishing
admission. He said “the last 30 years development in macroeconomic theory has, at best, been spectacularly useless or, at worst, directly harmful.” This judgement is a fitting epitaph for the theories of bourgeois economics.
“Consider, for example, Marx’s prediction of how the inherent conflict between capital and labor
would manifest itself. As he wrote in Das Kapital, companies’ pursuit of profits and productivity would
naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an ‘industrial reserve army’ of the
poor and unemployed: ‘Accumulation of wealth at
one pole, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery at the other pole.”
The above statement sum up the fears of Cross Riverians. The much talk about; 1. Lack of Vision, 2.
No transparency, 3. Lack of Directions, 4. Disregard for local talent, 5. Disregard for Due Process etc. points to the misconceptions of the Economic Policies of Ayade's administration and the past failed policies of Privatization that have left accumulation of wealth at one pole, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery at the other pole. Those who misunderstand Ayade, the slogan of the hour for them is austerity, cuts and falling living standards.
In every country the bourgeoisie raises the same war cry, but pass it through the common people who fail to understand their aims: “We must cut public expenditure!” Every government in the capitalist world, whether right or “left” is in reality
pursuing the same policy. This is not the result of the whims of individual politicians, of ignorance or bad faith (although there is plenty of this also) but a graphic expression of the blind alley in which the capitalist system finds itself. And today many of our Brothers and Sisters seem to follow this line of the Bourgeoisie thoughts, " we must cut public expenditure" we must reduce government, why is Governor Ayade expanding
Government? It is unacceptable.
The slave Masters, pick out from the slaves few loyalist and make them slave overseers, that singular honour, make them feel and think that all the slave master dose is
right. We are a lost world, with no knowledge of time. It is on record that sometime in October, Governor
Ayade kicked against privatisation, in his words, “it is important to emphasize that privatization, which
has characterized the Nigerian economy for a long period, is totally unacceptable; where government
takes public asset and sell into the hand of few people.
That is why I am very proud of Mr.
President. Our President understands this very well and I’m sure that in the course of time, we will understand what he is doing. And when the results of his actions begin to manifest, Nigerians will know that he has come prepared and committed to take us to the path of glory.” This is no political talk, the fact that Governor Ayade
is going out sourcing for investor across the world is never because He is undermining the local investors, but we should understand the concept of local investors with no technology.
Today, Nigeria as a country pay for technology not labour. Many have asked, which company is handling the Garment Factory? Talking about the Garment Factory, from studies of countries like Bangladesh with 80 percent of total exports coming from cloths making, 80 percent of workers in these factories are women. One will ask, Are those working at the Garment Factories not Nigerians? The Garment Factory is more labour intensive. The
Bakassi Deep Sea Port is what no right thinking Cross Riverian will say no it is not necessary, giving
the number of jobs, skilled and unskilled. The value chain, and it multiplier effects in job creations. The Superhighway, is In fact, another great project that have and inclusive economic impact both within and outside the State.
Karl Marx believed more in the Government developing and sharing the wealth of the society equally, and that can never be possible when our major sectors are privatised or left in the hands of very few. Idealist method sets out from what people
think and say about themselves. But Marx explained that ideas do not fall from the sky, but reflect more or less accurately, objective situations,
social pressures and contradictions beyond the control of men and women. But history does not
unfold as a result of free will or conscious desires of the “great man”, kings, politicians or philosophers. On the contrary, the progress of society depends on
the development of the productive forces, which is not the product of conscious planning, but develops
behind the backs of men and women. It is therefore, true that we all, both young and old must be part of the future we all long for. The
Destination have to be reach, we must all support Governor Ayade to build our State for the future. Gandhi will say, "make that change you want to see".'
Feelers in the state suggest very strongly that the varied woes that have characterised Governor Ayade's public image stems from the ineptitude of his media team as embodied in Christian Ita(Special Adviser [Media]), Inok Solomon (Personal Assistant [Media]) and Eval Asikong(Personal Assistant [Social Media]). Ayade's media team has been deemed to be intellectually unfit and psychological misfits for the job they have been appointed to do for their principal, the governor, who has been labelled amongst many things, 'the digital governor'(DG).
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Writer, Blogger & the Editor of negroidhaven.com
