More on Niger delta "terrorism"
Lydia Polgreen, wrote in The New York Times about her latest observations from Port Harcourt, the major city in the delta. Most of the examples she cites are from August. That's not an unusual delay for reporting in the US about ongoing events in places like the Niger Delta.Gangs Terrorize Nigeria’s Vital Oil Region
"The violence that has rocked the Niger Delta in recent years has been aimed largely at foreign oil companies, their expatriate workers and the police officers and soldiers whose job it is to protect them...
"But these days the guns have turned inward, and open battles have erupted with terrifying frequency on the pothole-riddled streets of this ramshackle city. The origins of the violence are as murky and convoluted as the mangrove swamps that snake across the delta, one of the poorest places on earth. But they lie principally in the rivalry among gangs, known locally as cults, that have ties to political leaders who used them as private militias during state and federal elections in April, according to human rights advocates, former gang members and aid workers in the region.
"'What is happening now cannot be separated from politics,' said Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Port Harcourt. 'The cults are part and parcel of our politics. They have become part of the system, and we are paying in blood for it.'...
"Since democracy returned to Nigeria in 1999, politicians across the country have used cults to intimidate opponents and rig votes. A Human Rights Watch report published in October concluded that the political system was so corroded by corruption and violence that, in some places, it resembled more a criminal enterprise than a system of government. The April elections were so brazenly rigged in some areas and so badly marred by violence that international observers said the results were not credible.
"Nowhere is political violence more severe than here in the Niger Delta, where control over state government means access to billions of dollars in oil revenues and control of enough patronage for an army...
"One powerful gang leader, Soboma George, was given the lion’s share of patronage... [O]ther gangs resented Mr. George’s growing influence and control over lucrative security contracts, and a war between them has turned increasingly bloody. Caught in the middle have been all kinds of civilians...
"The government says it is cracking down on gangs, and it has sent an elite army unit into Port Harcourt and the surrounding areas to impose law and halt the violence. The gunplay in the city streets has since died down, but it is a tense, uneasy calm...
"Many residents worry that rivalries may soon heat up again. On Oct. 25 a judicial panel removed the new governor of Rivers State, Celestine Omehia, ruling that he had not been an eligible candidate because he did not win his party’s primary. The winner of the primary, Rotimi Amaechi, was sworn in as governor, and many worry that violent clashes will ensue between their supporters..."
See also
- Nigerian judge reverses election
- Human Rights Watch report on "Criminal Politics"
- Nigeria as cosa nostra
- Politics in Nigeria's south south
- Gangs, political gangs, and politics
Labels: corruption, Nigeria, political culture, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:57 AM
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