President Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Professor Biodun Ogunyemi has attributed the impeachment of late Balarabe Musa in 1981 (in Kaduna State) to his refusal to allow corrupt establishment derail his welfarist agenda for the common people in his state.
Ogunyemi in a release on Sunday entitled “Balarabe Musa: The Exit of an Iconic Revolutionary”, stated that the Union mourns the passing away of the iconic revolutionary “who worked for the socialist transformation of the world’s most populous black nation, Nigeria”
According to the ASUU president, Balarabe Musa’s “subscription to the socialist ideology of putting the welfare and well-being of the poor at the center of governance made him unpopular with the ruling class reactionary elements of his generation”
Professor Ogunyemi maintained that “status quo” politicians did much to distract “him (Musa) from his socialist pathway for the development of Kaduna State and Nigeria”.
The ASUU boss recalled that the Musa’s revolutionary rule which rested on socialist ideology revolutionalised education, health, agriculture, transportation and employment and brought quantum leap in the quality of life of Kaduna peoples.
The Union of Intellectuals stated that the right wing politicians who were aversed to seeing positive changes in the lives of their people conspired to remove Balarabe Musa from office because he opposed institutionalization of corruption and self-aggrandizement.
“ASUU has lost a great ally in Balarabe Musa’s death. He was a major source of inspiration to the consolidation of ASUU principles. He stood by the union all through the thick and thin of the 1980s and 1990s. He participated in activities as a short notice. And if to bid us farewell, Comrade Musa gave the last National Delegates Conference lecture of our Union at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi on the 4th May, 2018. Balarabe’s ideal of a socialist Nigeria would have been a model for Africa.
His departure is a challenge to the people’s radical movement in Nigeria to close ranks and unite the oppressed to form their own party; with the goal of fulfilling Balarabe’s vision of Nigeria as a free and united people living in a socialist country”
