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In all my 50 years,
I have never held a passport. Other than visiting Lebanon, I’d never
left Syria when, in fall 2004, I was barred from leaving the country. I
tried many times afterward to get a passport, but to no avail.

I spent 16 years of
my youth in my country’s prisons, incarcerated for being a member of a
communist pro-democracy group. During the recent protests, many more
friends have been detained – most of them young — under the
government’s catch-all emergency laws.

The state of
emergency, under which Syria has lived for 48 years, has extended the
ruling elite’s authority into all spheres of Syrians’ public and
private lives, and there is nothing to stop the regime from using this
power to abuse the Syrian population. Today, promises follow one after
the other that these all-pervasive restrictions will be lifted. But one
must ask, will it be possible for the Baath Party to rule Syria without
the state of emergency that has for so long sustained it?

The official
pretext for the emergency laws is the country’s state of war with
Israel. However, restricting Syrians’ freedoms did no good in the 1967
war, which ended with the occupation of the Golan Heights, nor did it
help in any other confrontations with the Jewish state, nor in any true
emergencies. Because in the government’s eyes everything has been an
emergency for the last half-century, nothing is an emergency.

Syria’s struggle
against an aggressive Israel has encouraged the militarization of
political life – a development that has been particularly favourable to
single-party rule. And the suspension of the rule of law has created an
environment conducive to the growth of a new ruling elite.

In 2005, the Baath
Party decided, without any serious public discussion, to move toward
what was dubbed a “social market economy.” It was supposed to combine
competition and private initiative with a good measure of traditional
socialism. In reality, as the state retreated, new monopolies arose and
the quality of goods and services declined. Because local courts are
corrupt and lack independence, grievances could not be fairly heard.
Add to that a venal and idle bureaucracy, and the supposed economic
reforms became a justification for the appropriation of economic power
for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

Economic
liberalization was in no way linked to political liberalization. After
a half-century of “socialist” rule, a new aristocratic class has risen
in Syria that does not accept the principles of equality,
accountability or the rule of law. It was no accident that protesters
in the cities of Daraa and Latakia went after the property of this
feared and hated aristocracy, most notably that of President Bashar
Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, a businessman who controls the country’s
cellphone network and, more than anyone else, represents the
intertwining of power and wealth in Syria. Today’s ruling class has
undeservedly accumulated alarming material and political power. Its
members are fundamentally disengaged from the everyday realities of the
majority of Syrians and no longer hear their muffled voices. In recent
years, a culture of contempt for the public has developed among them.

Although some argue
that the demonstrations are religiously motivated, there is no
indication that Islamists have played a major role in the recent
protests, though many began in mosques. Believers praying in mosques
are the only “gatherings” the government cannot disperse, and religious
texts are the only “opinions” the government cannot suppress. Rather
than Islamist slogans, the most prominent chant raised in the Rifai
Mosque in Damascus on April 1 was “One, one, one, the Syrian people are
one!” Syrians want freedom, and they are fully aware that it cannot be
sown in the soil of fear, which Montesquieu deemed the fount of all
tyranny. We know this better than anyone else.

A search for
equality, justice, dignity and freedom — not religion — is what compels
Syrians to engage in protests today. It has spurred many of them to
overcome their fear of the government and is putting the regime on the
defensive.

The Syrian regime
enjoys broader support than did Hosni Mubarak in Egypt or Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. This is a source of strength, and one that
Assad appears not to consider when he relies on the security forces to
quell protests. If the regime is to keep any of its deeply damaged
legitimacy, it will have to answer the protesters’ demands and
recognize the popular longing for freedom and equality.

Whatever the
outcome of the protests, Syria has a difficult road ahead. Between the
pains of oppression and the hardships of liberation, I of course prefer
the latter. Personally, I want to live nowhere but in Syria, although I
am looking forward to acquiring a passport to visit my brothers in
Europe, whom I have not seen for 10 years. I also want, finally, to
feel safe.

Yassin al-Haj Saleh is a writer and political activist. This essay was translated from the Arabic.

New York Times

Conceding defeat in an election is a
rare thing in our politics, especially when the loser is an incumbent
candidate. It, therefore, came as a pleasant surprise to many observers
when the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole,
openly acknowledged his failure to get a return ticket to the House as
a reflection of the wishes of his people. Shortly after, Segun Williams
of the Action Congress of Nigeria, was declared the winner of the
Abeokuta South Federal Constituency seat in Ogun State. Mr Bankole
congratulated his opponent and said the ability of the people to elect
the leader of their choice is “a good omen in our national quest to
entrench democracy in our nation.” This prompted one publication to
describe the Speaker’s action as “unprecedented and the unthinkable.”

In more stable democracies, Mr
Bankole’s acceptance of the people’s verdict would not have earned so
much space in the news nor would it have been the subject of an
editorial. But in a country where it is almost impossible for those who
hold power to accept they are no longer popular, the Speaker’s action
has drawn significant attention.

We appreciate Mr Bankole’s courage in a
country where so-called elder statesmen, including one from his state,
have engaged in a battle over who laughs the most at losing opponents.
We praise him for not claiming victory, even though it was a close
race, in a country where candidates who clearly lost elections insist
they won.

Also, we commend the Speaker for not
unnecessarily causing tension in the already volatile Ogun State. We
acknowledge that his peers elsewhere would have acted differently under
the circumstances. Take for instance the governor of Kwara State,
Bukola Saraki, who went on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter
to announce victory for the PDP in three senatorial districts and five
federal constituencies of the state barely five hours after voting was
completed, and while citizen reports were showing an early lead for the
ACN. Of course, Mr Saraki’s arrogance angered many observers. By the
time he realised the folly of claiming victory when no official
announcements had been made and pulled down the posts, the damage had
been done. Protests have since erupted in his state with the opposition
claiming the parliamentary election was rigged.

After hurrying to announce himself
victor, it is hard to think that Mr Saraki would have accepted defeat
like Mr Bankole had he not been declared senator-elect by the electoral
body.

It is characteristic of our
politicians, whether in opposition or ruling parties, to imagine
themselves victorious in elections and force their self-awarded
victories on the rest of us, thereby causing chaos. But there seems to
be a break from this culture as Mr Bankole and others have shown.

Following in the Speaker’s steps, PDP’s
Iyiola Omisore, who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriation, on
Monday conceded defeat to Babajide Omoworare of the ACN. Almost
plagiarising Mr Bankole’s words, the serving senator said, “The result
of the National Assembly elections should be regarded as the wish of
the electorate which we politicians must respect to safeguard the
nation’s growing democracy. In a true democracy, you don’t expect to be
winning every time.” It is also very interesting that Mr Omisore sees
the conduct of last Saturday’s poll “as a clear signal that our
democracy has come to stay and that our politicians are improving.”

Messrs Bankole and Omisore’s examples should be encouraged by
everyone who wants to see democracy grow in our country. This is not to
say those who have valid arguments that their mandates were stolen
should accept defeat and move on. By all means legal, they should
pursue their cases to logical conclusions. The act of seeking and
getting justice is indeed an integral part of the democratic process.
What we abhor is the culture of ‘do or die’ that plagued our politics
in the past. As Mr Omisore counselled, “Politics is a game of win and
lose. If you win, you take it; if you lost too, you should accept it in
good faith. That is how we can nurture our democracy into full
maturity.”

Last week, I wrote about the day after the
parliamentary elections, expecting that the elections would have been
concluded and expressing the necessity for the people to benefit from
the new elections procedure to defend their mandate. Immediately after
the cancelled elections, I travelled to India for an international
conference on the future of the urban poor. It was a conference that
was catching up with reality.

The majority of people in the contemporary world,
including in Africa, have moved from the rural to the urban areas.
These people live precarious lives trying to make a living from the
informal economy. The proletariat Karl Marx assured us would make the
revolution are nowhere to be found. What we have in the rapidly
expanding mega cities are the precariat whose livelihood and indeed
lives are at risk from irregular and insufficient income. Their lives
are traumatic as they suffer from the toxicity of the water, air and
soil around them.

Of course, for a conference in Mumbai on the urban
poor, the centre of activity and analysis could only be Dharavi, the
biggest slum in Asia made famous by the film “Slumdog Millionaire.”
Yes, indeed, the people of Dharavi live under terrible conditions, in
tiny shacks, defecating in and wading through the toxic mud around
them. The 600,000 inhabitants of the area are yet to act in their own
glamorous film. They toil and sweat as they pursue their precarious
profession of processing and living on the income they make from
recycling the enormous waste produced by the 25 million people that
live in central Mumbai.

In a sense, they are a five-star ghetto because
they are able to participate in the economy of the city as subalterns
but nonetheless as active economic agents. As Jockin Arputham, the
leader of the Dharavi Slum Dweller’s Federation told us, they
contribute $1 billion to the national economy each year. Their future
is however uncertain today.

Their 525 hectares of land is the only undeveloped
land left in central Mumbai. The value of their land is today $1,200 a
square foot and the state and developers are determined to throw them
out and take over the land. The precariat is defined by its precariat.

What is impressive about India however is the
power of its civil society. The Slum Dwellers Federation and the NGOs
that support them have stopped the government from chasing out the
people and taking over the place. They have used the power of popular
mobilisation to stop the takeover bid.

Indians are very critical of their democracy and
do not hesitate to point out its numerous limitations and the
persistence of the culture of corruption among its political elite. At
the same time, their democracy has endured and works at certain levels.
The integrity of their elections is high and civil society is an
effective counter weight to government.

This week, Anna Hazare, a veteran 72-year-old
Gandhian civil society activist, engaged on a fast-to-the-death to
force government to enact an effective ombudsman to lead the fight
against corruption. On day three of the fast, 400 other activists
joined and Prime Minister Mammaham Singh was appealing to him to stop
the fast so that they could negotiate. As I left India on day four of
the fast, people were congregating in squares in many major cities
denouncing corruption in government. It is the type of mass movement
against corruption that we have been unable to generate in Nigeria.

To be able to have a political class that will be
worried about and respond to civil society demands in Nigeria, we must
improve the integrity of our elections. The electoral procedure
developed by INEC in which accreditation takes place in the morning and
voting in the afternoon is designed to protect the electoral mandate of
the people. That is why voters are allowed to stay at the polling
centres to observe the counting and posting of results. Civil society
has encouraged voters to stay, observe the counting, photograph the
results with their cell phones and share the results with their
neighbours, to create widespread awareness of polling centre results.

The section of the political class that has planned to rig the
elections is frightened about the implications of the new procedure.
This is why they have launched a campaign of calumny against Attahiru
Jega, the chairman of INEC. Nigerians must not get distracted. As I
argued last week, it has been clear since 2003 that the integrity of
Nigeria’s elections will only improve if more and more citizens express
their determination to protect their mandate. When the political class
knows that they owe their positions to the people and not godfathers,
they will be forced to show more respect to the people.

The 2011 race to be Nigeria’s president for the
next four years is more interesting than any in recent years. Despite
shortcomings in the electoral process, preparations for these elections
promise a process that will be a significant improvement on the 2007
elections. Credit for this improvement goes to Goodluck Jonathan for
replacing Maurice Iwu with Attahiru Jega and giving him the latitude to
improve the electoral process. However, Mr. Jega will not make all the
improvements he may have wished to implement in the brief period he has
had at the helm of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Nigeria’s next president must give Mr. Jega the mandate and resources
to continue the process and thereby herald the 2015 elections as truly
a hallmark of a democratic nation.

The 2011 election is critical to Nigeria’s future.
The next four years will either consolidate the advances Nigeria has
made on the journey to democracy or allow cronyism and corruption to
flourish. Advances have been made over the last 12 years but there have
been some retrograde steps, particularly in the latter part of the late
Yar’Adua’s term of office when, without decisive leadership Nigeria
drifted and the war against corruption was suspended.

The reputation of the EFCC has withered under
Farida Waziri to the extent that foreign anti-corruption agencies will
no longer engage with her. If Nigeria’s president is serious about
fighting corruption and rebuilding Nigeria’s platform to fight
corruption, then say goodbye to Mrs. Waziri and hit her political
godfathers where it hurts… in the courts.

Corruption in Nigeria’s police force and judiciary
has allowed people who have committed shocking crimes to not only go
unpunished but to stand for election. Indeed, some of the candidates
running for governorship in the current elections should be spending
their time and money preparing for their court appearances rather than
their election campaign speeches.

There are many accusations about supposed criminal
acts committed by various candidates and there is much speculation. In
October 2010, Mrs. Waziri famously released her “Advisory List” of over
100 people with high profile cases of corruption being pursued by the
EFCC. In doing so, Waziri advised political parties against standing
candidates whose names appeared on her list. In so doing, Waziri acted
as prosecutor, judge and jury. Apart from this blatant misuse of her
position, Waziri failed to include the really big fish and managed to
include some persons whose cases had already been dismissed by the
courts and thus were innocent (having been proven not guilty).

But the failure of the EFCC under Waziri is only
part of the story when it comes to candidates for election. In
Nigeria’s current gubernatorial elections, there are candidates who
clearly should have been vigorously investigated for their parts in
very serious criminal acts. It is not a situation where there were
allegations and subsequent investigations found no basis for laying
charges. No, it is simply a case of these persons being untouchable.
Are they too well connected; have they paid huge bribes… why have
they been able to escape the attention of the law?

This column has previously touched on this
subject. In October 2009, I described the emergence of MEND and
detailed how cult groups and gangs were armed and paid by candidates
for political office in an effort to secure their election. In the
discussions that led to the 2004 Peace Accord, the commanders made
clear the support of their godfathers. They named a former federal
minister of transportation, since vacated from the PDP and a native of
Rivers State, as being directly linked to the assassination of Marshall
Harry. I heard the evidence firsthand. Today, this man stands for
election. In my book, he should be standing trial. But maybe I have
just played the Waziri card and made myself prosecutor, judge and jury.
There is however one difference…I do not have any political
godfathers.

I am sure that some of the sycophants of the big men who are enraged
by such frank and public comments will undoubtedly respond to this
column with online comments denigrating me. That comes with the
territory and the privilege of writing an opinion column. We can only
hope and pray that the efforts of INEC under the current chairman have
so eroded the opportunity for electoral malpractice that the true
intentions of the Nigerian people will be accurately reflected in the
outcome of the current elections. 2011 could be a point of
consolidation and confirmation to stand against electoral malpractice,
against corruption and against violence. It will be the task of
Nigeria’s president, every member of the National Assembly and every
governor to endorse that position. It will be the task of every
Nigerian to ask their newly elected representatives what progress they
have made on these key issues in the first 100 days of office. I hope
that Nigerians can one day look back and remember 2011 as a turning
point in the building of a nation.

Election monitors won’t wait for Jega

A shocking Wikileaks report has revealed that the
European Union election monitors, headed by Alojz Peterle, had not
actually stepped foot in Nigeria as at the time of last week’s botched
elections. Their arrival photos were photoshopped. The observers were
actually about to join a yacht cruise when they were told the news of
the election delays.

“Not being here wouldn’t have prevented us from
writing about the elections,” Mr. Peterle said. As a matter of fact,
the team had already written their full reports, stating that the
recently-concluded elections were better than the last, but still
flawed.

“That standard analysis usually covers it for most Third World countries,” Mr. Peterle explained.

Bauchi electorate cast their stones

The governor of Bauchi State has fired 87 of his
special assistants for advising him to visit certain neglected local
governments in his state. The visits, which resulted in Mr. Yaguda
being stoned by the people of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro LGAs, have left
Mr. Yaguda angry and within the realms of an existential crisis.

“I should have listened to Gbagbo,” Mr. Yaguda
mumbled. “He told me to stay locked up in the State House and allow the
state to run as it would.”

“As you can all see,” the governor added, “Mr.
Gbagbo has been left alone to continue pretending he is the president
of the country while the country tries to revive itself under the
leadership of Alassane Ouattara.”

Yes, you can. Or not

The American president has finally released the
sensational campaign strategy set to have us all on the edges of our
seats once again. In true celebrity president style, Mr. Obama has
decided to open up a selection of his campaign slogans to the public.

He will be operating an ‘American idol’ style competition.

The contest invites anyone from any of the several
countries where Mr. Obama has roots in, to come in front of a group of
judges to give long inspirational speeches from which the president can
then draw catchy slogans and phrases from. The judges for the
competition include: Mr. Obama’s two daughters, Paula Abdul and the
ever-political Kim Kardashian.

The strategy has proven very popular, with
millions already setting Twitter abuzz with what they hope might
eventually be the American president’s choices. So far, the favourite
slogans include: ‘Well, we didn’t… but let’s try again’, ‘Once you go
black, you never go back’, ‘Hey, that’s racism’, and ‘I’m Barack Obama,
b!tc#!!!’

Watch that inbox, says PDP

Last week on ‘Battle of the Texts’, viewers and
mobile phone users were bombarded with an unprecedented high number of
texts messages from several political parties arguing their cases.

Yet, according to the media relations officers of the PDP, the public is yet to see the most intriguing of it.

“Where the ACN and Labour Party dominated the bulk
text messaging last week, this week, we have promised to join in the
competition in order to make it a truly spectacular two-week season
finale,” he said.

Watch out for more intimate details of juju
dealings amongst politicians and their godfathers, Jerry Springer-style
text message fights and, possibly, full details of every man and woman
each presidential candidate has had carnal knowledge of.

Do you fancy yourself a satirist? Send your Breaking News spoofs to opinion@234next.com

Election monitors won’t wait for Jega

A shocking Wikileaks report has revealed that the
European Union election monitors, headed by Alojz Peterle, had not
actually stepped foot in Nigeria as at the time of last week’s botched
elections. Their arrival photos were photoshopped. The observers were
actually about to join a yacht cruise when they were told the news of
the election delays.

“Not being here wouldn’t have prevented us from
writing about the elections,” Mr. Peterle said. As a matter of fact,
the team had already written their full reports, stating that the
recently-concluded elections were better than the last, but still
flawed.

“That standard analysis usually covers it for most Third World countries,” Mr. Peterle explained.

Bauchi electorate cast their stones

The governor of Bauchi State has fired 87 of his
special assistants for advising him to visit certain neglected local
governments in his state. The visits, which resulted in Mr. Yaguda
being stoned by the people of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro LGAs, have left
Mr. Yaguda angry and within the realms of an existential crisis.

“I should have listened to Gbagbo,” Mr. Yaguda
mumbled. “He told me to stay locked up in the State House and allow the
state to run as it would.”

“As you can all see,” the governor added, “Mr.
Gbagbo has been left alone to continue pretending he is the president
of the country while the country tries to revive itself under the
leadership of Alassane Ouattara.”

Yes, you can. Or not

The American president has finally released the
sensational campaign strategy set to have us all on the edges of our
seats once again. In true celebrity president style, Mr. Obama has
decided to open up a selection of his campaign slogans to the public.

He will be operating an ‘American idol’ style competition.

The contest invites anyone from any of the several
countries where Mr. Obama has roots in, to come in front of a group of
judges to give long inspirational speeches from which the president can
then draw catchy slogans and phrases from. The judges for the
competition include: Mr. Obama’s two daughters, Paula Abdul and the
ever-political Kim Kardashian.

The strategy has proven very popular, with
millions already setting Twitter abuzz with what they hope might
eventually be the American president’s choices. So far, the favourite
slogans include: ‘Well, we didn’t… but let’s try again’, ‘Once you go
black, you never go back’, ‘Hey, that’s racism’, and ‘I’m Barack Obama,
b!tc#!!!’

Watch that inbox, says PDP

Last week on ‘Battle of the Texts’, viewers and
mobile phone users were bombarded with an unprecedented high number of
texts messages from several political parties arguing their cases.

Yet, according to the media relations officers of the PDP, the public is yet to see the most intriguing of it.

“Where the ACN and Labour Party dominated the bulk
text messaging last week, this week, we have promised to join in the
competition in order to make it a truly spectacular two-week season
finale,” he said.

Watch out for more intimate details of juju
dealings amongst politicians and their godfathers, Jerry Springer-style
text message fights and, possibly, full details of every man and woman
each presidential candidate has had carnal knowledge of.

Do you fancy yourself a satirist? Send your Breaking News spoofs to opinion@234next.com

“But they were ready before you!” Snapped my father angrily,
early on March, 6, 1957.

I had innocently asked: “But Dad, why did the Gold Coast get
independence before us?” There are two tiny sovereign nations, Benin and Togo,
hanging like strips of spaghetti on the map between Ghana and Nigeria. Yet,
Nigerians feel their real neighbours are Ghana. A bonding factor of colonial
experience in the way we relate to other nationals is pervasive. So, we compare
and measure ourselves with Ghana all the time – in politics and economics,
football and highlife music, education and fashion, cocoa and now oil. Luckily,
it has been healthy rivalry tinged with mutual respect, unlike the state of
affairs with our brothers to the east. Nigeria and Cameroon nearly went to war
over the Bakassi peninsula, even though ethnographically, we are closer to
Cameroon than to Ghana.

I sometimes ask what matrix or criteria are used in measuring
the Ghana-Nigeria competition, but all I hear is a savage rebuke: “Go to Ghana
and see!” Clearly, we live in a comparative world. Physics, biology, geography
and many more subjects have their comparative modules. Every life process is
compared with the other. Yet, in most cases, there is no linearity, no
parameter applied in arriving at judgmental conclusions. Our world subsists on
subjectivity, parochialism, unnecessary competition and naked prejudice.

Meeting the Queen

James Robertson replaced John Macpherson at the Marina as the
ruler of Nigeria, and had the honour of welcoming Queen Elizabeth II to Lagos.
I’ve never seen a human with a head as massive as the new governor-general’s.
He looked like an ox, and I almost ran away in horror the day he visited our
school.

Queen Elizabeth II stepped out to be confronted by the
regimental band of the Nigerian Army that could not have looked smarter and
more professional. They smashed out God Save the Queen, before advancing
through a series of Prussian martial tunes on to the lilting Blue Bells of
Scotland and the melodious Old Calabar. It was a sunny day. A broad Union Jack,
one of the most beautiful flags in the world, fluttered gracefully in the sea
breeze of Lagos. The impressive Royal Yacht Britannia bobbed and bubbled on
anchor in the murky waters of Lagos harbour.

Elizabeth’s visit in 1956 was not the first by a royal to
Nigeria. Her uncle, Edward, the Prince of Wales, was here for a week in April,
1925. I heard stories about him from my parents that he was handsome. They did
not tell me about the king’s huge appetite for married women. There was genuine
fear in England that he was going to turn Buckingham Palace into a brothel.
Eventually, Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 after just one year on the throne,
when the British government objected to his marrying Wallis Simpson, an American
divorcee. She had two living ex-husbands! My mother thought it was great and
gallant for a king to leave his throne in order to marry the woman he loved. My
father just shrugged and withheld his opinion. I asked to know what a
“divorcee” was, but got slapped down by my parents.

What didn’t we see in the way of automobiles during the Queen’s
visit – Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Armstrong-Siddeley, Austin Princess and Daimler!
A Roll-Royce epitomises everything that imperial splendour and authority
represents – silence, reverence, dignity, austerity and quality. But of all the
cars I saw in colonial Nigeria, none impressed me more than the Humber Super
Snipe.

I’ve not seen one again since 1953. A shame the British car
industry doesn’t exist anymore! In her farewell speech, the embryonic Nigerian
Army was re-christened the Queens’s Own Nigeria Regiment by Elizabeth herself.
They were terrific when it came to ceremonial occasions; the soldiers all the
same height – slim, very dark, with slightly bowed legs. Each soldier looked
like the twin of the subaltern next to him. The regiment, in heavily-starched
Bermuda shorts, marched in step like mechanised toys. Not a single Nigerian
soldier at ceremonial parades in those days had a pot belly balanced on K-legs.

“Regiment,” which insinuates command subsidiarity or a component
of a larger unit, attracted criticism in Nigeria. The army of an independent
Nigeria was not going to be something like the Scottish or Welsh Regiment
within the UK armed forces. So, a change was effected to the Royal Nigeria Army
(RNA) under the last British commander, Major-General Welby-Everard.

I hear it said now and again that the most efficient black
soldier is the one commanded by a white officer? True or false, this naïve
belief could have contributed to the downfall of Nkrumah and Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa. One cardinal error the two men made was to retain their British chiefs
of staff, well into independence.

Despite open warnings from Tawia Adamafio in Ghana and Azikiwe
in Nigeria,

Major-Generals Alexander and Welby-Everard remained in charge of
the Ghana and Nigeria armies until 1961 and 1965 respectively. The two Britons
could not have done a good job. Once they left, the armies rebelled!

Champion of the world

“They said that Bassey has knocked him down! The commentator
said the man has got up! I’m not sure what they’re saying now. Eh-hem, now they
said the man is bleeding from the nose. I think the referee is stopping the
fight!” We didn’t wait for a confirmation, screaming, hugging one another, jumping
about like kangaroos. It had been a live commentary of the live commentary on
the night of June 24, 1957 at Uyo.

Our small, robust radio set was never loud enough. Someone, a
second commentator, had to stick an ear close enough to it for better audio,
and then translate the actual commentary to the rest of us. Over 50 people
crowded around this unreliable radio set on that night at the hall of the TTC,
the Teacher’s Training College.

Nigeria’s Hogan Bassey was fighting Cherif Hamia, the French
Algerian for the Featherweight Championship of the World in Paris. Tears still
well into my eyes today when I recall the Daily Times front-page headline of
the next morning that simply read, “Hogan Bassey, Champion of the World!” The
1950s were the golden period for black people in international sports. To my
generation of Nigerians, sports remain the ethos around which our lives are
built. When, in 1958, I returned from the interview for admission into Umuahia
Government College, my father was waiting anxiously, pacing about like a caged
lion on the platform at Aba Railway Station.

“So, how did it go? What questions did they ask you?” I told him
there were three white men:

the principal, Mr. Wareham; Mr. Wilson and Mr. Garrod. After
they confirmed my name, place and date of birth, Mr. Wareham began seriously,
that he had heard I played cricket, and did I know cricket was played at
Umuahia College? Would I continue to play if admitted? It was like a crown
counsel cross-examining a criminal. I answered the questions timidly, but in
the affirmative. The three men looked at each other, and then asked me to call
the next candidate. It had been such a brief encounter I thought something had
gone wrong, and these white men didn’t want to waste their time with me. On the
short train ride from Umuahia to Aba, I sat somewhat dejected.

“Ahhh,” concluded my father, “then you’ve passed!” How? It was
in 1952, when my father was at University College, London and he sent two
cricket bats, a ball and some linseed oil to condition the bats, through the
district officer of Owerri, Mr. Mann to my brother and me. It resulted from a
letter my mother wrote to him that we used the branches of coconut trees for a
bat, and old tennis balls to play cricket. My brother got into Umuahia in 1954 and
was regular in the first team by 1958. The news about a younger brother, still
in primary school, who could use a cricket bat, had filtered into the school.

I kept a scrap book in which sports clippings from the Daily
Times, the West African Pilot, the overseas Daily Mirror and Illustrated London
News were stuck. There is no doubt in my mind over who qualifies to be the most
celebrated Nigerian footballer of all time – Teslim Balogun! He was, simply,
Thunder Balogun to everyone and for a striker to bear such a frightening name
speaks volumes of his exploits, and how goal-keepers must have suffered.

Three important landmark records made the 1950s memorable for me: that West
Indian side with Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott beat England
in a cricket test series, winning at Lords, the cricket citadel; Brazil won the
football Jules Rimet trophy ( the FIFA World Cup) in 1958. There were black
players in their team – Pele, Didi, Djalma Santos and Garrincha. In the same
year, the West Indian, Garry Sobers set a world batting record of 365 not out
against Pakistan. It was a wonderful decade!

This is one endgame that is nowhere near the end.
Laurent Gbagbo continues to stubbornly hold on to power, despite no
longer being in control of the country — the area he currently ‘rules’
over is reportedly restricted to the grounds of the presidential
palace. Meanwhile, the dead bodies are piling up — late last week,
humanitarian agencies found tens of bodies of victims of mass killings
— and looters and bandits roam the streets of Abidjan unchallenged.

The French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, has
described Mr. Gbagbo’s continued hold on power as “absurd”. There are
many, including us, who share this view. But equally absurd is the
relative silence from the African regional bodies, AU and ECOWAS,
regarding this crisis.

Two weeks ago, ECOWAS, during the 39th Ordinary
Summit of its Heads of States and Government, issued Resolution
A/RES.1/03/11, which stated that “in the event that Mr. Gbagbo fails to
heed (the) immutable demand of ECOWAS (to hand over power), the
Community would be left with no alternative but to take other measures,
including the use of legitimate force, to achieve the goals of the
Ivorien people.”

Any keen observer of ECOWAS would have since
realised that it is no more than a serial issuer of ‘Decisions’,
‘Resolutions’ and press releases, none of which should be taken
seriously. Indeed, only last week, it issued a press statement
“[urging] Mr. Gbagbo once again to consider the greater interest of the
Ivorian Nation…”

This, coming two weeks after “recognizing that the
crisis in Cote d’Ivoire has now become a regional humanitarian
emergency”, and after vowing that it “would be left with no alternative
but to take other measures, including the use of legitimate force”, is
absurd.

Even the Resolution A/RES.1/03/11 that contains
the threat of military intervention, quickly lapses into an evasive
tone, characterised by a series of “requests”, “directs”, “urges” and
“invites” aimed at the United Nations Security Council, the African
Union Commission, and the president of the ECOWAS Commission. ECOWAS,
it seems, has now gone back to sleep, leaving the UN and French troops
to provide a semblance of security, and to prevent the country from
totally falling apart.

Waiting for the situation to resolve itself is no longer an option, but ECOWAS doesn’t seem to have realised this.

An Ouattara spokesperson has been quoted as
saying: “Mr. Gbagbo has nothing left. His arsenal is gone. His army has
evaporated. How much longer can he last?” What history, however,
teaches is that an African strongman who believes that power belongs to
him should never be underestimated. He will go to any length to ensure
his wishes. It matters little that he was once a professor of history
(with a doctorate from a French University) and one-time opposition
activist like Mr. Gbagbo, or the survivor of colonial oppression and
holder of several academic degrees like Robert Mugabe.

This, tragically, seems to be the defining story of Africa’s
leadership — revolutionaries who in the end become monsters requiring a
revolution to dethrone. Mr. Gbagbo’s actions reveal a man bent on
ensuring that his country does not outlast his reign as president. Up
north is Muammar Gaddafi, who has kept Libya in the news for all the
wrong reasons for well over a month. These men, having not only failed
the continent, but also been rejected by their people, take refuge in a
mindless, stubborn refusal to acknowledge and face reality. But when
the story of this moment in history is told, the list of those who
failed the continent will include all powerbrokers who sat and watched
with folded arms. ECOWAS, led by Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, will be
at the top of this list. Unless it wakes up now, and moves to provide
urgent military and humanitarian intervention in Cote d’Ivoire.