September 23, 2007:
The political violence, by
gangs of thugs employed by politicians as their private armies, is growing. The
problem is that the gangs are often separate, from the politicians that employ
them, operations. The gangs have goals that often conflict with what the
politicians want.
Since democracy was restored in 1999, there have
been hundreds of murders by these gangs, including over 30 politicians. The
gangs are a product of the pervasive corruption. These gunmen are not full time
employees of politicians, but members of local criminal organizations that
receive cash, and intervention with the police and courts as needed by local
politicians, in return for applying force to prevent political opponents from
getting elected. Politicians use "their" gangsters for all manner of
dirty work. The widespread corruption makes it very difficult to dismantle this
system. Meanwhile, the use of thugs can sometimes backfire. For example, the
newly elected governor of Oyo state refused to implement a pay raise, approved
by his predecessor, for the 34,000 state employees. So the state employees have
been out on strike for a month, and the governor has fired them, but has not
started hiring replacements. The new governor was elected in a tainted
election, and is believed stealing so much money from the government that, as
he says, there is not enough to pay the raises. The governor is tempted to try
using his private army to break the strike, but the state employees have their
own gunmen. The pay raise itself was a bit of political theater. The head of
the state employees union is himself a politician, and the pay raise (50-100
percent for most employees, and up to 300 percent of the top ones) itself was
meant to torment the national ruling party that has been fixing elections with
growing frequency. Opposition politicians have managed to convince those 34,000
state employees to stay off the job for a month now, and the situation could
get very violent before it gets resolved. These jobs are a big deal, because
the economy is such a mess, and there is much underemployment, even though the
official unemployment rate is about six percent. The lowest paying government
jobs (before the raise) pay about $800 a month, while the top jobs are over
$15,000 a month.
Meanwhile, Jomo Gbomo, the
head of the Niger Delta tribal separatist group MEND, was arrested in Angola
earlier this month. Gbomo was traveling on a false passport and
attempting to negotiate a large purchase of weapons. Gbomo had entered
Angola from South Africa, were he had met with other Nigerian gang leaders and
at least one convicted (for corruption) Nigerian politician. They were
discussing gang business, apparently trying to settle a dispute over payment
for an earlier shipment of smuggled arms. MEND, and the other Niger Delta
gangs, are well armed, largely because of the millions of dollars the gangs
make each year from stealing oil from pipelines. The government is trying to
extradite Gbomo back for trial, but that may not be possible. Gbomo
has access to lots of cash for bribes, and officials in Angola and South Africa
are vulnerable to that.