How Nigeria's Islamic Sharia crises will affect the U.S.

Special to USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com

SUMMARY OF ESSAY

As I started to write this commentary, I paused, and took a few minutes to send a solemn 'Thank You' letter to an elderly Canadian Jew, author Betty Nickerson. The honorable madam is one of many who worked tirelessly in the the late 1960s and 70s to keep "Biafran babies" like me alive from the officially sanctioned "starvation policy" imposed by then war Nigerian government which they called "a legitimate instrument of warfare." In another sense, the resistance in the Igbo heartland of Aba is also a resolute way of saying "Never Again!" should a Nigerian be killed because of his religion (Christianity or Islam). I find some understanding in the will of everyone to live and resist oppressive and murderous force. Moreso, I find understanding and will, eternally, do my part, to foster the undying will and natural right of the Igbo man or woman to secure their bio-physical and geo-political sense of being. I shall do same for all peace-loving and fair-minded Nigerians, and human beings. I find understanding as someone who has suffered the inequities of religious bigotry and ethnic discrimination in the past. I find some more of such understanding as a reflection of the rugged, republican and anti-oppression ethic of my Igbo upbringing. For historical and useful context, let me add that I was born in that commercial city of entrepreneurial quests and historic, nationalist struggles, Aba. Aba is the spearhead of many strong-willed, progressive activism against colonial rule, robust resistance to local neo-feudalistic efforts, an unfailing opposition zone to soldiers and other local goons of corruption and injustice in Nigeria. Typically, the Aba christian does not, usually, turn the other cheek. He/she will slap back, not once, but.... Go figure.

First, hundreds of Houstonians will lose their jobs inside Nigeria, and here in Houston, due to the certain dislocations the conflicts will inflict on the oil and gas-related industry. many will lose multi-million dollars in investments if (and when) the flaring flames of religious fundamentalism burst into an uncontrollable inferno of raw, unmediated religious wickedness and outright war. Some of the world's leading oil corporations are based here. For example, Shell's major revenue source is Nigeria. Also, Conoco, Texaco, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and other petroleum services companies and their employees, engineering services and medical services companies, the Port of Houston, the Greater Houston Partnership, and the city (as a corporate entity) have benefited, more or less, from the resources of that environmentally-despoliated riverine area of Nigeria.

This also seems an appropriate time to look beyond dollars and cents to ask a community interest question, just before the conflicts get out of hand: what oil and gas/energy-related corporations have supported the military dictators who ruined the once-promising and bright destiny of Nigeria? On whose side will any such company(ies) be this time.

Second, Houston is home to the second-highest number of Nigerians in the U.S. Houstonians are not likely to be indifferent and unaffected by the family pressures and human needs of their folks (Americans and Nigerians) who live in different parts of Nigeria.

Third, violence which undermines Nigeria's ability to supply its "sweet" Bonny Light crude oil to the U.S., will add to the simple economic arithmetic where a shortfall in supply will drive up cost of a barrel of petroleum. The cost of gas at Houston's Galleria and Fifth Ward neighborhood stations should go up by another 8% since Nigeria is among the top five suppliers of petroleum to the U.S.

Fourth, the feeble fabric of Nigeria's colonially and artificially amalgamated ethnic nationalities will be torn apart and likely explode on the tinderbox of religion-ethnic warfare in that country of 110 million boisterous citizens. With such a combustion will be the biggest refugee nightmare south of the Sahara desert. It will make Bosnia's refugee movements of 1999 seem a comparatively modest challenge for the international community. Once the regional solution mantra of "Africans dealing with Africa's problems" collapses under the weight of ancient religious and ethnic hatreds, some of those Nigerians may head to Houston, Dallas, Austin, and other parts due to valid and legitimate familial imperatives and needs. Also, such smaller neighboring economies like Ghana, Benin, Cameroon with some American investments will become demographically threatened.

Fifth, the possibility of another civil war in Nigeria is arguable; a frightening reality with personal implications for me and hundreds of thousands of Nigerians in the U.S., thousands of Americans whose husbands, wives, and friends are Nigerians. I am a child survivor of that first Nigeria-Biafra civil war (1967-1970), who's still healing from the scars of those hellish, unpredictable days I suffered alongside millions of other "Biafran babies" and Nigerians, alike.

As I started to write this commentary, I paused, and took a few minutes to send a solemn 'Thank You' letter to an elderly Canadian Jew, author Betty Nickerson. The honorable madam is one of many who worked tirelessly in the the late 1960s and 70s to keep "Biafran babies" like me alive from the officially- sanctioned starvation policy imposed by then Nigerian government which they called "a legitimate instrument of warfare."

In another sense, the resistance in Aba is also a resolute way of saying "Never Again!" should a Nigerian be killed because of his religion (Christianity or Islam). I find some understanding in the will of everyone to live and resist oppressive and murderous force. Moreso, I find understanding and will, eternally, do my part, to foster the undying will and natural right of the Igbo man or woman to secure their bio-physical and geo-political sense of being. I shall do same for all peace-loving and fair-minded Nigerians, and human beings. I find understanding as someone who has suffered the inequities of religious bigotry and ethnic discrimination in the past. I find some more of such understanding as a reflection of the rugged, republican and anti-oppression ethic of my Igbo upbringing. For historical and useful context, I was born in that commercial city of entrepreneurial quests and historic, nationalist struggles, Aba. Aba is the spearhead of many strong-willed, progressive activism against colonial rule, robust resistance to local neo-feudalistic efforts, an unfailing opposition zone to soldiers and other local goons of corruption and injustice in Nigeria. Typically, the Aba christian does not, usually, turn the other cheek. He/she will slap back, not once, but.... Go figure.

Sixth, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's commendation for the "overall approach" of President Olusegun Obasanjo to the crises) is laughable except that the situation in Nigeria is not funny. What "approach"? U.S. misreading of the slow, costly (in terms of human and property carnage) and belated response by retired General Obasanjo's government to the threats and declaration of Islamic laws in the northern parts of a constitutionally secular republic, Nigeria? Literature Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka argues: "I cannot believe the level of inaction, beginning from the time of the incident at Ilorin, in which a number of churches were burnt. For me a situation like that is far more menacing than even the kind of situation [in Lagos State] over which Obasanjo threatened to declare a state of emergency." U.S. misreading of such stark reality, for whatever reason(s), necessarily, raise another issue: does the U.S. State Department/Clinton administration adequately understand the dynamics and combustible elements which have been unleashed in Nigeria, today? I ask this question, deliberately, for historical reference and analytical deduction.

Why?

I witnessed a previous misanalysis of Nigeria's political life and transition while I was covering U.S President Bill Clinton's visit to parts of Africa (March -April 1998). Clinton said (standing next to South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela) at the Tuynhuis presidential conference in Capetown, South Africa, that the late and very brutal Nigerian dictator Gen. Sani Abacha could run and participate in the same election the corrupt dictator was manipulating in order to succeed himself as a civilian (before his sudden death, excuse the sports metaphor). After five years of State-sponsored terror, economic pillage, thievery and an almost satanic misrule and abuse of the rights of a majority of Nigerians, you'd wonder why the U.S. government will take such a position? Imagine the rough comparison of the U.S. endorsing the underhand campaign of Iraq's Saddam Hussein to succeed himself through a quasi-democratic election.

Finally, an interesting, if ironic lesson from these events is the fact that while the military rulers in Nigeria abbreviated the human rights of the populace, the civilian class of politicians and religious zealots have brewed and patented a crass way of manipulating the masses to make a rather convoluted twist to democraCy which may bet better described as democraZy.

Cry and pray for our beloved country . Except that this time, there will no "White man" to blame for the heady stupidities and hideous march to more rounds of ethnically defined slaughter, and killings defined in terms of whether you read the Bible or the Koran.
Nwangwu, recipient of the Journalism Excellence Award 1997, serves as Founder & Publisher of the first African-owned, U.S.-based newspaper published on the internet, USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper, NigeriaCentral.com, and The Black Business Journal, BBJonline.com. He serves as an adviser on international business (Africa) to Mayor Lee P. Brown, city of Houston, Texas. He is writing a book on the historiography of the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra civil war titled, BIAFRA: History Without Mercy.'

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