Friends of Nigeria Newsletter Selections, Spring 2005

TAYO Fatunla, Cartoonist, Designer, Illustrator, Cartoon tutor and Caricaturist is a member of the National Cartoonists Society and represented by Cartoon Arts International/New York Times Syndicate, U.S. He is also a member of the Federation of Cartoonists Organisations and the National Union of Journalists, U.K. He is a graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, New Jersey.

While in the Art school, TAYO worked for several clients as a designer and caricaturist and he had his work published by D.C. COMICS, creators of BATMAN and SUPERMAN.

He has held exhibitions and workshops in the U.K., France, the U.S., Egypt, Finland, Nigeria, Belgium, Italy, Ireland and has attended the NSC cartoon conventionin in Mexico. He has published his cartoons internationally and produced cartoons and illustrations for books, newspapers, magazines, and Web Sites. He has held cartoon workshops at festivals, in schools and Libraries around U.K. and abroad. He has been a Resident Cartoonist at Lewisham College, South East London.

TAYO was awarded Crayon de Porcelaine for his contribution to press cartoons internationally at the Salon International Dessin de Presse & Humour, St- Just-le-Martel, France.

As a visiting speaker, TAYO has lectured at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and the National University of Ireland, Galway , the University of Rouen, France and Instituto Professionale Di Stato Per L’industra L’artigianato, Italy.

TAYO’s third book OUR ROOTS is his latest project. The 116 page illustrated OUR ROOTS honours the courage, creativity and accomplishments of people of African heritage.

Visit... www.tayofatunla.com
or contact TAYO at tayo.fatunla@btopenworld.com

Tayo Fatunla has personally given his permission for his cartoons to be reproduced in the Friends of Nigeria newsletter. Watch for further cartoons from Tayo in future issues.

More than 30 FON members have contributed $2,458 to “adopt” two VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteers who are currently “keeping the lorry rolling” by serving in Nigeria — where no U.S. Peace Corps are currently assigned.

Emma Howard, Corporate Partnerships Director for VSO in Great Britain, thanked FON members in January for their quick response to the campaign.

The two “adopted” volunteers are Annette Uhlenberg and Irma Fortuin.

Annette is a U.S. citizen who received a Master of Arts in International Studies from Boston University in 2001. She is working in Abuja for an umbrella organization serving 40 NGOs supporting basic education. Fortuin, a Dutch national, is training primary school teachers at the College of Education, Pankshin, in Plateau State.

“With 100 percent board participation and the quick response over the last few months of nearly three dozen FON members, we are well on our way to providing meaningful support in the country of which most of us have strong memories and a sense that there is unfinished business,” said Greg Zell, (06) 62–64, president of Friends of Nigeria.

The money raised will be used directly for flights, accommodation, training and living allowances for the two designated volunteers.

“While we have slightly exceeded our initial goal of $1,200 per volunteer, we are mindful that it costs VSO (a British-based nonprofit organization) about $28,000 per year to support a volunteer, and we are anxious to continue our support throughout the year to make sure that FON’s impact can make a real difference to ‘keep the lorry rolling’.”

VSO Support Program co-chairs Lucinda Boyd (05) 62–64 and Mike Goodkind (16) 65–67 said the next step is to reach an even larger membership base by asking individuals to reconnect with their former RPCV groups to achieve larger participation by July.

The co-chairs are looking for volunteers from each of the service groups from both the 1960s and the 1990s to make contact or reconnect with fellow RPCVs to continue the fundraising effort.

“This is a win-win scenario,” said Zell. “It’s a chance for many of us to renew ties with people we first met long ago in training and continue the dream by supporting volunteers in 2005 who have similar goals. VSO is a particularly excellent match, because their approach to education and development is consistent with Peace Corps philosophy and the values which drew many of us to join and support FON.”

The VSO Support Project was selected unanimously as FON’s designated charity by the FON Board at its annual meeting in Chicago last August. Seventy percent of FON members responding to a membership survey earlier in 2004 said FON should focus its support on nonprofits working in Nigeria. VSO was chosen because of its continuous history of successful work in Nigeria. Newsletter editor Andy Philpot is an alumnus of VSO in Nigeria, a connection which board members felt would strengthen FON’s commitment and affinity to a solid, successful program.

VSO, which fields some 2,000 volunteers in Eastern Europe and the developing world, has worked in Nigeria since 1958. Programs focus on three key areas: secure livelihoods, education, and participation and governance, according to the organization. Volunteers work at federal and state government level, as well as with NGOs, community-based organizations and the private sector. Their support includes sharing skills, helping to build organizational capacity and developing sustainable programs that meet the needs of disadvantaged people.

In April, 2005, VSO is expected to merge with BESO (British Executive Service Overseas), an organization that matches experienced commercial consultants — the average age of volunteers is 56 — with organizations that would not be able to afford such expertise.

FON members are expected in the coming months to reconnect most vividly from e-mail postcards, including photographs, from Irma and Annette, whose assignments show how volunteerism in Nigeria has evolved in the more than 40 years since Peace Corps volunteers first served in Nigeria. While both volunteers are working closely with Nigerian counterparts, the emphasis on their assignments clearly reflects a trend toward the “big picture” — placing volunteers in assignments where they not only have maximum interaction with host country nationals but where they additionally can work to improve the country’s infrastructure.

Annette’s job is leadership and to help her organization, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), improve communication. She will also be involved in fundraising and program evaluation for the umbrella group’s 40 constituent organizations, VSO’s Howard explained.

In addition to teaching sample lessons to students and observing practice teachers destined for primary and junior secondary schools, Irma is responsible for monitoring the success and productivity of the college’s teacher training program, making recommendations and improvements where needed.
VSO Nigeria seeks to integrate HIV/AIDS awareness into all volunteer placements, and both Irma and Annette will be responsible for exploring ways that they and their colleagues can incorporate HIV/AIDS training into their roles.•

January 13, 2005
In 2000, many FON members bought and read Karl Maier’s This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria. Going from one hot spot to another, Maier concluded that the nation was on life support, which struck me as unadulterated gloom-saying. Since then, President Olusegun Obasanjo and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have prevailed in a major round of elections; oil and gas revenues have become ever more vast; and the President has sustained his heroic efforts to cleanse the Augean stables of corruption. Somehow, then, the patient seems to have survived.

However, Nigeria today is dogged by many very serious crises, some, ongoing, and some, more recent. Included in the second category are several stemming directly from the elections. Increasingly, one feels, President Obasanjo is becoming Fireman Obasanjo.

In the Delta, disruption and violence had been at a low-to-medium boil for decades until August 2004, when the heat was suddenly turned up. Then, in the summer of 2003, in Warri, and a year later, this time around Port Harcourt, the heat was turned up. In Aug 2004, the self-proclaimed People’s Volunteer Force (PVF), an Ijaw militia, decreed that all oil production must stop by October 1 (Independence Day)—or else. This threat was dubbed “Operation Locust Feast,” and its seriousness was exacerbated by the fact that the PVF and other rebel groups have well-documented ties to the sitting (PDP) Governor of Rivers state. Being dragged to the negotiating table by an Ijaw militia which he had previously characterized as a band of thugs, must have made President and former General Obasanjo sick. He still sits at that uncongenial table.

Suspended Governor of Plateau
State, Joshua Dariye.

In Plateau, a middle-belt state, Governor Joshua Dariye (also PDP) mismanaged an ongoing conflict between Christian farmers and Muslim herders. This conflict began with a dispute over shrinking water and land resources, which soon spilled over into partisan politics. In May 2004, as violence escalated in Plateau, the President suspended Dariye and, with federal legislative approval, declared a six-month state of emergency. One of the first acts of the temporary administration under Major-General Chris Alli was to revise figures for the number of those murdered in Plateau’s ethnic violence from about 10,000 to almost 54,000. No recent news has emerged, either of renewed fighting or of progress toward a negotiated settlement.

The third disaster area is the Igbo state of Anambra. Since the 2003 elections, Anambra has been rocked by persistent and widespread unrest. During the last three months, the victorious PDP candidate for Governor, Chris Ngige, has had a falling out with his political and financial godfather, Chris Uba. Violence has now escalated to the verge of anarchy. From the welter of charges and counter-charges, it has emerged that this election was blatantly stolen. Recently, the national PDP office got tough, suspending both Ngige and Uba, and it seems likely that the Anambran election results will be annulled any day now.

Governor of Anambra State,
Chris Ngige.

Dogged by these failures and internal scandals, the PDP is in serious disarray. On January 11, 2005, the forced resignation of national party chairman, Chief Audu Ogbe, a member of the northern PDP faction led by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in opposition to the faction led by Obasanjo and by ex-military ruler and multi-millionaire, Ibrahim Babangida, was announced. Ordinary Nigerians must be wondering. “What next?”

What conclusions can be drawn from this litany of trouble? In one respect, my enumeration of current hot spots has the same weakness as Maier’s. Although the three crises are only the worst among many, you cannot really gauge the health of the whole nation by highlighting its regional problems. In fact, a better gauge may be a survey which was conducted in September-October 2003 by an organization called Afrobarometer, which measured degrees of satisfaction with Nigeria’s current democracy. In the north, a majority expressed satisfaction; results in the west and middle belt were mixed; and, in the east and midwest, there was little or no satisfaction. At least equally significant was the finding that, between 2001 and 2003, satisfaction eroded in every region.

A second, and signally important gauge of the health of Nigeria is the President’s responses to calls from reformers such as Chief Anthony Enahoro and Wole Soyinka for a national conference. The main agenda would be constitutional reform, including the weakening of federal ties in the interest of adding tensile strength to whatever union would remain. In the past, Obasanjo has discredited the motives of self-proclaimed reformers, and, indeed, over the past decade or so, Nigeria has suffered the same blurring of freedom fighters into opportunistic bandits that has bedeviled so many other troubled nations. Furthermore, no one should ignore the risk that a national conference could create expectations which, unrealized, might trigger even more chaos. As Professor Peter Lewis puts it, “The higher the build-up, the higher the stakes.” As an armchair observer, I am chary of advocating pro-Democracy measures which could lead to the disintegration of this nation—not my own—of 137 million people.

Now, however, presumably moved by a sense of mounting crisis, President Obasanjo has shifted ground and agreed to a conference. On January 13, he set the ground rules, himself, presumably in order to maintain control: the participants would be former heads of state, 50 other people of his choosing, and 350 other “nominees,” drawn from various groups. Any decisions would have to be ratified by the federal legislature, whose members would not participate in the conference.

The reformers, on the other hand, have now formed a huge umbrella organization directed by Chief Enahoro and Wole Soyinka. They are demanding a sovereign national conference with much wider representation, all of the delegates selected by the people: women; environmentalists; opposition political parties (29); labor, ethnic, pro-democracy and human rights groups; and more. And they want the conclusions of the conference to be binding. The negotiation —or jockeying—has begun.

What might a specific agenda look like? Would it include strengthening the roles of the states and local councils? Which federal powers would be negotiable? What federal structure could work for this nation in which 40% belong to “minority” nationalities (i.e. neither Igbo, Hausa/Fulani, nor Yoruba)? And would decentralization really make Nigeria more governable?

There would also have to be an economic agenda. Would the conference address present inequities in revenue sharing, whereby the oil states, which produce 90% of the revenues, get back 13%, the same as the northern peanut producers, who generate 2%? The current, piecemeal approach to local development demands––greasing the squeaky wheel—has clearly failed.

Depending on how you see these crises and the quickening movement toward some form of national dialogue, Nigeria today is moving either toward disintegration, or beyond it. Already looming are the 2007 elections, in which it is widely accepted that the North will be able to reclaim the presidency. Recently, Babangida forced a confab with Obasanjo, which immediately cast “IBB” (aka “Maradona”), who is much less given to compromise than even the autocratic Obasanjo, as a front runner (along with V.P. Atiku). If nothing comes of reform efforts before 2007, but if the center nevertheless manages to hold, the PDP will likely become in Nigeria what the PRI was in Mexico until its recent loss of power.•

Note: This piece draws upon my four FON Newsletter election articles and a longer article, “Oil: Nigeria’s Slippery Politics” (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jan-Feb 2005, www.thebulletin.org). My sources include the usual print (e.g. New York Times) and internet (e.g. Nigeria Today Online: Nigeria2Day@aol.com) sources, plus personal communications from Lawrence Uzodimma, a friend from Anambra; Bronwen Manby and Olly Owen, human rights workers specializing in, respectively, the Delta and Plateau; and, as usual, the invaluable Peter Lewis, of American University.

Finally, I recommend that those who are particularly interested in the issues broached in this article read at least the first section (“Summary and Recommendations”) of the recently released Oputa Panel report on human rights, especially Recommendations 13-20 and 23-26, which argue in favor of “bottom-up palavers,” rather than a “top-down” sovereign national conference. The report can be found at http://www.oputapanelreport.or
Return to top

Onimim Briggs in Rivers State is “Documenting Customary Law” with a goal of creating legal reform. She heads a team that visits communities to learn traditional legal practices in order to avoid distortions and abuses of power by traditional chiefs and elders. Her process entails design and data collection, dialogue in the communities, and analysis of the information collected. The last step is to verify the findings and to create accountability for the conclusions. The team aims to achieve consensus about customary law with all those involved: elders, lawyers and citizens.

Peter Azolibi in Anambra State has a staff of 17 plus resources people and over 1000 volunteers distributing information and genotype testing for sickle cell anemia. About 5% of Nigerians (2 million) have genetic diseases with sickle cell anemia the most predominant. The sufferers were traditionally labeled “spirit children” and most were not taken for medical attention. Peter’s project is designed to heighten public awareness in order to lessen the occurrence of sickle cell. An additional bonus of the project gives those tested a photo identification which is apparently very useful.

Both of these Fellows are expected to share their project information to others in Nigeria and abroad for emulation.•

Efforts to answer that question can be seen in the educational activities started in Yola Nigeria. With the extreme generosity of the current Vice President of Nigeria, a pre-school, elementary and secondary school have been create from his personal funds. He has influenced the building of a nursing college and teaching hospital in Yola. Two years ago he entered into a five year mentoring contract with American University (Washington, DC) to create an USA style university, to open in September 2005 and pledged his fortune to this endeavor.

Over the next ten years a campus will be built to house the academic programs, students, faculty and staff. Three schools will open this fall: School of Arts and Science, School of Business and Entrepreneurship and School of Information Technology. In three years two additional schools will be opened: School of Law and School of Engineering. Over the next ten years faculty and staff will be needed to facilitate the learning of the students, create the college-physically, intellectually and morally, and establish a USA higher education “culture” (minus as many of the negative features as possible).

The college benefactor wants the college to be a model of how people irregardless of gender, tribe, religion, ethnic membership and nationality can come together into a wholesome, positive, productive community. He wants students to become committed to making Nigeria a place where its people can realize their potential in a tolerant and healthy manner. In ten years student enrollments are project to be at 4,000. Students are to be selected by academic performance and community service criteria. There is to be no discrimination based on gender, ethnic group, disability, religion, etc. A mandate from the board is that at least twenty percent of the students are to be female.

The task ahead of creating the college is huge, and we welcome whatever support the Friends of Nigeria membership would like to provide. Certainly working in faculty and/or staff positions would be welcomed. Establishing a network of contacts to aid in academic and service projects, recruiting exchange faculty and students and informing the general academic community of the college and the opportunities there, would also be helpful. Simply encouraging us from time to time would be treasured by those of us more directly involved.•

Jim Garfulo has recently been appointed Academic Vice President of ABTI-American University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria.
For specific information about available AAUN positions and the college in general you can contract him directly until March 1 at: Garofv@aquinas.ed or at all times aaun@american.edu.

Diary of a Peace Corps Volunteer
A Walk Down memory Lane ...from letters sent home...July 17, 1966.

“The story I am about to tell actually happened to me; it is not exaggerated by any means. Two volunteers and myself, led by Andrew, their Nigerian steward, went out to Andrew’s fathers village on Saturday. We went most of the way by bicycle.

We started out at 8 o’clock in the morning and took a scenic tarred road for about 9 miles east out of Ughelli. We passed two small villages along the road. The houses were built on a wooden branched crisscrossed frame, and were then packed with clay and dirt to make the walls. Most of the houses were crumbling in parts.

The roofs were thatched and were made from palm branches. Off to the side of the road, after the villages, you could really see the swamps. At the end of the tarred road we entered another village. No “Europeans” had been there for over a year. We are the only Americans here aside from a few Southern Baptist Missionaries. We rode in and out between the houses on the dirt, and the whole village soon knew we were there. They started running after us, especially the children. Have you ever turned around to find 100 people behind? We were on a dirt road going out of the village by this time. As we left the town the bush started getting thicker and the path narrowed until it was about 10 inches wide. It became difficult at times to pedal on the path, and more than once that day I fell into the brush alongside. The brush or bush along the path was about 5 feet tall, sometimes long grass or cornfields. These areas have been cleared and then planted. The corn here is thick kerneled, and fairly grainy and very tough. We don’t eat it often because if you cook it long enough to get it soft, the kernels pop and it gets mushy.

The land was flat most of the way. After the cornfields, we came through a rubber tree area. This was just like going through a tall forest. Pretty soon the path began getting swampy, and we took off our sandals and walked through the slushy, ankle-deep water. Then we resumed riding for awhile, then wading, until we couldn’t ride any longer. We walked half a mile through water knee-deep at times. Andrew told us that during the dry season there is no water at all here, and you can walk on the paths. It really seemed incredible as we have not had much rain at all yet this year. Pretty soon it was getting too deep for wading. Andrew let out some sort of a scream call at this point. This was to inform the canoe that crosses from this point to one about a half-mile away, that we wanted him to come pick us up.

We passed several people along the road before getting to this point. Most were women, collecting firewood or gathering cassava roots for marketing. The canoe came but there were enough cassava waiting before us so that we had to wait for the canoe to go and come back again. This took about 45 minutes. So we just found an old log to sit on. After awhile we felt like going wading, so we pulled our skirts thigh-high and did so.

The canoe was hand-dug out, made from a large log about 20 feet long and 4 feet wide. It was fairly leaky and in the bottom were many places that had been plugged with pieces of rags. There was also a small pan for taking water out of the bottom of the boat and putting it back in the river where we preferred it to be. My friend Rosemary didn’t realize what the cloth was doing on the bottom. There was one thin 4-inch -wide plank that was across the middle of the canoe. We got the best seats, the plank. All the other people either stood up or leaned against the ends. They kept loading, and loading, until we were fully packed in with no room to spare. The canoe edge was gradually getting closer and closer to the water line. With all the people, bicycles, and loads of wood, we had just 2 inches of allowance on each side. The man stood on the back end with a 10-foot pole to guide the rear, while another man paddled in front. The paddles were about 4 feet long and pointed where they entered the water.

As we started out, a light drizzle began to fall on us. There were many flowers growing at the surface of the water: small yellow buds, purple daisy types, and genuine white water lillies, also much string-like seaweed and tall grass. This was the same kind of grass that we crossed through with our bicycles along the path. Keep in mind that these swamps where we came through were formed by the rains at this time of the year, and are normally dry and passable by foot during the dry season. This certainly increased my understanding of what a swamp is, how it is formed, and how people cope with survival under such conditions. That is practically all life amounts to out in the bush, and it is a real art surviving here. If a crop doesn’t make it one season they don’t have TV dinners to depend on either.

Every time the canoe would tilt a little, the three of us, especially me, had a slight nervous reaction. At one point the water started coming in over the edge. Needless to say, we all made a fast lean to the other side and Rosemary just about got pushed out. The water was getting deeper and blacker until we reached a point about 10 feet deep. The trees alongside seemed to reach out and enclose us as the river widened and then narrowed until we were completely under the branches of old, gnarled, knotted trunks. Soon the light started shining again, even though it was now getting hazy overhead (11 a.m.). We came through a natural archway formed by a tree, and began unloading the canoe. The ride cost 1 shilling.•
To be continued...

Judith Bloch, Nigeria 20, recently retired from a long public service career (38 years) as a Deputy Probation Officer working with adolescents in Los Angeles County. She was the lead investigator for Child Custody cases for many years. Judith has travelled to over 40 countries, and is particularly fond of Asia. Born with polycystic kidney disease, the same condition that killed her father before dialysis and transplantation were available, Judith received a new lease on life after a kidney transplant in 1992. Although her road to recovery was rough and included numerous surgeries, Judith maintained her job as a Deputy Probation Officer throughout her ordeal. Judith skied on the USA Team at the World Transplant Games in Snowbird, Utah, January, 1999. She is going skiing this season at Mammoth Mountain. Judith is also a Fine Artist who specializes in portraits and created a painting promoting donor awareness that is now featured on a greeting card. Judith continues to volunteer in the community, and she most recently assisted at a fund raiser for Penny Lane, an adolescent placement facility.
Return to Top

Green Initiatives Arrive in Nigeria
After the destruction of Odi in 1999, the town rises again.

On Dec. 10,2004, the other Earth Rights Institute Co-Director, Annie Goeke, and I returned from a two week journey to Bayelsa State, Nigeria, hosted by colleague and leader, Gordon Abiama and his wife, Rose. Francis Udisi, also from Odi but now living and working in Philadelphia, has been a key Odi Green City project leader as well.

It was a profound experience. Our presence was greatly appreciated and our time well-utilized. The high point was the Launching Ceremony for the Odi Ecovillage and Green City Project. Note that Odi was destroyed by federal soldiers in 1999. The town and its residents are still recovering from trauma, hundreds having been killed.

The Ecovillage Project is a bright green ray of hope for the people of Odi. Below is the Press Release for the Launching Ceremony.
Alanna Hartzok
earthrts@pa.net
717-264-0957

Mr. Abiama emphasizes that this solidarity with village community way of life means a progression from a position of self esteem rather than hopelessness and wretchedness due to the loss of natural resources, spiritual values, livelihoods, and the flight of village children to the city .

On a philosophical note, asserts Mr. Abiama, that until the villages are comfortable, the cities will have no rest, and he calls on all well meaning donor agencies to be identified with such a positive and innovative initiative.

The overseas partners involved in this initiative are US based Earth Rights Institute, Eco-earth Alliance and the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), all of which will be well represented at the proposed ground breaking ceremony.•

For further information visit:

http://www.earthrights.net/nigeria/eco-plan.htm
http://www.africaaction.org/docs99/odi9912.htm
http://www.gen-europe.org/downloads/other_reports/westafrica_1.pdf

EarthRights Institute intends to organize ecovillage tours to odi in the future.
Return to Top