Two sacks of salt, 18 bars of soap, four packets of coffee, 24 bottles of beer and two bags of sugar. That's the compensation a Congolese community can expect for giving a logging company access to huge areas of local rainforest. If they're really lucky, they might get a school or a pharmacy thrown in. According to a report from environmental campaigning group Greenpeace, Carving up the Congo, corporations are offering gifts worth as little as $100 to local people in exchange for permission to cut down wood worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The World Bank's Staff Association, which represents 10,000 employees, asked Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to step down Thursday amid charges that he gave his girlfriend, a Bank employee, improper pay raises and attempted to cover it up.

Cote d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo on Saturday announced the formation of a new government which will be in charge of getting the country out of the crisis which it has been experienced for more than four years. The new government of Prime Minister Guillaume Soro consists of 33 ministerial portfolios, and the entry of six new ministers.

The International Monetary Fund ( IMF) said on Thursday it would give Kenya 56.8 million U.S. dollars after waivering five requirements including declaration of assets by ministers and senior civil servants, according to a report by Xinhua. A statement from the IMF Country Office in Kenya said the east African nation's macroeconomic performance had improved markedly since 2004, resulting in increased financial reserves.

Forget statistics on literacy, child mortality and access to clean piped water: In Angola, the shopping-mall is the key indicator of social and economic development. As OpenDemocracy's Lara Pawson reports, Luanda’s poor are paying a heavy price for the gleaming condominiums and shopping-malls arising around them.

One of the Democratic Republic of Congo's key opposition leaders has left the country, ending three weeks of living under the protection of the South African embassy in Kinshasa. According to one witness, Jean-Pierre Bemba boarded a private jet bound for Portugal on Wednesday, where he is due to have medical treatment.

A coalition led by Thomas Boni Yayi, Benin's president, has taken control of parliament, according to election results announced by the country's constitutional court. According to a report by Al-Jazeera, Yayi said wresting control of parliament from traditional elites was key to pushing through anti-corruption reforms, which he claims prompted an attempt on his life last month.

The Nigerian president's declaration of a public holiday has delayed a supreme court hearing into whether the vice-president may stand in next week's election.
Olusegun Obasanjo has designated Thursday and Friday, 12 and 13 April as a holiday, directly threatening the electoral campaign of Atiku Abubakar.

Morocco has delivered a proposal for autonomous control over the disputed Western Sahara region to the UN secretary-general, according to a report by Al-Jazeera. The North African country's proposal came a day after a rival movement working for the separation of Western Sahara from Morocco called for a referendum on independence.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Fahamu bids farewell to Patrick
FEATURES: Ike Okonta assesses Nigeria’s forthcoming elections
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Grace Kwinge on her experience of Mugabe’s security forces
- Joseph Yav – Lessons from Rwanda
- Issa Shivji on building the pan-African vision
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen assesses the role of local factors in the Nigeria elections
BLOGGING AFRICA: ICTs for kids in Ghana, Middle East realities, Nigerian models and chocolate crucifixes
BOOKS & ARTS: Poems by Sokari Ekine and Rethabile Masilo

WOMEN AND GENDER: Blogs begin new conversation for Egyptian women
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Algerian bomb death-toll rises
HUMAN RIGHTS: Ethiopian genocide suspects released
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Asylum seekers left homeless in South Africa
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: New Ivorian government announced
AFRICA AND CHINA: Namibia and China sign 13 agreements
CORRUPTION: World Bank staff seeks Wolfowitz’s ouster
DEVELOPMENT: Opposition to more say for developing nations in IMF
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: What the papers aren’t saying about TB and HIV
EDUCATION: India offers Tanzania 100 scholarships a year
LGBTI: Making Herstory
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Uganda forest protest sparks racial violence
ENVIRONMENT: Will the poor be flooded out?
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: The politics of land clashes
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Nigerian Radio and TV stations shut down
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: Report on ICT access across Africa
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

The Government of Spain has committed new funding of US$592,000 for UN-HABITAT's Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for Sustainability (RUSPS) programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Senegal. The Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for Sustainability (RUSPS) programme undertakes assessments of urban conditions in selected cities

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_ghanageek.gif reports on an ICT project for secondary school children in Ghana called the I2CAP competition.

'The I2CAP program is a secondary school level programming competition. We train the teachers who go back and train the students. Then we have regional competitions and finally the nationals. At the moment their tutors are taught in the Ruby programming language…They are given a bunch of problems of varying difficulty and graded on how well they can create a working solution…Its only been going on for almost 2 years and we finally got teachers in every region trained. The first nationals will be in september. The plan is to eventually be able to assemble a national team for the International Programming Olympiad'

100 kids took part in the project however Geek has some criticisms such as the age of the computers – its about time Africa stopped being the dumping ground of ancient computers – a 5 year old computer is about 30 years old in reality if not more.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_naija.gifMusings of a Naijaman comments on his adventures in London seeking out Nigerian food and newspapers and ends up at the Bukka in Kilburn High Road. And on the continuing drama that is the Nigerian elections he points to a piece in This Day on how to prevent Rigging.

'Over in Naija, the drama continues as the elections draw nearer with court cases and counter suits and sudden deaths and the rearing of violence - Simon Kolawole of Thisday had some useful pointers on how to prevent rigging (or at least stop PDP from rigging too much)'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_subzero.gifSubzero Blue comments on an article on the “so called “Seven Pillars of Middle East Reality” that stand in the way of peace with Israel. Subzero takes each “pillar” which he generally describes as [un]reality apart such as placing the onus of peace on Arab leaders

'This can't be more wrong; the Arab leaders wouldn't want anything more than to have the whole Israel-Palestine problem solved, a peace established, the ability to move on and leave the whole thing behind them. In fact, a number of the Arab regimes, if not most of them, already have secret ties with Israel, and are just waiting for the chance to make them public and announce normalization and all minorities living in the Arab world are under siege.'

'This is very very wrong, and a trip to any country in the Arab world where a religious minority exists can show that; Jews in countries like Tunisia and Morocco, Christians in countries like Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, and the list continues; These people enjoy all their rights and freedoms, and live in peace alongside Muslims.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_matubamurphy.gifMy Haven a blog by South African gay couple, Matuba and Murphy comment on an editorial in Behind the Mask (South African LHBT news site) titled “The Only Gay Jesus Christ” stating that Jesus was in fact bi-sexual. Haven’s response to the piece is that it is completely unfounded and baseless statement.

'Conduct your research or perhaps use acceptable quotes that shows insight and initiative! Behind the Mask should know better than everyone else not publish such bigotry. They advocate for the existence of homosexuals. They fight for the rights of those who are violated - yet they bash Christianity with unfounded lies! As far as I am concerned it is all lies because there is no basis!'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_eshun.gifeshuneutics continues with the Easter theme and Jesus Christ in his post on Indulgence – chocolate crucifixes and Easter eggs – the 80 million sold and the sheer waste of the packaging – 4,500 tonnes altogether!

'It was Ezra Pound who once said “We have the press for wafer”. And sadly, we do: and its views are about as intellectually chewy as a chocolate box. Nowhere has the press tied all perspectives together and suggested that it is the continual commercialisation of religion that has caused this wastage of natural resources. Probably, that would be a crusade too far.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_model.gifBella Naija is one of Nigeria’s most popular blogs. Bella blogs on Nigeria popular culture: fashion, celebrities and Nollywood. This week the focus is on “Nigeria’s Next Top Model”…which is an event that will take place in London this month. Apparently there are “Top Model” events worldwide but this is a first for Nigeria

'I think it’s a good idea although I really wish this would have been more like the American Top Model reality show format with the whole thing taking place in Nigeria but I guess this is a start. I understand that subsequent ‘seasons/cycles’ will attempt to follow US Top Model format.'

There are rich pickings to be had for the winners – TV, advertising deals and the chance to become the 'face of Nigeria' – what better reward could any woman wish for!

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/299/blog_thinker.gifSudanese Thinker goes on yet another anti-gay rant with the proviso that “he doesn’t mean to offend anyone”. Of course ST is entitled to his own opinion but the whole piece is full of misinformation and plain bigotry. He ends up telling us of an encounter with “2 gay dues and a transsexual” and concludes that you cant judge people on the basis of their sexuality. And he even has some friends who are atheist as well! God what a relief on both counts.

'I was extremely uncomfortable in the beginning and felt like cursing my friend but I convinced myself to remain respectful since I was a guest. At first, I conversed with everyone except the transsexual. After a while, the party got going when the host started blasting some really good old school hip hop music. Eventually we all conversed, laughed and joked around until I completely forgot the fact that 2 of the guys were gay and one was a transsexual. It didn’t bother me much anymore. Unlike previous cases, they didn’t try to hit on me and they didn’t make any flirtatious moves which was obviously a very good thing. As a result, I learned three new fashion words. Cetour, retro and bohemian (did I spell them right?). Moreover I started thinking and I gained a new perspective.'

Grace Kwinje’s personal experiences under the blows and batons of Robert Mugabe’s men.

'I will go before the King, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.'

Esther 4:16 HARARE - 'What sort of woman are you Grace Kwinjeh?' 'Who do you think you are?' 'What are you trying to prove?' Questions asked by more than five baton stick wielding riot police officers as they beat me up on that fateful day at Machipisa Police Station in Harare on 11 March.

This was round one out of many.

Yet it was about the woman in me. It was about me as a woman and what I stand for or represent.

Each blow epitomised what they feared and hated in my defiance against them. This translated into the most brutal assault or dare I say attempted murder on me, on my person, my being; that woman in me.

I did not respond I stood still and took each blow as it came. I did not cry. I did not beg for mercy. None of the comrades present on that day cried or begged for mercy, none denounced the party or tried to negotiate themselves out of this horror of horrors that will never be erased from our memories.

Neither will the physical or emotional scars ever heal. No amount of therapy can heal what we went through on that day.

Sekai Holland a 64 year old grandmother was called a 'whore', 'Blair's whore' to be precise. 'No I cannot be Blair's whore he is my son' she said. How dare she respond thus?

Associate herself with the defiled Tony Blair? And so Sekai was danced on, interestingly by another woman. 'Iri hure raBlair rinoda varungu,' translates to 'this Blair whore loves white men'.

Sekai married for 40 years to an Australian was severely assaulted several times. She broke a leg an arm and three ribs. Why because as a journalist she made the double 'choices' of marrying a white man and belonging to the opposition; for that she had to suffer.

She had to be punished for going against the 'norm', the 'expected' by ZANU PF.

That woman in her was under attack verbally and physically. Her age? Not an issue.

The two young women we were with were not spared. The young 'whores' according to the officers had to be taught a lesson.

Together with Sekai and myself we were beaten on the buttocks. 'Rovai mazigaro' 'beat up the big bums' they shouted.

My black beret fell off and I got a beating for my blond hair. 'Hure rekuHoliday Inn rovai.' 'A Holiday Inn prostitute beat her up.' 'Look at the color of her hair.' The 'sins' were many. I colored my hair blond in protest after Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede denied me a travel document on the basis that it was a 'state security document' and not a 'right.' I was slowly being rendered stateless in my own country.

And so as is the case too in opposition politics the attack on us women was more on our sexuality, we were assaulted, humiliated, demeaned in whatever way they could think of.

Comically again, amongst us victims were some of the worst male philanderers, but the issue with them remained political, exposing the misogynistic character of our society.

We were treated this way because we are women and nothing else.

As I reflect on, I do not regret the woman I am and the hard choices I have to make.

It is for these that in my life I have often been persecuted, socially, sexually or mentally and this time I have paid an insufferably heavy price that has left deep scars on my body and soul.

I challenge oppressive systems in all their forms not just to do away with Robert Mugabe's injustice, but also primitive actions by those in our midst that still place us women in the odd position, of being underdogs even in the struggle for a democratic and just society.

It is a double battle for both our political freedom and emancipation, none of which can be achieved without the other, otherwise it's a half-baked revolution, similar to the one we got at independence.

Zimbabwean women in politics have stories to tell. Opposition politics?
More stories.

Over the past months I have seen myself in and out of jail on various dubious charges mostly to do with organising and leading illegal demonstrations.

Once I was placed in solitary confinement at Rhodesville Police station for 48 hours. The aim here I suppose was just to traumatise me. As I sat there in that cell on my own I was afraid.

Afraid of many things to do with being tortured, raped or even being killed. By the grace of God I came out not touched.

A female freedom fighter can be killed at any time. In the wee hours of 12 March the military police came for me at Braeside Police Station, where I had been dumped half dead already, the night before.

A search for me by family and friends was in full scale at this time.

I was in a cell with two other women. One of them was actually nursing and praying for me as I was in great pain and bleeding. We heard the sound of cars outside. Foot steps then the jail door opened.

The officer in charge, Makore pointed at me and said 'uyu Kwinjeh' to four military intelligence officials. I held on to the two women I knew I was in danger.

Once again in the fence of Braeside police station, I was tortured by the officers. They said they had been given orders to kill and not negotiate with civilians. This was not a joke because by this time comrade Gift Tandare's body lay cold somewhere.

May his soul rest in peace. I did not know this. The rest I leave to God and his mercy for me on that night.

They asked me all sorts of questions as they beat me with short 30 centimetre really painful baton sticks. I fainted several times but each time they got me up and tortured me.

Until in the end I could not stand that is when they asked me to remain seated and stretch out my legs and they beat the soles of my feet. How I got back in the cell I do not know. All I know is my life was spared.

They stayed on vigil outside the fence waiting for further 'instructions'. Thank God some officials from the Lawyers for Human Rights found me before the 'instructions' came the next day.

And then it was drama after drama. Released to hospital under riot police guard; then no charges; re arrested while trying to leave the country then back to hospital under riot police guard.

Eventually with Sekai Holland we made it for medical treatment here in South Africa.

I thank the sisters and brothers for the solidarity that came in the form of prayers, demonstrations, night dresses, cake, books, fruit and water.

Above all for taking the risk of being associated with this kind of woman, by visiting us at the Avenues Clinic in full view of the police and CIO operatives.

I will end with a quote from Paolo Coelho's The Zahir, 'I don't regret the painful times; I bear my scars as if they were medals. I know that freedom has a high price, as high as that of slavery; the difference is that you pay with pleasure and a smile, even when that smile is dimmed by tears.' And so the woman in me will fight on. Aluta Continua!

* Grace Kwinje is the deputy secretary for international relations in the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change.

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

As we approach the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide we should not only remember the horrors that took place, but focus our attention on the failure to halt the developing genocide in Darfur.

April marks the 13th anniversary of the start of the genocide in Rwanda during which approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days. When celebrating the anniversary of this horrific tragedy let us take a moment to remember those who were slaughtered so unmercifully. More attention should be focused on how to prevent future heinous crimes to occur in Africa and elsewhere.

‘Never again’ – an international commitment or a rhetorical sound bite?

After the horrors of the holocaust, the international community drafted the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and pledged 'never again' to such evil. The United Nations was founded with the objective that humanity should be spared the scourge of war forever. The pledge proved empty as numerous heinous crimes followed. In fact, civilians in Africa bear the heaviest brunt of acts of terror, civil wars, violent suppression of political opponents and criminal violence.

The most glaring and heinous examples of the failure of civilian protection in Africa are the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the war in the DRC between 1998 and 2003, which resulted in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with over 3,400,000 persons displaced from their homes and an estimated 4 million killed and, the Darfur conflict that started in 2003, with estimates of deaths ranging from 180,000 to 400,000. At least 2,000,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes and are displaced in Sudan or in camps in neighbouring countries. These cases are particularly relevant: they happened in our lifetimes and continue to happen now.

Never say never again?

They are a tragic part of Africa’s contemporary history. One may easily say that 'never again' has lost its meaning. While Rwanda was supposedly the scar on our conscience that would be the last incident of mass atrocities allowed to occur, it provided a foreshadowing of things to come. That is true especially in Africa where, despite leaders’ pledge to never let another Rwanda happen again, they have not demonstrated the will to exercise the African Union’s right to intervene to stem gross human rights violations in a concerted or consistent manner.

Even if there is controversy about the definition of genocide in Darfur, there is little doubt that despite the hair-splitting of the proper description of the unfolding tragedy, there is a developing genocide in Darfur which is being met by a similar reaction or lack of action from the world community. Equally, the current situation in Zimbabwe - where the state is oppressing its own people - is another case for the agenda of actions to end this cycle, and move us to finally realise the call of 'never again'.

As 7 April has been designated by the UN as 'international day of reflection on the genocide in Rwanda', the profound sense of 'never again' should be reflected in the prevention or action in the event of of heinous crimes and other violations of human rights. Prevention of such crimes through swift and effective action will send us a clear message. Maybe, thus inspired, we can someday make 'never again' more than a mere slogan.

In so doing, responses to protect civilians would immensely benefit from President Paul Kagame’s sagacious words:

'Never again should the international community’s response to these crimes be found wanting. Let us resolve to take collective actions in a timely and decisive manner. Let us also commit to put in place early warning mechanisms and ensure that preventive interventions are the rule rather and the exception.'

To achieve the broad goal here expressed will certainly take more than rhetoric. Political commitment must be expressed, not only in establishing the required mechanisms but also in triggering them to act when action is required.

The case of Darfur aptly demonstrates the futility of establishing legal regimes which cannot be effectively utilised. In providing for intervention in internal affairs of member states when massive human rights violations are perpetrated without action from the government concerned, or when the government itself is involved in such atrocities, the Constitutive Act of the African Union has codified an important principle of international law. This principle as holds that while states have the responsibility to protect their citizens in recognition of their sovereignty, the default responsibility falls upon the international community, in this case the AU, which can intervene to forestall atrocities.

The cases of Darfur and Zimbabwe are the latest in a string of similar situations to pose unanswered questions to our rhetorical commitments. It is one thing for the silence to be ruptured for lack of preventive mechanisms. But our deafening silence in the face of continuing atrocities is quite another. Empty diplomatic gestures without concrete action in places like Darfur long recognised as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is a damning indictment of the international community, in particular the leading nations at global and continental levels.

As the world commemorates the commencement of the tragic events of 1994 in Rwanda, our leadership and those who shape opinion and policy must rethink our commitment to a world and continent free of human suffering, a continent committed to furthering the aspiration of a peaceful world, a world in which human life and dignity are embedded in state policy and interactions between nations. This would allow us, when necessary, to discard parochial notions of sovereignty and to act accordingly when another Rwanda or Darfur threaten.

To achieve this, we must bring together the institutions and collective powers we have established to construct a world in which ‘never again’ means what it should.

* Joseph Yav is a lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also the executive director of the Centre d’etudes et de recherche en droits de l’homme, democratie et justice transitionnelle/Centre for Human Rights, Democracy and Transitional Justice Studies. Email: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

If Nigeria successfully holds local and federal elections on 14 and 21 April, it will be the first time that an elected civilian government will hand power over to another. Will the elections hold? Will clear winners emerge? Will alleged losers accept their defeat with good grace, actuated by the larger national interest? Ike Okonta places Nigeria’s forthcoming elections in historical and political context.

Given the country’s turbulent political history, the choice confronting Nigerians in these difficult times is between democracy and national disintegration. Some analysts would like to add a third into the mix: a military coup d’etat. But I have firmly ruled this out. Ambitious officers might well attempt a takeover, but Nigerians’ current deep aversion to military rule will see to it that they will not last in office.

In times past the army always stepped into the breach when the politicians failed to abide by the rules of the game, using the coup to truncate the party-political process, abolish the constitution, and govern the country from their barracks. The armed forces had a modicum of respectability in the 1970s, fresh from a bitter civil war. They were viewed – at least in the western and northern parts of the country – as the nation’s saviour.

But the Babangida and Abacha regimes (1985-1998) exploded the myth of the Nigerian military as guarantors of peace and drivers of national progress. The campaign for democratic rule that seeded in the late 1980s was deeply-rooted, popular and enduring for the simple reason that ordinary Nigerians had by this time seen through the mask of the soldiers. Now they clearly recognised that their very survival depended on them winning back the right to govern themselves or elect their representatives as they saw fit.

Ordinary Nigerians are still struggling to consolidate the democratic government they won at such high cost in 1999 when their protests finally forced the General Abubakar-led junta to hold elections. It is not likely that they will tolerate another military adventurer, no matter how well-meaning, in the corridors of power.

If the mass of Nigerians prefer to live in a united country rather than go their separate ways – and all available research points to the former – and if they are firmly set against renewed military rule – as indeed they have – then it stands to reason to argue that they will work strenuously to ensure that the elections are duly held.

After all, multi-ethnic nations are best held together by dialogue and consensus. They will also likely engage the electoral process with great care knowing as they do now that inconclusive or chaotic elections could throw Nigeria on to the path of disintegration along the ever present fault-lines of religion and narrow ethnic nationalism.

They will want the elections to be peaceful, transparent and the results fair and credible. They will want the victors to demonstrate humility in their triumph, and the losers to accept that democratic elections are not a one-off event but an on-going process, holding out the hope of their own triumph in the next electoral round. Above all, Nigerians will want the out-going Obasanjo government to display statesmanship; and with an eye on history, to ensure that all conceivable obstacles to a smooth transfer of power to its successor are removed.

All evidence supports the contention that the majority of Nigerians are working hard to achieve this outcome. But there are also worrying signs on democracy’s road, as the country approaches the elections. Some of these danger signals are born of residual structural problems in the polity; the rest are largely attitudinal, driven by the personal quirks of certain political actors. It is important that we highlight these danger signs, separate those that can be remedied from the intractable, and urge well-meaning Nigerian political actors to channel their energies towards those that can be remedied. The point of political diagnosis is to identify and remove elements that impede the healthy functioning of the polity.

Three danger signs

Nigeria’s current political regime is a very young electoral system struggling to achieve democratic consolidation. Thirty years of military rule foisted a culture of impunity, authoritarianism, and disempowered citizenship on the people. The vital institutions that support representative government – a free and robust press, an independent and impartial judiciary, and political parties driven by policy issues and buoyed up by a freely associating and enlightened citizenry – that began to emerge in the 1940s when the struggle for independence really commenced, were stifled following the first military coup in January 1966.

Efforts of progressive politicians and civil society leaders since the end of the civil war in January 1970 have been directed largely towards winning back the open civic space in which these crucial institutions can thrive and prosper again. The Second Republic of 1979-1983 was too short a period for these supportive institutions of representative rule to re-embed in the wider society. Generals Babangida and Abacha’s unrelenting and all-encompassing attacks on the civic-political space killed off the tender shoots that began to bud during that brief spring. In a real sense therefore, the advent of the Third Republic in 1999, for all its imperfections, offered the first real opportunity, after the demise of the First Republic in 1966 and the bloody civil war which followed in its wake eighteen months later, for the institutional ramparts of democratic government to take root again.

This is the reason why Nigerians will go into the April 2007 elections without the benefit of real political parties and politicians to represent their views and interests. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party, has since 1998 when it came into being, transformed into a bloated, vote-rigging machine intolerant of opposition within or from rival parties. Run along highly authoritarian lines and dependent on the president for funds and policy, the PDP has been reduced to a branch of the government. The latter is also subject to the whims and commands of President Obasanjo.

The leading opposition parties – All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Action Congress (AC) - are run along more consensual lines. But they are hampered by a lack of experienced and trained personnel; a narrow and opportunistic membership base; perennial shortage of funds; and a domineering presidency which has not hesitated to use government largesse and paid agents provocateurs to undermine them.

The judiciary, after the battering it endured at the hands of the soldiers, is still struggling to find a credible role for itself in the new civilian dispensation. The Nigerian press is fiercely combative and fearless, but journalists are yet to make the transition from being guerrillas fighting off military dictatorship to cool-headed analysts nudging politicians and public discourse towards policy issues.

To correct these structural problems will require time and a great deal of political skill. Because they will endure into the coming 2007 electoral cycle, the gaps they will open up in the political system could be exploited by a ruling party anxious to retain power at the centre and in the states. Having rigged the 1999 and 2003 elections with impunity, the PDP will be sorely tempted to enact a repeat performance this April, taking advantage of the weakened opposition, a cowed judiciary, and a still tactically-challenged press. This is the first danger sign on the road to the elections.

Whilst Olusegun Obasanjo is still the head of the federal government, he is no longer in power. This might sound paradoxical; but the architecture of power in Nigeria is as multilayered as it is complex. Obasanjo rose to prominence in the Nigerian armed forces in the late 1960s riding on the coat tails of the northern coup-makers of July 1966, most notably General Yakubu Danjuma.

Burdened with his close friendship with Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, leader of the abortive January 1966 putsch in the north, and with his own role in that event still shrouded in mystery, Obasanjo had necessarily to demonstrate his loyalty to the new power elite – led by Col. Yakubu Gowon, Col. Murtala Muhammed, and Major Danjuma. It was on the rump of this group that he relied when Muhammed was assassinated in February 1976, after he had replaced Gowon as head of state the previous year and he (Obasanjo) was asked to step into the breach. He reigned; but real power lay with chief of army staff General Danjuma and chief of staff, supreme headquarters, General Shehu Yar’Adua. Obasanjo’s pay-back was his strident defence of ‘Nigerian unity’; and along with this, a pro-northern political stance when the time came to hand over power to politicians in 1979.

This pact, forged in the turbulent period of military rule in the 1970s, was to be replayed in 1999 when the northern military and political elite, reeling from attacks from pro-democracy elements in the wake of General Babangida and Abacha’s excesses, looked for a safe pair of hands to cede power. This was meant to be a tactical manoeuvre, designed to placate frayed nerves in the progressive camp in southern Nigeria. Babangida, acting on behalf of a loose coalition of northern elites, though by no means all northern interests, again sought out Obasanjo and finessed the politics that took him to Abuja as President in May 1999.

Throughout his military and later political career, Obasanjo never took any risks that could put his life or career on the line. He was content to let others take the risks, including dangerous military putsch. He would emerge from the shadow when the gun smoke had cleared and scout for rich pickings. Obasanjo’s sole attempt to make a bid for real power on his own behalf was the ill-fated attempt to get his minions in the PDP to tinker with the constitution that he might stay on as President beyond the two terms stipulated by the constitution. The powerful coalition of Babangida, Danjuma, and Vice President Atiku Abubakar – all northerners - united with pro-democracy elements in the press and civil society and promptly slapped down Obasanjo in May 2006.

That episode, more than anything else, demonstrated where real power in Nigeria lay. It also pointed to Obasanjo’s fragile position in the country’s nascent democratic game. He would, ideally, like to retire as a king-maker now that he can no longer extend his stay in office. But he has never had a secure power base to call his own: neither in the armed forces; nor in his Yoruba region home where he is distrusted by a populace who still see him as a northern ‘stooge’; nor in civil society; nor amongst the intelligentsia who regard him with a mix of loathing and disdain.

Nevertheless, Obasanjo has made it clear that come April he is determined to steamroll his chosen presidential candidate, Umar Yar’Adua, younger brother of the late Shehu Yar’Adua, into State House. The northern political elite is equally determined to demonstrate that Obasanjo has neither the right nor the political clout to appoint a new political leader for them. They see the April polls as the proving ground.

Obasanjo and his unpopular party will go into the elections with the full backing of the PDP state governors who are anxious to ensure continuity and thus shield themselves from later prosecution for corrupt enrichment and a supine police force with armed elements drawn from the army and paid thugs that Nigerian cities now have in abundance. This group will have to confront a vengeful Northern elite and their allies in the south, grouped around General Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the ANPP, and Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo’s vice president, whose bid for the top job under the Action Congress is still under a cloud.

Were the supporting institutions of Nigeria’s young democracy autonomous and functioning, all eyes would have turned to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the courts to ensure free and credible polls; thus removing the prospect of a free for all between these two bitterly opposed political factions. But INEC, following its recent pronouncement banning Vice President Abubakar, a noted critic of Obasanjo, from contesting the presidential election even though the electoral act does not accord it such power, has demonstrated that it is an interested party, on the side of President Obasanjo and the PDP government.

The Buhari and Atiku groups have stated that they view INEC as a partial entity that will work on Obasanjo’s behalf during the elections. This means that they will put into place their own independent machinery to police the electoral process and ensure that neither the INEC nor PDP’s agents rig the polls. Obasanjo, who was recently quoted in the press as saying that the election would be a ‘do or die’ affair for him will be expected to use the machinery and financial resources of the government to ensure that his will prevails. The inevitable clash between these juggernauts will reverberate in wider Nigerian political and civil society, already stretched to breaking point. This is the second danger sign on Nigeria’s democracy road.

Then there is a third danger sign, as ominous as the first two. This is the international politics of oil and the extent to which the major oil-consuming nations in Western Europe and North America seeking to secure their strategic interests will attempt to shape the political outcome in Nigeria to their advantage. At the heart of this realpolitik is the growing armed insurrection in the Niger Delta, fed and sustained by five decades of economic exploitation and political marginalisation that the local communities have suffered at such terrible cost.

The United States and the European Union backed the Obasanjo government in 1999 and again in 2003 even though there was abundant evidence that those elections had been marked by rigging and violence. Obasanjo was seen as friendly to their interests. He was also seen as a competent general who could be counted on to rein in the youth activists in the Delta region and ensure that Western oil companies continue to extract oil undisturbed.

Local democracy and corporate social responsibility were thus sacrificed for cheap oil. This democratic deficit is at the heart of the present crisis in the Niger Delta. Continued backing for Obasanjo’s political agenda in April will certainly escalate this crisis, which in turn could spill out into other regions of the country igniting a political cyclone.

These then are the three major danger signs on the road to the April general elections. So far, ordinary Nigerians in their millions have remained spectators in this great game, even as their economic and social condition continues to deteriorate. They are waiting anxiously for the April elections to settle accounts with those whom they see as having betrayed them, leaving them worse off than they were in 1999. If they are denied their day in the voting booth, the three danger signs will meld with popular anger and frustration. There is no knowing whether Nigeria will still be there on the map when the storm settles.

Alternatively, Nigeria’s ruling elites can elect to head off this storm by insisting on fair elections. But how might the end game play out?

Endgame of a defeated General

President Olusegun Obasanjo will quit power in May. There is no getting around it. The current power constellation is firmly against him despite his strenuous efforts since he assumed office in 1999 to build an independent power base of his own. The question now is the manner of Obasanjo’s going, and how to ensure that Nigeria as a corporate entity remains after the storm has quietened.

Forecasting the ramifications of Nigeria’s coming general elections is now a booming industry in the United States and Western Europe. These forecasts and analyses run the gamut from the sober to the downright loony. Most centre on the rising armed conflict in the oil-bearing Niger Delta, and how the elections might likely impact the flow of oil to the Western countries.

But for Nigerians and other Africans, the stakes are higher. A conflict-ridden Nigeria in the wake of inconclusive or rigged elections will trigger powerful waves of chaos and anarchy throughout West Africa, suspend the ambitions of ECOWAS to transform the region into a belt of economic prosperity, and open up west and central Africa to natural resource hunters intent on fomenting war and pave the way for easy pickings.

It is therefore important that Nigerian political thinkers step out to combat the muddled, self-serving analyses of those who have put themselves forward as ‘interpreters’ of political trends in their country. Indeed, they are challenged to articulate a clear road map to fair, peaceful and conclusive elections: to an electoral outcome that will provide a framework in which the task of repairing the damage Obasanjo and his lieutenants have wrought these past eight years can commence.

The Washington based Eurasia Group had this to say about the coming elections: ‘An election delay and the constitutional crisis which will likely follow could tempt the country’s military and influential ex-military establishment – which ruled Nigeria for four decades – to consider re-entering politics...Obasanjo’s relationship with key figures within the ex-military establishment, such as former head of state General Ibrahim Babangida, former long-time National Security Adviser Mohammed Gusau and former Defense Minister Theophilus Danjuma, is currently strained. In any political crisis it is not clear that these powerful figures, and many others within the ex-military establishment, would back Obasanjo rather than someone else to replace him.’

Underpinning this controversial analysis is nostalgia for a return to military rule in Nigeria. This nostalgia is to be found mainly in neoconservative political and business circles in Europe and the United States whose favourite business model in Africa is using corrupt dictators to repress the ordinary people, thus paving the way for them to pillage the continent’s natural resources undisturbed. General Ibrahim Babangida, Mobutu Sese Seko and others of their ilk were feted in London and Paris and Washington for precisely this reason. There are many in the power corridors of these three cities that still yearn for the return of the ‘good old days’ of Babangida in Nigeria.

While it is true that the likes of Babangida and Danjuma are still powerful, due to the stupendous wealth they illegally amassed following the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970, it would be a mistake to see power as influence in the country today. The generals have virtually no political influence in a country where the ordinary people view soldiers with a mix of contempt and loathing, and are determined to protect the right to vote they won back in 1999. Obasanjo was able to deny Babangida and Gusau the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party not because he himself is powerful, but because he was canny enough to recognise that Nigerians would not shed a tear for Babangida and Gusau when they were fed with a dose of their own medicine.

Likewise, Babangida, working in partnership with Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was able to frustrate Obasanjo’s plot to remain in office. Not because Babangida himself is overwhelmingly politically influential, but because he too recognised that the majority of Nigerians detest the President’s authoritarian pretensions and want to see the back of him in May 2007. Babangida tapped into this powerful current and Obasanjo’s third term ambitions bit the dust.

What the foregoing tells us clearly is that ordinary Nigerians and their desire for representative and accountable government are now firmly in the saddle and will ultimately determine the direction in which the country will go in May – democratic rule or a return to dictatorship. The wind, I hazard to say, is blowing in the direction of democratic consolidation.

The prospects of a successful military coup in the wake of chaotic elections this April are not very bright. It does not even register on the political radar of the Nigerian street. Nor are there signs among the rank and file in the armed forces that they are yet again beginning to see themselves as the nation’s saviour. The army’s sense of self-worth took a battering in the 1990s as Babangida and his successor General Sani Abacha systematically destroyed all hopes of social and economic progress in the country. Ordinary soldiers, who were deployed in the cities to shoot and maim democracy activists, and students have since those tragic events been lumped together with their commanders as destroyers of the nation. This unflattering image, still powerful and enduring, is one which officers and the other ranks are yet to live down.

We are thus left with a charged political arena in which the ex-military gladiators will have to slug it out among themselves, while an impoverished populace look on from the sideline, waiting for yet another breach in the rampart to claw back more of their purloined freedom. Olusegun Obasanjo had an easy ride in 1979 when, as military head of state, he worked in concert with his fellow generals to shape the general elections and handed power to their preferred candidate. Indeed, Obasanjo had declared a few months before those elections that victory would not necessarily go to the most qualified candidate, a clear indication that the likes of Malam Aminu Kanu, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, still widely venerated in the country, would not be allowed to take power.

Shehu Shagari, presidential candidate of the National Party of Nigeria, was the least qualified in a field bristling with intellectual and political giants, tempered and burnished in the furnace of the independence struggles of the 1940s and 1950s. Obasanjo, notorious for his envy of intellectuals and political figures more accomplished than himself, chose to put personal interest above the national imperative of supporting a politician and statesman able to guide Nigeria seamlessly from unaccountable military rule to a democracy delivering the essentials of life to a still hopeful and expectant populace.

The depredations of the Shagari years and punitive IMF-sanctioned structural adjustment, shortly after the return of military dictatorship, were Obasanjo’s parting gift to Nigerians in September 1979. The present challenge, insist Nigerian democratic activists, is to ensure that he will not have the opportunity to give the people a similar gift this coming May.

‘Popular’ political analysis led by the BBC presents Umar Yar’Adua, presidential candidate of the PDP, as the favourite to win the election. The argument is that a candidate has to have an enormous war chest and a powerful election-rigging machine – which the Obasanjo government has in abundance - to win. This analysis not only forecloses the democratic option - i.e. the choice of the majority of ordinary Nigerians freely expressed in the polling booth - it also subtly encourages the belief that there will be no credible challenge to the PDP machine this April.

This, then, is the area in which Nigerian democrats have been channelling their energies: to prove that free elections, without which any talk of democratic government is just much hot air, are possible in Nigeria. They are also looking ahead. In the eventuality that they are unable to ensure free elections, they plan to make the cost of rigging so expensive that the perpetrators will be forced into an untenable position, making it impossible for them to form a government.

Obasanjo’s critics say the PDP government can only point to an abysmal record in office these eight years. The fundamental challenges that confronted Nigerian state and society in May 1999 are still staring Nigerians in the face: a new constitution that addresses the terms of association between the federating units and thus ensures political order; a home-grown economic strategy capable of tackling the scourge of mass unemployment and deepening poverty; and a social compact led by a visionary political elite restoring hope and love of country in a battered and increasingly cynical populace.

PDP candidates cannot therefore rely on their ‘performance’ in office to win the argument on the campaign ground. True, the campaign strategies of the other presidential candidates have been rather short on concrete alternative policies – the exception being Prof. Pat Utomi, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Party (ADP), and to a lesser extent, General Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP. But these two candidates are in a powerful position to reap bountifully from the widespread distrust of the PDP and its politics of plunder and incompetence. In a free and fair context, Buhari and Utomi could easily emerge as hot favourites for president. The task, say those desirous of easing the PDP out of office, is to build a nation-wide coalition of vote-watchers capable of counting the vote and making the vote count.

Power at all costs?

The Obasanjo government has fired the first salvo in its ‘war’ to retain power at all costs. All manner of obstacles, including police harassment, were put in the path of Buhari’s campaign team as they went about canvassing votes in the northern part of the country in March. Desperate PDP officials, faced with the awful prospect of a long Harmattan out of government, and being made to account for the billions of dollars they frittered away on the altar of corruption and indolence, are likely to resort to even worse tactics as the electoral battle is joined.

Advocates of political liberty and fair play at the polls are preparing themselves for the bruising context ahead. They argue that given past performance, it would be foolhardy, even suicidal, to look to the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fair elections, and the police to maintain order. Recent actions and pronouncements of ranking INEC officials have made it clear that they are riding on Obasanjo’s PDP wagon. The use of the police to prevent rival politicians from campaigning is also a signpost pointing to close PDP-police collaboration during the elections.

Political parties working to replace the PDP government are increasingly looking elsewhere for countervailing civic machinery able to secure peaceful and orderly elections. Faith leaders, the independent media, labour unions, women’s organisations, ethnic associations and town unions, progressive student groups and democracy activists, among other non-violent civic organisations, are being actively courted, mobilised, and empowered to perform this function.

But they also recognise that it is not enough to focus only on policing the vote on election day. Leaders of these political parties and their allies in civil society say they are already thinking ahead and have factored in the possibility that their forces could be overwhelmed by the PDP juggernaut, as the vote tally stacks up against them. If that day comes, they could borrow a leaf from the recent elections in Mexico and peacefully mobilise their followers and sundry Nigerians desirous of fair elections to demand a recount or another round of elections.

They have also put the National Assembly and the judiciary on notice, for these institutions to stand ready to do their duty if the government in power proves beyond reasonable doubt that it is no longer capable of governing a fair and orderly transfer of power. There are strong speculations in the media that pressure could be brought to bear on Ken Nnamani, President of the Senate and third in line as President, to commence impeachment proceedings against Obasanjo and Vice President Abubakar, using a recent Senate report indicting both of fraud.

Continuing speculations concerning the health of PDP presidential candidate Umaru Yar’Adua, and Obasanjo’s strident assurances that all is well with him only point up the vulnerable position of both, even as ordinary Nigerians continue to yearn for a paradigm shift in the politics of the country. A recent meeting between Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the influential Christian Association of Nigeria during which the ANPP candidate gave firm assurances that he would not tamper with secular provisions of the constitution and favour his fellow Muslims unduly indicate that inter-ethnic and inter-faith coalition-building in pursuit of a broad-based response to the PDP is emerging. Likewise, the positive nation-wide response to Prof. Utomi’s visit to Oloibiri, the Niger Delta village where oil was first struck in 1956, points to burgeoning civic support for political leaders with a record of service and integrity.

It is these powerful supporting pillars of the dawning democratic moment that Obasanjo’s desperate end game is up against. The resort to election rigging and strong-arm tactics will not be an effective response to this moment. To rig the vote is one thing; to form a government based on rigged polls is quite a different ball game.

Presently Nigeria stands at a crossroads – to follow the path of democratic consolidation and its attendant fruits of stable, orderly and accountable government and prosperity; or to return to authoritarian rule and its diet of poverty, corruption, and ethnic conflict.

This drama is unfolding in a new international arena in which the peaceful rise of China and India as major economic powers are changing the balance of power, re-ordering the traditional flow of raw materials from Africa to the Western industrialised countries, and reshaping the way in which powerful corporations think about and do business on the continent. The present presents threats. But it also presents opportunities for resource-rich but technology and capital-poor countries such as Nigeria.

The proliferation of international terror networks, the resurgent scramble for nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction, and rising ethnic wars on a mass scale make a compelling case for arenas of stable and peaceful government in resource-rich areas such as Africa.

Nigeria is one of the most important players on the continent, perhaps the most important. A peaceful, stable and democratic Nigeria can function as an agent of world peace, in a continent that has come up on the foreign policy radar of established and rising powers as crucial to their future economic health.

But a Nigeria in thrall to an incompetent and authoritarian government will open up this vast country to vendors of terror and pillage, further pushing the global order towards cataclysm. Fair elections are therefore as important to ordinary Nigerians as they are to those among the global powers anxious to navigate the new order into calmer waters.

* Ike Okonta is currently Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, UK. His book, When Citizens Revolt: Nigerian Elites, Big Oil, and the Ogoni Struggle for Self-determination (Africa World Press, Trenton, 2007) is forthcoming.

* Please send comments to

FEATURES: Demba Moussa Dembele on building a United States of Africa.
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Gichinga Ndirangu on the stumbling blocks to a United Africa.
- Chippla Vandu assess the outcome of the Nigerian elections
- Challenging homophobia and patriarchy in Africa by Fikile Vilakazi
LETTERS:
- Dawn Gilipse on No compassion for Sierra Leone amputees
- Edward Mtetwa on reparations
- J Majome questions change in Zimbabwe.
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem on Nigeria, Lootacracy and the same old story.
BLOGGING AFRICA: How do we speak on Zimbabwe, urbanisations and evictions in Johannesburg, and photos from Senegal.
BOOKS AND ARTS: A poem of lost childhood.
OBITUARY: We mourn the passing of Archie Mafeje - one of Africa's giants

WOMEN AND GENDER: Men need to be sensitized about women’s rights
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Weapons of Mass Underdevelopment
HUMAN RIGHTS: Zambian market smashed in ‘clean-up’
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: South African shack-dwellers on hunger strike
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Kenyan border closed to asylum-seekers
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Legislative polls close in Benin
CORRUPTION: Morocco tackles money-laundering and financial crimes
DEVELOPMENT: East Africa fights for ‘kikoi’ trade-mark
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: HIV+ foreigners get rough deal in South Africa
EDUCATION: Rise in school enrolment causes funding problems in Sudan
LGBTI: Conference tackles skills development
ENVIRONMENT: Flood water keeps Namibia’s displaced in camps
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: Uganda’s pastoralists hit by market reforms
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Zimbabwean cameraman murdered
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Call to eradicate effects of slavery
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: New report on youth, ICTs and development
PLUS: e-Newsletters and Mailings Lists; Fundraising and Useful Resources; Courses, Seminars and Workshops and Jobs

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

Weapons of Mass Underdevelopment

On Wednesday April 4, the world celebrated International Mine Awareness Day. It has been a little over eight years since the International Mine Ban treaty, better known as the Ottawa Convention, came into effect. Although the treaty was opened for signatures on the 5th of December 1997, it only came into effect when Burkina Faso became the required fortieth signatory on the 1st of March 1999. In Africa, the event was marked with festivities in Angola, DRC, Eritrea, Kenya, Mauritania, Sudan and Western Sahara.

To date, there are still 13 countries who are not state parties to the treaty, and either actively produce, or have the capability to produce anti-personnel land-mines, the most notable of which are the United States, China, India and Russia. The total number of land-mines still stock-piled by the non-parties is a staggering 160 million. At the receiving end, in the period 2005-2006, a total of 58 countries reported new victims of all types of landmines and explosive remnants of war. This paints a chilling portrait of the devastating and lasting effects of the enterprise. The issue of land-mines and unexploded ordnance has not featured prominently in the media, since the late Princess Diana made it her cause célèbre, and yet these killers account for between 15,000 and 20,000 deaths and injuries every year (Landmine Monitor Report 2006), according to official statistics. Although still unacceptably high, this figure is down from 26,000 ten years ago, thanks to multi-lateral efforts around the globe and the cessation of hostilities in countries such as Angola and Mozambique, who accounted for a significant percentage of the casualties on the continent.

The spread of land-mines and other weapons in Africa can be contextualized within the post-colonial state building exercise of the 60s and 70s and the ensuing Cold War that made the continent a playground for competing influences. The instability that has characterized most countries of the continent can be traced to internal tensions fuelled by the Cold War and the vast stockpiles of leftover weapons. Even in countries that have been lucky to avoid major armed conflict such as Kenya, unexploded ordnance from foreign military training sites continues to destroy the lives of citizens.

Like landmines, small arms and light weapons (SALW) continue to threaten development on the continent at a social political and economic level. Conservative estimates put the worldwide circulation of SALW at a staggering 500 million. West Africa alone accounts for seven million, with similar numbers in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. The deadly difference between the landmines and SALW is the latter's durability and re-use value, as exemplified by the ubiquitous AK-47 rifle. These weapons continue to threaten democracy and development on the continent.

The prolonged conflict in the DRC can be attributed to, among other factors, the means to challenge the state's monopoly of violence. This has compromised the role of elections as the only means of power transfer. The post-election period remains tense in the DRC, due to the continued presence of disaffected and armed groups. In Nigeria, the spectre of violence looms large, not to mention the low intensity conflict that continues to rage in the Niger Delta. Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda are but a few other hot-spots on the continent.

Countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Ghana are at peace but still bear the social cost of SALW. Illegal arms flooding the black market from nearby conflict areas are fuelling crime and challenging the ability of the state apparatus to protect the livelihoods of citizens. The state of insecurity has a negative impact on the economy, the effects of which are invariably felt by the poor. When economic growth suffers as a result of costs associated with crime, a vicious cycle kicks in and the latter grows as more people are driven to illegitimate means of survival.

The arms trade is governed by supply and demand. Although South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, to name but a few, are manufacturers of arms, the supply side is overwhelming from Europe, the US and Asia. Demand remains high on the continent, where political traditions still favour strong militaries to bolster unpopular governments that use force against their own citizens.

This is an election year on the continent. One would think this would stir feelings of hope, excitement and the sheer exhilaration at the prospect of peaceful change and the exercise of democratic rights. Sadly, these feelings are more often than not replaced with fear and resignation that the vicious cycle will go on.

Further Reading:

International Mine Information Network

UN Protocol on the Explosive Remnants of War
http://untreaty.un.org/English/notpubl/26_2d_E.pdf

Small Arms in Africa Briefing
http://www.cdd.org.uk/resources/papers/smallarmsmusah.htm

UNIDIR Scoping Study 2006
http://tinyurl.com/2tll92

UNDP: Development Held Hostage
http://tinyurl.com/yo6dx8

Human Security Gateway: Small Arms Survey
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/data/item996551786/view

UNDP/ SEESAC SALW Awareness Support Pack
http://www.seesac.org/reports/SASP%202%20handbook.pdf

Fikile Vilakazi of the CAL gives a brief overview on the lack of 'good political governance on homosexuality' in Africa and the role of the Coalition of African Lesbians in combating the criminalisation of lesbians and homophobia in African societies.

Africa is a continent that is comprised of 53 states with only one state, South Africa that protects the rights of people who are in loving relationships with other people of the same sex and/or same gender. The South African constitution is the only constitution in the African continent that has a bill of rights that condemns discrimination on the basis of one’s sexual orientation . Otherwise, most countries in Africa are governed by penal codes that condemn homosexuality with penalties ranging from imprisonment, life sentence and even death sentence in some cases.

The lack of good political governance on homosexuality is an artefact of colonialism and apartheid that plagued the continent in the previous centuries. Colonial leaders introduced the idea that homosexuality is a sin and is a western import. This notion was filtered through the minds of African people and its leaders to an extent that most African people alleged homosexuality to be foreign, un-African and sinful. Post-colonial leaders promulgated colonial laws like penal codes to continue to condemn homosexuality and thereby betray African people who are in same sex and same gender loving relationships.. This has resulted in horrific political governance on issues related to sexual orientation, gender, gender presentation and sexuality in the African continent. This has contaminated African jurisprudence and constitutional law and produced shocking and limited legal and political judgment on this matter.

The consequences for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people has been and continues to be bloodcurdling. In most African countries, lesbian and gay people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained; assaulted, extorted, raped, beaten and even murdered simply because they self identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. In Cape Town, South Africa, Zoliswa Nkonyana. In 2005, a young black lesbian woman was stoned to death by a gang of boys in front of her house and most lesbian women continue to experience hate crimes in the form of rape and assault. In 2006 in Zimbabwe, a group of lesbian women were beaten badly by a group of men. In the same year, a lesbian woman in Mauritius was sent to a mental hospital by her parents because there was no way that she could be lesbian and therefore certified her to be mentally ill.

In Uganda, police raided unlawfully a house of a transgender woman and arbitrarily detained her friend and brutally violated her rights to privacy and dignity by undressing her in front of group of policemen to prove whether she was a man or a woman. In Kenya, a lesbian couple and a gay friend were arrested and charged with an act of homosexuality and impersonation with a possible sentence of 14 years imprisonment. In Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana and other parts of Africa people of the same sex continue to live and fear and at the mercilessness of the criminal justice system that has a duty to ensure full compliance with penal codes. The situation is horrific. There is just nowhere to run to and find refuge and freedom to be.. There are no legal and political remedies at a local level that can assist in this situation

In attempting to address this situation, the Coalition of African Lesbians has an advocacy project that is directed at working with the African Commission to expose human rights violations against sexual minorities in African countries and call for remedies and the commissioners to hold African governments accountable to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other International Human Rights Instruments that some African states have signed and ratified

Research on the existence of homosexuality in Africa..

The other challenge that is facing Africa is lack of knowledge and documentation on the existence of homosexuality in the continent. There is very little written work on the experiences, both positive and negative of people who are in same sex and same gender loving relationships. Most anthropologists and hi/herstorians that have written about this work have selectively hidden information on the subject. Those who have managed to expose these relationships in a good way have not been free from harassment and prejudice.

The experiences highlighted above get lost in time due to lack of effective documentation and research. Most researchers are afraid to write about these experiences due to their hostile political and legal environments. Most written work is from scholars who are often distances from the real experiences of lesbian and gay people. The exercise therefore remains purely academic with less social result and impact.

In responding to the phenomenon, the Coalition of African Lesbians also has a project directed at promoting creative writing and researching the lives of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in the continent. This is a research project that will be conducted by lbt women themselves and CAL hopes to produce a book at the end of 2007,that will collate different experiences of lbt women in Africa.

The Coalition also aims to provide capacity and skills sharing opportunities for lbt women in order to build leaders that will take the struggle for the rights of sexual minorities forward. This happens through CAL’s annual Leadership Institutes and local country workshops and strategic international conferences, seminars, institutes and dialogues..
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Challenging homophobia and patriarchy through feminism

The Coalition of African Lesbians acknowledges that the experiences of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are not separable from those of other women in the continent. Whilst lbt women face a specific struggle against homophobia, the commonality between and among all African women is the struggle against patriarchy and all its forms and systems. The African tradition and culture has for centuries promoted and overstated the superiority of men at an expense and compromise of their women counterpart. The notion of African values is framed and rooted in a system of male dominance in society. This thinking and ideology informs religion and culture and women remain on the receiving end of the system. Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women are not immune to this challenge. One of the reasons lbt women get raped is still to prove that women’s bodies are for men and anything that continues to challenge that phenomenon is persecuted by society.

It is against this background that any intervention that seeks to address the challenges facing lbt women need to realise that their struggles are not just about their sexual identity, but about the fact that they are also women and other things as well. We need a holistic approach to address inequalities against women in society. The commonality of all our struggles is the inequality and the injustice that we endure. It is against this background that CAL has committed itself to unite in the struggle against patriarchy and building feminist leaders that will wage the struggle to the end.

About CAL

The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) was founded in 2003 as an independent, non-profit organisation with a membership comprising organisations in Africa that work to support the struggle of lesbian women for equality. It is the first non-governmental organisation in Africa to work on the equality of lesbian women at a continental level.

The founding process was endorsed at a seminar in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, in the last week of August 2004. The seminar was hosted by the Rainbow Project and Sister Namibia and attended by twenty-five representatives of lesbian organisations, as well as a number of individual women, from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia.

At this gathering the participants developed the vision, objectives and structure for the organisation. After lively discussion and debate they unanimously adopted African radical feminism as the foundational philosophy for CAL.

Aims and Objectives of CAL

The principal objectives of CAL are:

1 To advocate and lobby for the political, sexual, cultural and economic rights of African
lesbians by engaging strategically with African and international structures and allies;
2 To eradicate stigma and discrimination against lesbians in Africa;
3 To build and strengthen our voices and visibility through research, media and literature and
through participation in local and international fora;
4 To build the capacity of African lesbians and our organisations to use African radical
feminist analysis in all spheres of life;
5 To build a strong and sustainable lesbian coalition supporting the development of national
organisations working on lesbian issues in every country in Africa;
6 To support the work of these national organisations in all the foregoing areas including the
facilitation of the personal growth of African lesbians and the building of capacity within their organisations.
The Lesbian Equality Project

CAL currently manages one project called the Lesbian Equality Project. The project covers (1) Direct lobbying and advocacy with the African Commission, (2) Research on the experiences of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in Africa, (3) Creative Expression to enable lbt women to express themselves through creative means like writing, singing, drama, photography and visual activism, and lastly (3) Capacity Building through Leadership Institutes and local country workshops to enable lbt women to advance advocacy and activism in their own contexts.

* Fikile Vilakzai is the Director of the Coalition of African Lesbians based in South Africa.
For further enquiries: Tel: +27(0) 11 487 3810/1, Fax: +27(0) 11 487 2332
E-mail: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

As Nigerians move towards elections that mark the first time one elected civilian government has handed over to another, Chippa Vandu provides an historical overview of military and civilian rule in Nigeria and assess the probable outcome of the April elections.

As a nation, Nigeria has come a long way. 1999 was meant to be its year of hope—the return to democratic rule after a decade and a half of military dictatorships. Of all military rulers in Nigeria’s history, only one voluntarily gave up power to a democratically elected government. His name was Olusegun Obasanjo and the year was 1979. General Obasanjo became a military ruler by chance in 1976, having inherited the seat of power when the then Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, was assassinated in Nigeria’s second bloody coup. Obasanjo handed power over to the democratically elected Shehu Shagari, who was toppled in a bloodless coup by Major General Muhammadu Buhari in 1983. Then began the decade and a half of military dictatorships that saw General Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993), General Sani Abacha (1993-1998) and General Abdulsalami Abubakar (1998-1999) rule Nigeria..

Olusegun Obasanjo once again ascended to the highest office in Nigeria in 1999 filled with expectations. The exceedingly corrupt government of one of his predecessors—the late Sani Abacha—had all but destroyed the semblance of civil society in Nigeria. Together with his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo set out to work, promising to take Nigeria where military dictatorships had always prevented it from reaching. Four years went by and the government was re-elected for a second term. All this while, there were reforms in the banking and financial sectors of the economy, with the country literally settling its huge debt problem. The government, it appeared, had also solved the perennial problem of fuel shortages, which were common during Sani Abacha’s era. A mini telecommunications revolution also took place in Nigeria, with the birth of GSM telephone networks.

Technocrats were brought into government, some of who excelled at what they did. But to most Nigerians, events were far from rosy. Corruption remained endemic and special agencies were created to deal with it. Even then, it remained a part of daily life. From those who sat at the apex of power, to the janitors in government ministries, everyone expected to be settled—Nigeriaspeak for bribed—for simply doing his or her job. And, while the Nigerian government spoke of impressive economic growth, a concurrent increase in population (and corruption, of course) made for an almost unperceivable improvement in the life of the average man or woman on the street. And there lay the paradox—the desire by Nigerians for change, a government that was promising change, but change that was simply too slow to be perceivable.

Democracy, it appeared, had come to stay—or so Nigerians thought. Sometime in late 2005, the Nigerian presidency silently began pushing for the nation’s constitution to be amended to allow Olusegun Obasanjo run for a third term in office. Opposition to this amendment grew like wildfire, with Obasanjo’s deputy being one of the most vocal opponents. Good enough, the amendment failed as it was thrown out by the Nigerian legislature in May 2006. Without a doubt, this came as a surprise to Obasanjo, who accused his country’s media houses of being vile and insensitive for the manner in which they went about reporting about the third term agenda. And one person in particular whom Obasanjo never forgave was his deputy—Atiku Abubakar. In months to come, Abubakar (who by the way happened to be very much interested in contesting the presidency) was to be frustrated to the point of political suicide.

Abubakar was expelled from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the behest of Obasanjo. At the PDP national convention in December 2006, Obasanjo picked an obscure governor—Umaru Musa Yar’Adua—as his likely successor. Yar’Adua’s health became the subject of media speculation in Nigeria. When he had to be abruptly flown to Germany for treatment during one of his presidential campaigns, it became clear that all was not well. The media, it appeared, was right in stating that Yar’Adua’s frail state of health was a cause for concern. Yar’Adua remains the presidential candidate for the ruling PDP.

Atiku Abubakar’s expulsion from the ruling PDP did not in anyway weaken his desire to contest the presidency. In late 2006, he became instrumental in the formation of a new political party called the Action Congress (AC), which eventually nominated him as its presidential candidate. But Olusegun Obasanjo, not wanting to have any of that, began what may be termed a calculated campaign to ensure that Abubakar was not allowed to contest the presidency. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) published a list of corrupt politicians in February 2006. Top on the list was Abubakar, along with other politicians who, though corrupt, also happened not to be friends of the president.

Though he won a couple of court cases over corruption allegations brought forward by Nigeria’s corruption watchdog, Abubakar was eventually given the final blow when the Nigerian electoral commission omitted his name from the list of those eligible to run for the office of the presidency. Furthermore, in the third week of March 2007, the Nigerian Senate indicted both Abubakar and Obasanjo for mishandling petroleum technology development funds. The Senate further recommended that they both be referred to a disciplinary committee (i.e. the Code of Conduct Bureau) for further action. Calculated as it seemed, this was to partly to ensure that Mr. Obasanjo erased all hopes of extending his tenure beyond May 29, 2007—the stipulated handover date. The Senate indictment literally put a full stop to Abubakar’s political ambition—at least, for the time being.

Two things appear certain when Nigerians begin voting in a couple of week’s time: it has become close to impossible for Mr. Obasanjo to extend his stay in office as he had once hoped. However, by selecting Umaru Yar’Adua as his successor, Obasanjo believes he has found a wall of refuge that would eventually protect his interests after he ceases being Nigeria’s first citizen. Secondly, Abubakar will most likely not run for the presidency, even though the slimmest of chance still exists that the courts might rule in his favour.

With Abubakar out, Yar’Adua’s main challenger becomes Muhammadu Buhari—one time military dictator and presidential candidate of the All Nigeria’s People Party (ANPP). While it is most certain that the ruling PDP will do all in its power to rig the elections in favour of Yar’Adua, an easy victory cannot be guaranteed. Unfortunately, some of the brightest candidates—like Pat Utomi of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) party—have weak political bases. Thus, at the end of the day, most Nigerians will practically be compelled to choose between mediocrity and mediocrity. Such is the life of the game called politics.

It would take nothing short of a miracle from the heavens to stop the ruling PDP from producing the next president of Nigeria. In other words, Nigeria’s next president would most likely be the very man chosen by the incumbent president. Despite being labeled honest, Yar’Adua’s frail health should be a cause for concern. If the man who intends on becoming the next president of Nigeria has to keep running to Germany to be resuscitated each time his health starts to fail, one could only be left wondering what sort of message that sends to the very people he intends to govern. But then, all through Nigeria’s delicate history, there have always been two sets of rules—one for the upper class and another for others. Shattering this barrier could be but a first step towards creating the sort of society that would treat people for what they are—human beings. In this regard, the next government of Nigeria is already failing.

* Chippla Vandu is a Nigerian research engineer with an interest in governance, history and philosophy. He currently resides in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and blogs at

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

Corruption at the highest levels of the Nigerian government is hampering the economy of the oil-rich country at every level, retired general and presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari told United Press International in an exclusive interview from the campaign trail in Port Harcourt.