Nigeria: A Nation on the edge…
Written by ‘Jide Adesina
‘A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world’ until Obasanjo began his crusade against corruption via the Anti-Corruption law,it would have been an appropriate inscription at Nigeria’s international airports! The anxiety of airport officials to extort money from those traveling into and out of the country, be they Nigerians or foreigners, was there for all to see. To the corrupt members of the police force, any criminal was welcome provided he paid the price being asked by the officer. And in the civil service, right from the messenger to the official at the very top, any duty performed was based on what could be extracted from whoever sought their services. In short, corruption pervaded every stratum of Nigerian society. The use of the past tense is not to suggest that Nigeria has now been transformed into a corruption free environment. Ranging from petty bribery to virtually ordering the Central Bank of Nigeria to siphon money into private bank accounts in overseas countries, corruption takes various forms that only a specialist in the subject will be keen to detail. The usual defense of the small offender is to blame corruption on the extended family system, which puts heavy demands on meager earnings, but when it comes to the scale of graft by those at the top echelons of government it is nothing but greed. The only reason why Nigeria is underdeveloped and indebted to the IMF is the corruption of the trustees of the national purse. Such corruption has tended to be on the increase with successive governments since independence in 1960.
For the long-suffering masses of Nigeria, these are clearly the worst of times. In the past three years, the country’s political and economic situation has grown progressively worse. Millions of people are living in shocking poverty. The educational system has all but collapsed. Universities are closed for most of the academic session. Elementary/high schools lack books; chalks, furniture and habitable classrooms, and salaries of teachers remain unpaid for months in this well-endowed but grossly mismanaged nation of over 100 million people. Basic social infrastructures (roads, rail and air services, water supply, electricity, telephones, etc.) are crumbling fast. Healthcare centers lack even the most rudimentary equipment, the most common drugs, and skilled and competent staff as many continue to desert the country in droves to fulfill themselves elsewhere.
As a result of these mounting economic and political problems, growing armies of ever-resourceful Nigerians are being forced to redirect their skills and ingenuity to negative pursuits. More than ever before, many people are now prepared to do whatever it takes to improve their material condition in a society where nearly everyone is involved in a ruthless struggle for survival. Wealth or success in life is no longer thought to come solely from handwork and patience but something to be willed instantly through an unconscionable manipulation of social institutions.
At home and abroad, among the rulers and the led, there is a growing culture of degeneracy, deviousness and crass materialism, a steady disintegration of the nation’s moral fiber, a lack of self-restraint in both words and deeds, a waning zeal for the public welfare, and declining civility and compassion as well as the absence of shame and sanctions.
From petty thievery on the streets to violent armed robberies on the highways, from official corruption in low and high quarters to sophisticated scams such as the infamous “419” that targets mostly gullible, greedy foreigners, Nigeria is being criminalized today at a rate never imaginable at any time in her 36-year existence as an independent nation.
Almost everything now has a price. The right amount of “kola” or “settlement fee” gets you a telephone; grants you a safe passage through police check-points; fetches you a lucrative government contract; takes your payment papers through the bureaucratic maze; ensures you a favorable judgment in courts; guarantees you a good publicity in the media; gets your children into the right schools; gives you a bed in government-run hospitals; makes the immigration and customs officers at the air/seaports and border posts to wave you through no matter what you are carrying; and hires you an assassin to kill someone whose face you do not particularly like.
The criminal enterprise is booming. All over the world, Nigeria has become a by-word for official corruption, scams and illegal drug trafficking. Yet Nigeria is not the most criminal place on earth. But it is the most notorious. Such a reputation hurts. Foreigners hesitate to do business with Nigerians many of who live honestly. There is a general distrust of Nigerians. The crookedness of a few people is seen by the world as a national trait. Nigerians have not done much to change this negative reputation either by re-dedicating themselves to an ethical rebirth or by superbly marketing their prodigious assets.
Nigeria’s social and moral decline has indeed reached a crisis point. Not long ago, things like honesty, integrity, altruism, handwork; respect, compassion, selfless leadership, etc. were the values that counted and the foundation stones of our societies. Nowadays, these cherished values are being trashed or scorned in a nation where certified rogues are the subjects of numerous praise songs at lavish open-air parties, where the so-called royal fathers hand out chieftaincy titles to the highest bidders, and where these same custodians of culture (traditional rulers, priests, etc) loot priceless ancestral artifacts from hallowed shrines for sale to overseas collectors.
Gone are the days when the hunger for knowledge would force many young men and women from the warmth and love of their homes to the harsh and uncertain climes of Europe, North America and Asia to earn as many degrees as possible and return home to join the process of nation building. Many of the Nigerians arriving at these places nowadays are not driven by such lofty goals but to make some quick money and return home to flaunt it. And it is this quest for easy money that drives them into criminal activities such as credit card fraud, insurance scams and drug trafficking.
Social institutions that could offer some restraint or help curb some of the current criminal excesses have been weakened and battered by years of apathy, and the irresponsible leadership provided by a revolving group of self-serving political, cultural and spiritual elites. The present political turmoil has provided a perfect environment for lawlessness. There is really no one in charge.
RETROSPECT OF THE WOSRT REGIME IN NIGERIA
The worst and the most criminal and humane plausible regret in Nigeria history was the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections, One wonder what is the difference is between annul and cancel? Is General Babagida speaking out of ignorance, he does not know that annul and cancel means the same thing. It is a pity that we have allowed fools and ignoramus like Babangida to ruin our land. It is unfortunate and disgraceful for him not to know that annuls and cancels are the same thing. It is disgusting to hear him acknowledge that the June 12, 1993 election was the freest and fairest election and yet he annulled/cancelled it.
He started his government with deceit. Presented the Buhari/Idiagbon government as evil. Of course the Buhari/Idiagbon government was evil, but not to the ordinary Nigerian but to the politicians who looted the treasury under Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s government. But his almost nine years of reign of terror took us back to where we are now. He spent over 50 Billion Naira on a transition to no where.
As soon as he took over power in 1985, Babangida opened up a debate on the political ideology Nigerians wanted. He set up a Political bureau, and the members went round the country. Nigerians, according to the Political Bureau’s findings wanted Socialism, but Babangida said he was not ready to impose an ideology on Nigerians. What about the IMF debate? We debated and he said, no, but what we got was IMF through the back door in the name of Structural Adjustment Programme. We have not recovered from the adjustment. It was adjustment from good to bad, wealth to penury, squalor.
Today, Babangida should be blamed for the death of the Generals. His statement and blame shifting was to divert the public attention from the real cause of the problem with the Nigerian Air Force.
To say that the Nigerian Air Force has suffered gross neglect is to state the obvious. The magnitude of the neglect, which started under the Babangida’s government, has been most devastating. Before 1986, the situation never used to be like this. The Nigerian Air Force attained the height of its glory in the early 80s when Air Vice Marshal AD Bello was the Chief. Most of the equipment with the Air Force today, was procured during the administration of AVM Bello.
Things went sour for the Nigerian Air Force just immediately after the Major General Mamman Vatsa coup was foiled in 1986. The coup according to report from military sources was to have been executed mainly by Air Force personnel. According to stories of the plot, Babangida, then Head of State, was to be kidnapped by his pilots, and the Nigerian Air Force combat jets were to be used to raid some strategic military formations in Nigeria. This drilling scenario opened the eyes of the military to the dangerous potentials of the Air Force.
After the trial and conviction of the coup suspects, the Babangida’s government, though unofficially, ensured that the Air Force was reduced to nothingness. In fact, it was even suggested that the Nigerian Air Force be disbanded and replaced with an invigorated Airborne Brigade of the Nigerian Army.
The September 1992 C-130 crash in Lagos that killed over 300 Mid-riff officers was the first blow suffered by the Nigerian Air Force under the Babangida’s government. While there was quick response to the Dornier crash, it took Babangida’s government over 48 hours to attempt to rescue the C-130 crash victims.
On the June 12, 1993 elections and its cancellation, contrary to the view that Babangida owed Nigerians apology, I feel he should be held accountable for the death of innocent Nigerians that were killed on the streets of Lagos during the protest on the annulment of the election, and for what should be seen as treasonable felony. He unilaterally threw the wish of the people away and damn the people to go to hell!
While some see him as brave I see him as a coward and a failure. I have covered the Military in Nigeria for a while and I can say that the event of the August 1993, when Babangida left office was not triumphant; it was a disgrace and shameful way to leave office after 8 years of calling the shots. Ordinarily, the military tradition is that a retired General is always treated to a pull out ceremony. Babangida was not just a General; he was a full Army General and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. On his last day, there was not gun salute, no parade and he left in such a disgraceful way. What actually happened was that Sani Abacha toppled Babangida’s government? He was forced to quit. He lost in a palace coup. While some of his aides advised him to hang on to power, he bowed to the fear of being killed in office. He was afraid to die and he accepted the resignation offer from Abacha.
The Nigerian Student union
On May 30 1989, Nigerian University students embarked on anti-SAP riot, but it was a peaceful demonstration to liberate ourselves from perpetual economic slavery of Babangida and his colonial masters. The then Gbenga Olawepo (NANS PRO) and a student of University of Lagos, was in South Korea to represent Nigerian Students at a world conference.
Babangida had sent his SSS as Nigerian students, but the then Olawepo went and presented the true situation of Nigeria at the conference. We all saluted his courage then. This was embarrassing to Babangida, who declared Olawepo wanted, at that time Gbenga Komolafe, Student Union Speaker of University of Ibadan was also wanted. Olawepo was eventually arrested when he came back to the country; Komolafe too was arrested at Dugbe in Ibadan. Both were first detained at Shangisa, but got transferred to Kirikiri when they caught their middleman who went to deliver message to Mr. Femi Falana. The SSS man was arrested and sent to another jail, we don’t know what happened to him till date.
These guys were in detention for 6 months or more than that. At that time, 6 Universities were shut by Babangida for their involvement in the Anti-SAP demonstration. The Universities were not opened untill November 1989 from May 30. This actually marked the beginning of irregular academic calendar in our Universities, and it also greatly affected the exchange programme with foreign universities, many professors left our universities and things have not been the same since then.
In 1990 April 20, we woke up to another martial song, it was a revolution, not a coup. Contrary to general opinion, it succeeded, but they were not able to seize power. I said it succeeded because we all got the message of the proponents of this revolution. For the second time, we failed to yield to the wake-up call.
Nigeria First war
The first time was in 1967 when Odumegwu Ojukwu started the revolution, it was termed civil war, and Obasanjo is now claiming the glory of ending the war leaving out the likes of Benjamin Adekunle and the important role Pa Awolowo played in ending the “war.” The second call came from Major Mukoro and his group, Gideon Orkar paid with his life. Rather than support them, we termed them tribalists. The likes of General Oladipo Diya, then GOC 82 Mechanized Division in Enugu came on air to condemn the revolution; Raji Rasaki too in Lagos did not support it. Though Ishaya Rizi Bamaiyi claimed the glory of stopping the revolt in Lagos, it was General Zidon Gandi who actually deserved the glory. Zidon was in Ikeja Cantonment as a Commander at that time, but because Zidon has problem expressing himself, all he said on that Sunday was “the dissidents have been dislodged.” This was a turning point in Babangida’s life. But for Sani Abacha, Babangida would have been
dead by now. What did Abacha do? Abacha was busy with a hooker in one of his guest houses. Where was Babangida’s deputy, Augustus Aikhomu? Oh, he was in a boat holding party with friends.
Though we were made to believe that the ECOWAS Monitoring Group ECOMOG was set up to give helping hands to fellow West African countries, but the genuine intention of the creator was to settle score with the 123 Brigade Battalion, Ikeja Military Cantonment because of their alleged role in the April 20, 1990 revolution. They stayed in Liberia for two years and were later disbanded. The military under Babangida, according to his former Chief of Army Staff, Salihu Ibrahim, was an “anything goes military.” Under Babangida we had a military infected with corruption; this period produced a large number of military millionaires. Promotion and appointments were not done strictly on merit but on godfatherism. Babangida’s regime laid the foundation of what Nigerians later experienced under late Sani Abacha and still continue to experience under Olusegun Obasanjo.
In his first New Year Day’s speech as military president, months after deposing the Buhari-Idiagbon government in a bloodless coup enthusiastically welcomed by Nigerians, Ibrahim Babangida declared: “I wish to reaffirm that this administration does not intend to stay in power a day longer than is required to lay the necessary institutional framework to bring about a better and more stable Nigeria.” Babangida’s bonhomie (its trademark an endearing gap-toothed smile) – in stark contrast to the stern, unsmiling façade of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor – made it easy for him to be believed.
The distinction between the two regimes in fact ran much deeper than personality quirks. Babangida, in action, proved to be the complete antithesis of his predecessor. He threw open prison doors, setting free hundreds of 3rd republic politicians convicted and jailed by Buhari. He repealed the obnoxious Decree No. 4 of 1984 with which the Buhari regime had shackled the media. He promised to run “an open administration that is responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of all the people” – a departure from the high-handedness of the Buhari/Idiagbon era.
One of his first actions as military president was to allow Nigerians to decide, through public debates, whether to accept the $2.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan the Buhari government had been negotiating for.
After the terror of the Buhari years, Nigerians appeared to have found a statesman in military uniform.
Tough times that lasted
By 1985, Nigeria’s foreign debt had ballooned to $18 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 1980 (it would rise beyond $30 billion by the end of the 80s), and external reserves had dwindled to less than $2 billion. Oil prices had been in freefall for 3 years running, and in January 1986 they finally fell to less than $20 per barrel, a record low since the start of the decade.
To his credit Babangida made all the right noises about revamping the economy. In his Independence Day 1985 speech, barely two months old in office, he declared “a state of economic emergency for the next 15 months.” That speech went on to lay down a comprehensive plan for “economic reconstruction”.
This plan included a moratorium on new foreign debt, promotion of agriculture and industrial development, restriction of importation to “essential commodities”, financial sector reform and privatisation.
Populist leanings
IBB was a master of the populist move – ambitious government programs targeted at tackling poverty, and empowering rural dwellers. His government churned out program after program, in a bid to actualize his promises to run an inclusive, people-facing government. In 1986, Babangida launched the Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER).
In 1987, the Directorate of Food and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI) was launched to promote agriculture and transform Nigeria’s rural landscape by providing modern infrastructure. Other Babangida creations include the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN), National Board for Community Banks (NBCB), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), National Planning Commission (NPC), and the Urban Development Bank.
No other Nigerian government presided over such substantial expansion of government bureaucracy as the Babangida administration. In time, the fiscal prudence that Babangida espoused vanished: billions of naira were sunk into an endless transition programme, and in the early ‘90s, 12 billion dollars worth of windfall crude oil revenue (courtesy of the rise in the oil prices due to the Gulf War) could not be accounted for.
Mr. Babangida also came to perfect the art of dispensing patronage through political appointments (mostly targeted at leading members of the opposition) and a far-from-transparent allocation of lucrative oil blocks.
“A man whose words mean nothing”
Mr. Babangida’s contradictions eventually overwhelmed his reputation so that when, in May 1993, the activist and late lawyer Gani Fawehinmi described him as “a man whose words mean nothing to him”, evidence of this littered his eight years in power.
Only months after vowing to run a “government by consultation with the people”, Mr. Babangida in 1986 surreptitiously – and unilaterally – took Nigeria, an avowed secular state, into full membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a body which describes itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world.”
Mr. Babangida lamented the “large role played by the public sector in economic activity with hardly any concrete results to justify such a role.” Ironically, over the course of the next five years, he would go ahead to supervise an unprecedented expansion of government. And despite his deference to the wish of Nigerians to reject the IMF loan, Mr. Babangida went ahead to implement some of the Fund’s most drastic requirements – a devaluation of the naira, and removal of subsidies, chief of which were the petroleum subsidies.
Mr. Babangida promised Nigerians that the “belt-tightening” was sorely needed: the painful injection that would usher in vibrant economic health; the mandatory dark lining before a cloud of prosperity. Those reforms, which he christened “Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)”, came into effect in 1986, with a far-from-pleasant impact on Nigerians. Purchasing powers dwindled, inflation rose, and the obliteration of the middle class began. In 1989, SAP riots rocked the country, as Nigerians had finally had enough of economic reforms which silver lining they waited in vain for.
Greatest failings
Mr. Babangida’s greatest failings were however in two key areas: his human rights record, and his political transition programme. In December 1985, a group of soldiers, which included his close friend, Mamman Vatsa, were arrested on allegations of plotting to topple the 4-month old Babangida government. After Vatsa was convicted and sentenced to death, Mr. Babangida assured a delegation of distinguished writers (Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark), which had come pleading for mercy, that he was “determined to do everything in my power to save (Vatsa).”
Hours later, Vatsa and the other alleged plotters were executed.
As opposition to Mr. Babangida’s rule grew, so did his intolerance for dissent, so that he routinely shut down or proscribed media houses; and harassed journalists, civil society and labour groups using the instruments of state (the State Security Service, Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Police).
In 1986, five students of the Ahmadu Bello University were murdered when mobile policemen invaded the campus to quell anti-IMF protests. He also promulgated a series of draconian decrees targeted at quelling all opposition, and on occasion did not hesitate to deport foreign critics (University lecturer Patrick Wilmot and journalist William Keeling).
In October 1986, frontline journalist Dele Giwa was murdered by a letter bomb in Lagos. Preliminary police investigations stated that senior officers of Mr. Babangida’s intelligence services, who had hounded Giwa in his final days, had questions to answer regarding Giwa’s death. The mystery of the Giwa assassination remains unsolved till date.
An interminable journey
A maddeningly convoluted transition programme, whose terminal date soon became a mirage – first 1990, then 1992, and then 1993 – is one of the most significant things Babangida will be remembered for.
Early on in his administration, Mr. Babangida inaugurated a “Political Bureau” to “kick off, as it were, the national debate on a viable future political ethos and structure for our dear country.”
The political bureau was soon followed by a Constituent Assembly, which in 1989 fashioned a new constitution for the country.
Also, in 1989, he created, by presidential fiat, two political parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention. Then in 1991, he released a controversial list of prominent politicians whom he said were banned from participating in the transition programme.
In October 1992, he cancelled the results of the parties’ presidential primaries, causing new primaries to be held in March 1993. And then in June 1993 he annulled the results of the presidential elections, presumed to have been won by billionaire businessman MKO Abiola.
This was the final straw.
By this time, Nigerians had finally had enough of his shenanigans, and violent protests forced him to “step aside” on August 27, 1993,“My colleagues and I are determined to change the course of history,” Mr. Babangida told Nigerians in his maiden speech as Head of State, on August 27, 1985.
By the time he reluctantly relinquished power exactly eight years later, he had achieved that goal, far more successfully than he think ………what an evil genius.
Niger-delta crisis
The ethnic militias in the Niger Delta got their impetus in the rising opposition to the criminal neglect of the people of that area, which reached its highest level under General Babangida. Whichever way one looks at the security crisis in the country today, there is no way one can exonerate the incompetence and corruption of the Babangida regime. It is therefore illogical that Babangida whose incompetence caused insecurity problems in eight years of military dictatorship will see himself as possessing solution the problem. Babangida is too much part of the problem to be the solution to our national crisis
Should babangida come back in 2011, then Nigeria is doomed
The Niger Delta has for some years been the site of major confrontations between the people who live there and the Nigerian government’s security forces, resulting in extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, and draconian restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. These violations of civil and political rights have been committed principally in response to protests about the activities of the multinational companies that produce Nigeria’s oil and the use made of the oil revenue by the Nigerian government. Although the succession by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar as head of state in June 1998 brought a significant relaxation in the repression the late Gen. Sani Abacha inflicted on the Nigerian people, human rights abuses in the oil producing communities continue and the basic situation in the delta remains unchanged.
When he took office, General Abubakar canceled the “transition program” established by General Abacha—which had apparently been designed to install the military head of state as a “civilian” president, released political prisoners, and instituted a fresh transition program under conditions of greater openness. Local, state, and national elections were held in December 1998 and January and February 1999, and were intended to lead to the inauguration of a civilian government, headed by president-elect and former military head of state Olusegun Obasanjo, on May 29, 1999. Since the death of Abacha, and in the context of the greater competition within the political environment encouraged by the elections, there has been a surge in demands for the government to improve the position of the different groups living in the oil producing areas. In particular, members of the Ijaw ethnic group, the fourth largest in Nigeria, adopted the Kaiama Declaration on
December 11, 1998, which claimed ownership of all natural resources found in Ijaw territory. There has also been an increase in incidents in which protesters have occupied oil industry flow stations and stopped production or taken oil workers hostage.
In February 1999, Human Rights Watch published a 200-page report, The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria’s Oil Producing Communities, which examined human rights violations connected to the suppression of protest at oil company activities. The report went to press before details of a security force crackdown in the Niger Delta in late December 1998 and January 1999 were available. The current short report describes those events, on the basis of interviews conducted in the delta region during February 1999. We conclude that the military crackdown in Bayelsa and Delta States in late December 1998 and early January 1999 led to the deaths of several dozens of people, and probably more than one hundred; the torture and inhuman treatment of others; and the arbitrary detention of many more. These abuses took place as a response to demonstrations held by Ijaw youths in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, and Kaiama,
a community an hour away by road. The demonstrations were initially peaceful, and the majority of those killed were unarmed. Some were summarily executed. In another incident, two communities in Delta State were attacked by soldiers, using a helicopter and boats commandeered from a facility operated by Chevron, following an alleged confrontation that took place at a nearby Chevron drilling rig. More than fifty people may have died in these incidents. Chevron has asserted that it had no choice in allowing its contractors’ equipment to be used in this way. The company did not issue any public protest at the killings; nor has it stated that it will take any steps to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Soldiers remain deployed in the riverine areas of Bayelsa and Delta States. While there are genuine security concerns relating to kidnappings of oil workers and to inter-community conflict, especially in Delta State, these soldiers are responsible for ongoing human rights violations. These violations range from routine extortion of money at roadblocks to arbitrary detention and torture. On a few occasions, individuals have also been summarily executed.
The recent elections were deeply flawed in many parts of Nigeria, but the elections held in the South-South zone, the area including the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta, were particularly problematic. Observers noted widespread electoral irregularities in Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta States, those most troubled by recent protests.
Following the completion of the election process, the government of General Abubakar appointed a committee to consider the needs of the Niger Delta, which has recommended the immediate disbursement of 15.3 billion naira, U.S.$170 million, on development projects and the establishment of a Niger Delta Consultative Council, made up of government figures and representatives of the oil companies, to oversee development projects. General Abubakar’s government has also held discussions with selected leaders from, in particular, the Ijaw ethnic group, in relation to this plan.
The crisis in the oil producing regions was the most pressing issues for the new government of Nigeria when it takes office on May 29. The level of anger against the federal government and the oil companies among the residents of the oil producing communities means that further protest is likely, as are further incidents of hostage taking and other criminal acts. The crackdown in the Niger Delta over the New Year indicates the extent to which the current government, which has otherwise showed increased respect for human rights, is still prepared to use military force to crush peaceful protest, rather than to seek to address the issues being protested. Yet any attempt to achieve a military solution will certainly result in widespread and serious violations of Nigeria’s commitments to respect internationally recognized human rights. To avoid a human rights crisis, the incoming government must allow the peoples of the Niger Delta to select their own
representatives and to participate in decision making concerning the future course of the region. The flawed nature of the elections makes it all the more essential that attempts to address the grievances of the delta communities involve discussions with individuals who are freely chosen by the communities of the delta and with a mandate to represent their interests, rather than with individuals chosen by the government as representative. In addition, the government must take steps to reestablish respect for human rights and the rule of law, and to end continuing human rights violations resulting from the deployment of soldiers in the delta region.
The oil companies operating in Nigeria also share a responsibility to ensure that oil production does not continue at the cost of violations of the rights of those who live in the areas where oil is produced. Given the deteriorating security situation in the delta, it is all the more urgent for the companies to adopt systematic steps to ensure that the legitimate protection of company staff and property does not result in summary executions, arbitrary detentions, and other violations. Systematic monitoring and protest of human rights violations by the government, and steps to ensure that the companies themselves are not complicit in such human rights violations, are more important than ever.
II. RECOMMENDATIONS
Human Rights Watch made extensive recommendations in our report The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria’s Oil Producing Communities. In addition to the steps set out in that report, Human Rights Watch makes the following recommendations to the Nigerian government, the oil companies, and the international community.
To the Current Military and Incoming Civilian Nigerian Governments:
* Appoint judicial inquiries into the events in Yenagoa and Kaiama, Bayelsa State, during late 1998 and early 1999, and into the attacks on Opia and Ikenyan, Delta State, on January 4, 1999. Publish the reports, institute criminal and disciplinary proceedings, as appropriate, against those responsible for violations of human rights, and pay appropriate compensation to the victims and their relatives.
* Institute an immediate, inclusive and transparent process of negotiation with freely chosen representatives of the peoples living in the Niger Delta to resolve the issues surrounding the production of oil.
* Replace soldiers carrying out policing duties in the Niger Delta area and elsewhere with regular police. Immediately withdraw military units suspected of or known to have committed abuses, and, following judicial inquiries, withdraw units identified as abusive.
To Chevron Nigeria Ltd:
* Publicly condemn the human rights violations carried out at Opia and Ikenyan by the Nigerian military and make clear to the Nigerian government that equipment owned by Chevron or its contractors will not be made available to the army in future unless proper safeguards are in place to ensure that similar gross violations of human rights do not occur, including written agreements relating to the commandeering of oil company facilities or equipment.
* Develop written guidelines on the provision of security for Chevron facilities and cooperation with government security forces, including rules ensuring the proportionate use of force as well as proper authorization and human rights safeguards should the military seek to commandeer the company’s equipment.
To Multilateral Institutions and Nigeria’s Bilateral Trading Partners:
* In discussions with the current and incoming Nigerian governments, insist on the need for investigation and punishment of human rights violations committed in connection with the incidents described in this report, for compensation to be paid to the victims, and for a negotiated solution to the crisis in the Niger Delta.
* Insist to oil companies operating in Nigeria that they should adopt measures (including those recommended in Human Rights Watch’s report The Price of Oil) to ensure that human rights violations are not committed in connection with their operations.
Press and human right freedom
Over the past 15 years 1,500 journalists have been killed whilst working. Some of these have been Nigerians and though more than 24 years ago we should still remember Dele Giwa who was killed by a parcel bomb in October 1986. The three latest journalist murdered are : Edo Ugbagwu, Nathan Dabak and Sunday Gyang Bwede.
Edo Ugbagwu, 42, a court reporter with the Nation, was shot dead at his home in Lagos after men broke in and began arguing with him. According to Lawal Ogienagbon, a deputy editor at the Nation, Ugbagwu had not been working on any controversial stories and had received no threats.
On the same day, Nathan S Dabak, 36, and Sunday Gyang Bwede, 39, working for the Christian newspaper the Light Bearer, were stabbed to death while on their way to Jos, the central Nigerian city which has seen the deaths of hundreds of Christians and Muslims.
Shortly after the murder of the three Nigerian journalists another four jounalists received death threats by SMS.
“We will deal with you soon. Remember Dele Giwa, Bayo Ohu, and Edo Ugbagwu?” the text messages said, invoking three unsolved Nigerian journalist murders, according to local reports. The reporters who received the message were: Yusuf Ali of The Nation, Olusola Fabiyi of The Punch, Chuks Okocha of ThisDay and Gbenga Aruleba of Africa Independent Television (AIT) and myself (‘Jide Adesina-) still living in Canada on asylum and humanitarian grand since 2006 , my office and print materials were vandalized while my secretary was highly injured . This is the most repressive measure by these powerful politicians like late Adedibu and General Babangida
The journalists received identical messages after covering Acting President Jonathan Goodluck’s decision to remove the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Maurice Iwu.
A brief look at the highlights the culture of media repression in Nigeria shows an alarming number of suspensions and arrests of Nigerian journalists.
As conflict broke out in several areas of the country, violations against press freedom in Nigeria were increasingly prevalent this year with journalists being suspended, assaulted, threatened, arrested and deported by aggressive police and security forces. The escalation of politically motivated violence against journalists was representative of the instability that spread throughout the country.
Looking at the reasons behind the harassment and detention of journalists it is clear that their “crimes” were reporting the truth such as election rigging, strikes, political disputes between the President and other members of government, or as in the case of Gbenga Faturoti of the Daily Independent, beaten almost unconscious for failing to turn off his mobile phone whilst in the Osun State Assembly. Altogether 21 journalists were victims of either the police or SSS in 2004 – arrested, beaten, threatened, detained. Most were tortured. All were released without charge after period of 24 hours to 1 week. In addition 2 radio stations in Anambra State were vandalized and staff beaten up and the offices of Insider Weekly and Global Star were also vandalized and staff arrested.
A common factor behind all of the above is the lack of accountability for the actions by the security forces and by implication the State and Federal government including the then president, Obasanjo. Why did Nigeria’s the national media fail to report the kidnapping of Jonathan Elendu? Was it for fear of intimidation by the authorities? However the Nigerian Press continues to refuse to acknowledge that it’s freedoms are being seriously curtailed.
In that sense the Nigerian media have in the past and at present colluded with the state in their own oppression by not only failing to speak in defense of their fellow journalists but possibly worse, presenting the illusion of a free press. With the rise of sites such as Nigerian Village Square and Sahara Reporters as well as the growing number of Nigerian bloggers particularly some of us writing from the Disapora, it has become increasingly more difficult to keep up the pretense of a free press. Whilst the new online media and bloggers are prepared to take on the government, albeit from afar and in most cases anonymously, this does not excuse the failure of traditional media to challenge the government on freedom of speech, through the media itself or the courts.
According to media watchdog groups, 53 press freedom violations have been registered in Nigeria only since the start of this year. As the State Security Service (SSS) recently raided two opposition weekly newspapers, Nigerian journalists again are taught to fear the SSS, which was responsible for heavy-handed attacks on the press during the military dictatorship.
According to the Paris-based media freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF), the harassment of Nigeria’s independent press is currently strongly enhancing. At an increasingly higher frequency, the group registers violations of basic press freedoms in Nigeria.
RSF in a statement today noted that Nigeria’s journalists paid heavily during the Sani Abacha dictatorship. “When civilian rule was restored in 1999, we thought they would at last be able to abandon ‘guerrilla journalism’ and that fear of the SSS would be a thing of the past, but after recent developments we are inclined to change our minds.”
Repeated arrests, beatings and raids were now creating “a disturbing record,” the group said. RSF had registered 53 press freedom violations since the start of the year. Seven journalists have been detained, 15 have been physically attacked by members of the police forces or other state forces and at least three have been publicly threatened, in one case by a governor.
Further, according to RSF statistics, “more than 20 other journalists have been placed under surveillance, expelled, subjected to extortion, summoned to a police station, heavily fined, suspended from work, or subjected to other forms of harassment.”
Since the start of September 2009 alone, the SSS has raided two so-called “opposition” weekly newspapers, ‘The Insider Weekly’ and the ‘Global Star’. In each case, the agents of this federal security service had “acted in a heavy-handed manner,” RSF said, “seizing equipment and arresting Nigerian citizens without good reason.”
The staff of the Lagos-based ‘Insider Weekly’ newspaper has been in hiding ever since SSS agents raided their headquarters on 4 September, closed it down and confiscated its equipment for publishing “discourteous articles about the president and commander-in-chief, and other government personalities.”
The government had lost “no opportunity to declare his support for democracy, so he should put an end to the harassment to which so many journalists are subjected and restore order to the federal security services responsible for mistreating them,” RSF said. “He would thereby prove that Nigeria has emerged from the dark years of political persecution.”
