Amnesty
International reaches deep into
Africa's people
By JONATHAN
POWER
July 12, 2000
LONDON - We arrived at the king's palace - not much
more that a dilapidated corrugated iron-built structure-
on the edge of the small town of Oyo, capital of the
Yoruba kingdom that used to extend in pre-British days
half way across the width of southern Nigeria and into
Benin. Today, although it contains over 30 million
people, it is a poor shadow of its former glory- power
and wealth passed long ago to the bourgeoisie and- for a
long period- to the army.
There was a salute by toothless old men, dressed in
black, firing home made muskets. A succession of elderly
men and women came and prostrated themselves full length
before the king. A child dressed as an African carved
doll danced. Pierre Sane, Amnesty International's
Secretary-General, dressed in the russet red robes of an
honoury chief, knelt before the king who called him "one
of the illustrious sons of Africa". Then it was Sane's
turn to speak. The crowd of about 2,000 pressed closer to
hear. "Amnesty International has reached deep into the
heart of Africa", he said, "deep beyond the cities of
Africa, deep beyond the politicians of Africa, deep into
the people of Africa."
That indeed is the conclusion I've reached myself. An
organization begun only 40 years ago by a Catholic
English lawyer now has a million members around the world
and is known- and appreciated- even in the back of beyond
in darkest Africa.
For a week I have been accompanying around Nigeria a
high level mission of Amnesty led by Mr Sane. Two days
before, we arrived in Kaduna, the capital of the northern
state of the same name. We drove along the burnt out
streets- homes, small workshops, mosques and churches,
almost side by side, gutted and charred. We climbed the
steps up to the top floor of an old ramshackle building
housing the Kaduna branch of Amnesty. Outside in the limp
heat hung a banner with the Pepsi slogan affixed. "Kaduna
Amnesty welcomes Pierre Sane", it read. An elderly lady
walked me to the balcony. "You see those large patches of
discoloured tar on the road. That's where they built
bonfires and burnt people alive." Christians and Muslims
rioted in February and May over the planned introduction
of traditional Islamic Sharia law. Perhaps as many as
1,000 people died.
Sane addressed a meeting of the local non-governmental
organizations. The room was crowded and everyone wanted
the chance to speak. Amazingly, nearly everyone was brief
and to the point.
"The purpose of this meeting is quite enormous "
intoned the chairman in the heavy cadences of Nigerian
English. "People have been burnt out and don't have the
where-with-all to rebuild. The state should compensate
them", said the first speaker. A Muslim from the
Inter-Faith Mediation Centre said, "We Nigerians are
notoriously religious. For most of the time, however, we
respect each other. A few people used this freedom we
have under democracy to stir things up." "Why doesn't the
governor sweep the town for arms?" asked another. "After
the Biafran war they went house to house and confiscated
every gun and every bullet."
We headed for the governor's office. He is a Muslim,
of course, and perhaps a tolerant man- there had been no
effort to erase the graffiti scribbled on the outside of
his office wall: "Sir, sorry to say, "NO" to Sharia". We
were ushered into a large conference room with
microphones. Sane did a succinct job of summarising the
criticisms of the non-governmental organisations and the
governor an equally effective and swift job of rebutting
them. "I was glad to see no nation, large as well as
small, escaped criticism in your annual report- I saw it
discussed on CNN", the governor began. "We are
introducing a form of neighborhood watch- drawn from
various interest groups in each neighborhood. We'll
investigate that the nominees are responsible characters
and then we'll give them a monthly allowance. But we want
them to be responsible not just for security but for the
environment too." Then he went on down through Sane's
check list: compensation- no but assistance; arms- we are
looking for them; sharia- we can't solve problems by
fighting. We have to have a civilized dialogue."
A couple of days before we had been in the office of
President Olusegun Obasanjo, elected in a hotly contested
election sixteen months ago. Obasanjo had been jailed by
the military dictator, Sani Abacha, and Amnesty had
campaigned vigorously for his release. In London he had
paid a visit to Amnesty's offices to say thank you. Yet,
for all the warmth, it was not an easy meeting. Sane and
his associates from the Nigerian branch of Amnesty had
some tough things to say: "Why did the soldiers open fire
during a protest in the Niger Delta? Why are women so
dreadfully abused in prison. Why do the police still
engage in extra-judicial executions of suspected
criminals? Why is the death penalty still enforced?" Then
for an hour Obasanjo took the bat and the ball, he ran,
hit, ducked, lowered his voice, raised it, told
anecdotes, knocked away any suggestions the Amnesty team
made for review, reprimand or change, although, to be
fair, he told them if they hear of any prisons where they
practice torture to pass the information on to him.
On the crucial issue of the behaviour of the army he
was, as Sane told him, "thinking as a soldier. You have
to think of the morale of the army, yes, but you also
have to think about the wrong things the army does."
"Have you ever been shot at, Pierre?", countered the
president, who in the war in Biafra thirty years ago was
shot at many times. Sane shook his head modestly,
although I know his life has been threatened a number of
times. "Unfortunately", joshed Obasanjo", there's nowhere
here where we can send Pierre to be shot!"
The truth is the change for the better under Obasanjo
is the difference between night and day. People feel
free. Political discourse is open and vigorously so. No
one is incarcerated for their political opinions. Amnesty
has been an important part of that change and remains an
important player in the changes that have to come if
Nigeria is going to take its place, as Obasanjo desires,
at the top table of the world's most important
democracies.
I can be reached by phone on +44385 351172 or by
e-mail:JonatPower@aol.com
Copyright © 2000 By JONATHAN POWER
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