💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › march-2012-interview-with-sam-mbah.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 12:23:43. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: March 2012 interview with Sam Mbah Author: Sam Mbah Date: 2012 Language: en Topics: Nigeria, history, economics, militarism, labor movement, oil, interview Source: Retrieved on 15 October 2015 from https://sammbah.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/full-text-of-the-march-2012-interview-with-sam-mbah/ Notes: This is a full transcript of an interview with Sam, recorded in March 2012 in Enugu Nigeria. The interviewer, Jeremy, is a member of the Jura Books Collective – an anarchist collective based in Sydney Australia. Audio: https://sammbah.wordpress.com/audio/
Interviewer: It’s my pleasure to introduce Sam Mbah, author of the
groundbreaking book ‘African Anarchism’, a lawyer, a journalist, an
activist. This interview is being recorded in Enugu, Nigeria, in March
2012. Sam, thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview.
Sam: It’s my pleasure Jeremy.
Interviewer: It’s been about 15 years since the publication of your book
on the prospects of anarchism in Africa. What is there, if anything,
that comes to mind that you would add to or change about the book, and
the ideas that you presented in it?
Sam: Yeah, I want to look at the ideas that I would add, not really
change. Ever since the publication of the book I have been collecting
additional materials that I stumble upon in the course of my writings
and research. I think there is room for additions to the book, not
really much to change, or subtract from the work. I think there is room
for additions to the book, and this is something I have already started
in the sense that in the Spanish edition that came out in 2000, I wrote
an extensive foreword, wherein I tried to articulate some of the points
we missed in the original book. I tried to look at more African
societies that shared the same characteristics and features as the Igbo,
the Tiv, the Efik, the Tallensi and the multiplicity of tribes and
social groups that we have in Nigeria that I have already mentioned in
the book. I also tried to explore other groups in other parts of the
world especially Latin America, and I was able to draw some parallels
between their social existence and systems of social organization, and
the characteristics and features of anarchism, as I understand it.
Interviewer: For those of us who haven’t read the book recently, can you
just recap a couple of things about what anarchism means to you and how
is it connected to some of the intrinsic aspects of African culture?
Sam: OK, I pointed out in the book right away that anarchism as an
ideology, as a corpus of ideology, and as a social movement, is removed
to Africa. That was a point I made very explicitly at the outset of the
book. But anarchism as a form of social organization, as a basis of
organizing societies – that is not remote to us. It is an integral part
of our existence as a people. I referred to the communal system of
social organization that existed and still exists in different parts of
Africa, where people live their lives within communities and saw
themselves as integral parts of communities, and which contributed
immensely to the survival of their communities as a unit. I pointed to
aspects of solidarity, aspects of social cohesion and harmony that
existed in so many communal societies in Africa and tried to draw
linkages with the precepts of anarchism, including mutual aid, including
autonomous development of small units, and a system that is not based on
a monetization of the means and forces of production in society. So, I
look back and I feel, like I pointed out earlier, these are things that
if we carry on additional research it would throw more light on how
these societies were able to survive. But again, with the advent of
colonialism and the incorporation African economies and societies into
the global capitalist orbit, some of these things of changed. We’ve
started having a rich class, we’ve started having a class of political
rulers who lord it over and above every other person. We’ve started
having a society that is highly militarized where the the State and
those who control the State share the monopoly of instruments of
violence and are keen to deploy it against the ordinary people. That’s
their business.
Interviewer: In the last few years we’ve definitely seen an increase in
authoritarian rule in many parts of the world, and austerity measures,
in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks in the States and
the global financial crisis, more recently. How do you see those issues,
and how have they affected Africa, and the struggle here?
Sam: When I wrote African Anarchism with my friend, we wrote against the
backdrop of three decades of military rule, nearly four decades of
military rule, in Nigeria. Military rule was a form of government that
believed in over-centralization of powers, and dictatorship, as it were,
and it was a strand that evolved from capitalism. So while the Nigerian
society and much of Africa was under the grip of military rule and
military authoritarianism, today we have a nominal civilian
administration, a nominal civilian democracy. Some people have called it
rule democracy, some people have called it dysfunctional democracy, all
kinds of names, seeking to capture the fact that this is far from
democracy. And for me it is an extension of military rule. This is
actually a phase of military rule. Because if you look at democracy in
Nigeria, and the rest of Africa, those who are shaping the course and
future of these democracies are predominantly ex-military rulers, and
their apologists and collaborators within the civilian class.
So, looking at the global stage, capitalism is in crisis. At any rate,
capitalism cannot exist really without crisis. Crisis is the health of
capitalism. This crisis is what many philosophers, from Marx to Hegel to
Lenin to Kropotkin to Emma Goldman, and more currently Noam Chomsky have
spoken extensively about: the tendency for crisis on the part of
capitalism. So, between the coming of ‘African Anarchism’ and today, we
have seen 911, the so-called ‘war on terror’, the financial crisis of
2007-2008, today we’re faced with a major global economic crisis that is
reminiscent of the great depression of the 1930s. And there is no
absolute guarantee that, even if the global economy emerges from this
crisis, it will not relapse into another, because the tendency towards
crisis is an integral part of capitalism. For us, here, these historical
developments have had a serious impact on our society, our economy, our
government.
If we begin from the 911 incident, today the world is under the grip of
terror and counter-terrorism as well. Here in Nigeria in the past one
year, the country has commonly experienced bombings, explosives, we are
seeing everyday increasingly everyday there is a bomb set off in one
place. And how does the Nigerian State react? It reacts with more force,
and in the process of using more force it creates collateral damages and
casualties all over the place. So we are not immune from the ravages of
terrorism and the ‘war on terrorism’ which the West embarked upon, after
911. Our country is well under the grip of terror. And it is ironical
that any moment there is a bomb that explodes somewhere, the government
shouts, ‘this is terrorism! this is terrorism!’ But the hard line
tendencies of government and the agencies of the State which use undue
force and undue violence in resolving issues that would otherwise have
been resolved without any loss of life – these are glossed over and seen
as being normal. But any moment a bomb is set off anywhere, the
government counters that this is terrorism. I would say that government,
the State, in Africa, is the greatest source of terror. The State in
Africa is the greatest source of terrorism. I think that the society
would be a lot better, the day the State ceases from acting and
deploying its agencies as instruments of terror against the ordinary
population, and the common people.
So, the global economic crisis, the global capitalist crisis, has
impacted negatively on African economies, including Nigeria – because we
are part and parcel of the global capitalist system, albeit we are
unequal partners in the global capitalist exchange. Our economy is
dependent on commodities. Our economy is a mono-crop one. Anything that
happens to oil is bound to have a crisis effect on us. And that is one
of the reasons why you saw Nigerians and the Nigerian State in a
stand-off at the beginning of this year [2012], over phantom subsidies
which the government said it wanted to remove, and which people
protested.
Interviewer: Could you explain a bit more about the fuel-tax subsidy for
those who aren’t familiar with how it works in Nigeria?
Sam: OK. The fuel tax, or what the Nigerian government calls the ‘fuel
subsidy’, assumes that the government is subsidizing the cost of fuel
for the citizenry. That the Nigerian people are not paying a realistic
value for fuel in the country. But the counter-argument is that we are
an oil-producing country, and there is no reason why the cost of fuel
should be based on the global or international market. We have
refineries, we have about four refineries that collectively have a
refining capacity of about 500,000 barrels per day. But you find that in
the past twenty years these refineries have not functioned. They have
not functioned because of corruption. They have not functioned because
the powers that be in the country are not interested in these refineries
functioning. The only reason why these refineries are not functioning is
because there is corruption and a lot of people in government, in the
military and in the bureaucracy, are benefitting from the wholesale
importation of refined petroleum product. Nigeria is about the only OPEC
country that imports 100% of its refined petroleum needs.
Interviewer: So at the beginning of this year [2012]…
Sam: So the ordinary people in Nigeria are saying, if our refineries
were working, and they refined our crude, the government should be able
to say at what cost this crude, these products are refined. And based on
the cost of refining you can now set a price. That insofar as you have
not been able to make the refineries functional, and you are fixing the
cost of petroleum products on the basis of what it is in the
international markets, you are making a grave mistake. Because the cost
of living in Nigeria is different from the cost of living in United
States. So the government says, ‘We pay so much to the importers of
petroleum products as subsidy’ – that means the difference between the
cost of importation and the selling price of the refined product. But
you find out that even those who have been in government, even ministers
of petroleum products, came out to say that much of what you pay as
subsidy is based on corrupt documentation, which the government does not
investigate, which the government does not in any way try to clarify,
which involves senior officials of the organs and agencies that are
supposed to regulate the petroleum industry. They are the ones who are
paying these huge sums to themselves and to their companies. Let me
illustrate the concept of the oil subsidy by one reference. The Nigerian
government allows a multiplicity of traders to bring in petroleum
products. They buy refined petroleum products from a multiplicity of
international traders, when in fact the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation – the NPC – which is our national oil company, can enter
into purchase agreements with refineries that exist abroad, and get
these refined products directly from refineries. Instead, they prefer to
go through middle men, who get the refined products from refineries, and
sell them to NPC at exorbitant rates.
Interviewer: So what happened at the beginning of the year [2012]?
Sam: At the beginning of the year the government wanted to supposedly
deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry. And labour and
civil society groups protested, and resisted such a move. In the event,
a two week strike was called. During those two weeks, the people stayed
away from work, the people protested in the streets of Lagos, Kaduna,
Port Harcourt, Kano, Ibadan, in different parts of the country. And
because the government sensed the resolve of ordinary Nigerians to
resist these arbitrary increases, the government backed down somewhat,
by bringing down the over 100% increase in prices of petroleum products
to about 30%. And of course the labor movement practically sold out,
because the civil society and the mass of the population were prepared
to go on with the protest and refuse the pay the 30% increase, but labor
sold out, and that is where we are today.
I would say, it is an unfinished struggle. My sense is that the
government still intends to achieve its objective which is 100% increase
in the price of petroleum products. But if there is anybody in
government who is still thinking, who is still moved by any sense of
objectivity, they would have seen that the resolve of Nigerians to
resist these arbitrary increases based on false analysis of what subsidy
constitutes, is something they cannot wish away. The people are also
mobilizing. Just as the government is devising other strategies through
which it will increase the price of petroleum through the back door, the
people are reviewing the last encounter and trying to find out what
other ways they can employ that advance their cause.
Interviewer: In that massive and very inspiring mobilization, there were
elements of reflection of some of the global movements we’ve seen
recently, some part of the protest was called ‘Occupy Nigeria’. We’ve
seen the explosion of the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, what do
you think of those?
Sam: Yeah, yeah, the Occupy movement in parts of America and Europe has
really inspired a lot of people in Nigeria. The resolve and the courage
that has been demonstrated by the Occupy movement in different parts of
America and European capitals, is a pointer to the endless possibilities
that abound if people decide to struggle. The Arab Spring on its part,
has been a most refreshing experience for those of us in Africa.
Actually, I’ve had conversations with my friends and I try to point out
the fact that the Arab Spring should have been happening in sub-Saharan
Africa, rather than in the Arab world, in North Africa, because the
abject conditions of living in Africa [are much worse than] the
relatively advanced standards of living in most of the Arab countries
and even our neighbors in North Africa. So the Arab spring should have
been happening in sub-Saharan Africa. That is my sense. But why is it
not happening? It is because we have not been able to turn our anger
into resolve, we have not been able to build the requisite social
consciousness, to be able to instigate and sustain such a struggle.
But based on what happened in Nigeria recently, I have no doubt that
people are beginning to draw lessons from what is happening in the Arab
world. And asking themselves some searching questions – if it can happen
in the Arab world, why not us? If people who are living in better social
conditions can elect to fight, to struggle, to protest in the streets,
for days and months on end, how about us who cannot even find light.
Light in Nigeria is a luxury. Our economy is a generator-set economy.
[The State electricity grid functions very poorly; the rich use private
electricity generators.] You virtually provide your own water, you
provide your own security. Nothing works here. Unlike if you were to go
to Libya. I’ve not been, but I’ve read stories about Libya, Egypt,
Tunisia. These are better organised societies, where social amenities
and public utilities function. But here we are in sub-Saharan Africa
where nothing works. So, I can say without any fear of contradiction
that the protests in Nigeria in January, were an offshoot of the Occupy
movement in America and Europe, as well as an offshoot of the Arab
Spring. So, I don’t know whether our protests have gotten to the point
where we can call it a ‘Nigerian Spring’, but I guess that the Nigerian
Spring will still come.
…
Interviewer: Sam, climate change is a major threat to Nigerians, as it
is to everyone else on the planet. What are some of the specific
environmental issues here, and what sort of consciousness is there of
climate justice, and sustainable development?
Sam: I’ll answer your question from two perspectives. Let me answer it
with the general perspective and then I’ll come to the more personal
perspective. The threat of climate change is real. We, in this part of
the world, are not immune from the threats of climate change. If we take
a look around us, the humidity levels are rising. In recent times, where
I live (I live in a small bungalow of three rooms), if there is no light
[no electricity, no fan], I can hardly sleep. My children can hardly
sleep, except during the rainy season, it becomes a lot more manageable
during the rainy season. Because what makes it even worse is that our
light, our electricity situation, is in fits and pieces. I’ve found that
in the past three or four years, between the months of March and April,
before the rains start all over again, I am sweating like I have never
sweated in all my life. I am seeing increasing levels of temperature
that I did not see while I was growing up, and even in the 80s and 90s.
Over the past five years, one has had to live with very sweltering
temperatures. And the sources of this are not far-fetched.
If you look around, the forests that used to exist… If I go to my
village, there used to be very deep forests, where little children would
even find it very difficult to enter. Today most of these forests are no
more. The little trees and mini forests that exist are being logged on a
daily basis, and there is no form of check on logging. If you go to the
villages, logging is taking place at very ridiculous levels. There is no
agency of government in this part of the country that is doing anything
to regulate it, to curtail it, to minimize it. So trees are being cut as
never before and nobody is doing anything to replace these trees. The
forest cover is increasingly going down and in our own part of the
country where the population density is probably the highest in Africa
outside the Niger Delta, we find that human activity is impacting
seriously and negatively on the environment. People are building
uncontrollably, roads are being built, bushes are being burnt. There is
deforestation on a massive scale. And one of the consequences of
deforestation in our part of the country is erosion, of soil, gullies,
even roads in some places have been cut in two. Then of course the
streams and rivers and rivulets that used to contain a lot of aquatic
life are today drying up. There’s a stream that lies about 200 metres
from my country home in the village. When I was growing up I never saw
it dry up. But in the past ten years, if the rains fail to fall between
February, March, and April, times when the stream dries up.
Interviewer: And how are people thinking about that, because people want
to see development, but how can that be justified with sustainability?
Sam: The ordinary people do not have an accurate consciousness of what
is happening. They are blaming evil forces, unseen hands and all kinds
of metaphysical objects for these happenings and these developments. And
it is actually up to the government to educate the people about the
negative consequences of deforestation, of unbalanced utilization of
resources, about the benefits of a planned, sustainable development –
both for the individual and for the society at large. But the government
is not doing much in this area. There is actually a dearth of public
enlightenment and conscientization on the principle issues.
And you find also that in our villages, the lands that used to be
fertile are not producing as much food, as much crops, as they used to.
These are the consequences of climate change.
Yes, at the level of the elite, of the enlightened few, there is a
realization that yes, something is wrong. But at the level of ordinary
people, there is no conscientization, no effort to enable them to
understand that it is in their interests to ensure that they protect
their environment.
Interviewer: You mentioned the Niger Delta. That is one area in Nigeria
where the struggle over environment and oil has been particularly acute,
with massive oil spills but also militant activity which has had a real
impact on oil production and trying to reclaim some of the wealth from
oil for people. What are your views on the activities of militants in
the Niger Delta?
Sam: The activities of militants should not be viewed in isolation. The
activities of militants is consequent upon the exploitative tendencies
of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, who are not adhering to
international best practices that they continue to observe elsewhere
around the world. In Nigeria, because they are complicit with the
Nigerian state and the government, they carry on as they wish. They
carry on as if tomorrow does not exist. They carry on because there is
nobody to call them to order, to hold them to account. So the emergence
of the militant groups in the Niger Delta is consequent upon the
exploitative practices and tendencies, and the absolute lack of care for
the environment in the exploration, drilling and production of most of
the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta.
So, if viewed against this background, the militant groups are
responding to a clear and present threat to the existence of communities
in the Niger Delta. When we were growing up, we grew up to learn that
most of the villages, tribes and social groups in the Niger Delta were
essentially fishermen. But with the constant oil spills, despoliation of
the environment, the denudation of the fauna and the aquatic life of the
Niger Delta, much of the fishing industry has disappeared. Much of the
farming and agricultural activities taking place there have also
disappeared.
So, when you have robbed a people of their environment, how, in good
conscience, do you expect them to survive? To continue to exist as a
people. You see, our people have a saying that nature has placed at the
disposal of every group a means of survival. I’ll give you an example.
In the south-east, in Igboland for instance, our people survive mostly
on our land. We survive on our palm trees, our people make palm oil, our
people farm, this is the basic means of subsistence. If you go to the
North, they do not have palm trees. They survive on other firms of
agriculture, like planting onions, planting yams, and also pastoral
existence. If you go to Niger Delta, the basic means of subsistence is
fishing, and some forms of agriculture and farming too. So if we agree
that nature has placed at the disposal of every group some forms of
sustenance, we are witnessing a situation where the means of sustenance
of much of the Niger Delta has been taken away. Through the activities
of oil companies who are not minded on any form of corporate social
responsibility.
So, that is the context in which I view the militancy that sprung up in
the Niger Delta from the late 1990s till today. Yes, most of the
militant groups engage in all forms of criminality and banditry as well,
which do not in any way serve the interests of ordinary Niger Deltans.
And that is condemnable, but it does not in any way vitiate the original
sin that pushed them into further sin.
Interviewer: Yes. Speaking of sin, Nigeria is quite a religious society.
Religion is very deeply ingrained here. And often it takes quite
conservative, sometimes violent forms. What are your thoughts on
religion in Nigeria and what it means for anarchism and organising more
broadly?
Sam: I’ll say that religion and religious practices have entered a new
phase in Nigeria. Before the advent of colonialism, our people were
mostly African religionists, who worship our small gods – gods of
thunder, gods of river, and such other gods. With the coming of
colonialism, the two main global religions – Islam and Christianity –
became a predominant force in the lives of Nigerians.
The rivalry and competition between the two religions has tended to play
down the fact that not all Nigerians are Christians or Muslims. Even in
the North-central, you are talking about pagan tribes and different
forms of African religion that take place in those places. But today
Nigeria is profiled and stereotyped as a Christian South and a Muslim
North. Yet if you go to the North you find a lot of non-adherents to
Islam, you come to the South as well you find a lot of non-adherents to
Christianity.
But I would say that in the past 20-30 years the singular influence of
Christianity and Islam has been considerably negative on the society in
the sense that both religions have become sources of manipulation,
political manipulation of ordinary people. When you hear that there is a
religious riot in the North, a religious riot in the East, when you go
down and examine the issues, they are not basically religious.
Politicians are using religion to manipulate the ordinary people into
fighting for the political positions and beliefs of the elite.
Religion has become an instrument of manipulation, exploitation, deceit,
and large-scale blindfolding of ordinary people in Nigeria. It is one of
the elements militating against social consciousness and the development
of the working class, as a class, in Nigeria. The development of a class
of the dispossessed, the oppressed, the marginalized, who feel and share
common interests and are keen to fight for those common interests.
Religion is thrown in as a wedge, as a source of conflict among ordinary
people. Like Karl Marx said, religion becomes the opium of society.
Every little thing is covered, is given a religious coloration, when it
is actually not. It is a tremendous setback to the development of social
consciousness in Nigeria and the rest of Africa as a whole.
Interviewer: Yes. You’ve already touched on it, but those religious
divisions are often related to (but not solely related to) ethnic
divisions, and race, and gender as dividing people from each other. What
are your thoughts about that?
Sam: Well the problem we have is not really race as such, it is about
religion, it is about ethnicity. Much of religion in Nigeria and Africa
is geographical. You find that religion tends to conform to certain
ethnic boundaries. When you hear about a Fulani, you imagine a Muslim.
When you hear about an Igboman, you imagine a Catholic Christian. When
you talk about the man from the middle belt of Nigeria, you’re talking
about an evangelical Christian. So, much of our religious differences
have become geographical in nature, in the sense that certain ethnic
boundaries are coherent also with certain religions. The people have
been made to see these differences as permanent features of life, not
things you can overcome. The truth is that before the commodification of
exchange and the means of sustenance in our society, before the
monetization of the economy, people related with one another, and did
not mind about religious differences. Everybody believed your religion
ought to be a personal issue to you. But with the politicization of
religion, the way we are seeing it today, social differences have been
magnified by politicians, who use it to manipulate and control the mass
of the population.
Interviewer: And what about gender? Is there a change in the struggle
for women’s liberation?
Sam: The struggle for women’s liberation in Nigeria and the rest of
Africa has come a long way. In the sense that, our society, which is
patriarchal in nature, emphasises the role of the man. In many African
societies, as I tried to point out in my book, the role of women is
diminished, reduced to almost to footnotes. But the truth is that even
in traditional African societies, if I use the tradtional Igbo society
as an example, the role of the women is critical, is central to the
creation of balance and social harmony. But most of the time it is
underplayed.
Interviewer: You’re talking about the role women play as leaders?
Sam: Yes. You might not believe it, but let me tell you something – one
of the less obvious manifestations of African society. In traditional
African societies, in traditional Igbo society, for example, a woman who
is unable to give birth for the husband, assuming the husband dies, and
the woman is faced with the reality of not continuing the lineage at her
own death, it was common for women who find themselves in this
situation, to marry another woman. So when Africans say lesbianism, or
women marrying women, or men marrying men, is not traditional to us, any
clear-headed political analyst, anthropologist or sociologist in this
part of the world, would know in Igbo society it was common for women to
marry women, when faced with that situation in the absence of their
husband, and be seen as the wife of the older woman. Maybe the older
woman might also bring a man who sleeps with the younger woman and
begins to raise offspring for the memory of the late husband.
The traditional African society would not achieve balance and harmony
without the role of the women. Their role was critical to the resolution
of disputes. In Igbo resolution of land disputes, family disputes, and
intractable social issues, the views of women, especially those who were
seen as women who have made some achievement materially was continually
sought by the men folk in traditional African societies.
Moving away from traditional African society to the present day,
education has been the critical force in the liberation of women. Women
go to school, in Igboland today there are more women in school than men.
Because the men go off to do business, trading activities. Increasingly,
in many primary and secondary schools the number of female pupils
outnumbers the males. Many families have realized that if you train
women, you train a nation, if you train a man, in some cases, you are
just training an individual.
The importance of women in our society is continually being reasserted.
The courts of law have played some role in trying to liberate women from
being the underlings of society. In Igboland in the past, women could
not inherit the estate of their fathers, even if they were the only
children of their parents. There is now a court document that says a man
can make a will and devolve his estate among his male and female
children equally. In cases where the man did not have male issues, he
can devolve his estate among his female children.
So we’ve recognized some advance. There is virtually no course in
university where you do not find some women folk – medicine,
engineering, geology, computer science, not just the humanities and
arts. Women are everywhere, even in the military. But I would say still,
given the fact that our society is 50% male, 50% female, there is still
a lot room for improvement for women. It is an ongoing struggle. It is
not something that is likely going to end. The momentum we have have
achieved is such that the future looks very very bright indeed for
women’s liberation and gender equality in our society.
…
Interviewer: Sam, you played a very important role in the ‘Awareness
League’, which was a Nigerian anarchist organization that flourished in
the 1990s. Can you tell us a bit about how it grew and how it declined?
Sam: It’s a little nostalgic for me these days, talking about the
Awareness League, because the Awareness League was a romantic idea. When
we entered the universities in the early 80s, what we encountered was
socialist groups, socialist teaching, Marxist teaching especially. And
we became attracted to Marxism, in the sense that it preached the coming
of a new dawn in society, and by extension, the African continent. We
were really enthralled by the perspectives of Marxism, and the abiding,
thorough critique of capitalism that Marx and Marxist literature
embodied. It did not take much time before we defined ourselves as
Marxists on campus, and this continued until we left the universities.
When I was leaving university I wrote a thesis in my final year on the
political economy of Nigeria’s external debt crisis then, and in the
thesis, it might interest you to know, I employed the Marxist framework,
as my tool of analysis. Where Marx was talking about the economy as
providing the axis around which the further movement in society
revolved, whether it was politics, or culture. I also talked about the
tendency of capitalism towards crisis. These were ideas that enthralled
us. Also the ideas of revolution. Marx said that the history of all
hitherto existing societies has been the history of class struggle, and
talked about the revolution being the midwife of a new society, giving
birth to a new one.
Usually in Nigeria, after your graduation from university, you are
obliged to take part in a mandatory one year service. So I was posted to
the old Oyo state with its capital at Ibadan, for the mandatory one year
national service. It was there that I met a couple of socialist-minded
young men like myself, and we started organising and talking about
Marxism, socialism, leftist resistance. We identified ourselves
essentially as a leftist organization. In the course of that, some of us
started subscribing to ‘The Torch’ newspaper, published in New York. It
was there we started gleaning for the first time, the initial ideas of
anarchism. That was how, gradually, when we finished our national
service, some of us who were living in the south-east, started thinking
about an enduring platform. Because socialism even then was entering a
serious crisis. The crisis of the Soviet empire was brewing. It was not
long thereafter that communism collapsed in Europe. And it was in the
midst of this crisis that we started increasingly vacilating towards
anarchism. Subsequently, Awareness League was born, and the rest is
history.
The Awareness League first of all, derived its lifeblood from the
resistance against military rule in Nigeria. The continuation of
military rule acted as a spore. It was one of the inclusions that
continued to give oxygen to our existence then as Awareness League. It
is on record that between the late 1980s and the late 1990s, Nigeria
witnessed the toughest anti-military struggle. Awareness League joined
forces with other anti-military groups in resisting military rule in
Nigeria. It was in the process of coming into touch with a lot of
anarcho-syndicalist groups around the world, in Europe and America ,
that I and my friend decided to intellectualise the the subject of
anarchism by producing a book, which you very well know.
The struggle against military rule ended with the coming of civilian
rule in 1999. I would say that the antagonism of not only the Awareness
League but all the civil society, community-based groups, and leftist
organizations in the country, virtually evaporated. Because the military
was a uniting factor, I would say, in the sense that every person –
whether you were anarchist, Marxist, leftist, socialist – saw in the
military a common enemy to be resisted, to be opposed, to be overthrown
if possible. With the coming of civilian government, we did not have
that kind of common enemy any longer. Because some of the groups, some
individuals from these groups, now started gravitating towards bourgeois
politics. But let me say that for the most part, the problem was not
individuals gravitating towards bourgeois politics, it was really that
the civil society groups, the leftist groups and organizations, were not
prepared for the consequences of [civilian] rule. We did not analyze in
a serious sense what would be the consequences of the end of military
rule and the coming of civilian rule, in the place of the military. We
took it for granted that it would be business as usual. But as it
happened, the end of military rule singularly signaled the end of most
of these community-based, civil-society-based groups. Most of these
groups, including the Awareness League, fragmented.
By the dawn of the new millennium, we were just a few individuals left,
trying to grapple with the reality of social existence and political
developments in our country. Some of our members have had to go back to
school, taking up teaching appointments at some universities, some are
grappling with the realities of survival and existence in our kind of
society. I personally have been having health challenges – it’s not
something I want to broadcast – but I’ve been having some health
challenges. Between 2007 and 2009, I had serious health challenges. For
me, I find that it is impossible to recreate Awareness League in the
circumstances that we find ourselves in today.
So perhaps, I said to myself, we cannot recreate Awareness League, but
we must maintain some form of interaction among ourselves, we must
continue to interact with others in civil society. We must continue to
engage, even with those in power, in some form of call to account. And
we must devise more realistic ways of being relevant in society and
trying to make a difference in our respective communities and in society
at large.
So I have since then, gone into trying to join hands with some people in
trying to create a non-governmental organisation known as Tropical
Watch. Concerned essentially with issues of sustainable development and
environment, including climate change. In the process also we have been
drawn into some anti-corruption fights, anti-corruption struggles in our
society. Because we find that one of the greatest threats to sustainable
development is corruption. Corruption makes it impossible for resources
to be allocated in a judicial, transparent manner. Such that all sectors
of the economy, all sectors of the society, would benefit. It is
corruption that makes it impossible for governments to check
uncontrolled logging in different communities for instance. It is
corruption that makes it impossible for contacts awarded for road
construction, for provision of water, for sanitation and things like
that to be exhibited. In so far as corruption exists, it is impossible
to create a harmonious balance between resource utilization and the
existence of our environment and societies. So these are some of the
things that I personally, in conjunction with some other friends and
like-minded individuals, have been trying to create.
But it has not been easy. Because, like I told you, what happened to
Awareness League is not unique – it happened to every single other civil
society group, every other organic social organization in the country
that took part in the anti-military struggle. I’ll give you another
example, one of the largest NGOs in Nigeria over the past 15-20 years,
has been the Civil Liberties Organisation. It was a body dedicated to
fighting for human rights, constitutional rule, and fighting against
police violence and all forms of violence against civilians, women and
children. The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) grew in leaps and
bounds so that they had offices in all different parts of Nigeria. But I
can tell you: in the past seven or eight years, the CLO has almost been
dead. Actually, what we are seeing is more or less a ghost, because
there is no state in Nigeria where their office is functional any
longer. The man who used to be the zonal director here in Enugu has
virtually been left to fend for himself. They haven’t paid the rent on
their office in the past five years. So what I’m trying to say is that
what happened to Awareness League is what happened most other
organizations. Even Tropical Watch is still trying to find its feet.
Interviewer: What about working-class organizations in Nigeria, trade
unions, to what extent can they be reclaimed as vehicles for
working-class struggle?
Sam: The trade unions in Nigeria were particularly very active in the
early anti-colonial struggle. I told you some time ago about the
struggles of the coal miners here in Enugu, Enugu was the coal mining
capital of Nigeria. During the anti-colonial struggle for independence,
the colonial masters killed about 49 coal miners here in this city, who
were struggling against the exploitative tendencies of the managers of
the mines. It was a landmark development during the anti-colonial
struggle in this part of Nigeria. I told you about the city of Jos,
where you had a flourishing tin mining industry, the workers were
well-organized. The mining industries became a pedestal for unionizing
in the country, including the regular civil service. At the turn of
independence, we had a fairly sizable working-class trade-unionism
taking place in the country, and this continued until the advent of
military rule.
Military rule stultified the development of trade unionism in the
country. They were able to do this by invoking primordial sentiments,
religion, tribalism and issues of regionalism as well, to divide and
rule, to manipulate workers. Depending on which government was in power.
The trade union movement in Nigeria – towards the dying days of military
rule – tried to regain its voice, started calling major national
strikes, started organizing on a national scale.
But I can tell you that the fortunes of trade unionism has been hampered
by the deindustrialization process that has continued taking place in
the country, since the dying days of military rule. Most industries have
folded up. One of the largest employers of labor in this country used to
be the textile industry. It is no more. The textile industry has been
wiped away completely. We now depend for our textile materials on cheap
textile materials coming from China, neighboring countries, India. The
textile industry used to employ more than 200,000 workers across the
country. The automobile industry used to have assembly plants – here in
Enugu Anammco, Peugeot was in Kaduna, Peleot was in Bauchi, Volkswagen
was in Lagos. All these assembly plants have closed down. We used to
have a trident steel sector in [a number of places]. They’ve all closed
shop. So there has been massive deindustrialization in the country in
the past 20 years, and it has affected the fortunes of workers.
So the core of the workers we have today are either in the civil
service, the banking sector, or the petroleum industry. The workers in
the petroleum sector see themselves as being favored souls. So they
hardly take part in their union activities, except the junior staff. The
same thing also in the banking industry, in fact one of the codes of
practice was that you don’t take part in union organising. For upwards
of 10-20 years the workers accepted it. But since the first failure of
banks in Nigeria, which took place in the late 1990s, the junior workers
in the banks are beginning to organise again. But they’re no longer as
effective. So basically, what you have as unions in Nigeria, are
basically the civil servants. And you will agree with me that the
industrial experience is based in industrial workplaces, not in offices.
Not in air-conditioned offices and white-collar tables.
So the state of union activities today in Nigeria is deplorable. And
most union leaders see their positions from the point of view of their
career. They think of their career first and foremost, before anything
else. It is one of the key factors that affected the last nation-wide
protests, in the sense that the leadership of the Nigerian Labour
Congress capitulated at the last minute.
Let me also point out that the professional groups in Nigeria – the
medical doctors, the bar association, the architects society, the
society of engineers and similar professional groups are not minded on
working-class organising and development. They start from the
perspective of seeing themselves as being privileged members of society.
Even though the circumstances of a significant proportion of their
members is the same as that of ordinary Nigerians. For them there is no
incentive to begin to organize. Instead what a person is trying to do
among the professional groups is trying to see how he can use the system
to advance his personal or group interests.
Interviewer: Sam, I wanted to ask, what are some of the things that the
people who are active – the rank and file activists in unions, or people
like yourself in Tropical Watch or civil society organizations – what
are some of the things that people do to try and build the struggle?
Like practical day-to-day tasks, what do people spend their time doing
to try to build up social struggle?
Sam: We, the activists, try to meet. We try to hold workshops. There are
some workshops that we hold or are sponsored by donor agencies, that
bring together activists. We have had seminars and workshops in the
areas of police brutality, police violence, gender violence, climate
change, you know. These seminars and workshops in a way try to bring
together activists of all persuasions. And from time to time, arising
from social, economic and political developments around us, we try to
set up meetings among groups and individuals, and see if we can work out
areas of agreement and see if we can build up on that.
But I must be fair to you, especially here in the south-east, we have
not been able to build a virile civil society in this part of the
country. The people in Lagos have been able to create better models
essentially because they have greater experience in this field, arising
from the years of military rule. The people in Abuja are doing well as
well, because since the movement of the seat of government to Abuja, we
have witnessed the concentration of activists organising to hold the
government accountable in one way or another. But we have not been so
lucky here. I guess that part of the problem is that most people are
concerned with the struggle for everyday survival. But I reckon that
this is not enough of an excuse to give for not being able to organize.
The experience of one of our comrades Osmond Ugwu who, not too long ago,
has been a victim of state high-handedness. He came out to organise
workers, to protest against non-implementation of the minimum wage. The
minimum wage was a national policy of the PDP government, and a national
minimum wage act was passed by both chambers of the national assembly.
All the states in the country were now obliged to implement the minimum
wage, to bring it into practice in their respective states. But the
governor here in Enugu refused to implement it. Or decided that he was
going to delay the terms of implementation. And when Osmond and one or
two of his comrades tried to organise the workers, to sensitize them on
resisting this harassment by the government, he was incarcerated. It is
instructive to note that while Osmond was trying to mobilize the
workers, the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress here was
collaborating with the state government and negotiating away the rights
of workers to organize. Ultimately he paid the price by being sent to
jail and being tried on trumped up charges. It was not until the the
later part of January this year [2012] that he was released. Based
essentially on the protests mounted by Amnesty International. And today
he still faces a criminal charge which is as ridiculous as anything can
be. This underlines the threats faced by those who struggle to create a
new society in our kind of environment.
Interviewer: One last question Sam: how do you conceptualize global
solidarity? I mean, how best can activists in so-called ‘developed’
countries support activists in the majority world, and vice versa?
Sam: Yeah, the activism in the developed world can do a lot really to
stir up the consciousness of people here. But I guess that at the end of
the day, the people here must take responsibility for our lives, must
take responsibility for resisting autocratic governments, must take
responsibility for seeking to hold them accountable as well.
People in the metropolitan world can assist us by trying to help us
build capacity. You see, the civil society groups here are not quite at
home with the tools of modern communication – the social media – which
has played a very important role in the Occupy movement in different
parts of Europe and America, and in the Arab Spring. You’d be surprised
that the Nigerian protest was not significantly boosted by social media.
Yes, there were instances when social media came into play, but our
notion of social media here is going to your email box and replying to
email or going to your own Facebook. That is the notion of the average
Nigerian about social media. But [it is more difficult to learn] how we
can utilize twitter or YouTube, to upload pictures and things, how do I
create a blog that is easily accessible to other activists who have
access to the net?
It is true of course that the Internet access here is still developing.
By my own reckoning, is still under 20% of the population. Or much much
much less than that. Yes, people have some Internet access when it comes
to going to their email box, replying to messages, sending messages,
maybe Facebook. But if you’re talking of social struggle and the net,
the Internet access rate is less than 10%.
So people from the metropolitan world can really help us by trying to
create capacity in the tools for social media communication. That is
very critical if we must make progress in organising and even in
building solidarity with the outside world. If we have access to these
tools, it becomes much easier to keep in touch with the rest of the
world, and for the rest of the world to know exactly the true situation
of what is happening here. People should be able to, from their
respective areas, not just the urban areas, to be able to take pictures
and upload on the net and try to make as much capital out of them as
possible.
Interviewer: Yes. Is there anything else you wanted to add before we
wrap up?
Sam: Yeah, I want to say a few words to our anarchist friends and groups
that in the past associated with us, supported us, in one way or
another, especially from Europe and North America. I say to them that
anarchism is not dead in Africa. But it is important for them to
appreciate that anarchism as a movement, as a political movement, as an
ideological platform, is still going to take some time to crystallize
here. But in the mean time, we must continue to engage with the rest of
the society. We must continue to interrogate the government in debates
where we can achieve. That is what informed some of us going into
non-governmental organizations. When you talk to people about about
anarchism in this part of the world they are like, ‘Well? What is it
about? Ah, no no no anarchism is about disorder, chaos, confusion.’ Of
course when you do the intellectual analysis of social organization and
how this [incorrect understanding of anarchism] conforms to anarchist
principles [of how ideology controls people], you can make sense of it.
It is difficult in this part of the world to begin to build a movement
based on anarchist principles alone. But we can build a movement based
on trying to hold the government accountable, trying to fight for the
environment, trying to fight for gender equality, trying to fight for
human rights. Because these are minimum principles on which a broad
swathe of the population agree, and it makes sense for us to continue to
interact and interrogate social existence and public policy on this
basis. And seek to ensure that civil society is not extinguished
completely. While also those of us who genuinely believe in anarchism
will continue to organise and develop tools of organisation that will
some day lead to the emergence of an anarchist movement.
Interviewer: Yes. Thank you Sam. You’ve given us a lot to think about.
And I think that with people around who are as knowledgeable and
critical and active as you, there is a lot of hope for building the sort
of movement that you talk about.
Sam: Thank you Jeremy.