POLITICAL SHIFT IN NIGERIA
In an informative article in the Manchester Guardian of November ll, Clyde Sanger, writing from Lagos, indicates some Significant shifts in the politics of Nigeria,
Tension rose during the taking of a census, since ‘the results ean signify a reapportionment of the 320 seats in parliament, At present the conservative northern area holds the majority.
The situation still remains uncertain as tension may flare again when the results are published, Last year's census had to be abandoned in face of charges from both Northerners and Easterners accusing each other of inflating their numbers,
A general strike was scheduled for November 4, It failed to come off, however, when the Joint Action Council broke up in quarrels,
The Council had held together three trade~union groupings since a
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successful general strike in September which forced the .government to set up a commission to recommend a new wage structure as well as machinery for periodic review. The new strike was projected in an effort to win an immediate interim wage increase of thirty per cent.
In return for calling off the strike, some of the trade-union leaders were given trips to Britain at government expense. However, "this should . not obscure the fact that the unions still pose the greatest threat to the coalition which has run the Federal Government for four years," Sanger de- clares,
During these four years the NPC [Northern People's Congress] under: the presidency of the Sardauna. of Sokoto, has consolidated its strength in the north, It has gained enough in the south to give the regional govern-~ ments a conservative complexion, ©
‘The NONG [National Council of Nigerian Citizens], principal coalition partner of the NPC, once a radical nationalist party led by Azikiwe, is now run by conservative elements, —
Chief Awolowo foresaw the swing to. conservatism and, as leader of. the opposition, tried to change his Action Group party. into a radical. Pan Africanist organization, This alienated conservatives in his own western region and helped provoke a split with the regional premier, Chief Samuel Akintola,. . ,
Akintolats section of the old Action Group has been renamed the UPP [United People's Party]. In coalition with the NCNC, it is known, says Sanger, "to be allied with the Sardaunats NPC,"
Sanger's general conclusions, perhaps the most interesting part of his article, are as follows:
"Even if the north is proved to contain some 25 million people and so retains a majority of seats in the Federal Parliament, the beginnings of a Socialist Party's gaining widespread strength throughout Nigeria are being foreseen by many observers, a
"Chief Awolowo was in this respect ahead of the times. The success of the September general strike, with a surprisingly strong response in the north, was more confidently hailed as the foundations for a Labour Party. The leaders of one main union group have joined with some Marxist intellectuals in a pressure group called the Nigerian Youth Congress to form the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party, which has grown suddenly strong in several towns.
"Other union leaders dislike this party's leadership and prefer to wait for a party more solidly based on the. trade unions. And it seems that from here will soon spring the country's main opposition -= and maybe future Government. Some suggest the Moslem emirates of the North are even the most vulnerable, once a populist movement attacking the disparity of wealth gets going,"
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NIGERIAN LEFT WING