Despite its rhetoric, the CPM-K is a pro-capitalist, nationalist organisation articulating the interests of sections of the bourgeoisie and middle class. It is positioning itself as an alternative for elites frustrated with Kenya’s alignment with the US, seeing China as a more lucrative alternative.
These attacks are the latest in a series of aerial bombardments by the Nigerian government as part of a protracted campaign against armed groups and insurgents in the north of the country, much of which is effectively outside of federal government control.
Between October and December 2024, 25.1 million Nigerians were estimated to be acutely food insecure by the UN World Food Programme, a figure predicted to rise to 33 million in 2025.
Despite the release of the protesters, the Nigerian government has made clear there will be no retreat from its relentless offensive against workers being plunged into extreme poverty by soaring inflation, food insecurity and high unemployment.
These conditions testify to the powder keg that is Africa and indeed vast parts of the world. Youth-led protests have broken out in several countries over recent months calling for political change.
The protest organisers, NGOs and activist organisations, had called for 10 days of street demonstrations starting August 1. Their demands include: an end to inflation now running at 34 percent, jobs, increased security amid a rise in kidnappings for ransom, a reduction in government costs and electoral, judicial and constitutional reform.
The unions are intent on suppressing massive opposition within the working class to Nigeria’s atrocious living conditions, intensified by the ruling class’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the soaring of prices due to the US-NATO war against Russia in the Ukraine and the government’s disastrous austerity policies.
The film defies the banality of Hollywood narratives and depictions, returning to the cinema the humanity and richness that belong in the arts and that audiences deserve.
The threat of war remains, driven by the global conflict between the imperialist powers and Russia and China erupting in different flashpoints and via various proxies across the globe.
Across Africa, mass protests are being held in South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Senegal, as well as Kenya.
Abbruzzese’s film counters the cruelty of war with an appeal for freedom and joie de vivre.
The film follows a Nigerian woman sexually trafficked to Austria, where she works as a prostitute to support her family back home in Africa and her young daughter in Vienna.
Presented at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April, This Is My Desire opened in movie theaters in the US and Canada in July and August.
Written by Chuko Esiri and directed by Esiri and his twin brother Arie, This Is My Desire (Eyimofe) is a remarkable film about life in Lagos, Nigeria. It is opening in movie theaters in the US and Canada in July and August.
The media clampdown is part of a broader effort by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to keep a lid on the social tinderbox that is Africa’s most populous country and largest economy.
There were some well-made and thoughtful films screened at the recent San Francisco film festival, which give one some hope.
Shell have long sought to evade responsibility via lengthy legal proceedings, many in UK courts, for their part in regular oil spills on the Niger Delta. Even when courts find against Shell, the oil giant manages to manoeuvre its way out of its obligations.
The repression is aimed at criminalising peaceful protests in the interest of Nigeria’s kleptocrats and the transnational energy corporations that have looted the country.
A Lagos-based soldier, speaking anonymously to Reuters, said soldiers from the army 81st Division’s 65th Battalion, based at Bonny Camp, had fired on unarmed civilians at the toll gate.
The deployment of Nigeria’s army followed its announcement last week that it was ready to maintain law and order and deal decisively with “subversive elements and troublemakers.”
