Nigeria Security Update #2 270507

Tuesday Protests Still Planned

We’ll march against Ehindero’s tanks —Labor, opposition groups

The stage appears set weekend for a showdown between the police and a coalition of Labor and Civil Society groups who have scheduled mass action and rallies for Tuesday. The action, to protest alleged fraud in the April elections, coincides with the inauguration of the president-elect, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the governors-elect in the 36 states.

The opposition, operating under Labor and Civil Society Coalition, LASCO, had proposed a two-day action, tomorrow and Tuesday, to protest against the election results with workers being asked to sit at home tomorrow. But the Federal Government took the wind out of the sail of the sit at home directive as it, Friday, declared tomorrow a public holiday. LASCO, weekend, said it anticipated the government’s action which, according to it, was an acknowledgment of defeat on the stand-off.

The coalition also began the mobilization of Nigerians ahead of the Tuesday mass action by circulating handbills denouncing the polls and the in-coming government in the nation’s major towns including Lagos and Abuja.

Sounding defiant, the group said it was resolved to embark on the action despite the threat by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, to crush it with tanks and every weapon at his disposal.

Speaking on the sit at home directive to Nigerians scheduled for tomorrow against the backdrop of the public holiday declared by government, the convener of the United Action for Democracy, UAD, Mr. Biodun Aremu, said, Friday, that government had, by the action, helped to enforce the directive. Aremu, who is also the secretary of the Joint Action Committee, JAC, the body coordinating the two-day action on behalf of LASCO, said the coalition anticipated the holiday, saying it had not changed LASCO’s plan.

Also elaborating on the Tuesday’s protest action, the Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, said, Friday, that it would be taking to the streets of Nigeria major towns. NLC assistant secretary, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, explained: “The protest will now involve us moving into the streets to let government know the level of our displeasure against the fraud that they called elections. It is another way to tell government that Nigerians are fed up with electoral fraud in this country.”

According to him, the Congress had written to some countries to ask them to stay away from the president-elect’s inauguration. Earlier, Friday, NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, who spoke at a press briefing in Abuja, said the action was to sent a message to government that Nigerians were not happy with the elections that were massively rigged.

“Foreign nationals are similarly advised to obey this stay-at-home directive for they too have a stake here. We need your support and understanding. We want our country to work as good if not better than your own countries,” Omar admonished the foreigners. He went on: “If we do not get it right, our youths will never stop migrating to your countries. If you continue to take sides with criminality, fraud and state violence, we cannot get it right.”

According to him, that the coalition resolved to embark on this despite the threats of clampdown by government and rolling out of tanks by the police was a confirmation of LASCO’s commitment to sustaining democracy. Omar noted that the country’s constitution guarantees Nigerians the freedom of association to protest against any form of imposition by government.

“The tragedy of our situation is that while other countries, including the supposedly less endowed, are moving forward, we are dancing in circles, sometimes backward. The conduct of these elections has taken us several decades back, yet, we are said to be the giant of Africa. No wonder, we are the butt of cruel jokes across the world,” Omar stated.

Handbills circulated by LASCO to mobilize Nigerians for the mass action carried different headlines some of which read, “Chase Away Illegitimate and Anti-Poor Government”, “Sit At Home May 28, 2007 to protest the April 2007 election fraud.”

The message in one of the handbills read: “Labour and Civil Society Coalition believes that Nigerians must not accept this election fraud and must stand up for their right just as LASCO successfully led Nigerians to oppose several increases in the prices of petrol, kerosene and diesel which forced the Obasanjo regime to stop further price increases since 2005.”

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, is one of the activists at the fore-front of the agitation for mass action over the April election results as he last week declared that the police threat would not stop him from being part of the Tuesday’s protest.

Cautioning Soyinka against being part of the action, weekend, a former commissioner in Lagos State, Dr. Segun Ogundimu said the Nobel laureate would have been expected to display a better understanding and follow a path that is bound to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s growth.

“I also feel disturbed that there are so many Nigerians who are more rascally and caustic tongued than the professor will ever imagine and it will hurt people like us who respect the white bearded fountain of grammar to see him being dragged in the mud,” Ogundimu said in a statement entitled, “Sit at home an unfortunate order.”


Ogoni People Resist Oil Companies - An analysis of animosity

In Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, one area, Ogoniland in Rivers State, resists oil production. Residents there say oil companies refuse to meet their demands to redistribute wealth and protect the environment. VOA's Nico Colombant reports.

Young men walking along roads in Ogoniland stare menacingly at those they consider outsiders, thinking they may be from oil companies.

Dutch-based oil conglomerate Shell stopped operations here in the mid 1990s, amid an international uproar over the execution of anti-oil Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the military government.

Godwin Dumnu, an unemployed father of three, is one of many in Ogoniland who say they will not give up fighting for fair treatment, whatever the consequences. "The Ogoni people demand their bill of rights. When Shell refuses to give us our rights then we will stop them from operating on Ogoni land. Unless they are agreeing to comply with us and do the Ogoni bill of rights, they should develop our youth, and our communities, our area," he said.

Oil insiders say Shell is trying to resume production in Ogoniland. Nigerian authorities have warned the company they may revoke their prospecting license in the area due to inactivity.

Dumnu warns the government and Shell not to do anything without the permission of the Ogoni people. "If the federal government just signs a contract with Shell and they do not give us our rights, there will be trouble. Everybody, every youth, they will not be happy," he said.

Shell officials refused to comment, saying they did not have time to speak to reporters.

A youth leader, Atu Ledum, says the Ogoni have a tradition of non-violence, but that frustration is growing. He points to an area that recently went up in flames after a Shell pipeline burst. There is no production here, but pipelines taking oil from nearby areas still criss-cross Ogoni land. "There was a spillage recently here. There was no clean-up. Shell company just sent people to come and stop the spillage and the light (fire). There was light (fire) burning all over here," he said.

Ledum says when a Shell team came to do a clean up, angry youths nearly rioted. "When they saw the Shell people coming to stop the light (burning), they thought they were coming to drill oil again, which the Ogoni people do not want them to drill, not until they settle the problems at hand," he said.

There is commotion, but little business being done at this vegetable market in B. Dere, another main town of Ogoniland.

Here as elsewhere, Saro-Wiwa is remembered. Speaking in the Gokana language, a market woman says he was a good person, because he asked Shell to pay compensation for environmental degradation.

In the town of Wiiyaakara, while she weaves some mats, Deekor Fepea explains in the Khana language, she would accept the return of oil companies if they guaranteed development. In this small area of about one million people, at least five languages are spoken. Fepea says Ogonis feel marginalized.

But an old fisherman, Friday Ototoh, a father of 18, says he was much happier before oil production started here in the late 1950s, causing pollution in waterways.

He says there was less jealousy and anger, and many more fish in the creeks.