BY
DR. SALEH MARI MAINA
Being a paper presented at the Lenin Centenary International Conference, January 22-23, 2024, Abuja
Since its emergence into sovereign nationhood, the contemporary Nigerian state has been characterized by policies and programmers pursued by successive administrations aimed at subjugating the Nigerian working class to the dictates of capitalism and imperialism. This tendency is the inevitable outcome of the incorporation of Nigeria into the mainstream of global capitalist economy which has necessitated the adoption of the capitalist path of development by the ruling class and their international collaborators. Thus, since its emergence as a sovereign nation, the ruling class has toyed with one type of strategy for capitalist development to another ranging from liberal, Keynesian to neo-liberal economic systems all of which are founded on the ideals of exploitation, oppression and marginalization of the working and other oppressed peoples. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the condition of the Nigerian working class in the past, present and future in the context of the neo – imperialist concept of globalization, a development that is designed to further entrench Nigeria into the network of the global capitalist system. Using the class theory as the paradigm of analysis and content analysis as the methodology for data collection, the paper contends that globalization is another face of imperialism which poses grave dangers to the interests of the working and other oppressed peoples. The paper recommends a fundamental change with socialist transformation as the most viable way out of the exploitative and oppressive conditions imposed by imperialism.
