Letters =

Kenya elections: A tragic setback In the immediate aftermath of the Kenya elections, the Bush administration wasted no time in sending its glowing congratulations to President Mwai Kibaki. But despite the subsequent attempt to ignore the congratulatory message, and adamant claim of a global commitment to democracy, the Bush administration’s official stamp of approval for Kibaki and the elections reflected a de facto endorsement of a naked power grab and contempt for the democratic process. To be sure, the Bush administration’s eagerness to embrace a stage-managed election reveals a sharp inconsistency between pronouncement and practice – declining to support calls for a re-count and urging “all candidates to accept the Commission’s final result”. Some would argue that the Bush focus on security and economic interest supersede its rhetoric for democracy. Clearly, the Bush statement and its later about-face joint statement with Kenya’s former colonial masters – the British – reflects morally bankrupt policies which only see Kenya as a staunch ally and frontline state in the global war on terrorism. The Kenyan people participated in a democratic process to elect the representatives of their choice. When the election results were leaning toward the challenger and long-time pro-democracy activist, Raila Odinga, the democratic process was overtaken by manipulation and fraud. How can a US administration that preaches democracy in almost biblical terms refuse to pressure the Kenyan government for a re-count or an independent audit? Of course, this question may strike some Americans as naïïve in the light of the Florida and Ohio fiascos in our own 2000 & 2004 presidential elections. We have seen the US government prioritising its security concerns over democracy promotion in Africa before and many believe there is scant US commitment to global democracy when its economic and military interests are relevant. The Bush administration’s policies appear to respond to narrow, ill-perceived security and economic imperatives that will

Correction

In our cover story on Niger Delta (NA, Jan), we published the wrong caption for the photograph we are re-publishing here, which should have read: “Senator David Brigidi (in brown jacket), chairman of the Presidential Committee on Peace in the Niger Delta, appeals to insurgents to give peace a chance during a recent visit to one of the militia camps in the Delta.” We apologise to Senator Brigidi for the error - Editor

ultimately lead to long-term instability in Kenya and other parts of Africa. After the Bush administration offered congratulations to Mwai Kibaki on 30 December, in the midst of widespread violent clashes between civilians and the Kenyan police, I have to agree with those commentators who have been critical of the Bush administration’s democracy promotion policy in Africa. Moreover, how can the views of hundreds of European international observers, who proclaim a “staggering mismatch” between recorded vote counts at local polling stations and what the Election Commission officials announced, be ignored? One wonders what the administration would be saying if this were Zimbabwe or Burma. The peace in Kenya was breached long before the day when the elections were stolen. Sanctimonious calls for peace, compromise and reconciliation will do no good when the people’s confidence in the democratic process is what is at stake and the legitimacy of those

Attention Readers: Full address please Letters for publication should bear the full name and address of the writer, whether sent by post or email. We can withhold your name and address on request but we cannot publish letters that do not bear the full names and addresses of the writers. Could you also please keep the letters short and straight to the point (maximum length: 300 words) Editor

making the calls for “law and order” or respect for the rule of law is questioned. The issue here is about power and the future of democracy in Africa not ethnic rivalries. Dr Keith Jennings atlanta-Georgia, usa

Niger Delta crisis Your cover story on the Niger Delta, (NA, Jan 2008) was an excellent historical account of the crisis. Insightfully informative with good underscoring of the milestones of this Nigerian saga. I convey many congratulations. The situation in the Delta is a problem that Nigeria must confront boldly, and resolve or face the peril of entrenched unrest and spreading militancy. The morphing of the problem from one of disaffected militancy into stark criminality should be seen (and read) as bold evidence of the ineffectuality of the Nigerian government. It would appear that one of the fundamentals (needing confronting) about the Niger Delta has been the ill-judged and unbalanced socio-geopolitical mapping in relation to political power. This mismatch was instituted by Nigeria’s colonial conquerors (obviously) for their own economic and fiscal expediency. Unfortunately, this unfairness has left Nigeria with a legacy of arrogance and superiority within its “ethnic majorities” towards the “ethnic minorities”. So strong and

6n NEW AFRICAN February 2008
More doses, but some Western drugs donated to Africa have proved useless

well entrenched has been the dominance of Northern Nigeria (and its political alliances) in directing the affairs of post-independent Nigeria that a marked attitude of indifference, contempt and unfairness have evolved towards the ethnic minorities (of which the inhabitants of the Niger Delta are an example). A panacea for the Niger Delta problem would include many levels of thought and action. First and foremost, it would be of immense help if the Nigerian leadership employs a strategic reorientation to view the problem as a national one. The Niger Delta conflict is not just a mere regional clash orchestrated by disenfranchised and agitated militants without pathos nor gravitas. The problem is a befitting national metaphor for widespread chronic dissatisfaction with uncompassionate central government. The enormity and ramifications of the problem, cascade far beyond the geographical delineation of the Niger Delta. This conflict did not come upon us in a day but over decades. Several destructive themes had overlaid and infused the Nigerian polity ever since its colonial creation by the British. The unfair geo-ethnic-political power apportioning (pre and post independence) was always going to lead to a meltdown of vital parts of our potential to make real development in nation building. It is crucial for the Nigerian leadership to realise that there has to be new directions in which the nation now forays, which would disabuse Nigeria of certain aspects of its unworkable socio-ethnic attitudes. Certain aspects of its current psyche have to

be deconstructed, such as its lopsided wealth distribution, institutionalisation of bribery and corruption, unequal and unfair access to education, health services and power supply, and government segues with religion. There are legacies in our post-colonial inheritance that must be jettisoned, in order to better envision an ennobled Nigeria, so that we can do away with a further explosive rupturing of the Nigeria nation and its people. Ayinde Katunga lagos, nigeria Nigeria’s man in London I would like to comment on Chux Ugwaka’s letter (NA, Jan 2008) in response to the interview by Nigeria’s acting high commissioner in London, Dozie Nwana (NA, Nov), in which among other things, he talked about the perpetrators of the slave trade and why there should be equal blame to both African and European involvement. In disagreeing with the high commissioner, Ugwaka said Dozie Nwana “...is still under the clutches of the white man...” The basis of his disagreement is derived from an “observation”, that payment for the African slaves was derisory and a pittance. Firstly, if the bone of contention which Ugwaka has with the high commissioner is that, had the payment for the slaves been much more “substantial”, then – only then – would it be in a good place to unleash a level of rebuke to the African slave traders, on par with the Europeans. Secondly, though Ugwaka feels that the African slave traders were hoodwinked in accepting profane payments, there is a

likelihood that there was good perception of value, on the part of the African perpetrators for the payments. Lastly, I feel that Ugwaka is veering towards a complete exoneration and vindication of our forefathers who profited from the sale of African human stock. If so, it is a wrong position. It is sad that the prevalent African conditions between the 15th and 19th centuries sanctioned uneconomic harnessing of African human resources – by selling it (wholesale) to foreigners, who built their nations with this purchase. Unless we accept and atone for our unqualified involvement in the slave trade – we are condemned to repeat this ineptitude. In fact, already, we have begun repeating these dehumanising acts; it’s just that the leopard has changed its spots. Abiodun Esho london, uK Fear of Western medicine justifiable I read your article “Do Africans fear Western medicine?” (NA, Jan 2008), with great distress. Between 1994 and 1997, America’s Harvard University School of Public Health conducted a study which revealed that many drug companies, in order to gain tax advantages or to clear their warehouses, were donating no-longer-needed drugs to aid agencies operating in Africa. The study also found that most of the drugs donated to countries such as Tanzania and Haiti, proved useless as they were not even on the countries’ essential drugs lists. In the 1930s, the Tuskegee Experiments (again in America), used African-American men as guinea pigs, to chart the course of syphilis at the same time withholding drugs such as penicillin to treat them. The eminent late Ugandan doctor and medical researcher, Prof Charles Ssali, discovered that the origins of Aids in Africa was from a batch of a 1950s polio vaccine, which was fed orally to the people in the then Belgian Congo (now DRCongo). The vaccine was prepared from kidney tissue of chimpanzees infected with the Semian Immuno-Virus (SIV). The former BBC correspondent in East Africa, Edward Hooper, backed up Prof Ssali’s findings in his research. Therefore, there does seem to be some grounds from past empirical evidence, for continental and Diasporan Africans to fear allopathic Western medicine. Trevor Jones Kent, uK

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