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Nigeria’s uncivil rule
It is five years since the military promised a transition
to democracy. But, as the recent rigged elections show, Nigeria is still firmly
in the grip of self-serving regional elites. MANNY THAIN reports.
‘A MONUMENTAL SHAM, a complete farce’, was how activists
summed up Nigeria’s local elections on 27 March. Well before any votes were
cast, victory for the establishment parties in control of Nigeria’s federal
states was assured.
Obstacles to registration were put in front of radical and
working-class candidates, the vote massively rigged. Ballot boxes were reported
destroyed or forcibly removed. In Oyo and Osun states, the radical National
Conscience Party (NCP) mounted a legal challenge to the electoral rules. In both
areas, the electoral commission ignored the court rulings and excluded NCP
candidates. In Ekiti state, prospective candidates were offered 100,000-200,000
naira ($740-1,480) for not standing against the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
of president Olusegun Obasanjo. Around 50 people were killed during the
campaign. Even European Union observers said the poll was ‘seriously flawed’.
At a special meeting on 22 March, Lagos State NCP completely
dissociated itself from the elections. It called for a boycott. The headline,
‘Empty booths, empty streets’, testified to its success. (The Guardian, Lagos,
29 March) The reasons were summed up by the comments of Ishola Aleshinloye, a
26-year-old teacher from Lagos: "The people are not happy that politicians are
enriching themselves at their expense. Look at the state of our roads, schools
and hospitals. There is nothing to show for their being in government. Sometimes
I wonder if there is a government in this country". (Sunday Punch, Lagos, 28
March)
The election provides further proof of the relentless
erosion of democratic rights since the military announced a ‘transition to
civilian government’ in 1998. Africa’s most populous country, in fact, is moving
in the opposite direction, as recent rumours of a military coup emphasise.
The political system is corrupt and unrepresentative. The
parties operate as little more than electoral machines, designed to maintain the
grip on power by the ruling capitalist elites of the dominant ethnic groups. The
president’s re-election was also supported by the Yoruba-based Alliance for
Democracy (AD) in the South-West, including Lagos. The All Nigerian People’s
Party (ANPP) backs the Hausa/Fulani elites in the North, the least industrially
developed area. The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) for the Ibo in the
oil-rich South-East. These parties engage in no political debate whatsoever, and
are bereft of any coherent critique, policies, or any form of internal democracy
or accountability. Local authorities have been due to stand for re-election
since April 2002. Instead, state governors hand-pick their cronies. These
parasites then wage determined and dirty campaigns to grab as much wealth and
power as they can.
The elite is not interested in developing the manufacturing
or agricultural sectors of the economy. Its members fight over oil revenue.
Forty-five percent of the country’s oil income net of production costs goes to
Nigeria’s 36 state and 774 local governments. And the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) estimates that national oil revenues will exceed $100 billion (€81bn,
£54bn) over the next five years. A criminal indictment of the capitalist system
is that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, is forced to import petroleum
products, because of deliberate underinvestment in state oil refineries and
rampant corruption.
For the bulk of the population, every day is a struggle for
survival. Wages often go unpaid, and have not kept up with inflation, especially
rising fuel costs. State sector jobs, which used to provide an outlet for young
workers leaving university – and essential support for extended families – have
been decimated, forcing masses of people into destitution. People scrape by,
through part-time work or, increasingly, in the ‘informal economy’. Out of
desperation, youth are driven into the arms of ethnic or religious leaders, or
gangsters trying to consolidate their own fiefdoms. Drug abuse and prostitution
are on the rise.
For a few short years during a marked increase in the price
of oil on the world market (1975-80), the economy grew by 6-7% a year, and per
capita income reached $1,000. But in the following decade, workers’ real income
halved. By the mid-1990s, the annual average per capita income had slumped to
around $280.
The next election, due in 2007, is set to be even worse.
Fearing the development of strong political opposition, the Obasanjo government
is planning to deregister parties like the NCP on the pretext of their ‘poor
performance’ in previous (sham) elections.
Fuelling the anger
THE GOVERNMENT’S ATTACKS on working-class living standards
will intensify as it attempts to make the poorest sections of society pay for
economic and social collapse. A raft of neo-liberal measures is being prepared.
The main levers of the economy, natural and mineral wealth, and financial
institutions are being privatised – as demanded by global capitalist
institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.
From the next academic year, universities and colleges will
charge a minimum of 10,000 naira ($74) for a bed space. The current average is
2,000 naira. The regime is anticipating anger and resistance to this attack, and
is threatening to take the fee directly out of college budgets.
Last December, another hike in petroleum products was
announced, the third in less than six months. Working-class opposition was
mobilised and 21 January set for a general strike movement. Fuel price rises
have a devastating effect on the poorest people. A much higher proportion of
their income goes on fuel for heating, lighting, cooking and transport.
Literally overnight, millions of people found their impoverished living
standards further reduced as the prices of all other goods rose as a direct
result. Companies are using it as a pretext to cut jobs.
At the same time as the fuel tax rise was announced,
Obasanjo requested $80 million for a new presidential jet. After the press
revealed that the plane cost $48.9 million, a new request for $52.4 million was
put in – still leaving $2.5 million for Obasanjo to play with.
The Labour Civil Society Coalition was set up by the
Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC, trade union federation) to organise the campaign
against the fuel hike. It includes activists from the Democratic Socialist
Movement (DSM, the CWI affiliate in Nigeria), NCP, trade unions, NGOs, community
and youth groups, and planned to start the general strike and mass protest
movement across the country from 9 October. However, NLC leaders suspended the
action after politicians and oil barons agreed to drop the last increase. They
did not keep their word.
At present, both the strike and the December fuel tax rise
have been suspended pending a Federal High Court ruling, as the government seeks
to have the protest action ruled illegal. There are real dangers for Nigeria’s
labour movement. The legal system is tied in with the corrupt political life of
the country. A ruling in favour of the government would raise the stakes for
protest action against it, sanctioning the use of state repression, and
requiring well-organised and resolute resistance, including physical
self-defence.
In Nigeria today, some of the worst excesses of naked
military rule have been curbed. Nonetheless, the so-called ‘civilian’
administration continues with ruthless, daily abuses of human rights,
particularly against the working class and poor. Police continue to detain
people without trial. Extra-judicial killings in the name of fighting crime or
quelling ethnic or religious ‘riots’ have assumed frightening proportions. In
the five ‘transition years’ following 15 years of military rule, around 10,000
people have been killed in communal and religious violence, and 800,000 internal
refugees created.
Imperialist carve-up
NIGERIA’S CRONY CAPITALIST economy, dominated by imperialism
and resting on corrupt elites, is too weak to meet the aspirations of the
working masses. The result is that democratic rights are systematically denied
and mass movements suppressed. Another destabilising factor is the bitter
struggles between the different regional elites for control of the central
state.
The main ethnic groups are the Hausa and Fulani in the
North, who make up nearly one third of Nigeria’s population, Yoruba (around 20%)
in the relatively economically developed South-West, and Ibo in the oil-rich
South-East. There are 250 identified ethnic groups. But this does not begin to
describe the complexities, as the ethnic groups are themselves subdivided.
Around 45% of the people are Islamic. One in four is Protestant, one in ten
Catholic, with just under 20% following indigenous belief systems.
This ethnic and religious mix was thrown together by British
imperialism. Military conquest was consolidated in 1903, late by British empire
standards. The country called Nigeria was created in 1914. As in many other
colonies, a national consciousness was forged as the struggle against
imperialist rule and for independence developed. The workers’ movement stood for
unity across ethnic or religious divides.
Economic development, although distorted by imperialism and
the elites, gave rise to a powerful working class, second only to South Africa
on the continent. Cross-ethnic unity was shown in action. For example, in a
twelve-day general strike starting on 1 June 1964, against delayed wage
increases, which mobilised around a million workers.
After the second world war, British imperialism, faced with
rising industrial militancy and a nationalist movement, ensured that the
Hausa/Fulani elites ruled when flag independence was achieved in 1960. They
still control the state machinery and oil revenues today. Ever since, tensions
between the regional elites have periodically spilled over into violent conflict
as battle is joined for Nigeria’s riches. Up to two million died in the civil
war, 1967-70, when the Ibo Biafran Republic tried to split away.
The oil boom of the 1970s helped strengthen Nigerian
national identity, while oil also provided the raw material for the inter and
intra-ethnic conflict. Years of economic decline and ethnic persecution have
further undermined national consciousness. The failure of national workers’
movements to secure major improvements in living standards has added to this.
In the 1980s and 1990s, economic collapse and social
instability threatened the break-up of the country. Imperialism wanted a
transition to nominal democracy in an attempt to cool the situation down – a
case of handing down some reforms from above to try and prevent revolution from
below. Major-General Ibrahim Babangida pledged a transition to civilian rule.
The process was tightly controlled. Only two military-sponsored political
parties were permitted to exist. Brutal repression continued. Eleven union
leaders were jailed for life by a military tribunal after the October 1988
Electricity Staff Union strike.
The first half of 1993 was dominated by a five-month
university lecturers’ strike, which forced concessions from the regime. The
long-awaited presidential election went ahead on 12 June 1993. By 14 June, half
the results were in and showed a large majority for the Muslim Yoruba press
magnate, Moshood Abiola. Using the courts, Babangida annulled the election. The
second half of the year saw mass, semi-insurrectionary protest against the
regime. In Lagos alone, 170 people were killed.
The mass uprisings forced the Babangida junta to quit.
However, it had time to appoint its own successor, the Interim National
Government (ING), a semi-civilian front for continued military rule under
General Sani Abacha. His ambitious plan was to succeed himself – by changing out
of his uniform and into civilian clothes – confident he would win an ‘election’,
especially one he organised and supervised.
In November, the ING introduced a sevenfold increase in the
price of fuel, provoking another wave of strikes and protests. The generals used
this upheaval to scare the ruling class and its international backers into
accepting another military dictatorship, to ‘restore peace and stability’.
Abacha closed down the ING and resumed open military rule. NLC leaders called
off the strike action when the military brought the cost of a litre of petrol
down from seven naira to 3.25. This was still an increase of over 300%.
Role of the working class
A MOVEMENT LAUNCHED by Ogoni people for political autonomy
and against the environmental destruction wrought by oil multinationals like
Shell received international attention. Angry youth set up barricades. In its
early stages, they had the passive support of rank-and-file soldiers, even in
the police, before soldiers were ordered to shoot on sight. Ken Saro-Wiwa and
eight other leaders in the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People were
executed by the state on 10 November 1995.
Although a rich man from the Yoruba elite, the regime had
made Abiola a symbol of opposition. He was imprisoned, remaining in gaol until
his death in 1998. Outside the Hausa/Fulani areas, military rule became more and
more seen as oppression by another nationality, resulting in growing support for
separatism.
However, trying to explain mass impoverishment and
ecological destruction as a solely ethnic problem is too restrictive. It cuts
across attempts to build workers’ unity and helps the military and ruling class
to maintain control over society. Clearly, there are dominant ethnic groups in
Nigeria, and discrimination and repression is carried out on those grounds, and
must be fought against. But it is the capitalist elites of the major ethnic
groups who are on the make, enriching themselves at the expense of the working
class and poor of all the ethnic groups. Therefore, a working-class based,
socialist alternative has to be found, one which is implacably opposed to the
subjection of any ethnic group(s), which grants full rights for minorities, and
stands for the right of people to practice religion freely.
In July 1994, the country erupted again with mass
stay-at-homes and strikes, spearheaded by oil workers, demanding an end to
military rule and the implementation of the June 1993 election result. In
October 1994, the NCP was formed, the only open political party to be set up
during military dictatorship in Nigeria, and in defiance of martial law. It
brought together human rights and worker activists (including the forerunner of
DSM), and was led by Gani Fawehinmi, a well-respected lawyer, known for his
principled anti-corruption, pro-democracy stance. In the absence of a trade
union based workers’ party, the emergence of the NCP represents a significant
step towards an independent Pan-Nigerian working people’s political party. It
declared a commitment to abolish poverty and to fight for social and public
services.
Imperialism, Nigerian capitalists and increasing numbers of
the military tops feared that Abacha’s aim to remain in power, even behind
cosmetic ‘civilian rule’, could provoke mass action. There had been widespread
protests on 3 March 1998 after Abacha announced he would stand in the
presidential elections. Then, it was announced that Abacha was the only
nominated candidate. There was a mass boycott of the national assembly elections
held on 25 April. Turnout figures were kept secret, but were below 10%. A wider
mobilisation was planned for 12 June. The timing of Abacha’s death, 8 June, was
convenient for imperialism.
It is an open question whether he was assassinated by fellow
officers who feared that his attempt to stay in power would provoke revolution.
His successor, Abubakar, had close links with the US military and was viewed as
a more reliable tool of Western imperialism. Abiola, still a potential thorn in
the side of the military, died in detention of ‘natural causes’ on 7 July.
Abubakar presided over a very gradual, carefully controlled
‘liberalisation’ of the regime: the slow release of political prisoners, the
selective unbanning of some trade unions, the granting of limited democratic
rights. Even so, elections promised for 1 October 1998 were postponed until 31
May 1999, the date today’s ‘civilian rule’ began.
The general strikes of June 2000 and June/July 2003, which
were particularly widespread, have shown that through mass working-class action
it is possible to unite the diverse ethnic and religious groups around a common
goal. In these instances, behind the NLC banner in opposition to fuel price
hikes. Although organised workers are a minority in Nigeria, they have a
decisive economic and social weight far in excess of their number. This is
because of the key role that they play as the producers of the goods which
provide society’s wealth, and the fact that their living and working conditions
compel them to organise collectively.
Labour Party
THE SUDDEN ANNOUNCEMENT in February 2004 that trade union
leaders were setting up a Labour Party could mark a significant development. Its
development into a genuine workers’ party partly depends on the approach of the
union leaders, and on whether they view it merely as a spoiling tactic against
the NCP. A well-organised and principled Labour Party based on mass
working-class action, however, could rapidly become a decisive political factor
in Nigeria. To achieve that it would need to provide a voice for the many
oppressed sections of society: workers, peasants, small traders, market women,
students, urban and rural poor, even the rank-and-file of the armed forces and
police.
It would have to refuse any offer to enter coalition
governments with the capitalist parties. Cross-class collaboration such as this
gives the impression that it is possible to have a mutually beneficial alliance
between capitalist exploiters and the exploited working people. It invariably
ends with the workers’ organisations being used to hold back the struggle, and
shouldering the blame for anti-working class policies.
Sylvester Ejiofor, Labour Party national chairman, denounced
the ruling parties for lacking the "appropriate ideological tools and political
will to address the roots of the country’s present quagmire". This, he said,
explains their neo-liberal onslaught (The Guardian, Lagos, 29 February). In
comparison to most political parties in Nigeria today, this represents a radical
departure. However, Ejiofor also said: "For the avoidance of doubt, as social
democrats, our party is not doctrinally hostile to the market, nor is our party
opposed to private entrepreneurship".
Yet any form of capitalism will leave workers, the poor and
oppressed, at the mercy of multi-national corporations, their political backers
in rich-nation governments and their international agencies, such as the World
Bank. Nigeria, like all neo-colonial countries, has never been permitted to
independently develop its economy. It was harnessed to the requirements of the
British empire, and imperialism continued to dominate after flag independence.
And the corrupt gangsters in the state machine just bleed the country dry in
their own short-term self-interest.
For the wealth of this potentially rich country to benefit
the majority of its peoples, the ruling elites have to be driven from power, and
imperialism’s stranglehold broken. Working class unity is required to make that
possible. A workers’ and poor peasants’ government, able to democratically plan
resources in the interests of the vast majority, could lay down the socialist
foundations for the harmonious development of the different ethnic groups.
A voluntary socialist federation of Nigeria would be a
beacon to all the oppressed in Africa and throughout the neo-colonial world. An
international appeal for workers’ solidarity could see the eventual creation of
an African socialist federation. For the first time, this would enable the
continent’s resources to be used to benefit the vast majority of African people.
Nigeria’s Crisis: Time for System Change – includes chapters on the 2003
elections, the civil rule years, the national question, a working-class
alternative, the fuel price hike, and lessons of the general strike. (76 pages,
£3)
Socialist Democracy – the newspaper of the Democratic Socialist Movement
Both available from CWI, PO Box 3688, London E11 1YE
Contact DSM: www.socialistnigeria.org
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