GLORY KILANKO was formerly chair of the Nigerian Labour Congress women's section, National Coordinating Secretary of the socialistfeminist group, "Women in Nigeria", founder of the Campaign for Democracy and is a leading militant in the newly formed organisation, Democratic Alternative. BALA KUMAR spoke with her on 7 July, three days after the oil workers' strike began but before the NLC called a general strike only to call it off two days later. sany of the repudiation of *O MARK the first anniverthe 12 June 1993 elections there have been renewed pro-
Meanwhile a constitutional by the Abacha regime to redraft the constitution, after which a handover to civilian rule is promised. How do you assess this conference?
Abacha has come to office to fulfil his life's desire not because he has any policies to offer to the country. There was an arrangement whereby the previous military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, would rule for four years and then hand power to Abacha for a further four years. At this point we fought hard to say that Nigeria 1s not a relay race for the military to hand the baton of power to one another.
Nothing fruitful will come out of this latest conference. Babangida spent 40 million naira on the last conference, which rewrote the 1979 constitution. We have nor experimented with it. Now the handpicked delegates to the conterence are idling in the federal capital, Abuja, because apparently there is no accommodation for them. The people there are the likes of Umaru Dikko who looted the entire treasury when he was a minister, before running away to London. This same man is today given a red carpet welcome by Abacha to give legitimacy to the conference!
As a woman active in grass-roots struggles, I am disappointed that Abacha's wife has produced a programme called "Family Support". She is not prepared to support the "Better Life" programme that Miriam Babangida, wife of the previous ruler, spent millions of naira on. The first phase of this new programme is to last four years, surely a clue as to her husband's plans! This new programme is designed to push women back into the kitchen, so that their unemployed menfolk can take their jobs.
We are determined to fight Abacha in the same vein we fought Babangida and we will not relent in our efforts. There have been continuous protests since the President-elect, Moshood Abiola was arrested on 23 June and they have been spreading around the country and growing in momentum.
What kinds of protests have there been recently?
Initially there were mass demonstrations and people were man-handled and shot down. Abacha sent in tanks and heavily armed men on to every street in Lagos. The situation was so tense that people were afraid to leave their homes. There are over a hundred and fifty in detention centres solely for demanding the restoration of the people's verdict of 12 June 1993. Market women participated in the protests by locking their stalls for four days. They demonstrated and chanted songs in front of the American Embassy and the British High Commission, demanding an end to military rule. Imagine the sacrifice these women made. They survive on their daily earnings but they were prepared to suffer today for a better future for
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
(Nupeng) which has 150,000 members has been on strike since 4 July supporting pro- democracy demands. Yet the sole trade union centre, the
Nigerian Labour Congress
(NLC), has not supported the strike and is taking a conciliatory position towards the dictatorship. Why is this?
The shameful fact is that the leadership of the NLC are participants in the Constitutional Conference. They see it as an opportunity to make some fast money and have been doing all they can to frustrate the efforts of the democratic forces. I used to be Chair of the women's section but I was removed from that position because of the role 1 played in the democratic movement. They were in support of Babangida remaining in office. While I was underground evading arrest by State agents, the leadership stage-managed an election for my position. Never mind, at
International Viewpoint #259 September 1994 least I don't have to mortgage my conscience. The NLC leadership operates like this: they pretend to go on strike in order to negotiate with the military authorities; then they tell the workers that the dispute has been resolved but never inform them of the details of the settlement. Some of us are working seriously with the rank and file so that decisions at the level of the NLC are made by each worker in each union affiliate and not by the President or General Secretary of the union on behalf of the workers. We are fighting to democratise the NLC as well as wider society.
There are two main forces leading the democratic movement. The Campaign for Democracy (CD) which groups together about forty human rights, civil liberties and progressive organisations and the new
National Democratic Coalition
(Nadeco) which is made up of ex-generals, discredited civilian politicians and business people who seem to have belatedly developed a democratic loyalists or lower ranking soldiers, all claiming to stand for the 12 June result. How do you view this?
We are worried about this situation. There are soldiers with a number of grievances against their leadership, like the regulars who have served all their lives but who are not in positions of power because they have been by-passed by the graduates of the elite Nigerian Defence Academy All these groups seek power to loot the country's wealth.
Our position is this: if the military strikes ten times, we will fight them each time. Out of thirty-four years of political independence, the military have ruled for twenty-six and look at the mess which Nigeria is in! We are not against Abacha as an individual but against the role of the military in politics.
Why did you and others leave the CD and found the Democratic Alternative? What are your immediate demands?
We are calling for an Interim National Government comprising the Social Democratic Party presidential candidate, Abiola, and others, for eighteen months. This government would lead towards genuine multi-party elections and the enduring democracy which people yearn for. We strongly support the principles behind 12 June and not characters like Abiola. That election brought Nigerians together as one for the first time, cutting across regional, ethnic and religious lines.
We left CD because we felt betrayed by Ransome-Kuti. We are not agitating for the sake of it. We aspire to capture power ourselves, the masses of Nigeria. Unlike CD, those of us in the Democratic Alternative are building a political movement. We are not a part of this movement just for Nigeria's sake, we are trying to visualise what Africa should look like. We are fed up of military rulers and discredited politicians mis-ruling our continent. We are fed up of imperialism dictating to us what our lives and futures should be. We need a strong Pan-Africanist movement, a mass movement which unites Africans in the diaspora and those on the continent. Our common enemies are the African leaders, military or civilian, and we have to overconscience.
All avenues for the individuals in
Nadeco to make money have been bloc-
Anti-imperialist fighter back in gaol ked; that is why they want Abacha out.
Ken Saro-Wiwa, well known Nigerian author and leader of the Movement for the Survi-
These people at one time or another ruled val of the Ogoni People (Mosop) was arrested and detained by the military in May and
Nigeria but never did anything useful for is kept in leg irons and hand-cuffs at an army camp in Port Harcourt.
the country and now they claim to know
This is not the first time that Saro-Wiwa has been arrested and ill-treated by the military what democracy is. It is not true. It is not authorities in punishment for his role as a spokesman for the 500 thousand strong our intention to push out Abacha so that someone else of his ilk comes into office.
Ogoniland is the site for the oil-mining operations of Shell. Frequent oil spills and poor
We have gone beyond that stage.
safety conditions have despoiled the land and poisoned its inhabitants. Fish no longer
Our differences with the leadership of live in the polluted waters, livestock die, nothing of value grows on the land and the air the CD stem from the secret talks that its is heavy with the stench of petroleum fumes.
Chair, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, had with
In an interview last year, Saro-Wiwa said: "I've accused them of racism because Shell
Abacha's second in command, Lieutenantdo in Nigeria, and in Ogoni, what they do not do in other parts of the world. The West
General Oladipo Diya, prior to Abacha's worries about elephants. They stop the export of rhino hors and things like that. And coup last year. Diya promised Ransomethen they cannot worry about human beings dying."
Kuti that should Abacha come to power,
In desperation over Shell's refusal to clean up their lands and award fair compensation, he would install Moshood Abiola as Presi-
Mosop was formed to campaign for autonomy and control over the Ogoni's land and dent. We had one binding principle within
CD, which was that we were against military rule and intervention of any guise and
The Nigerian military regularly launches murderous raids against the Ogoni, massaat any time. Today Ransome-Kuti is fighcring entire communities and imprisoning hundreds of its youth, as they try to suppress ting against the military because they have riots and uprisings against the oil companies and the government.
reneged on their promise to him. He was
There are wide-spread concerns for the health of Ken Saro-Wiwa who is a heart stupid to believe them in the first place. He patient and suffered a heart attack while in prison last year. According to an indepencalmed some of the protests and bred illudent investigator, he has been repeatedly beaten, starved and denied access to family sions in Abacha's regime. He told people and lawyers. An international campaign has been launched by environmental groups that Abacha had come to "clear up the to secure his release and IV readers are urged to join these efforts. O mess".
There remains the possibility of another military coup, this time against Abacha and led by either Oladipo Diya, Babangida throw them. *
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Ogoni community in the Niger Delta. the resources under it.