“When beggars die, there are no comets seen/The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes”- Spoken by Calpurnia in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
The truism in these immortal words of the celebrated English writer, William Shakespeare, has been reflected copiously in the death of Comrade Abiodun (Biodun) Aremu aka Aremson, on Sunday, 12 October 2025; the entire Nigerian Left is gutted and every comrade is literally on fire. Rage is a mild word to describe the instant, nay, spontaneous reaction to the nature of death that snatched this priceless gem of a revolutionary activist away from us.
There is no one who has had anything to do with popular activism or the Nigerian Left that would not know or would not have come across Fidelista Biodun Aremu aka Aremson. Right from our university activism days, beginning with the “Ali Must Go” students protests against the pricing of university education beyond the reach of the poor by the then military Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, and Col. Ahmadu Ali, his Federal Commissioner of Education (as they then were), the Nigerian Left, made up principal of university lecturers and conscious students, has struggled to challenge a capitalist system that ensures that the resources of the country are mindlessly apportioned in a manner that disproportionately marginalizes the poor in favour of a tiny class of the nouveau riche.
From those early days, Aremson had been in the vanguard of the struggle. He was just one comrade among many others; still, he shone like a million stars. What stood him out was his sincerity of purpose, to put it mildly. There is hardly any comrade who knows Aremson or has had the opportunity of working with him who will not be impressed by his honesty, commitment, selflessness, and untiring spirit. He was self-sacrificing. His focus never shifted or wavered – not even in the midst of adversity.
And these were countless at personal and group levels; not to talk of the incessant, nay, ceaseless harassment, intimidation and oppression from a decrepit Nigerian state ever fearful and deeply suspicious of patriotic individuals and groups intent on challenging a decadent system that holds the vast majority of the people down. In all sincerity, the Nigerian Left has lost a gem in the passage of Aremson. Hence, the outpouring of grief in the same measure as the outpouring of tributes and encomiums. That is one.
Another was the nature of the death that snatched this priceless revolutionary worker away from us. He was said to have been hit by a hit-and-run driver. A comrade who braved a countless number of adversities; who survived innumerable instances of harassment by a repressive neo-colonial State, and who recently fought tooth-and-nail to overcome the crippling attack of stroke – now succumbed to death at the feet of a hit-and-run driver!
The consequences of a failed – or failing – Nigerian state is often shared by all, even if not always in equitable measures. Those creating and sustaining the conditions for a failed state and those at the receiving end of it often end up its victims. But more than those creating and sustaining the conditions for their selfish personal and class benefits, those at the receiving end of the system suffer more from its consequences; hence Aremson could find himself in a position where he was hit by a hit-and-run car. It is debatable if the same fate would have befallen him as it did had he also compromised by joining them, as they say.
The contradictions of a neo-colonial state are many. What manner of a man drives a vehicle without headlamps in the dark? And what kind of a vehicle can that be? What economic conditions prevented him from fixing his headlamps? And what necessity compelled his to hit the road in such a circumstance? He might have crossed many checkpoints where all the “pass” he needed was squeezing a N100 note into the stretched palm of the officer on duty. Then, what manner of a (heartless, criminally-minded) driver (whose conscience is already seared) hits a human being and is not moved to stop and offer a helping hand!
Maybe life could still have been saved! Rush him to the nearest hospital! Seek help! Contact his family! Stand and answer to the consequences of your action! It has been said that the evidence of one’s integrity is what the person will do – or refuse to do – when no one is watching. If someone has the opportunity to run away from his crime scene and he does, then, he has criminal intentions and criminal tendencies.
A failed state neglects its roads. They are left riddled with craters and potholes. They are not lit. Road signs are missing. Those charged with road safety only line their pockets at our collective expense.
Aremson fought for a better society. He marched, stormed the barricades and put his life on the line on a countless number of occasions to make this our habitation a saner clime. He thirsted for, and dreamed of a better society. Dying was not, and could not have been, one of the things that bothered him. Didn’t Che Quevara say, “Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms”?
If the outpouring of grief and showering of encomiums since the passage of Aremson are anything to go by, more than one ear must have been receptive to all that has been said about his heroics and struggles for a better, more humane and just society. More than one hand must also have reached out to take up the arms he has been forced to drop.
But all these will pass. Aremson will be given a seven-star revolutionary burial tomorrow, what the people of the world dub “a befitting burial”; his family members will enjoy the warmth of comrades – but only for a while! After that, what next? Especially so, whither the Nigerian Left? Is there still a Nigerian Left in the real sense of the word? Where is it? In fractionalised ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities)? In a Nigerian Labour Congress hijacked and ridiculed by the likes of capitalist Peter Obi? In the National Association of Nigerian Students with many contending presidents, all of them running errands for politicians?
Which organization today is the rallying point for the Nigerian Left? There are groups and clusters; there is motion, but where is the movement? The firebrand comrades that fired our imagination as youths are aging and are dropping off one after the other. Who are those stepping into their shoes? Are new cadres joining the struggle?
The idealism of youth is bliss! The reality of adulthood is something else! The responsibilities that come with adulthood are something many did not address their mind to while in school. So, they come with a debilitating force that overpowers many. “Flung and scattered among seven hills” – to quote JP Clark – and even more than seven hills, organizing is no longer as easy as it was when everyone was in the same location. And while schools are a leveller, the vicissitudes that life visits on everyone differs, further driving wedges between comrades.
Weaponization of poverty, mastered increasingly by the political class, is not directed only at voters or the underclass; the middle class, where the revolutionary fervour is highest as the vanguard of the struggle, has been the worst hit. The lack of ideological clarity and consensus on the appropriate tactics of struggle in the peculiar Nigerian situation, is also, nay, has always been a problem; hence the lack of ideological unity and focus.
Many comrades have joined them, as they say. Many only sloganeer to attract attention and get into things. In the same way they speak of donor fatigue, struggle fatigue has happened to many comrades. One such comrade, a firebrand in his university days, asked what has been the outcome of all the struggles of many decades! Has anything changed? Has it made Nigeria into a better, saner, and more humane society? It is time to leave the struggle for the younger generations, he quipped.
But the problem is, where are the younger generations reaching out to pick up the gauntlet? How many of the present generations of comrades are their children following in their footsteps?
The Gen Z and Alpha generations may be impatient with the decadent capitalist system holding them down; they may desire action, and like we witnessed with the #ENDSARSNOW protests, they may make a move. But where is the vanguard to give direction and offer leadership? Without that, popular anger petters out; anti-democratic forces stamp them out, and disillusionment overcomes revolutionary fervour.
I do not profess to have a foolproof understanding of all the problems; neither do I lay claim to having all the solutions! I only think the occasion of the transition of Aremson, whose entire adult life was devoted to the struggle, offers an opportunity for soul-searching by each and every one of us that have, at one time or the other, shared the same revolutionary platform with our fallen hero. May his death refresh, energize, and ginger us into more vigorous revolutionary action!
Former editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Westerner news magazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
He can be reached via turnpot@gmail.com, 0807 552 5533, 0803 251 0193
