EARLY WRITINGS (1980 - 1986)

During the early 1980s, I was a very active member of the Marxist-Leninist Movement of Nigeria (MLMN) in the Ilorin and Kwara State area. One of the many roles I played was to be Editor of an underground journal titled HANKALI, that was distributed mainly amongst members of the working class in the local factories in Ilorin and neighboring towns; amongst railway workers in Offa; construction workers; printing and publishing workers; workers at the Nigerian Sugar Company in Bacita, and within the trade union movement in general. Because it was an underground publication, the working people often wondered where it came from; they lapped up the content; wrote letters to the editor which allowed us to monitor the effect of our publication amongst the working people. Forty years later 2023, I found a few copies of the journal amongst a collection of my papers. The copies had originally been kept with a proletarian comrade who worked in the Nigerian Match Company in Ilorin, for safekeeping. He had them with him from 1983, for a total of 33 years, until he returned them to me in 2016! I am hereby presenting some of these writings from 40 years ago, in 1983.