Things falling apart in Nigeria

On Friday 9 September a group of Egyptian protestors stormed the Israeli embassy, raised the Egyptian flag and entered the building. At least 130 protestors were arrested, 1,000 injured and three shot dead by the Egyptian army. Human Rights Watch reported that some 12,000 civilians have been arrested and face military tribunals since January this year. This is more than during the whole of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. Egyptian Chronicles provides some clarity on the protest which she describes as two separate incidents.

‘Ok first no one broke in to the Israeli embassy officially yesterday, it was an apartment used by the embassy as some sort of archives vault. I am not defending the action itself but you have to transfer the truth.
Second all the clashes that took place starting from Mid night till the dawn and resulted in the injury of 1049 and the death of 3 was not at the Israeli embassy but rather at the Giza security directorate which are couple of blocks away’.

She goes on to point out that Israel has violated the Camp David accords, killing ‘not less than 50’ Egyptian soldiers with no apology; however, Egyptians were forced into silence on these violations by the Mubarak regime. Particularly worrying is that many Egyptians believed what happened was a ‘setup by SCAF’ in ‘cooperation’ with Israel to empower SCAF more. Though this is in the realms of possibility, I still find it hard to believe.

‘Now the emergency law is fully activated and many people can’t tolerate this chaos and this lack of security that jeopardize our relations with the outside the world now.’

For The Arabist the only surprising aspect of the attack is that it had not happened sometime in the previous 30 years.

‘The only surprising thing about the breach of the Israeli embassy in Cairo is that it never happened any time before in the past 30 years…Throughout the 1990s, at least once a year, students from nearby Cairo University staged a half-hearted attempt to storm the place. The hardcore "Ultra" football club fans who seemed to be a major contingent of yesterday's crowd may simply have been more persistant than your usual Cairo demonstrators -- partially because the self-styled "commandos of the revolution" (whose subculture is described by Ursula below) are used to fighting with police, and partially because they claimed to have one of their own dead to avenge, supposedly killed on Tuesday night post-match battle between Ahly club fans and police on Saleh Salem Road that started when police charged the stands in response to taunting chants.’

The title of his post ‘More on the Ultras, the embassy, and the Friday of “not exactly putting the revolution back on track”’ raises questions about where the ‘revolution’ is heading and the arising divisions between those who supported the action and those who feel it was distracting and destructive to the revolutionary movement.

‘Twitterers have been lamenting that the Israeli embassy violence has overshadowed the original demands of ending the military trials of civilians and ensuring an independent judiciary. Others have argued against the futility of demanding that a military junta renegotiate one of the country's key diplomatic agreements, while simultaneously attacking . Pro-embassy-storming Twitterers have been celebrating this "victory", and a in a few cases, lashing back at those who argues that attacking a diplomatic symbol of Israel is a waste of time, accusing them of treason.

‘One of the more perceptive Tweets I've seen comes from Egyptian Thinker: "reminder: #Jan25 is a [increasingly"> decentralized, grassroots movement which cannot, by definition, be controlled. Stop blaming each other." As a revolution progresses, and accomplishes some of the initial uprising's goals (ie, removing Mubarak) without accomplishing others (ie, a true overhaul of the police), it's pretty inevitable that revolutionaries will part ways, fall out over tactics, objectives, etc. This is particularly going to be the case when there's been a bit of malaise in the movement, and the number of longtime demonstrators who show up in Tahrir, who've carefully Tweeted out their demands beforehand, are not of sufficient mass to steer those groups (like the Ultras) who may have other agendas.’

Finally on Egypt, SandMonkey reminds those who are affected by a ‘malaise and melancholy’ believing that nothing has been accomplished – that this is far from the truth. He points out that Mubarak has been removed and put on trial; Egyptians are ‘embedded with the idea of democracy’ and will now be able to vote; Egyptians used to being beaten by the police have been able to reverse that with the massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square;
‘Some will respond that this is well and good, but we haven’t accomplished our goals, to which I respond that this is normal, because, let’s face it, we were not ready. What happened is of such magnitude that we chose not to truly believe it, to the point that we are willing to revert to the notion that this is of no significance, and that we accomplished nothing. And not only were we not ready, we also made mistakes, specifically because we weren’t prepared at all to take on the military institution that secretly runs this country. But this might not even be our fight. We have brought the country thus far, and are still pushing, but the real game is 3-5 years down the line, when the newer generations emerge.’

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In Nigeria things appear to be falling apart with three separate bomb attacks in the past 24 hours alone. These follow the suicide bomb attack on the UN building in Abuja on the 26th August. In addition the end of Ramadan was marked by more inter religious and ethnic violence in Plateau State leaving at least 40 people dead. The government have taken a few anti-terrorist initiatives but Nigerians have little confidence in their ability to even begin to deal with Boko Haram whose attacks are becoming almost daily events. What is a little strange is that hardly any Nigerian bloggers are writing about Boko Haram or the violence in Jos.

The Niger Delta Working Group choose to publish a letter written by an American expatriate living in Jos who runs a flower and vegetable farm. Her letter is a warning that Plateau State will definitely fall apart if the violence continues as all expats will leave and what industry there is, will collapse. Personally I think this letter should have made headline news and been delivered by hand to the President and House of Assembly. The farm is now closing and relocating to another state – possibly Kaduna.

‘Since the crisis began there has been no statement from any government official, either at the Federal or State level, about the situation, despite daily headlines in all of the newspapers, and gruesome reports in the local and international news media. The Governor has been absent all of this time, and the highest official to make any statement has been the Commissioner for Information. The various security agencies are not on good terms with each other. No efforts are being made for any sort of peaceful settlement of the problems, and a military solution can only be very temporary. Even that has not been successful.’

‘But now it is obvious that we have finally come to the end of the road. I will spare you the very gruesome details, but the level of barbarism which we witnessed in Jos over the past few weeks (including even cannibalism) has, I believe, so poisoned the environment here that I truly believe we will not see any normality returning to the area in my lifetime (I am now 68). I don’t feel I should spend my remaining years in a fruitless exercise. We have persevered as long as we have mainly because of the support and encouragement from our customers, who have been wonderful in all of this. But none of us have been able to lead any semblance of a normal life since January last year. People cannot visit us. All of my friends, Christian and Muslim, are afraid to come to Jos. By 6pm everyone is indoors, there are no social activities at all and people don’t go out at night. In the area where I live in Jos, which used to be a mixed area but is now almost entirely Christian, if any person obviously a Muslim comes to see me, all the neighbours come out to see the person and ask me what they are doing there. In the area of the farm, any person who associates with Muslims is considered an enemy who is part of the attacks and is under suspicion.’

Kayode Ogundamisi publishes a video “Nigeria Police "RISE" to the new challenge of "FLUSHING OUT BOKO HARRAM". Police deployed supposedly to check vehicles for Boko Haram terrorists - what they expect to find is only known to them - are shown doing anything but. First we see a policeman take a huge stick and swipe a random motor cyclist who was lucky he didnt fall off and die. Then we see another taking bribes from passing cars and finally one walking up and down chatting on his mobile phone. The actions of the police and the Plateau State government explain these tweets by Emmanuel Iduma and Chxta respectively:

‘If Boko Haram says Stay In & FG says You're Safe, which would you follow? #Stalk’

‘QoTD: If Boko Haram declare work free day, and FG says there's movement, who would you listen to? Be honest...’

The new reality for Nigerians continued in Ibadan where police received ‘intelligence’ that the University of Ibadan was on the top of Boko Haram’s list of sites to bomb. Ascology reports:

‘Motorists entering the University of Ibadan campus groaned on Monday as the authorities of the institution mounted an intensive security check at the gates leading to the institution over possible bombing by the dreaded Boko Haram sect...The security measure, which left motorists sweating for hours in the traffic gridlock created at the main gate of the institution, followed unconfirmed reports that the university had been marked down for bombing alongside several others....The sect regards Western education as ungodly. The report suggested that the university would be bombed between September 12 and 17.

‘But we Nigerians are an upbeat optimistic nation who always look to the positives in our daily lives so in the midst of daily attacks by Boko Haram, religious and ethnic violence in Plateau State, rumblings from ex militants in the Niger Delta and countless political dramas, 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria was launched.’

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The campaign to rebrand Nigeria is in response to the ‘419’ financial scams associated with Nigeria and Nigerians, which we know are not peculiar to Nigeria – fraud has no nationality. Nonetheless Nigeria and Nigerians have been unfairly branded as the A-list of fraudsters. Now the people are fighting back. The first rebranding initiative was the ‘The 419 Positive Project’ which invited Nigerians and their friends to come up with ‘419 positive attributes of Nigeria’. The ‘419 Reasons to Like Nigeria’ follows on from this. Yes this is highly confusing and I don’t quite understand why campaigns replicate themselves with similar names but regardless, the idea is that if Nigerians repeatedly blog and tweet on 419 Reasons, eventually these positives rather than 419 scams will appear at the top of searches.

Akin’s explains on his blog:

‘I will suggest that all Nigerian bloggers write a blog titled 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians and basically use every opportunity to turn a negative slur into a positive and wholesome reclaiming of Nigerian pride.

‘The association of 419 and Nigeria should begin to yield positive commentary about Nigeria.’

The list of “419” on Facebook is not exactly very impressive and relates to individual achievements. They certainly don’t hide the country’s failing by resorting to tabloid jaunts on the internet. On the other hand some real political critique would be a positive step.

The real positive news from Nigeria was reported by Justice in Nigeria Now, is that last week hundreds of women from Gabaramtu in the Niger Delta held a protest against Chevron:

‘WARRI-HUNDREDS of placard-carrying women, from about 10 Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, yesterday, laid siege to the project site of Chevron Nigeria Limited at Chanomi Creek and disrupted the laying of pipelines for the multi-billon dollars Escravos Gas to Liquid project.
The workers of an indigenous service company, Fenog Nigeria Limited, handling the project were helpless as the women refused to vacate the site, while soldiers guarding them looked on.

‘The women, from Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Benikrukru, Kurutie, Kunukunuma, Azama, Igoba, Pepe-Ama, Tebizon, Kokodiagbene communities, led by Mrs. Comfort Oguma, said both the Federal Government and Chevron deceived them and demanded that all pre-contract agreements be fulfilled.’

Finally the co-editor of Nigeria’s excellent literary magazine, Saraba [another positive"> Emmanuel Iduma has been guest blogging on Black Looks:

‘In these series of posts, I am interested in pointing attention to how creative writing in Africa intersects with the internet. I do not intend to make an exhaustive consideration. Hopefully more writers will think about this intersection, how our art is influenced by it, and how our intention to “make a presence” will continuously shape the manner in which we are read and presented.

‘I identify that since we are gingerly coming off print technology (keeping our eyes behind, yet looking forward), there are certain needs that confront us. These are: a literate audience, an audience with the ability to access, and an audience willing to receive a continued online effort. In this part, I will focus on the first, a literate audience.’

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* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.