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2 t i A Weekly Digest; African Affairs NIGERIA . Party Squabbles Threaten Crisis AN If the ruling Na tional Party of Nigeria (NPN) does not take care, warned opposition leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party (UPN) last week, the country: ' could descend into chaos . as it did in the early six ties. Awolowo stressed that his party was not trying to destabilize the government and should not be blamed for the current troubles. The UPN, he said, would ; continue with its construc tive development policies in the five states it con trols, with an eye to winn ing the 1983 election if it should be "free and fair.'; Chief Awolowo's i remarks come in the midst j. of a multi-issue wrangle ; for Nigeria's American , style , constitutional 'system, which boasts five (parties, nineteen states,, i and a federal government j with a separate presiden j cy, senate and house. Only a few days earlier, the rul ing coalition of President Shehu Shagari's NPN and Nnamdi Azike's Nigerian People's Party .NPP) ap peared to have finally col- j lapsed, with Shagari op- : ting to go it alone. The j president will now attempt jto build a majority in the National Assembly by Igarnering votes from dissi dent NPP members and factions of the two other parties the Greater Nigerian People's Party ;(GNPP) and the People's Redemption Party (PRP). Since Shagari's NPN as well as the GNPP and PRP all have their strongest bases in the north of Nigeria, and the UPN and NPP flourish in the south, the specter is being' raised again of a north-south political split. This would correspond to the historical divisions between the south, with its greater and earlier ex posure to Western educa tion, and the largely Muslim north, which was administered separately by the British during the col onial period. The complex constitu tional system, introduced in J 979, was designed in -large part to prevent just, sucjj a line-up of different ethnically and regionally based political factions,, ensuring by division of powers a more complex and. overlapping pattern tha would prevent a resurgence of civil war or military rule. The crux of the current dispute is a revenue alloca tion bill just approved by a Joint Appropriations Committee of Nigeria's House, and Senate, and signed by President Shagari on February 3. Twelve state governors a )idr several members of I) - assembly are going to c -.11 to challenge the con- iUonality of the ire, which they see as to the states, leav- in through1 state governments as before); and 26.5V. to be divided among all the states. The last portion, for the states, would in turn be divided half in equal amounts for each state,' plus 25 on the basis of population and. 110 on . the basis of land area. An additional amendment would require each state to pass xmi ten per cent of its revenue to local governments. This formula, President Shagari noted, provides more to the states than the previous allocation of 21. However, it is less than the 30 recommend ed by the Okigbo Com ' mission which presented its report on the issue last September. Moreover, it is far from adequate to allow the states, twelve of which have governors of non-NPN parties, to carry out the ambitious social and economic develop ment programs they have : announced. The legal challenge, however", is based not on such substantive grounds but on questions of con stitutionality and pro cedure. NPP and UPN members of the Joint Committee, who wptp nut. o high a percentage voted 13 to 1 1 , say that the 1 focW ii control. The bill as signed ad- ' vocates: 58.5 directly to the federal government; 5 to , mineral producing states to be divided on the basis of production (five states produce almost all of Nigeria's oil, the source of 85 of national, revenues); 10 to local govern ments (to be disbursed directly rather than joint committee as such had no power to pass the bill, but was required to refer it to the two houses. (The House of Represen tatives had .'proposed the much larger allocation o? forty per cent for the states.) , The thirteen NPN, GNPP and PRP members who voted for the bill say that the measure should be classified as a money bill, and as such is subject to a final decision by a joint GRAND OPENING SPECIAL OFFER GOOD THRU MARCH 15 Men's 2 pc. Suit Lady's Plain Dress Two Pair Trousers Two Ladies Skirts .$1.99 .$1.99 .$1.99 .$1.99 4 SHIRTS 99C LAUNDERED ON HANGERS NO LIMIT SAME DAY SERVICE MB 32 fii it nuun Ss mmmmns ' 710 S. Alston Avenue Durham, N. C. Next to Ray's committee under Section 55(3) of the constitution. The issue is further con fused by the party in fighting. The PRP member seated in the com mittee represents one fac tion led by Aminu Kano recently ruled by the courts as the official PRP. Governors of two states and the majority of PRP members of the assembly, however, belong to , the dissident PRP faction, which is more ready to challenge the ruling party in favor of a more populist program. When the joint committee first met, representatives of the anti-Aminu Kano group forcibly prevented the official PRP member from taking . his seat. Police were called, and one of the dissident legislators was thrown out of the building, while a UPN Senator, trying to enter the building, was beaten by police with whips. In addition to the disorder in the assembly itself, clashes have been recently reported in Abeokuta between UPN and NPN supporters, and, in the most serious inci dent, a GNPP-NPN clash in a village some 150 miles from Maiduguri in the northeast took six lives." Ahmadu Bellow Universi ty in Zaria and Bayero University in Kano have been closed because of disturbances, and although the connection with party politics is obscure, the schools are located in the two states (Kaduno and Kano) head ed by dissident PRP governors. Meanwhile, in Kano, the inquiry into the violence which pitted followers of Mohammed Marwa against the govern ment in late December, with thousands reported ,blems of " oil-importing ', African states: The ' -', ! Dergue : has survived all ' it his, but some of its challengers carry on their ' battle: Y ; Since 1977, the Dergue has been under the un disputed leadership of . Mengistu Haile Mariam, a young captain in 1974, whom some now regard as a dedicated revolutionary nationalist, and others as a supremely opportunistic and ruthless military strongman. Seemingly beset on all sides three years ago, Mengistu suc ceeded, with the aid of a military alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba, in building an army that roll ed back the immediate threat from Somali forces in the east and' from Eritrean nationalists in the north. In a confrontation of terror and counter terror in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas, mean while, the opposition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party ' '(EPRP) was routed. Subsequently, other in ternal opponents have been purged. And, while' the promised Marxist Leninist party has not yet been formed to take over from the military, its em bryo exists in the Commis sion for the Establishment of the Working Peoples Party of Ethopia (COPWE), built largely frqm Mengistu loyalists in the military and from peasants' and urban- dwellers' organizations formed in the last five years. There is a working bureaucracy in Addis Ababa, though observers say its apparent uniformi- ty conceals a wide variety of backgrounds and views. Much of Western press coverage of Ethiopia has emphasized the geopolitical implications of the Soviet involvement, but the assessments of those with first-hand ex perience of the country follow no easy East-West line-up. Praise comes not only from the sources one would expect Soviet land Cuban publicans but also from many among the Western and international aid agencies, which still , provide " substantially more sup port for Ethiopian development cfTorts than ' the Soviet connection; Development Efforts Praised London Observer editor Conor Cruise O'Brien, visiting Ethiopia in early 1980, wrote of a "pattern of serious development ac tivity" carried out by pea sant associations in Gamu . Goffa Province in the southr with aid from the government, from the British private organiza tion OXFAM, and Irish Catholic missionaries. In contrast to the gross neglect of famine that helped to bring down Haile Selassie's regime, the present government is generally described as relatively efficient in distribution of relief sup plies for the victims of war and drought. Most notable in terms of international prestige has been a major literacy campaign, for a popula tion of thirty million that was estimated in 1974 to be 93 illiterate. Last year the International Reading Association award, one of three literacy awards presented by UNESCO, went to Ethiopia. According to Ralph Staiger, director of the In ternational Reading Association, head quartered in Delaware, the award was presented by a jury of experts for a cam paign which showed broadly-based organiza tional structure and systematic planning, and which reached more than five million people in five Ethiopian languages Amharic, Oromigna, Tigrigna, Wolaita and Somali. SAT., MARCH 7. 1831 THECAnCLTJATImEJ -1J "Railroad Stop' Six foot, eight inch George Wilson has to stoop hi basement of Harriet Beecher Stowe's house in Cincinnati, which 130 years ago was a stop on the "Underground Railroad" - a system by which slaves escaped from the South to freedom in the North. Wilson's hands are on a concrete slab that covers a tunnel that led Into the basement. Wilson, a former All- America basketball player, has helped retore the historic UPI Photo On a military level, the government has reestablished effective control over much of the Somali-speaking Ogaden. and it is at least holding its own against strong guer rilla movements in Eritrea . and adjoining Tigre Pro vince. About 25 of the budget, however, is tied up in defense spending. Economically, Ethiopia house. can hardly be said to have fared well, being one of the ten poorest countries in the world in per capita income. The nation depends largely on exports of coffee, and revenues are drained by the need to pay for arms and for oil for both the wars and the civilian economy. Surpris ingly, however, Ethiopia does not seem to have fared worse than many other countries faced with similar problems, and it has retained the con fidence of Western finan cial agencies, in spite of a cut-off of U.S. aid last year. The Fiscal Year 1979 trade deficit dropped to $153 million from some $210 million the previous year. And under its membership in the Lome Agreement with the Euro pean Economic Com munity, Ethiopia should get some $250 million in development assistance over the next four years. Such diverse sources as Libya and Japan have made grants to support the literacy program. And the World Bank's Interna tional Development Association has recently granted $40 million for an agricultural development project. There are scarcely concealed complaints wjthin the government about the standing barter arrangements with the Soviet Union and its allies 4- largely arms and oil in exchange for coffee. But the supplies are needed, and the close alliance with the Soviet Union isxinlike ly to be seriously question ed as long as the govern ment feels itself a target of a U.S. and conservative Arab 'cold war.' To be continued !ndcr:..-V"" fctntir4' hasyet emerged, but the i c i ;i uicMs ui Lioyan involve ment has gotten short shrift, and it has become clear that many Nigerians as well as foreign im migrants were involved in Marwa's sect. The situa tion,,, noted one local sociologist, was "a social time-bomb waiting to go off." SPECIALttEPORT How Strong Is The Dergue? Parti AN Admidst the com plex political tangle in the Horn of Africa, few ques tions are more difficult to answer with any certainty than that of the strength of the government which presently rules Ethiopia . from Addis Ababa. Run by a military committee (called 'the Dergue') that emerged in the revolution against Haile Selassie's feudal regime in 1974, the Addis government has had to cope with numerous armed insurrections and profound ideological struggles, as well as drought, famine, and all the chronic economic pro- CLOTHESr HIS, HARDWARE; SOUTH HOLLYWOOD, HER$, ytEE.-BtVERW WHS. , wuiMMmwia.i.1 n.n ' - , , .,....:.,. -VI. .. fl y' The Time Is We'll Show You TV i Just ask for our 'NOW Account' brochure at any ' . : i n u : i Farmers Bank location. We want you to see if Checking with Interest is right for you, because with us... You're Somebody 0 MECHANICS & FARMERS BANK nail 3 - I - 14. : 116 East Parrish Street 615 Fayetteville Street 1 41 I.E. Chapel Hill Street' UcatedSUiewidf In: y 'Jm tmT uriaiuu MUM t" , SeM;. . .... Aiikyf .... -! I VWOl II NC? A special place in your mind, a mellow attitude ond a liaht. smooth tostp-; . I nat s Visting. 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March 7, 1981, edition 1
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