I have maintained an unusual silence over the past few weeks about the exposures and counter exposures between the President of Nigeria, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo and his estranged Deputy, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku. My initial reaction was dismissive because it is a case of the kettle calling the pot black. However, while I was neither fazed nor dazed by the gutter level to which their internecine warfare had descended, I must confess that I did not know that they could sink even lower and do so openly.

But like many concerned Nigerians I had recoiled into an embarrassed indifference, consequently feigning lack of interest and convincing myself that I could not care less. Dog eats dog or vulture ogling vulture - why should I care? But that was just a defensive front. What the President and Vice President of any country do affects the citizens. Government machinery is virtually paralyzed by the war between the two who seem locked in a loveless cohabitation from which they are unable to disengage.

Neither of them is catholic therefore divorce should have been easier! But Atiku has refused to jump and Obasanjo's people have been inept at pushing him. So the cohabitation falters on.

The tragic death of many Senior Army Officers in yet another air crash a few weeks ago forced a temporary truce between the two warring factions in Aso Rock, but they have now resumed public hostilities. One gets a feeling that this is some kind of Nigerian bastardized form of truth without justice. We have heard, and will hear more gory details of officials looting, squandering, comprador activities, and betrayal of public trust, but may not see the perpetrators punished or even showing any remorse.

The general public discussions seem to suggest that many people believe that the revelations are prompted not by any wish for corruption to be rooted out but by a political vendetta against political opponents. While this may be true and has a bearing on how the public perceives the official war against corruption, it smacks of public complacency.

All looters may not be caught but it is baffling to suggest that those exposed, who can be proven guilty should not be tried. Even if Obasanjo is trying only his real and imagined enemies I have no problem with their trial if they actually are guilty. However, when another administration comes to power, Obasanjo and his cronies can and should be tried too.

It is very strange that the supporters of his Deputy are not actively pleading the innocence of their Godfather but rather saying he is not alone and that his boss, the President, is also guilty. It is an unprincipled defence based on a warped logic suggesting that unless all thieves are caught, the few should not be tried. This cannot be a plea for discharge, though it could be a plea bargain in some cases if the accused fully cooperates with the court.
We need to separate the hypocrisy of those prosecuting and pointing fingers at corrupt politicians from the possible guilt of those being targeted.

If all Obasanjo’s enemies happen to be thieves they should pay for their crimes. It does not excuse Obasanjo, but since he may not be tried while he is still in power his day in court may be postponed. If we look at Latin America (in the 70s) the Generals initially got away with impunity but more than twenty years later some of them faced justice.

The other argument in support of Atiku is that he is supposed to be a very popular politician. This similar argument is used in favour of Jacob Zuma, who has populist appeal in South Africa. But should popularity be a reason for the law not to take its course? Readers may ask how these questions relate to my article (which a few critics believe to be too ‘understanding’ or even ‘adulatory’) on Winnie Mandela last week? My support of Winnie was not an endorsement of the acts for which she was convicted but rather pointing out the disproportionate attention paid to her while others were left to go scot-free. If she had not been Winnie Mandela it is doubtful she would have been treated this way. However because she is Winnie it is reasonable to expect higher standards from her. Understanding how things went ‘horribly wrong’ is not the same as conferring impunity on her. One could still admire her, not because, but despite these convictions.

Atiku is in no way a Winnie Mandela but closer to a Zuma. But if he is as popular as his supporters claim why should his conviction make a difference? Zuma has remained a serious challenger to the South African presidency in spite all kinds of acrimonious litigations and despite being fired from his post. He has survived rape charges and only had his corruption case struck off the court roll.

Atiku’s supporters are not so sure about the legal process in Nigeria. They are even more uncertain about their own party. This says a lot about the rule of law and democracy in the country. They fear that the timing of his corruption trials may prevent him from contesting for nomination for the presidency and contesting the election itself next year.

Obasanjo can try Atiku, but Atiku cannot put Obasanjo on trial, at least not in any court other than that of public opinion. Obasanjo’s crude tactics against his deputy have certainly made Atiku more popular and created a false hero for democracy to some people. His supporters are milking the goodwill claiming that his travails happened because he was opposed to Obasanjo’s third term. So great is the public disenchantment with Obasanjo’s lacklustre, arrogant government that not many people are asking what his opponents really stand for.

Obasanjo may get his pound of flesh by denying Atiku the chance to run but as he himself knows too painfully well: no condition is permanent. He has travelled full circle from presidency to prison to presidency. And he could restart the journey all over again in the near future.

The revelations have also exposed the Nigerian ruling elite as not only rotten to the core, but rotten from the core. For Obasanjo and his apologists his holier-than-thou, I- know-best messianic politics have been exposed for what they are: empty. In days gone by these revelations would have triggered a coup. But coups are out of fashion not only because of the fundamental shift in international opinion but also because internal power dynamics (unlike those recently seen in Thailand) have changed.

In any case the generals control the levers of the economy and political machineries (including even important sections of the traditional aristocracies) undisguised across Nigeria. They are able to use their looted monies to buy criminal infrastructures and therefore do not need the traditional military coup anymore. They have elected to resolve their secondary contradictions through the current democracy without democrats, a civilian regime, only in name with the generals imposing their will on the society. Welcome to the Latin Americanisation of Nigerian politics. All power to the generals!

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Militant groups in the Niger Delta are proliferating, and the country’s security situation will degenerate further unless President Obasanjo and his administration urgently address the region’s grievances.

Nigeria will spend about 30 million naira on the construction of a national Internet Exchange Point. The exchange point, which is expected to be commissioned by Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo within days, will make it possible to keep local internet traffic within the country.

Key stakeholders in the Niger Delta region are set to converge on November 16 and 17 in Port Harcourt , the Rivers State capital under the auspices of Niger Delta Environmental Roundtable. There is little doubt that it is the first independent effort initiated by the people of the Niger Delta to engage the oil exploring and gas firms on how to secure the environment of the region for the present and the future.

Creditors wrote-off $18 billion, while Nigeria paid-off the balance of $12.1 billion to exit the club, but the federal government still faces a heavy debt burden of US$16,926.billion. The debt stock according to Debt Management Office, (DMO) data, comprised of an external debt figure of $4. 847 billion and a domestic component of $12. 078 billion, as at the end of June.

A fresh offensive by Niger-Delta militants on an oil installation in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has left five soldiers dead. Military sources in Port Harcourt told Daily Champion that about 70 unidentified gunmen stormed Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) oil facility at Cawthorne Channel in Kalabari area of Rivers State being guarded by soldiers from 2nd Amphibious Brigade, Bori camp.

Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is a candidate for next year's elections, was last week suspended from his party functions for three months over wide-ranging corruption allegations. Meanwhile, Nigeria's anti-graft agency has announced that almost all of the country's 36 state governors are being investigated over corruption suspicions.

A spectre looms over Nigeria’s democracy. It is the political instrumentalisation of security agencies to carry out the regime’s agenda. It is the frightening use and abuse of security agencies and executive bodies to intimidate, silence, cow, harass and demonize real and perceived opposition to the present administration.

This year's Nigeria independence lecture will take place at the School of Oriental and African Studies on Saturday 7 October 2006 at 2pm. Organised by the SOAS student society Friends of Africa, the presentation will focus on the relationships between Nigeria's independence struggle, pan-Africanism, and the Zikist movement - which took its name from Nigeria's first president Nnamadi Azikiwe. The lecture will be followed by a discussion and performance poetry.

Hundreds of people were homeless in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state on Monday (October 2) after a dam collapsed at the weekend, washing away more than 500 houses, officials and residents said. The Barrage Dam located outside the state capital, Gusau, gave way on Saturday afternoon following more than 24 hours of heavy rain, Zamfara governor Sani Yerimah told reporters on Sunday. “The water came with excessive force and caused so much destruction,” he said.

President, Consumer Rights Advocacy League (CRAL), Mrs Cordel Okafor, has described as life threatening, the general environmental conditions under which the Nigerian consumers carry on. Stating this yesterday at the organisation's 6th Annual Workshop/Awards in Lagos, Okafor said a recent inspection carried out by CRAL in Lagos, indicated poor environmental condition under which food are served to consumers.

In an effort to meet up with the 2008 zero flare target of the Federal Government, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) has stated its readiness to meet the set date even as it stated conditions to enable it achieve this aim.

Campaign for Accountable Governance through Elections, (CAGE) has urged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to urgently investigate the ‘disappearance’ of $500million from the coffers of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and publish the outcome of such investigation.

The town of Dutse in northern Nigeria was recovering on Tuesday (September 25) after 1,000 people fled their homes in the latest in a series of inter-communal flare-ups that analysts warn could escalate in the coming months. The violence that erupted in Dutse, capital of Jigawa state and close to the border with Niger, last week was sparked by rumours that a Christian market trader had blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammed.

President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday (September 25) threatened to withdraw Nigerian troops from Darfur if the United Nations does not replace them within months. Other countries that contributed troops to the African Union (AU), Peace-keeping force in Sudan's Darfur region may also withdraw their contingents if the UN is not allowed in by December, the president said in New York yesterday.

About 140 school principals have been appointed in Enugu State to handle the newly introduced Junior Secondary School programme of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) in various post-primary schools in the state.

The high death toll and internal displacement resulting from a wave of sectarian violence across the country triggered by Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in February 2006, coinciding with a dramatic increase in militant violence in the oil-rich Delta region, were clear warning signs that once violence erupts it can quickly take on a momentum of its own.

Locusts have invaded farms in Nigeria, destroying crops as farmers prepare for harvest, officials have said. Diyos Auta, state agriculture commissioner for Taraba, in the centre of the country, said the locusts had destroyed 50 000ha of crops in the past week. "These pests migrated from neighbouring Cameroon and they move like clouds and so far they have destroyed 50 000ha of crops, which were ripe for harvest," he said.

Human traffickers make good business taking poorly educated girls from Nigerian villages to toil as domestic workers in the sprawling urban throb of Lagos. But the girls, some as young as five years old, see little or none of their earnings. Tonia Ayo-Ola, 19, has worked for three months without a day off. Each morning she is up by 6 a.m. preparing breakfast for her "master".

Late last month, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) finally announced the dates on which next year’s scheduled general and presidential elections are to be held. According to INEC Chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, who spoke at the National Forum on 2007 Elections in Abuja, governorship and state assembly elections are to hold throughout the country on April 14, whereas presidential and National Assembly elections are to hold a week later, on April 21.