Nigeria on the Brink? by John Wilkins

AS Nigeria reaches its 60th. year of independence on October 1st, I fear for its future. With a population of over 200 million people and endowed with incredible natural resources it has still become a failed state.

The blame currently lies with the Head of State and the Federal Government and the army and security services. However the source of its troubles go back to the British creating a new country out of a land with several hundred tribes and languages by drawing a line on a map.

After the horrors of the Biafran Civil War the country had a period of military rule, which stabilised the country and then moved to a democratically elected government. However the corruption now in Government and almost all walks of life has left a divided nation. Whilst millions live in abject poverty, vast wealth lies in the hands of a few. Throw into the mix religious differences which have resulted in more Christians being killed in the country than the whole of the Middle East over the last decade. There was even a massacre of more than 350 Shia Muslims in the northern city of Zaria in December 2015 by Federal troops. #1

There has also been a violent crackdown by the state on largely peaceful protests by Biafran separatists seeking their 'Right to self-determination' under Article 20 of the African Charter.

However the current President, Muhammadu Buhari (a Fulani), has allowed Fulani cattle herders to take their animals across huge swathes of farm land. Any resistance by locals has resulted in countless killings by the heavily armed herdsmen. The Federal Government takes no action, many would say it is using the Fulanis as an armed militia to subdue Christian communities in the Middle Belt and now deep into more Southern states.

Also one could view Buhari's poor record of eliminating the threat of Boko Haram #2 in the country is a ploy for greater Islamification of the country. They now have control of parts of northern Nigeria and claim it to be part of the Islamic Caliphate. Over 100 of the mainly Christian Chibok schoolgirls abducted in 2014 have not been returned to their families despite Buhari's pledge on gaining power.

An even more frightening development is the increasing number of Isis fighters and other terrorists coming through Nigeria's porous northern border. I understand this has being encouraged by Turkey over recent times. There is now friction with Egypt, which many terrorists travel through.

Most of the top posts both in Government and the army are held by Hausas or Fulanis. Although there are other ethnic groups represented in Government many do not raise these concerns, either through fear or bribery.

However protests from Muslim and Christian religious leaders, often say the same thing, that poverty and corruption are the twin evils in the country. One Muslim respected voice of reason was silenced recently, namely the former Emir of Kano Sanusi who was dethroned in March this year. Little wonder when he articulated such views as the following: He called for an end to child marriage, women empowerment, building more schools instead of mosques, and infrastructural development. Sanusi also called for population planning, and said that polygamy is increasing poverty in the region.

The country is now engaged in an economic row with Ghana with wrong on both sides. Ghana has been clamping down on largely Igbo traders they claim are not all acting lawfully and Nigeria has closed Western highway linking the countries which passes through Benin, a breach of ECOWAS rules (Economic Community of West African States).

I have spent three years writing to my MP, then Shadow Foreign Secretary and now the current one, to get our Government to exert some political pressure on the Nigerian state to unite the country rather than let it become another Rwanda but worse. The House of Lords debated the issue of violence in Nigeria two years ago warning of impending genocide. More recently 20 of the House of Lords have sent a plea to Baroness Scotland, Secretary General to the Commonwealth highlighting concerns over escalating violence in Nigeria. The letter quotes highly respected former Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Danjuma, who says the armed forces are 'not neutral..... they collude in the ethnic cleansing....by Fulani herdsmen'.

I call on all Nigerians in diaspora to speak out. Altering the slogan of the Black Lives Movement, 'White Silence is Violence' to "Nigerians" Silence Equals Violence'.

#1 See Amnesty Report: “Unearthing the truth: unlawful killings and mass cover-up in Zaria,” #2 Boko Haram: the name translates colloquially as “Western education is sin”.

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Slavery, Fitzwilliam College & Dr. Starkey

VARSITY 3rd, July 2020*

IN an interview with Reasoned on Tuesday, the controversial historian Dr. David Starkey argued, “Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there?”

Since then Cambridge's Fitzwilliam College has announced it will discuss Dr David Starkey’s Honorary Fellowship at a Governing Body meeting on Wednesday, following widespread condemnation of “racist” comments by the historian.

Dr. Starkey has argued:  “You cannot decolonise the curriculum because you, Black Lives Matter, are wholly and entirely a product of white colonisation. You are not culturally Black Africans. You would die in seconds if you were dumped back in black Africa.”  He went on to say, “Of course, slavery was not the same as the Holocaust.”

In response Fitzwilliam College said:  “We support and promote freedom of speech in our academic community, but we have zero tolerance of racism. Dr David Starkey’s recent comments on slavery are indefensible.”

Varsity understands that it is “almost certain” that his fellowship will be revoked.

Meanwhile Fitzwilliam College has issued the following statement:
'Fitzwilliam College does not tolerate racism.

We support and promote freedom of speech in our academic community, but we have zero tolerance of racism. Dr David Starkey’s recent comments on slavery are indefensible.
Fitzwilliam was founded upon values of fairness and mutual respect and we are proud of the College’s inclusive and diverse membership.
The matter of Dr Starkey’s Honorary Fellowship will be considered by the Governing Body at its meeting next Wednesday.'

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*  Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.
We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding, and during this unprecedented global crisis, we have a tough few weeks and months ahead.
In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content for the time being.
Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running cost at least until we hopefully return to print on 2nd October 2020.
Many thanks, all of us here at Varsity would like to wish you, your friends, families and all of your loved ones a safe and healthy few months ahead.

Let's Talk About The War

by Les May

SIR John Hawkins is considered the first English trader to profit from the demand for African slaves in the Spanish colonies of Santo Domingo and Venezuela in the late 16th century.  In other words he, along with Sir Francis Drake, was a slave traders as well as privateer.

From 1577 onwards Hawkins was Treasurer of the English Navy.  He rebuilt older ship and helped design newer, faster, sleeker, more manoeuvrable ‘race-built galleons’.  These were the ships that he and Drake commanded when with less than fifty ships they took on and defeated the 130 strong Spanish Armada in 1588.

The stories around this have sometimes been described as forming the ‘foundation myth’ of English identity; plucky little England standing up to more powerful bullies and giving them a ‘bloody nose’.  Nearly five hundred years later it was woven into another now British myth in Edward Shanks’ poem ‘The other little boats’ (see below)

On 13 July 1916 my uncle Tom died during the battle of the Somme, when ‘lions were led by donkeys’.  His name is on the war memorial in Littleborough near Rochdale. Somewhere in Germany there will be memorial with the name of a man who died the same day.  On the island of Tiree there is a tiny graveyard and in it are fifteen stones recording Merchant Seamen whose bodies washed up on its beaches in WW2.   Near Kiel is the Möltenort U-Boat Memorial it records the names of the 30,000 submariners who died in the same war.

In Europe we have learned to live with the knowledge that our past and those who peopled it, were imperfect.  We do not demand that the names of the U boat crew who fought for the Nazis be erased from memory.  We honour them as brave men, like we honour the imperfect men who ran up the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

It is that capacity, to not forget what happened, but also not to hold grudges about it, that gives me a sense of pride in being British.  Perhaps that is just something that my generation, who knew people on both sides who had lived through WW2 and are thankful it did not happen to them, can feel.  Particularly amongst students it seems that it is being replaced by an intolerant and puritanical insistence that only those whose views are deemed acceptable in the present should be remembered. Hawkins and Drake had better watch out.

If I take a somewhat jaundiced view of this it is nothing to how I feel about those privileged academics who, no doubt with an eye on furthering their careers, have decided that ‘the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon us even unto the third and fourth generation’.  Yes, Hawkins and Drake had better watch out.

The Other Little Boats

A pause came in the fighting and England held her breath
For the battle was not ended and the ending might be death
Then out they came, the little boats, from all the Channel shores
Free men were those who set the sails and laboured at the oars.
From Itchenor and Shoreham, from Deal and Winchelsea,
They put out into the Channel to keep their country free.
Not of Dunkirk this story, but of boatmen long ago,
When our Queen was Gloriana and King Philip was our foe,
And galleons rode the narrow seas, and Effingham and Drake
Were out of shot and powder, with all England still at stake.
They got the shot and powder, they charged the guns again,
The guns that guarded England from the galleons of Spain,
And the men that helped them do it, helped them still to hold the sea
Men from Itchenor and Shoreham, men from Deal and Winchelsea,
Looked out happily from heaven and cheered to see the work
Of their grandsons' grandsons' grandsons on the beaches of Dunkirk.

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Recolonising Africa?

by Les May

A FEW hours after war was declared at 11 p.m. on 4 August 1914, the paddle driven cable laying ship Alert was sent out from Dover on a planned mission to drag for, and cut, the five German cables in the English Channel which linked to the rest of the world.   The idea was to force German communications on to radio where they could be intercepted more easily and so give British codebreakers a better chance of gaining useful information.

Although they may seem old and outdated undersea cables, now having the benefit of fibre optic technology, still carry the majority of the Internet traffic around the world.   The amount of Internet traffic which a cable can carry at any one time is called its ‘bandwidth’.  The more people who want to use the Internet at any one time, the more bandwidth is necessary.  Compared with America, Asia and Europe the cables linking Africa to the rest of the world are seriously lacking in bandwidth.

Whether changing this situation is more important than improving access to clean water and sanitation, and improving access to health care, is a moot point, though in my book I regard these as a ‘human right’.  But earlier today I heard two Africans, one in Ethiopia and one in South Africa claiming that access to the Internet was itself a human right. (Remember how six months ago Corbyn was laughed at when he said a Labour government would promote free Internet access?)

Within Africa mobile phones and the Internet have expanded what people can do even in areas where not everyone has access to an electricity supply. Some enterprising individuals allow mobile phone owners to recharge their device for a small sum. Potentially there is a huge unsatisfied market in Africa. Unsurprisingly this has attracted the attention of cash rich multi-national businesses.

Facebook and Google are intending to team up to lay 37,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable to link African countries with the rest of the world.  The Chinese company Huawei, Microsoft, like Facebook and Google a USA based company and the Norwegian company Opera, (see below), also have projects targeting Africa. Should we be worried about this? Should Africans be worried?

Huawei’s interest seems clear. It supplies the hardware which makes systems run. Microsoft has an interest in making sure that the millions of new users become hooked on its software.

Potentially the ownership by Facebook and Google of the physical network and their control over what content Internet users have access to, seems to me problematic.  It has been suggested that Facebook has harvested up to 4,000 snippets of data about many users.  This is enables the company to form a profile of every individual user.  Likewise Google has the power to harvest a great deal of information from the search terms we use.

There is good evidence that Facebook was used to sway the outcome of the 2016 elections in the USA when about 77,000 voters in three states were targeted. Trump lost the popular vote by about 3 million ballots, but gained the presidency because the make up of the electoral college had been influenced via Facebook. Not all African leaders are models of integrity and defenders of democracy.

https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/fln36fd-soc-2016election/facebook-and-the-2016-election-the-facebook-dilemma/

Another issue is that Europe in particular has gone a long way to recognising the importance of personal privacy and protection of personal data.  This is not the case in other countries and many African states may have legal systems which are very weak in this regard.  Facebook and Google will only respect these issues if they are made to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism

https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/shoshana-zuboff-on-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Surveillance_Capitalism

We are familiar with the term ‘Scramble for Africa’ which refers to the invasion, occupation, colonisation and annexation of African territories by European countries in the period 1880 to 1914.  Are we about to see this process happening again, but this time led not by nation states.  Has colonialism been privatised?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa

(I struggled to determine the exact ownership of ‘Opera’.  It may be owned by a Chinese private equity firm or it may still be Norwegian.  I am not sure which of these is correct.)

Author's Note:  

Les May said...

In the above piece I suggested that many African states which may have legal system that are weak with respect to personal privacy and data protection, and that Facebook and Google will be in a position to take advantage of this.

A report by several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) published today (18 June) highlights the problems facing a country, Nigeria, which had weak laws regarding the protection of the environment, which was taken advantage of by Shell. So polluted by oil contamination is the water supply for people living in the delta of the Niger that the cannot by any reasonable standards be said to have access to a clean water supply.

https://cloud.foeeurope.org/index.php/s/LyqrCFskx2RRdcf#pdfviewer

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/nigeria-shell-still-failing-clean-pollution-niger-delta

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Unpalatable Truths About The Slave Trade

by Les May

WHATEVER the courts finally decide, to many people the slow death of George Floyd under the knee of a policeman was murder and we should not lose sight of this as different groups compete with each other to use his death to foster their own agenda.

A few evenings ago a news programme carried an item in which the interviewee complained that although Tony Blair had expressed his regret about the transatlantic slave trade he had not ‘apologised’.  Now it has never occurred to me to ask Queen Elizabeth to apologise on behalf of her family for presiding over a system which kept my people in serfdom for some 400 years, nor that I should demand the stained glass windows which depict these monarchs in Rochdale Town Hall should be taken down, but I’ll let that pass.  The interviewee blamed this on Blair’s ‘white privilege’ seemingly blind to the fact that he is enjoying the privilege of living in a First World country with all the benefits that brings.

But there was more to this than an exercise in gesture politics.  What the interviewee seemed to be trying to do was resolve the question of what we should do with the statues of slave traders and the like, by capturing the narrative and presenting what is in effect a sanitised version of the transatlantic slave trade suited to modern prejudices.

This was a business enterprise and the transport of 12 million Africans across the Atlantic into slavery was just one part of it.  As it came to full development in the 18^th century it worked like this.  Metal goods made in Birmingham and cloth made in Lancashire were taken to Africa and traded for slaves. Slaves were transported across the Atlantic and traded for sugar in the Caribbean.   In turn this was transported back across the Atlantic to ports like Bristol and Liverpool which grew wealthy on the proceeds.  Then of course the cycle started up all over again.

So where did the 12 million slaves come from? Europeans had only a tiny foothold around the coasts of Africa and relied upon local rulers to provide the slaves, which they were more than happy to do in exchange for the manufactured goods they desired.  There was also a trans Saharan trade which supplied black slaves to North African countries.  The fact that African’s themselves were participants in enslaving fellow Africans is one of the unpalatable things we need to understand, and perhaps remind people of, when thinking about how we should respond to the demands that statues should be removed from our towns.   It should certainly be a part of the narrative surrounding the trans Atlantic slave trade in which Britain played a part.

What is not part of the agenda for these competing groups who seem so eager to rake over the coals of the past is the fact and the reality of modern day slavery. The estimates of the number of people in some form of slavery now are some two to three times higher than the 12 million or so Africans transported across the Atlantic over a period of about 120-150 years.

Anyone looking at the maps of modern day slavery will immediately become aware of the fact that it is not confined to countries inhabited by Europeans or by people of European descent.  The top ten countries for slavery are, China, DRC, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines and Russia. But that does not mean it is absent from First World countries.   It has been suggested that more than 10,000 people are enslaved in the UK today.

Like the trans Atlantic slave trade of the late 17^th to mid 19^th century modern slavery is a business.  A Guardian article suggests it generates more than £100 billion in profits each year.  What should disturb us all is that in many cases the products produced by modern slaves are bought by us.  The supply chains which produce our clothes and our high tech goods are unlikely to be free of the taint of slavery. Which of course means that many of the people tipping statues into the nearest dock will, like you and I, be beneficiaries of modern day slavery.

The unpalatable truths are that fellow Africans were quite happy to supply captives to European slave traders during the period of the trans Atlantic slave trade and that slavery has not gone away, it is still with us.  But we have a choice; we can obsess about the past or we can work to eliminate it in the present.  The first of these will give us a warm glow of self satisfaction; the second will be a hard slog and require us all to examine our consciences about why we are able to buy some imported goods so cheaply.

If you care to follow the link to what has been called the ‘Arab Slave Trade’, you may wonder as I do, whether the term BAME, which is frequently used to imply some community of interest amongst the groups included in the acronym owes a great deal to wishful thinking.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/opinion/modern-slavery-grows.html

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2011/04 vendor_abused_mexican_workers.html

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-north-korea-forced-labor-20161006-snap-story.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade

Typing the search terms ‘economist modern slavery’ will lead to a wealth of detail about global supply chains and their links to slavery.

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After statutes, is it book burning next?

Statue of Edward Colston Toppled by Protestors in Bristol

I well understand why some people in Bristol wanted to pull down the statue of the Tory slave trader, Edward Colston, and I won't lose any sleep over that . But where does the toppling of statues lead to?  Certainly, it will lead to counter protests from the far right defending the statues, and the far right demanding the removal of monuments connected with the left, such as that of Karl Marx, in Highgate Cemetery.  I believe it already gets regularly vandalised.

And are we going to have ritual book burnings next, of books that contain racist, sexist, imperialist, colonialist, transphobic, homophobic, themes?  If we do, authors like Dickens, Trollope, Orwell, Conrad, and Waugh, had better watch out.

This trying to turn the clock back in order to transplant modern views onto the past to rewrite history, can set a dangerous precedent.  Are we trying to bury the past, hide it, and sanitize it?   It's not just the English imperialist Cecil Rhodes that they want to remove after taking his scholarships for donkeys years, but there is also a campaign by feminists to remove a bust of Arthur Koestler, from Edinburgh University, because they've accused him of being a 'rapist'.  I gather that vegans and vegetarians are also trying  to get a statue of 'Cow Pie' Desperate Dan, removed in Dundee.

There are also demands to remove a statue of the journalist, explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, (real name John Rowlands), which was unveiled in Denbigh in March 2011. Robert Aldrich, his biographer, says Stanley's birth certificate describes him as a 'bastard' who was abandoned by his mother and family and dumped in the St Asaph Union Workhouse, for ten years from the aged of six to sixteen.  He emigrated to the US in 1859 aged 18, arriving in New Orleans, and after working in various jobs and having fought in the civil war, he became a journalist working for the New York Herald.

I watched the unveiling of his statue on youtube, and there was a delegation of black people from the Congo.  One of them said that they realised that the name of Stanley was controversial (he was accused of being a slave trader and of using indiscriminate cruelty against Africans, including shooting them, which is all true), but they came and spoke at the unveiling ceremony.  I also know that William Morris and members of the Socialist League wrote pamphlets against Stanley and demonstrated at meetings.

Stanley is best known for finding Dr Livingstone and the source of the Nile.  But he also worked as an agent for King Leopold II of Belgium.  It was the Afro-Arab slave trader Tippu Tip, that helped Stanley to find Livingstone.  It is said that on one occasion, Tippu Tip, raided 118 villages, killed 4,000 Africans, and had 2,300 slaves, mostly women and children, bound in chains and transported to the markets of Zanzibar.

As regards the question of slavery, it's not just whites like Colston who were slave traders.  We must not forget the Muslim Barbary pirates who abducted people to sell them in slave markets all the time and who felt it was their religious duty to do this to the infidel.  This went on for centuries and in 1631, they abducted 107 people from the little village of Baltimore, in West Cork, Ireland, for a life of slavery in Algiers.  Today, this is known as the 'Sack of Baltimore'.

And should we start a campaign to remove the plaque in Ashton to the famous travel writer, H.V. Morton, who was born in the town?  It is alleged that he was a Nazi sympathizer and an antisemite.  In a diary entry from February 1941, he confessed:

'I must say Nazi-ism has some fine qualities', and, 'I am appalled to discover how many of Hitler's theories appeal to me.'  Another diary entry describes the US as 'that craven nation of Jews and foreigners.'

Let me know what you think.

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If Black Lives Matter Then Show It

by Les May

ROLLING statues into a nearby dock or demanding they be removed because of something the figure’s father did may give a warm glow of self-satisfaction to those doing it.   But if you really do think that ‘black lives matter’ is more than a slogan, then why not do something practical?

If an African child is unfortunate enough to be born with a cleft palette or similar disfigurement they are likely to suffer ridicule, ostracism and eventually find it difficult to earn a living.  To put it right takes an operation that in UK money costs about £150

If an African child has ingrowing eyelashes blinking is a torture.  It is often the result of an infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis.  Repeated infections cause permanent blindness. Infections can be eliminated by antibiotics costing as little as 15p per dose.

There are charities which work to raise money to rectify both these conditions Smile Train and SightSavers respectively.  Others such as WaterAid work to bring basic things like clean water and sanitation to people who lack them.

None of these problems result from colonialism.  They are the contingencies of life that some people have to face because of where they happen to live in the world.  You don’t have to be a Christian to understand, ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.

https://smiletrain.org.uk/

https://www.sightsavers.org/

https://www.wateraid.org/uk/why-wateraid

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Do we need to address 'Not Counting Niggers'?

AS I write statues are being toppled and historical figures are being denounced for alleged 'racism' and trading in slavery.  Dare I say it, it is as if a retrospective 'blacklist' is being drawn up by energetic individuals all over the world.

Back in July 1939, George Orwell wrote a telling essay for Adelphi entitled 'Not Counting Niggers' in which he questions what he calls the humbug of left wing politics generally towards what were then described as 'the dependencies'.  The long list of British dependencies as they were then called in the 1930s, were really the off-shore British proletariat.

Or as Orwell had it in 1939:
'What we always forget is that the overwhelming bulk of the British proletariat does not live in Britain, but in Asia and Africa.  It is not in Hitler's power, for instance, to make a penny an hour a normal industrial wage; it is perfectly normal in India, and we are at great pains to keep it so... It is quite common for an Indian coolie's leg to be thinner than the average Englishman's arm.  And there is nothing racial in this, for well-fed members of the same races are of normal physique; it is due to starvation.  This is a system which we live on and which we denounce when there seems to be no danger of it being altered.'

The fact is that over the last few centuries the people of these islands have all benefited from imperialism including the working classes. 

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Are we facing a Biafran Genocide 50 years on?

by Solomon Egbo (Coordinator for IPOB Manchester)

THIS article is written in the hope that another genocide in Nigeria can be prevented.  Most of the developed world stood back as the Biafran War, which started 50 years ago on July 6th. 1967, descended into genocide.

During the war there were great shortages of food and medicine throughout Biafra, due largely to the Nigerian and British governments' blockade of the region. Furthermore the destruction of Biafra was as much about the protection of strategic British interests in Biafra as it was for the Federal Government to retain control of this oil rich region. Only when images of Biafran children flooded Western media, did the world began to pay attention. 

Whereas nations stood back many individuals showed their abhorence of the mindless slaughter.John Lennon returned his MBE order to the Queen in protest at the UK's involvement in the Biafran War. 20 year old Student, Bruce Mayrock,   burnt himself to death outside the United Nation’s Headquarters in protest against the killings.  He took his own life for people whom he never met before.

Two more young men in Lille, France, also took their lives  in January 1970. One 16 ‐year‐old set himself afire in his school  playground . His suicide note said “I offer myself to atone for the wrongs committed in Biafra, against war, violence and the folly of men.” The other, a 19 year old, left this message “ I did it as a sign of protest against violence, to see love again.” Both received church rites from the Right Reverend Adrien Gand, Bishop of Lille, who said “Only God, who gives us life, may take it back. But how can we fail to see that the cruel reality of the world is striking the young. They await our witness, the testimony of our hope and of our engagement.”

The recent death of Steve Jobs, co- founder of Apple, has propelled Biafra back into the news again. His  biography, written by Walter Isaacson, says that Biafra was instrumental in  Jobs  renunciation of his  Christian faith when as a  13-year-old he confronted his Church pastor with a photograph of two starving Biafran children on the cover of Life magazinebut failed to get a satisfactory answer as to why God allowed such things to happen.

There has been of persecution of the Igbos  and christians prior to and since the Biafran War. For now though, paraphrasing the Bishop's  words we need to bear witness  and engage  in preventing a repeat of the Biafran tragedy.

President Buhari came to power in 2015 in an election when he was actively sponsored by British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama. Seen as a strong figure, a former military dictator of his country, but as other administrations have done his  still 'tolerates' terrorism.

An example of this is state sponsored terrorism in allowing Fulani herdsmen freedom to herd their cattle anywhere and when  challenged they have killed thousands of unarmed men (mainly Igbos) and committed other atrocities. The killing goes unpunished by the state and a President who is a Felani himself! This is not a new phenomena as Christians across the north have been persecuted and killed in increasing numbers over the years.

However the emergence of groups like IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) peacefully campaigning again for Biafra to be recognised as an independent state has led to an extreme reaction from muslims in the north.

An ultimatum has been issued by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (ACYF), a coalition of socio-political groups in northern Nigeria, giving a three months ultimatum for all Igbos in the 19 northern states to vacate the region. If the Igbos fail to leave by the October 1, 2017, the group said, it would use force to evict the Igbos. They also threatened to take over all the  properties of the Igbos after they had left the region. In a press conference in Kaduna AYFC President,  Yerima Shettima, claimed that an event staged by Igbo groups, was a threat to the country’s national security. This was a 'sit at home' protest organised by the Supreme Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra groups, IPOB and MASSOB, in remembrance of the Biafra  war that led to the death of  an estimated 6.5 million people.#

What is the Federal Government doing you might ask? Althouh there is no attempt to prosecute terrorist attacks by Fulani herdsmen theNigeria Department of State Service (DSS) have previously unlawfully detained, by order of President Buhari, the leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and thousands of IPOB and Massob supporters have  been killed by security forces, 'disappeared' or unlawfully imprisoned. This is nothing short of state sponsored terrorism.

These events are met with almost deathening silence across the world, indeed   under Cameron and now May, the British Government are condoning these atrocities by not speaking out.History shows the UK bears a large share of the blame because of how it organised the transition to an independent Nigeria.

I feel there is an urgent need for the United Nations to set up a commission for truth and recognise that Biafrans are an indigenous people exercising 'THEIR RIGHT FOR SELF DETERMINATION' .

The Biafran Genocide is pending and  I ask you to listen to this cry for justice and act  to alert politicians here and around the world of their responsibility to prevent a recurrence of the trajedy  50 years ago.

# See Nigeria: 'Bullets were raining everywhere': Deadly repression of pro-Biafra activists.

November 2016 Amnesty.

Https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/5211/2016/en/  

Report on Gambia after Presidential Election

THE journalist, and former editor of 'Rochdale's Alternative Paper' (RAP), John Walker, has just returned from a month in the Gambia, and he reports on the very considerable progress at both the schools which his charity supports.  He will post details updating the situation over coming months:  
 The headlines are:

After concerns about the political stability and personal safety in The Gambia following the disputed presidential election results of last December, all is calm in the country, as it looks forward to a new era;

Anti-Jammeh graffiti, widespread  in The Gambia - making local feelings  clear about the former president and tyrant

• As promised in our newsletter of last October, we were able to officially open the new "Simon Danczuk Toilet Block", which gained press coverage in the UK. We will deal, in detail with this in our next newsletter;

• Last year we funded the complete reconstruction of the Lower Basic school's First Aid room.  It now looks spectacular!  We will be posting details of this, and exciting forward plans for it, in a forthcoming newsletter;

Tee-shirt democracy - much in evidence

• It is a similar good news story with the library that we were able to fund the restoration of in the Lower Basic school, again with exciting forward plans. We'll have photos and news of this in a future newsletter;

• Our funded "Additional Classes" scheme in the senior school had a slightly disrupted start, because of the change of head at the school and the political instability in the country from November - February (see below). Those problems now seem to be ironed out and the scheme is back and successfully running on a firmer footing;

• Our funding of equipment in specific curriculum areas in the senior school continues this year.  The school had a couple of spectacular successes over the last year, resulting from our previous equipment interventions - again, we'll provide fuller details in a forthcoming newsletter;

Local feelings made clear

•  
• As a result of our ICT interventions in both schools, and because of better telecoms in the country, we will be sponsoring the installation of Wi-Fi hubs in both schools - so there will be good internet access for the first time. Again, we hope to report on progress, later in the year.
• We are continuing to sponsor a number of students in the village's senior school; some with excellent future prospects.  We are not, however, extending the scheme, as education is now free for all school students in the country.  We will be devoting our activities to whole school subject sponsorship initiatives in future - additional classes in the senior school and a trial homework club in the Lower Basic school. Once more - full details will be given in a later post;
• For the future, we will be looking to restore the boys', girls' and staff toilets in the Lower Basic school.  We will provide details of the need and progress in addressing it, later in the year;

The medium is the message - Gambia style

Political climate and background

So much for the headlines. The more detailed aspect of this newsletter concerns the political climate in the country. Although this is, of course, completely outside of the control of this charity, it impacts directly on all those we hope to assist.

The Gambia is tiny (less than 2 million people) and is rarely news in the rest of West Africa, never mind in the West. What is reported in the UK is often garbled and incomplete, so we will attempt a brief, but fuller picture here.

The President of the Gambia for the last 22 years has been a corrupt, civil rights-abusing, brutal dictator, Yahya Jammeh. He lost the presidential election to an almost (even in The Gambia) unknown, Adama Barrow, in December last year.

Preparing for Barrow's inauguration,  which co-incided with Independence Day

Jammeh refused to accept the result. The surrounding West African states (known as Ecowas) played a key role in "persuading" him to go - including by amassing an armed force to ensure the election result was adhered to.

There was almost 3 months of instability (December - February), during which time Jammeh plundered the state's coffers and negotiated himself an exit (to Equatorial Guinea). He eventually left on 22 February, without a shot being fired in anger.

Hash tags abound - showing  importance of social media in  communications  in the new Gambia

Adama Barrow was inaugurated as the new president on 18 March, amid much jubilation. Barrow is best, if at all, known in the UK as having worked as a security guard for Argos in Islington. Correct - but he was doing so when a student in the UK, as a means of paying his way through college.

He heads a coalition administration, with a very difficult job. The state coffers have been depleted and there are few people in positions of power in civic society, or the military who are not in some way tainted by their association with his predecessor.

Half the country have known nothing  but Jammeh misrule - and  are keen for change

So, the task ahead is a difficult one and it is far too early to indicate whether the new regime will be up for it.  But, the early signs are good.

• The Gambian people are delighted with the change, as a few of these randomly photographed revellers indicate;

• The Ecowas states are providing material assistance in helping the country's reconstruction;

• The Gambia will be rejoining the Commonwealth, three years after Jammeh stormed out - and Boris Johnson flew to the country to discuss the process (see photo of him, at a beach bar we like to frequent);

Boris Johnson with Gambians at  the Calypso Bar, Cape Point, the day  before the presidential inauguration

• The country will be rejoining the International Criminal Court, after Jammeh flounced out, following criticism of his regime;

• The country will drop the words "Islamic Republic" from the country's full name, which Jammeh had inserted as he ingratiated himself with the Saudis;

• There is a fund of international goodwill for the new Gambia; and the EU has offered to restore Grant Aid to the country, for very specific and agreed projects, two years after having stopped aiding the country because of Jammeh's behaviour;

• Barrow has said that he wants The Gambia to become a beacon of human rights in Africa, after the oppression of Jammeh.  Easy words, perhaps, but the gay-friendly article in the newspaper clipping below is a very bold step in that direction in a region of the world usually hostile to gay rights.

Western educated Barrow showing  liberal attitude to gay rights -  uncommon in the region

As we say, these are early days, but we hope they will provide a peaceful and more prosperous political background for the people of the country, and in particular for those in the village of Sohm and their students

John Walker 07954 153 305 Gambia stuff: www.SohmSchoolsSupport.org.uk  @GambiaSchools Forest Gate stuff: www.E7-NowAndThen.org, @E7_NowAndThen 

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