As campaigns for Liberia’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections kick off, African and International Organisations have called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and African Union Chairperson President Obasanjo of Nigeria to ensure Charles Taylor does not interfere in Liberia’s democratic process from Nigeria where he is currently exiled. In a statement issued on September 01, Mr Shina Loremikan of the Coalition Against Impunity campaigning for the trial of the former Liberian leader before the UN- supported Special Court for Sierra Leone stated: “ECOWAS and President Obasanjo must ensure that Charles Taylor does not, cannot and is unable to distort Liberia’s electoral process and results.”

Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, missing in Nigeria for the last five weeks, discusses the aspirations of the continental powerhouse to African and international leadership. Despite its stated intentions, the country just doesn’t seem able to get its act together, he writes, using as examples Nigeria’s loss of the African Development Bank presidency to Rwanda and its quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

I must begin this piece with a thousand apologies to my readers for the spasmodic and epileptic appearance of this column in the past five weeks. It would have been easier for me to advise my editors and readers that I was going to be on holiday for X number of weeks. But as a 'good African' the idea that I should be on holiday was anathematic to the cultural instinct.

Whether peasants or presidents we are programmed to work till we die even if the evidence of the work may remain scanty. If you suggest to an African that he/she should go on holiday he/she starts suspecting that you want to get rid of him or her! Annual leave and a period set aside when you throw caution to the winds and just relax are anathematic to many Africans, rich or poor, urban or rural. Our lives are a kind of permanent emergency needing constant urgent attention. Therefore we keep trying to fit in permanent work without break – as well as the numerous immediate and extended family demands on our time and endless socio-cultural, multi tasked economic coping mechanisms in addition to endless community, and village must do activities!

The other and perhaps more pressing reason has to do with the objective fact of where I have been in the past five weeks: Nigeria. Somehow the country is not synonymous with holidays! The hassle and tussle of survival in Africa's allegedly No 1 country and self-declared super power is one that will task the best spirits of the most eccentric adventurer. As regular readers of this column will know, over the past five years when I became a legal visitor to Nigeria again - after more than a decade of being 'wanted' by the various caricatures of leaders - whenever I am in Nigeria this column is never regular. All kinds of objective and subjective circumstances conspire to make this column less than regular whenever I am in the country. Hence the various editors (whose papers carry this column) have developed a kind of 'Nigerian discount' for my lapses in beating deadlines. The amazing thing is that I have written this column without failing from all kinds of places before, including blighted war torn Eastern Congo, remote places in Burkina Faso, on French keyboards in a Café where people spoke only French or local languages I did not understand; and also from newly liberated post Genocide Kigali. Nigeria is on the face of it not at war but not a peace therefore everything is a daunting obstacle race!

Yet this is a country that has proclaimed since independence from the British in 1960, its 'manifest destiny' not only to lead Africa but Black people wherever they may be in the world. The irony is that many Africans or even African countries are not disputing this putative leadership. They only wished that Nigeria were able to lead effectively. If anything stands in the way of Nigeria it is its own self-doubt and its inconsistencies that is undermining its claims to leadership.

Take the example of two out of many issues currently occupying the chatters of foreign policy minded academics, policy wonks, sections of the media and some civil society activists: Nigeria's recent loss of the Africa Development Bank (ADB) presidency to Rwanda and Nigeria's quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

The national pride was greatly hurt that 'little Rwanda', despite not having majority African support in most of the tortuous stages of the ADB presidency contest, defeated Nigeria in Tunis after a deadlock in Abuja.

A number of things counted against Nigeria, which my Nigerian friends are unwilling to come terms with. One, the country's influence does not go far beyond Abuja itself. If you bring people to Abuja you can have your way but outside of it they may change their minds. Two, Nigeria is too complacent in its diplomacy, believing that its case is 'too clear.' Three, this complacency makes its officials to believe that the country is the only selling point whoever the candidate is. Four, Obasanjo's obsession with external validation was once again proven to be pointless. He bends over backwards (often against national instinct for anti western independence) to please America in particular and the West in general yet when it matters their own geopolitical interests dictate clipping Nigeria's wings in Africa and building sub regional counter checks. Five, it is not only the West that is interested in cutting Nigeria to size. There are many seemingly friendly African countries who desire the same though they may not openly articulate this. South Africa is an obvious candidate in this category. So is Egypt, Libya, and many other pretenders to leadership of Africa. There are smaller and less resourced states who cannot make such claim but play the bigger or better resourced African states against each other, buttering their bread in all ways and most of the time going for the highest bidder. It’s a kind of cash and carry diplomacy.

Post apartheid South Africa has many reasons to be grateful and friendly towards Nigeria but it also has many reasons to check mate Nigeria's regional influence as it seeks its own economic and strategic interests on the continent. It wants business with Africa's largest market but also contests the leadership claims of Africa's sleeping giant. No amount of personal rapport between leaders and diplomatic niceties can hide these contradictions. Nigeria's folly is in believing that 'there is no problem.'

Six, and perhaps more importantly under Obasanjo, Nigeria has developed a more personalised diplomacy around 'Baba' and whatever whims catch his erratic moods. Professional, well-trained and experienced diplomats of which there are many in Nigeria's foreign ministry have been relegated to mostly onlookers or undertakers for a very interventionist and domineering presidency. It is very clear that Obasanjo believes he is his own best foreign minister in addition to being the best in everything Nigerian! The ‘Babacracy’ (or is it ‘BabaCRAZY’?) that undermines Nigeria's nascent democratic order has been extended to foreign affairs, making it impossible for anybody to have any positive influence unless Baba allows them.

There are many more reasons that Nigerians need to wake up to if they are going to realise many of their assumed and oft repeated diplomatic and strategic goals in Africa and the world. Otherwise they will forever be beaten by so called small countries backed by larger interests.

And this is where Nigeria's immediate foreign policy goal of securing one of the two anticipated African seats on the UN Security Council in the ongoing UN reform proposals also runs into serious troubles. If Nigeria has its house in order no African country would be bold enough to challenge its claim - rather they would be clamouring for the second seat. However, even in West Africa where Nigeria claims to be the sub regional power, Senegal is also in the race. If Nigeria cannot have the unanimous support of its own backyard why should it expect the unanimous endorsement of the rest of Africa?

The atmosphere is so charged that many of my Nigerian friends and comrades have lost all kinds of objectivity in assessing their situation and think I must be a traitor to be raising doubts about the country's ineffectual claims to continental leadership when it cannot even lead itself. Some even suggest that I have lost touch and I have no right to comment on Nigerian affairs because I have been away for so long from the country.

Yet what we are debating is not domestic affairs but international affairs. They need to persuade others not themselves but somehow this detail is lost in the petty nationalist jingoism that clouds these discussions. And they wonder why 'foreigners' cannot accede to their claims! If they claim that because a Nigerian lives outside of the country he or she has no right to talk about domestic politics they should at least have consistency in their own logic by being a little bit humble when discussing matters outside the borders of Nigeria. The 'foreign' Nigerians may have more to share with them by way of how others see Nigeria, which is far different from how many Nigerians see their country, its potential, place and role in both African and global affairs.

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

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Nigeria's two biggest labour unions have agreed to fight the 30% increase in fuel in defiance of a new law banning unilateral strike action. Last year the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) called three crippling general strikes against fuel prices rises. The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said they are meeting to decide when to strike and will not back down until the prices are reversed.

Creditor countries have in principle agreed to cancel around $17 billion of Nigeria's debt. This debt cancellation is long overdue - but is being implemented in a way that could mean Nigeria paying more money to the rich world in the short term. The deal was agreed by the Paris Club, a creditor cartel of 19 rich countries. The UK (which is Nigeria's biggest creditor) was the strongest advocate for debt cancellation for Nigeria, having come under strong pressure from campaigners. The offered cancellation of $17 billion is a huge amount - but it is dependent on Nigeria paying off arrears of about $6 billion, and 'buying back' around $8 billion of the debt.

Operatives of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) have searched the US home of Vice President Atiku Abubakar as part of an international anti-corruption probe, according to reports. US State Department spokeswoman, Joanne Moore, said the search of the house located in an upscale Maryland suburb of the US capital took place on August 3, but declined to provide details. "All inquiries about the search of the United States residence of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar should be directed to the Department of Justice," Moore said.

Reporters Without Borders has voiced outrage at the "perverse methods of intimidation" used against the Lagos-based weekly The Exclusive by Nigeria's intelligence agency, the State Security Service (SSS), which carried out a heavy-handed raid on its offices on 19 August and then used threats to deter street vendors from selling its latest issue. "President Olusegun Obasanjo can pose as an African peace-maker as much as he likes, but Nigeria continues to be one of the continent's most violent countries for journalists," the press freedom organisation said. "His intelligence service has no scruples about punishing dissident voices and using perverse methods of intimidation if necessary."

Global Rights is a non-profit, human rights advocacy organization that partners with in-country activists to challenge injustice and amplify new voices within the global human rights discourse. With offices in 10 countries around the world, we help local activists create just societies through proven strategies for effecting change. A member of the in-country management staff, the Director of Program Performance and Monitoring will take lead responsibility in the areas of financial, grant, human resources, and administrative management of Global Rights’ Nigeria operations.

The type of police a nation gets may not be totally disconnected from the nature and attitude of its government or the political leadership in that country. A transparent, accountable, open and inclusive government that is popular and people focused would almost certainly among other things translate into an efficient, accountable, upright and people-friendly police service, says the introduction of a report on police brutality by Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organisation. "Most killings occur in police custody. Robbery suspects are summarily executed or shot in the limbs and left to bleed to death. They are later dumped in mortuaries or buried in shallow graves to cover their traces."

This paper from the International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication examines the links between and impact of globalisation and democratisation in Nigeria. It shows that while in several instances globalisation has led to the adoption of many neo-liberal economic and political policies, its impact on the country's democratisation processes has been dismal, and the country has joined the global network without adequate preparations. It argues that Nigeria has much to gain in the global network but concerted efforts must be made to transform all its civic and democratic institutions to help to sustain the current democratisation as well as contain the discontents of hyper globalisation.

Minister of Solid Mineral Resources, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, has accused oil and gas companies operating in the country of corrupt practices, and said that was the reason why they avoid disclosure of their annually generated revenue and expenditures. Ezekwesili, who was speaking in Port Harcourt at the road show of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Trans-parency Initiative (NEITI), said it was to check the sharp practices in the oil industry that President Olusegun Obasanjo has sent a bill to the National Assembly to ensure that the annual revenues and expenditures of oil and gas companies are audited and published.

Six years after a return to civilian rule, Nigeria's police still routinely torture detainees, a new report says. The study, carried out by the Human Rights Watch group, is entitled "Rest in Pieces - Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria". It is the first comprehensive documentation of alleged torture in the West African country.

Women in Kano State have been banned from riding in the same buses as men and from riding behind men on motorcycles as the state government extends its application of Islamic Shari'ah law. The separation of the sexes in this state in northern Nigeria will be enforced by a 9,000-strong religious police force with the power to fine people who ignore the new rules. State governor Ibrahim Shekarau launched the implementation of the new law on Tuesday at a ceremony at Kano city stadium attended by 10,000 chanting supporters.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has been urged to publish the names of past leaders and serving politicians who looted the nation's treasury and stashed such funds in bank accounts overseas. A non-governmental organisation, Niger Delta Peace Coalition, made this demand over the weekend, while reacting to media reports that the Paris Club has handed over to the federal Government a list of people believed to have been involved in money laundering.

In the year of Africa, S.A. Afolabi from Nigeria has won the sixth Caine Prize for African Writing, Africa's leading literary prize, for Monday Morning from Wasafiri, issue 41, spring 2004. The Chair of the judges, Baroness Young of Hornsey, announced the winner of the US$ 15,000 prize at a dinner held this evening (Monday, 4 July) in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. S.A. Afolabi was born in Kaduna, Nigeria and grew up in various countries, including the Congo, Canada, East Germany and Indonesia. He has been writing for over ten years and has had stories published in Wasafiri, London Magazine, Edinburgh Review, Pretext and others.

A Nigerian-born blogger living in Spain is giving a voice to African women and highlighting gay and lesbian issues on the continent. Online diaries, or weblogs, come in all shapes and sizes. Some are intensely personal; others are very political. Sokari Ekine's blog is both, and that is just the way she likes it.

The Western European prostitution market has become increasingly globalized during the past 15 years. The processes by which Eastern European, Southeast Asian, Latin American, and Sub-Saharan African women end up as sex workers in Western Europe are highly varied. The largest group of prostitutes from Sub-Saharan Africa comes from Nigeria, and they are usually recruited through a specific type of trafficking network. The term "trafficking in persons" is restricted to instances where people are deceived, threatened, or coerced into situations of exploitation, including prostitution. This contrasts with "human smuggling," in which a migrant purchases services to circumvent immigration restrictions, but is not necessarily a victim of deception or exploitation.

The Paris Club of creditor countries has agreed the outline of a debt relief package for Nigeria. About $18bn (£10bn) of debt will be written off and Nigeria plans to buy back a chunk of outstanding loans. The country owes the rest of the world $35bn, and the new talks are linked to an agreement between Nigeria and the IMF on debt repayments.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has met the leaders of the two main rebel movements in Sudan's Darfur region in an attempt to resurrect peace talks that have become bogged down by splits within the rebel ranks. Obasanjo is the current chairman of the African Union (AU) and the Nigerian government is hosting peace talks in Abuja between the rebels and the Sudanese government on behalf of the continental body.

Communities from across the Niger Delta, with the support of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA), have filed a legal action against the Nigerian government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Total and Agip joint venture companies to stop gas flaring. More gas is flared in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world, and flaring in the country has contributed more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined according to the World Bank.

Starting your own company is expensive in any country but Nigerian businessman Chidi-Martins Opara faced a hidden extra cost: the payment of bribes. The first hurdle was registering his small cleaning and pest control company. The official fee was less than 10,000 naira ($75), but Opara says he paid four times that amount in bribes. "You have to give money to the big officials so your papers will move faster. Otherwise your file gets 'lost'," he says.