The Nigerian Scam

In light of the recent #EndHunger Protests around the country, we talked to one of the organisers and director of the #TakeItBack Movement ( @AyowoleSanyaolu ) to assess the politico-economic conditions leading up to the mass action, historic (in)actions of the Unions and its effects on the citizenry.

We also discussed possible actions that could reinvigorate mass consciousness and deepen on-the-ground political work towards a fundamental change.

Back from the January Hiatus, we discuss recent developments in the ongoing Ecowas crisis. Why is Ecowas in crisis? Were the junta run countries of the Sahel right to (ecow)exit the regional body? What is Ecowas actually good for? Should the body even exist?

Also, if you stay till the end of the show, you'll hear about our exciting new partnership (not with Wagner group, but...)

In our final recording of the year, we consider a little-remembered institution that laid the foundation for many state-led scams to come: the colonial and post-independence era agricultural produce marketing boards.

We discussed why they were founded by the colonial state, why they became indispensable to the post-independence regional governments, how they (sort of) ended, and whether they are inherently fraudulent or can be repurposed. Enjoy... And happy holidays!

**The cover poster is one of a series of more than 200, commissioned and published by the British government's Empire Marketing Board between 1926 and 1933. The EMB's main functions were to research the production, trade and use of goods throughout the British Empire and to promote the idea of 'Buying Empire'. It organised poster campaigns, exhibitions and shop window displays, 'Empire shopping weeks', lectures, radio talks, school tours, and advertisements in the national and local press.

This image, by designer Gerald Pryse, shows an exotic and romanticised view of palm oil production in Nigeria. International trade in palm oil began in the early 1800s and became the principal cargo for slave ships after the abolition of the slave trade. The development of industry in Britain had increased demand for palm oil as a machine lubricant, and trade increased rapidly. As people in Europe began to take sanitation and hygiene more seriously, demand for soap also increased, resulting in the production of oil for soap manufacture by companies such as Lever Brothers. In the early 1870s, exports of palm oil from the Niger Delta totalled about 30,000 tonnes per year. In 1897, competition for control of Nigeria's oil production resulted in the British raid on the Nigerian kingdom of Benin, and the notorious looting of the Benin bronzes. By 1911, British west African territories exported 87,000 tonnes, and Nigeria remained the world's largest exporter of palm oil until 1934.

The Empire Marketing Board was closed down in September 1933, partly as a result of government cuts, although colonial governments had also proved reluctant to join it. Manchester Art Gallery was given an almost full set of the posters in 1935. Produced by some of the best artists and designers of the day, they were collected by the gallery as an example of outstanding British design and many are visually stunning. However, seen from today's perspective, their promotion of an imperial world view and use of stereotypical images of people and places makes for often uncomfortable viewing.

We discussed the protests that accompanied the passing of the Afrobeatz recording artist, Mohbad, as well as the dark side of the Nigerian music industry (and discovered how this intersects with the origin story of @OAG).

Was there ever a pseudo-anarchist character to Naira Marley, as some observers (see references) proposed? Amid the current economic crisis, could one argue that 'the youths' were protesting about the 'wrong' Naira?

References:

On the politics of Marlianism: https://www.africasacountry.com/2020/10/good-influence

A critique of the politics of Marlianism:

https://africasacountry.com/2020/08/naira-marley-is-no-revolutionary

On social non-movements:

In this episode, we try to think through the unfolding regional crisis brought about by the (latest) coup in Niger. What do we know about the coup so far? Why is Ecowas beating the drums of war? Should these recent coups give us hope for the future of popular sovereignty and socialism in West Africa?

Some readings:

This is the first of a two-part episode examining what the Nigerian Left learned from the Obidients. To tackle this, we review a series of articles about the Labour Party and Peter Obi that were written by Nigerian Left essayists and organization both before and after the elections.

In this episode, we put @SaeeduH on the hot-seat to discuss his recent article for @Africaisacountry on the ideological and economic legacies of the Buhari administration (we also challenge @SLASHER_OAG on whether Buharism and the Lagos Model suggest that the ruling classes have adopted a more complex mode of legitimation than the classic you chop, I chop model).

Is there a perspective from which Buhari's economic policies actually succeeded? Has Tinubu come to abolish Buhari-ism or to fulfill it? Why did some commentators think that a self-described 'radical-conservative' member of the 'Kaduna mafia' was a socialist? And why do Nigerians know so little about the various intellectual traditions that have influenced their political class?

Enjoy.

Meanwhile, we also preview some of our exciting new announcements, including our upcoming reading group on Nigerian political economy...

References:

In the second volume of our 'scam hall of fame' mini-series, we explore a classic Nigerian haux that might not have been the most daring or expensive, but was certainly the weirdest: the time Kwara State came up with the ingenious idea of importing white Zimbabwean farmers (along with tons of cows and machinery) ostensibly to set up commercial farms in the state.

Now a decade after the farms were inaugurated -- with the forced displacement of thousands of indigenous Kwaran farmers -- and after millions of dollars of state investment, the majority of farms established by the white Zimbos have now, predictably, collapsed. What inspired this laughable and ultimately ill-fated scheme? Was it an 'honest' mistake or a pre-medidated racket? Were Nigerian elites the victims or beneficiaries of this scam?

(Special thanks to Michael Parenti for the guest appearance).

Further reading:

@dvmilola joined us for our second film review, this time about an authorized biopic centered on Nigeria's wannabe Pinochet and so called "evil genius", Ibrahim Badamisi Babangida. We disagree about whether the emerging sub-genre of historically-based Nollywood films should strive to be objective, but ultimately agree that IBB is one of the greatest scam artists in Nigerian history. We watched it so that you don't have to (spoilers herein contained, obviously). So enjoy. 

And happy new year. 

In this episode, we revisit the Cement Armada Scandal, which we consider one of the foundational scams of the Nigerian political economy. The scandal saw the newly oil-rich post-civil war Nigerian government bumble into ordering half of the world's concrete supply, by some estimates. The arrival of hundred of cement laden ships effectively shut down the ports in Lagos for over a year,  forcing the Nigerian government to pay huge fines to real and fictitious shipping companies as a result of the delays. Involving corrupt Nigerian officials, wily shipping companies, devious British MPs, a Balkan princess,  a Czech spy, a body in the Thames, and a host of other scalawags from across the globe, the scandal 'cemented' Nigeria's international reputation as an Eldorado of fraud, among its other significant legacies.

In the first of our special series on Nigeria's foundational scams, we go through the major turning points of the scandal, debating its origins and long term impacts. 

This episode draws out the key debates that came out of James Barnett's (@jh_barnett) reflections in our previous episode, centered on the findings of his in-person interviews with bandits in Zamfara.

This week, we spoke with Kunle Wizeman Ajayi (@AjayiWizeman), former Lagos chair of the African Action Congress (AAC), about the AAC's ideology, 'structures', and electoral prospects. 

We also talked through some of the possible limitations of the AAC's strategy as well as the party's plans to respond not only to the 'obidient wave', but also to the more established obstacles: APC and PDP. 

One annoying issue with the recording (at least the first 10 minutes or so) is that the the mic kept picking up the vibration from Kunle's phone, as messages from AAC activists rolled in -- our sincere apologies. And special thanks to one of our day-one comrades, Commander Matrix, who recorded the disclaimer you'll hear in the intro. 

Enjoy. And, also...

In this episode, we spoke to radical ASUU member Temitope 'Maberu' Fagunwa (@RealMaberu), who is also an afrobeat musician, a pan-africanist and a history Lecturer at the University of Osun State, UNIOSUN. 

We discussed the NLC solidarity protest and student support for the ASUU strike, the conditions of life for lectureres amidst such strikes, the possible elitism of ASUU's demands, and whether or not ASUU can play a wider vanguard role for Nigeria's working class movement.

We also asked  Maberu about his 'Aluta' band and where his politics and music intersect. 

One for the books, this. 

(by popular demand, now liiberated for the masses)

Did Atiku shout us out?

We review some of the best (real) feedback we've received so far, and hint at future directions/collaborations.

Our tenth episode (!) considers electoral and economic questions as APC delegates arrive in Abuja:  

Are the ruling party primaries of significant to the Left? 

Should we put much stock in the Gen X 'progressives' now that the baby-boomer generals are dying out? 

Should a people's government pursue forms of industrialization in the face of climate change?

In this episode with Immaculate Abba (@thisNneoma on twitter), we interrogate the claim that Africapitalism is an attempt to develop a genuinely productive national bourgeoisie. But is it Elumelu's $100m gamble or gambit?

A year away from the general and presidential elections and the race is already heating up. Let’s speculate!

In this episode, we discuss the class and economic forces that shaped EndSARS, grapple with lingering questions hounding the movements future and investigate Emeka’s looting proclivities. And of course there was so much to talk about, we had to break the episode in two. 

OAG and Sa’eed spend the intro berating the ethnic/religious secessionist movements for being bad at history and geography and even worse at redistributive politics. Then Emeka joins in during the heart of the episode, where we offer some initial reflections on why the idea of the scam seemed an apt description for our show — and for our country (and the nation-state model more generally). 

Who independence epp?

Part 1 of The 70's Series 

In this review of the Nollywood film "'76", we discover (to no ones surprise) that Rita Dominic is one of the greatest actresses of her generation, that geriatrics are infiltrating our ranks and, that Murtala Muhammed was not a communist.  There's also some other stuff about the influence of military wives in national politics and the unheralded impact of radical ideas in 1970’s Nigeria (more on this soon..) 

In our much-anticipated comeback episode, we discuss the limitations of online politics, the (probably) now expanded surveillance capacities of our ruling elite, and why you shouldn't trust Jack Dorsey.

Additional Reading:

In this episode, recorded mid-week, we discuss #OccupyLekkiTollGate, #DefendLagos, the violent eviction of residents of Ashanti settlement, and the non-existence of class analysis in Nigeria. How should the nascent left respond to the redux of spontaneous protests? Are we jumping from hashtag to hashtag? What is our minimum program for engaging the toiling masses? Is class analysis Eurocentric? etc, etc. 

The scam has resumed at long last... In our first official episode (though still very much a working experiment), we briefly consider the so called 'Fulani herdsmen' crisis from a class perspective, before reflecting on the meaning of the 'Nigerian Scam' and its relevance to the history of the Nigerian left... Are yahoo boys fighting for reparations? Isn't the nation state, more fundamentally, a scam? What's left of the Nigerian Labour movement? etc, etc.

Intro and outro song is Recognize ft OGenius & LJ by our very own Slasher O.A.G. 

Check out his mixtape on spotify: https://soundcloud.com/slasheroag

In our second test recording, we spoke with Dami (@dvmilola) about his participation in Alausa #EndSARS, the role of capital and ideology in the protest, and about the possibility of increased and organised political engagement between the Left and the so called 'hoodlums'. 

Music credits (in order of 'appearance'):

KyenKyen Bi Adi M'awu - K. Frimpong and his Cubano Fiestas

#Letter to Corybyn - Craft D

We attempted a first episode on the historical significance of the revolt, the absence of a general strike  (unlike in #Occupy2012), the revolutionary duties of artists and celebrities, the pitfalls of leaderless organising, and on what the Nigerian Left can learn from #EndSARS.

(forgive the poor audio quality - we are yet to acquire professional production!)

Music credits (in order of 'appearance'):

KyenKyen Bi Adi M'awu - K. Frimpong and his Cubano Fiestas

Ebo Taylor - My Love and Music

Dankasa - Uppers International

Some Left Perspectives on EndSars: