For Nigerian Leftists currently studying or re-studying Nigerian politics, the month of July 2018 has offered fresh and interesting materials. But for me and some close comrades, what has so far happened this month further clarifies—not by any means solved—several existing problems that may here be grouped into four tasks.

The late Ali Mazrui speaks in this article to major political issues relevant to Ethiopia today, as the country undergoes a peaceful revolution.  In his own words, he speaks through my adaptation of his various writings, speeches, and lectures on constitutionalism in Africa.  The reader should also take pleasure in Mazrui’s witticism, in the ease with which he clarifies complicated concepts, and in his neologism (electoral polygamy)—qualities for which he had earned worldwide recognition.  In the article, Mazrui’s ideas have been Ethiopianised where necessary.

He is the President of Rwanda and the current President of the African Union, feted by the Brookings Institute, one of the most venerable ideological pillars of US capital interests. So why is Paul Kagame manifesting more and more signs of paranoia? Let us consider just a few possibilities: 

This article is a situational analysis of the current political environment in Madagascar prior to the November 2018 general elections. 

The article provides historical illustrations on the current political alliances in Nigeria. 

There is a question that has vexed me – and, I am sure, so many others – as to why, after being subjected to so much untold suffering for nearly four decades by the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), any “normal” person would still prefer to vote for their tormentor to keep on tormenting them.

Some reflections on the various political alliances involving the Nigerian Left. 

The rise of Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia and the revival of Africa’s short memory of hate are inseparably linked.

The recent grenade attack in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe has been described by close allies of the president, as an assassination attempt against President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen.  What is a fact is that the president might have politically benefited from that unfortunate event. 

The author examines the current socio-economic and political situation of Mozambique after 43 years of the country's independence from Portugal. 

Although participation in “bourgeois politics”—as we used to call electoral politics—has never been absent from the Nigerian Left’s general programme, it has also not been made a “categorical imperative”. I am, however, now persuaded that it has become generally accepted in the ranks of contemporary Nigerian Leftists that intervention and participation in the country’s electoral struggle—for office or for power, as an organised political force and in alliance or acting separately—have become both categorical and urgent. 

There are renewed calls for an independent state of Igbo people, but what form would Biafra of 2018 look like? The author shares his thinking. 

Ideas we have been told, rule the world. Some ideas could start as being ridiculous or laughable, and then they become global success stories. Like electricity, like rail travel, like air travel, and Facebook, and Twitter, they all started as abstract ideas in the heads of some folks with unusual thoughts. Sometimes, I would marvel at the 21st century leaps of technology and would wonder how we had been able to fare for so long without them. Ideas come as answers to questions raised with the intention of solving problems. 

The author offers a personal assessment of the state of politics in South Africa, just a few months leading to the 2019 national and provincial elections

The political terrain in Nigeria, today has two colossal parties—PDP and APC—vying for power at the national level. However, it appears to be merely déjà vu as the binary trend has had similar appearances in Nigeria’s chequered history and experiment with democratic politics. Indeed, they have all been alignments and realignments of Nigeria’s ruling elite classes.

The election, on 1 June 2018, of a Woman Representative of the Rukungiri District, South Western Uganda from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change was a big blow to the ruling National Resistance Movement. Was this just an ordinary by-election that went wrong for the ruling party or there is more to worry about? In any case, President Museveni's party needs to do some soul-searching. 

Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, which is currently running, was born on 29 May 1999—with Olusegun Obasanjo as inaugural executive president. A year later, on 29 May 2000, the president proclaimed 29 May of every year Nigeria’s “Democracy Day”. The day was also added to the list of the country’s national public holidays. It was a unilateral executive decision—by which I mean that neither the proclamation of “Democracy Day” nor the declaration of public holiday was endorsed, before the acts, by the constitution or any legislative body or any other institution of the Nigerian state or any organised public opinion.

Hillary Clinton, former Democratic presidential candidate, former senator and former first lady of the country, claimed that, “The US democracy is facing threat”. Thence, there’s no scope to consider the cautionary signal in a casual way.

I would like to preface this piece with the following four declarations: One: My dominant interest in Election 2019 is the strengthening of the Nigerian Left in the country’s electoral and non-electoral politics. That is the only real change that can take place and that Nigerian masses deserve. Two: By the Left I mean the aggregate of socialism and popular democracy. This historical-ideological-political tendency is both anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist in orientation and logic. Three: Nigerian Leftism in the present historical epoch goes beyond being a “weapon of criticism”. It is also a programme of liberation. Four: The effectiveness of Left political interventions depends, to a large extent, on Leftists’ understanding of what is actually happening. This is an elementary service the Left owes itself. None of these declarations is new. They are only being pulled together for this piece.

The author offers his views on how to solve the current socio-economic and political problems currently preventing Zambia from achieving its potential.