18 March 2009

Discontent against former President Olusegun Obasanjo surfaces today in London where Nigerians plan to protest his invitation to deliver a lecture at the London School of Economics (LSE) on the unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Other African students, from the Maghreb down the Sahara, and beyond, are lining behind Nigerians who are aggrieved that Obasanjo's eight-year rule in Africa's most populous country did more harm to Black solidarity once solidified in the 1960s by Nigeria's shining examples.

The LSE Students' Union has asked the school's Governing Council to cancel the lecture scheduled for today because there is a threat to public order.

Both the African Students Union (ASU) and the Nigerian Students Union (NSU) are bent on pouring cold water on the event.

The London police on Tuesday granted a permit to the protesters who want to lay bare the much-covered ills of the Obasanjo administration, especially rights abuses and alleged corruption.

Police are mobilising between 300 and 400 officers because they anticipate trouble.

Obasanjo plans to address students and faculty members on the situation in the DRC, for which he is a Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon.

Some Nigerians feel the UN honour should not be extended to Obasanjo, whose reign was characterised by ethno-religious conflicts, state-induced insurgency in the Deep South, arbitrary killings by security agencies, and alleged state-sponsored assassinations.

His administration was equally blemished on one hand by poor human rights records - at the height of which was the wiping out by soldiers of two communities in Zaki Biam (Benue State) and Odi (Bayelsa) - and on the other by harsh economic policies that made poverty worse.

Gary Smith, a London police officer, wrote in an email to the Nigeria Liberty Forum (NLF) that its application to protest has been granted; thereby setting the stage for a showdown between the NLF and the LSE.

The LSE authorities have withdrawn press passes previously granted Nigerian journalists to cover the event.

One of the emails cited by Saharareporters, an online publications, says: "Unfortunately the LSE has restricted the entry requirements for this event so that entry is open only to the LSE staff and students. Therefore, we can no longer issue any media tickets for this event.

"Subject to no technical problems with the recording, a podcast will be available for anyone to listen to two-three working days after the event."

That is the second time in the past week the LSE has tried to prevent the public from participating in the event, which has generated a lot of controversy.

The LSE, according to the protest organisers, had invited them for a meeting last week to request that they present a "letter of complaint" to Obasanjo on the high table and thereafter walk out of the venue without disrupting the event.

But Kayode Ogundamisi, who leads the group, said the NLF rejected the proposal the LSE made "just because a cruel African dictator happens to be in the good books of hypocritical British elite colleges, politicians, and intellectuals."

Ogundamisi assured that the protest would hold as planned, and asked the West to stop its "double standards" towards African dictators, as the hypocrisy is known to ordinary Africans.

He urged the LSE to withdraw Obasanjo's invitation or face a showdown that includes LSE students who may confront Obasanjo at the venue.

Two groups from the DRC joined the NLF in denouncing Obasanjo's reception by the LSE.

Congolese Resistance Council and the Mbongwana Group both urged their members to protest the presence of Obasanjo at the LSE.