GUARDIAN
Monday, February 07, 2000
A tale of two Jesses
By G.G. Darah
REVEREND Jesse Jackson will be in Nigeria this week. As President Bill
Clinton's special envoy on African affairs, Jackson is certainly one of the
most important guests to visit any African country and coming to Nigeria
must have some extra significance for one of the most eminent African
Americans of the 20th century. His coming to Nigeria at this time brings
back sweet echoes of the fine words of solidarity spoken by President
Clinton last week in celebration of the African American History month. He
proclaimed February the month for this festival of fond remembrances and
restoration of black legacy. The president sang salutes to the heroes and
heroines of the African American contribution to America's civilisation -
Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, Langston Hughes,
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The living legends include Maya Angelou,
Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. Jesse Jackson belongs to
this hall of fame.
The man shot himself into political reckoning 16 years ago when he took a
brave dive for presidential nomination under the Democratic Party. His
campaign strategy, like the Pied Piper's music, drew out from apathy two
million new black voters. He lost the nomination for the mortal sins of
visiting and embracing Fidel Castro of Cuba and Yasser Arafat. History has
justified his revolutionary courage. In the 1988 presidential primaries,
Jackson, again, lost to Michael Dukakis (Greek), who earned 51 per cent to
Jackson's 37 and Albert Al Gore's 10. Gore's fortunes brightened in 1992 and
he became Vice President to Clinton. Jackson's star henceforth twinkled into
the milky way of the legendary best presidents that America may never have.
He was then 46. His civil rights records and pastoral background bring him
into close affinity with the assassinated Luther King (Jr). In the May 2,
1988 edition of Nigeria's Newswatch magazine, Nosa Igiebor and Austen Oghuma
who analysed the elections concluded thus: "In 1984, Jackson told the
Democratic Convention in San Francisco that 'God's not finished with me yet.
' From his electrifying and epoch-making performance so far, he may make
history as the first black American vice-president and this would enhance
his status as the most outstanding black leader in America today." Jackson
shares this prophetic halo with General Powell.
Why is Jackson heading for Nigeria at a time of another presidential
primaries at home? (He will throw some light on this when he encounters
journalists this week). He is doing so probably because, in the current
diplomatic augury in Washington, Nigeria matters. The tempo of exchange of
high level visits has risen since 1998. Thomas Pickering who was eyewitness
at Abiola's unforeseen death in July that year has almost become like the
guest in the African adage who comes so often that the host community feels
obliged to ask a levy of him. Jackson and former President Jimmy Carter were
literally domiciled here during the presidential elections a year ago. The
gamble paid off. Even Almighty Madeleine Albright was here in late 1999.
Many are expecting Clinton to breeze before he leaves the seat made hotter
by his peculiar circumstances.
Why does Nigeria matter so much in the calculus of American diplomacy?
Because the country is up for grabs by any foresighted world power. And the
wooers are swarming the bride. With President Obasanjo's second coming,
America surely had an elephant in its snare. Alas, this is not a game for
one poker to devour. The Germans who have cuddled and fattened every despot
for 15 years are having a piece of the pie. The French who are notorious for
betraying their revolutionary heritage when it comes to fortifying African
dictatorships are in the running. They were wily enough to make tyrant
Abacha to proclaim French as a second Nigerian lingua franca, although the
man never uttered a word of French before he passed on. This week, President
Obasanjo will be savouring French wines and seductive hospitality. The
British who begat Nigeria are apparently too preoccupied with European Union
puzzles to be able to repossess their orphaned offspring. In any case,
America glutted by the juicy morsels that come the way of lonely global
powers are not likely to snore away while wearied Britain sludges back to
reclaim her deluded prodigal nation.
The American re-entry is not a shot in the dark. The diplomatic road map
was redrawn with the publication in 1998 of a policy blueprint with the
tell-tale title of: Stabilising Nigeria: Sanctions, Incentives and Support
for Civil Society. Jointly edited by Peter Lewis, Pearl Robinson and Barnett
Rubin, the book is produced by the Centre for Preventive Action and
sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Foundation.
The incisive analysis in the book typified by the following conclusion on
page 23: "If ... the U.S. administration is serious about its new focus on
Africa and the reasons it gives that Americans should be concerned about
Africa, postponing action on Nigeria is short-sighted and even
self-defeating. If Nigeria erupts in a major conflict, there will be no
economic and political revival in West Africa, and perhaps none further
beyond ... But at this historical juncture, it is only the United States
that can formulate a strategy and lead a coalition to confront one of the
world's most difficult problems. The United States did it, though too late,
in the former Yugoslavia. It is imperative for Washington to lead such a
coalition to prevent what could be an even greater disaster. America should
do so bearing in mind that Nigeria, despite all that has befallen it, still
has the potential to be a great success." (emphasis added).
The Clinton administration hearkened to this patriotic clarion and,
pronto, Abacha, Abiola and June 12 gave way for General Abubakar that made
the May 29 transition last year inescapable. Other invisible road blocks had
to give way, too. Remember Ambassador Walter Omowale Carrington whose
1994-98 tenure and unambiguous support for June 12 and Abiola nearly buried
Abacha before his death. Before him was Ambassador Lannon Walker who never
spared any invective in exposing the corruption and concuspence of Gen.
Babangida's eight years of sorrow. America's refusal to be indifferent
helped to ferry Nigeria to the fairly safe shores of an elected government.
Those amateur political gladiators in the Alliance for Democracy should know
that it was only Gen. Abubakar's goodwill that earned the party the
concessionary registration it got in breach of the rules.
Is it harvest time for all tillers? Not quite yet. The new government is
still troubled by the sins that cradled its birth. Some mandarins who
invested in Obasanjo's inevitable victory in the hope of funding a zombie in
him are smarting from disappointment. From the coven of Arewa (Northern)
conservatives, there are squills of impeachment because Obasanjo is "not
different from the military dictators he displaced." Senator Joseph Waku's
day-time howl could be an Essau's voice for the owl of the barrel of the
gun. The Nigerian masses who did the dying for the military to flee will not
give up the small handkerchief of democracy for drying their tears. The
Americans, I suppose, know too well that the kind of nocturnal wink the
Pakistani military usurpers got from Washington last year cannot cover the
shy of popular vigilance and resolute spirit in Nigeria.
Back to Jesse Jackson. Were the Urhobo of Delta State not so disorderly in
their political behaviour, they should have long asserted their ancestral
copyright over the rainbow called Jesse Jackson. In the Ethiope West Local
Government and 10 minutes away from Sapele, is the Urhobo community of
JESSE. The name entered the infamous book of holocausts with the
petrol-fired disaster of October 17, 1998. About 1,000 innocent people
perished in the inferno which Gen. Abubakar dismissed when he visited as the
handiwork of the hapless and impoverished villagers. The General was duly
honoured in America last year for his gallantry and human rights record.
Nigeria matters to America because of the oil. Nigeria is misgoverned
today because of oil. Many of the key oil multinationals in the Niger Delta
are from America. Albright warned the Nigerian government a few months ago
never to deploy brute force and injustice against the region. The government
ignored the counsel. The United States shares vicarious guilt for the
environmental and economic disasters in the oil region. For a new millennium
rainbow coalition against these inhuman acts, Jackson should not leave for
America until he visits his ancestral homeland of Jesse in Delta State. The
Urhobo, noted for their generosity have enough chieftaincy titles with which
to garland this handsome son of Africa.
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