By Ben Arenburg

In the last week of August, Bill Clinton visited Nigeria. In a press conference it was announced that the US would give the Nigerian government billions of dollars in foreign aid and work out a deal to facilitate the payment of the foreign debt. At 300 billion dollars, it takes one third of the gross national product just to service the interest on the debt every year. It was also announced that the US would send hundreds of military advisors to help train the Nigerian Army to continue to serve imperialist interests in UN-sponsored military interventions in neighboring countries like Sierra Leone. The US media portrays the new Nigerian government as a "fledgling democracy" at the "dawn of a new epoch" for the largest, most populous country in Africa. How true is that?

On May 29th 1999 a "fourth republic" came to power in Nigeria, marking the return of civilian rule after 15 years of uninterrupted military dictatorship. Under the pressure of mass resistance and because of the declining legitimacy of its regime, the military-led government handed state power to an elected government. Its first elected president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has been hailed internationally as leading Nigeria into a new, democratic phase, a leader who could deliver Nigeria from endemic instability and political turbulence. "The hopes of Washington and the West now rest largely with Mr. Obasanjo and Nigeria." (New York Times - August 20, 2000)

Within Nigeria, the advent of civilian rule brought with it a mood of relief and expectation that "democracy" would end the economic hardship and other social problems faced by the majority of Nigerians. However, after 15 months these expectations have been shattered and Nigeria has moved closer to the brink of social catastrophe. Regional conflicts threaten to split the country. Since taking power, the Obasanjo government has overseen a mounting crisis, expressed most acutely in the continuation of the ethnic, tribal, religious, and regional strife that has torn Nigeria asunder. Fortunately, a new mass movement has emerged encompassing significant sectors of workers and students. These struggles from below provide the only alternative to the barbarism of Nigerian capitalism.

Imperialism and the Crisis of Nigerian Capitalism
Although Nigeria formally won national independence from Britain in 1960, the legacy of colonialism still penetrates every aspect of the country. Multinational corporations, who profit immensely at the expense of the workers and poor, control Nigeria's resources. In fact, Nigeria remains one of the worlds twenty poorest countries despite its rich natural resources. These multinationals control the Nigerian economy without taking responsibility for the environmental, ecological, and human destruction they create in their myopic pursuit of profit.

One example of the pillage and outright wreckage carried out by these corporations is the Shell oil spill in 1998. A Shell Development Company Limited oil pipeline burst open, spilling crude oil into the Oyara mangrove forest. After heavy rains, this oil spill spread into other rivers, creeks and farms, creating an ecological and social disaster. Shell tried to blame sabotage by local residents for the spill, but was eventually forced to take responsibility for its careless blunder.

After insufficiently cleaning up the oil spill, Shell set the remaining residue in the forest on fire. The Encarta encyclopedia sums up this devastation in the following way: "The petroleum and natural gas industries - with their oil spills, burn-off of natural gas, and clearance of vegetation - have seriously damaged the land, vegetation, and waterways in the Niger Delta."

Rather than attempting to reverse these neo-liberal attacks perpetuated on the Nigerian people for the past decade, the new civilian government has cooperated in serving the interests of Western imperialist powers. The government submits to IMF and World Bank austerity measures, which keep Nigeria firmly under the thumb of foreign investors and the multinationals.

Obasanjo has also carried out a program of key industry privitizations (electricity, telephone, and water services) in an attempt to attract foreign investment and streamline the economy. A recent Chevron advertisement in the New York Times boasted: "To ensure that local businesses benefit from this privatization process, the administration announces the establishment of a new fund to help Nigerians participate in companies earmarked for privatization." These policies will directly lead to mass layoffs and higher prices for products and basic services.

Nigeria has also become a proxy for US imperialism in Africa. US aid to Nigeria increased from practically nothing before 1999, to over 160 million a year with a large portion of that money going to the military. "The United States wants Nigeria to play an increasing security role and to help America resist calls to intervene in places like Sierra Leone." (New York Times - August 20, 2000).

Obasanjo nominally addressed wealth disparities by passing the Poverty Alleviation Program, which was intended to employ 200,000 people in low paid, temporary jobs. This program cannot possibly curb the plummeting employment rates and does nothing to tackle poverty level wages. In the absence of any significant effort by Obasanjo to raise living standards, the NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress), the main federation of Nigerian trade unions, has launched a national campaign to raise the minimum wage.

In Lagos, public employees went on strike for twenty days this summer for a minimum wage comparable with federal employees. The president of the NLC unfortunately suspended this mass strike before the government was forced to make any concessions. The struggle undermined the government, which embarrassed itself in the way it conducted negotiations. It also provided lessons for Nigerian workers on the role that trade union leaders play and what is required to win the central demands of the movement.

The deepening crisis of capitalism and the neoliberal attacks by the government exacerbate the sensitive situation between groups of different religions and ethnicity. There are over 250 identified ethnic and tribal groups in Nigeria. The new civilian government has failed to address the fundamental problems of poverty, mass unemployment, and inadequate infrastructure while these social divisions undermine the unity and collective struggle of the Nigerian masses. Tragically, ethnic and tribal clashes and outbreaks of violence have resulted in thousands of deaths in just the past year. Over 2000 people have died in Kaduna alone since clashes started in the city in February. These clashes flow largely from the imposition of Sharia Islamic law by many state governments in the north. This religious persecution has provoked a violent backlash calling into question Nigeria's future altogether.

Many also interpret this maneuver by the north as an attempt by the Hausa/Fulani section of the ruling class to undermine Obasanjo and the civilian regime. Clearly, the violent disputes over territory, religious affiliation, and ethnicity divert the anger caused by the system away from big business and the capitalist government. Ghana's ruler, Rawlings, argued the following in 1993, "Nigeria has had a taste of civil war and what we must do is to prevent class war." Without a mass movement, linking the struggles of the youth and working class, across the lines of ethnic, religious, tribal, and gender divisions, Nigeria will only face further national fragmentation and violent clashes. These events are driven by the failure of neocolonial capitalism to meet the needs and expectations of the majority of Nigerians.

Hope Amidst the Horror
While the discontent and bitterness of the Nigerian masses translates into bitter religious conflicts, thousands have taken to the road of class struggle as the only avenue out of the disaster. New movements have developed at a rapid pace. Obasanjo's attempt to continue the neo-liberal assault is meeting fierce opposition. When the government attempted to raise fuel prices by fifty percent, a tide of protest ensued, culminating in a five-day general strike.

The government was forced to withdraw the fifty- percent increase in favor of a ten- percent increase. One journalist described the situation in the streets this way: "As I walked the empty streets of Lagos last week monitoring the unprecedented mass protests against the fuel price hike, one sight was constant. Youth had turned many express and highways into football pitches." The general strike not only succeeded in partially reversing the government's plans but also marked a turning point in the consciousness and willingness to struggle among a new layer of workers and youth.

These movements provide a pole of attraction to the oppressed who are losing faith in the new "democratic" government. There is a pressing urgency, in the context of the continued decline in living standards, to build a mass workers' party that can coordinate and link struggles, challenge the ruling bourgeois parties in elections, and unify the oppressed on a fighting basis. A key development in the recent period has been the explosive growth of DSM (Democratic Socialist Movement).

DSM, which is affiliated to the Committee for a Worker's International and the sister organization of Socialist Alternative, has played a key role in the emerging workers' and students' movement. A statement from the last congress of DSM contains the following: "We therefore believe that the principal historic and strategic challenge facing labor and youth activists in Nigeria today is the formation of such an independent mass working peoples political party whose central goal will be fighting against the various vicious capitalist attacks on the rights of the working people and against ethnic and religious diversion through implementation of a socialist program that will unite all the oppressed nationally."

DSM grew subsequently 400%. While small in numbers, DSM has proven an influential and dynamic force in the new political period that has opened up. One member of DSM, Ayodele Akele, is the chairman of Council of Industrial Unions representing public employees in Lagos. He played a major role in preparing, organizing, and leading the recent strike for a higher minimum wage. After getting sacked by the military government in 1998, his fellow workers forced the new regime to reinstate him. Akele's role in one of the most important unions in Nigeria demonstrates that an enormous opportunity exists to rebuild a socialist alternative in Nigeria and all of Africa and that DSM has seized this opportunity, gaining a reputation as a fighting, revolutionary force.

DSM has also played a central role in the student movement, which faces a more favorable situation under Obasanjo's government due to the democratic rights it has been granted. There is still a significant amount of state repression and right wing reaction to the left in Nigeria however. Last summer five student activists were attacked and murdered by right wing cult members. One was a member of DSM. In conjunction with other student activists DSM used the killings to raise the demands and profile of the student movement by organizing a mass procession at the funeral of the activists.

The growth of a genuine Marxist force in Nigeria and throughout Africa can provide the only lasting solution and alternative to the utter collapse and chaos that has engulfed the continent. Only a socialist transformation of society can prevent further civil wars, impoverishment, and social fragmentation.

Justice #21 September 2000