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Nigeria Elections: The Peoples’ Struggle Has Not Begun By Dr. Tony O. Ntukogu
The general elections in Nigeria has come and gone, but the hue and cry over election rigging has yet to subside. PDP, the ruling party, as expected swept both the state and Federal elections. What is surprising is that some people, particularly amongst the diaspora elite, were expecting a different out come and were disappointed. Many of them, aided by comments from some international bodies, have condemned the election results. But, any one who is familiar with the history of elections in Nigeria could not have been surprised at the outcome. Election rigging has been a part of the process from the very beginning.
President Obasanjo and his PDP hail the elections as a triumph of ‘democracy’, while the opposition renounce it as a mockery. These are two sides of the same coin. ‘Democracy’ has become a cover for global market capitalism. In this system, client states such as Nigeria constitute a large market for disposing highly manufactured goods and services from the ‘industrialized’ countries. Nigeria is by and large a dumping ground for all sorts of goods manufactured abroad. Very little manufacturing takes place in Nigeria. Crude oil provides huge cash for the exchange of manufactured luxury items which fills the Nigerian markets. Jockeying for access to the oil loot by various factions of the money elite becomes a vicious do or die battle. This is the meaning of elections in the Nigerian sense.
It is generally acknowledged that this election was a ‘do or die’ battle. The election was essentially a selection of those who will share the oil resources, or more appropriately, the bribe for the continued appropriation of the oil resources of Nigeria by British and U.S. oil companies. The government is the only means of getting a piece of the oil action and becoming super rich in Nigeria. Chukwumerije, one of the few incumbent Senators, who managed to retain his seat in this election made the following observation:
He thought that
The most important outcome of this election is the triumph of money. It appears that those who had lots of it won. Only 8 out of 36 incumbent governors and 25 out of 110 incumbent senators will be coming back. So, incumbency was no help in the exercise. Being a member of PDP did not help very much either. 80% of incumbent PDP senators were not even re-nominated. Money appears to be the common denominator in the ‘selections’prompting the observation by Chukwumerije. It was a contest of the moneyed elite for a position to get a share of the so-called national cake. The ‘money bags’ ‘won’.
In an article entitled ‘Oil and Democracy Don’t Mix Well’ by Robert Guest in the May 1 issue of the Wall Street journal, he wrote,
Guest may have accurately described the process taking place in Nigeria, but he, perhaps, failed to see that this is not peculiar to Nigeria. Same could be said of the American occupation administration of Iraq, for example. It was recently revealed that $20 billion Iraqi money released to them after deposing Sadam Hussein could not be accounted for. This is in addition to billions of dollars of tax payers’ money also made available to them. American contractors with ties to the Bush administration were getting all the contracts.
The root of corruption is in the contract system of capitalism. How can a government official be content to make millions or billions of dollars available to a contractor, sometimes with little or no education at all, while living below poverty line? Even those who Guest considered honest in this system, like Buhari, can not possibly be that innocent. Buhari was reported some months ago to be selling one of his oil wells. How did he get to own oil wells in Nigeria? How did oil wells in the delta region end up being owned by individuals far from the region? What kind of Nigerians own these oil wells and how did they get to own them? Answers to these questions reveal the nature of the Nigerian system. Buhari, Atiku, OBJ and others, all belong to that special class of the super rich in Nigeria, the 1% of the population who, in 2006, the World bank reported to expropriate 80% of the oil resources of Nigeria.
Both the PDP government of Obasanjo and the ‘opposition’ are committed to the system of global market capitalism. In this system, U.S. and European multinationals control the economy and enjoy a huge market for their highly manufactured products. Through the World bank and IMF imposed privatization policies collective wealth of the nation is converted to individual wealth. The politicians and their rich contractor friends are in the best position to ‘benefit’ from this. Such a system promotes greed and corruption, and glorifies excessive consumption. It is not surprising that those who operate it will behave in the manner described by Guest. An ‘opposition’ which does not challenge such a system cannot be expected to work in the interest of the working masses.
A significant section of the Nigerian intellectual elite, particularly those in the diaspora, are won to the system of global market capitalism which U.S. propaganda has been packaged as ‘democracy’. They bought the propaganda that Communism and socialism have failed and so did Karl Marx. Election is the avenue by which they can also get a piece of the ‘national cake’. Many in the diaspora nurture the hope of going back to Nigeria to contest. They mistakenly consider their experience and technical knowledge in industrialized countries to be of great importance to their counterparts in Nigeria. They are disappointed by the lack of recognition of their self styled importance. They find it convenient to accept the shallow definition of democracy as being equal to elections and ignore the relationship between social classes in the society.
John Dewey, one of the most respected western social philosophers of the 20th century, not Karl Marx, had the following to say about democracy:
“Democracy is not a simple concept. At the simplest level, a society is democratic in so far as its population can make meaningful decisions over matters that concern them… democratic forms have very limited substance when decisions over the fundamental aspects of life are in the hands of unaccountable concentrations of private power, and society is dominated by business for private profit through private control of banking, land, industry, reinforced by command of the press agents and other means of publicity and propaganda”. (Quoted by Noam Chomsky, a renown MIT Professor in the preface to the book ‘After Capitalism’ by Maheshvarananda)
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the capitalist new direction of China have not helped matters. The intellectual apologists of capitalism claim that this shows the superiority of the capitalist system because it allows people the ‘freedom’ to own ‘things’, and so they are happier. Quality of life is measured in ownership of things ie amount of consumption. The rate of consumption of manufactured goods in Nigeria is phenomenal. The markets are filled with all sorts of goods imported from all over the world. The most expensive cars in the world can be found easily on the Nigerian roads. Yet life expectancy of a Nigerian is 55 years!! The level of crime is one of the highest in the world.
In contrast, Cuba, a very poor country, which is said to be socialist and has been surviving the strangulation of her economy by the United States manages to have a life expectancy of 73years!! which is comparable to that of the United States. Cuba has no oil deposits. The average working man or woman does not have many things. They live simply, yet happily. There are no fancy cars on the roads. They still have 1950’s cars still running. But amongst other things Cuba has a higher literacy rate than the United States. There is very little or no crime. They live in peace. Much is made of the few unfortunate victims of Western propaganda and the old propertied class of Cuba who complain of not having enough ‘things’ and seek to run to the United States. The reactions of those who succeeded in coming to the United States is very educative. Most of the ordinary working people amongst them found that having ‘things’ did not translate to happiness. They now miss the simple life of Cuba. Cuba is not heaven, but if socialism was able to sustain her in this way, imagine what communism would do.
Venezuela, a country that has oil deposits like Nigeria, is another good example. The masses were very poor and without basic needs when oil barons allied to the United States ran the government. Hugo Chavez became President and turned away from market capitalism. This allowed a much greater portion of her oil resources to benefit poor working people. The life expectancy in Venezuela today is 77 years!! Venezuela is barely socialist, but the few socialistic reforms made by Hugo Chavez was able to transform the quality of life of the masses of poor Venezuellans.
The fathers of communism, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Ze Dong and others made major mistakes in building socialism instead of communism from the onset. Yet, in the short period in which socialism existed, it gave the world a glimpse at a better world. It transformed the condition of vast numbers of peoples and societies, drastically bridging the gap between rich and poor and promoting the principle of human sharing instead of selfishness. This is, actually, the basis for true democracy.
Over 60% of Nigerian families live on less than $1 a day according to a recent report on the world poor. Those who contest elections and those who sponsor them come from the 1% of the population who squander 80% of the oil income. Elections are meaningless under this condition. 99% of Nigerians lack the most basic human needs of a modern society, water, light, properly equipped schools etc. yet there is massive unemployment. This is the result of global market capitalism. In the preface to the book ‘After Capitalism’ by Dada Maheshvaranda, Noam Chomsky described the situation under ‘free enterprise’ capitalism as follows:
“Where ever one looks, there is work to be done of great social and human value, and there are plenty of people eager to do that work. But the economic system cannot bring together needed work and the idle hands of suffering people. Its concept of economic health is geared to the demands of profit, not the needs of people”
This is precisely the sorry situation of things in Nigeria, today. It is only by changing it can true freedom and democracy reach the masses of Nigerian populace. What the masses need are people with a different outlook and background from the contractors and politicians who rule Nigeria today. Any mass actions should be to demand basic human needs, electricity, water etc. Leaders will emerge from amongst the masses themselves. The calls for mass action to protest elections either by the ‘opposition’ or some diaspora organizations are self serving. Even if the entire elections were overturned, a different group of greedy politicians and their contractor friends may ‘win’, but the quality of life for the masses will not change. The masses need to wake up. There is a need for political empowerment of the Nigerian masses not political manipulation.
A mass movement can start with basic demands of electricity and water. The masses must refuse to live in the old way. Fredrick Douglas reminded us that, “Power never gives anything without a demand and never will”. It is such demands and movements built around them that will bring true democracy. Election of one of the ‘money bags’ or another can not serve the people.
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