Cold War in Nigeria

Dariye
From a friend's blog: J. Here.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

How the hell is he back as governor????

See BBC News

My opinion: he should be tried for crimes against humanity.My people, why are we so easily bought over.Na condition?How we go make condition betta?Only in Nigeria!

My Response to The Emerging Cold War Pandemic in Nigeria

In diplomatic/international relations’… terms, there are three types of war.

Hot War: this is actual warfare. All talks and compromises have failed and the armies are fighting.

Warm War: this is where talks are still going on and there would always be a chance of a peaceful outcome but armies, navies etc. are being fully mobilized and war plans are being put into operation ready for the command to fight….war still a possibility anyway.

Cold War: this term is used to describe the relationship that existed (and probably still exists, with the recent economic and military come – back of Russia) between America and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1980. Do note that USSR in 1945 was Russia post-1917 and included all the various countries that now exist individually (Ukraine, Georgia etc) but after the war they were part of this huge country up until the collapse of the Soviet Union (the other name for the USSR). Although the Cold War is the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War Two, this jingoism is still been used to depict the existence of any relation of this kind, whether the relationship in question is between nations or individuals.

The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some

Although neither side ever fought the other – for the consequences would be too appalling - but they did ‘fight’ for their beliefs using client states who fought for their beliefs on their behalf e.g. South Vietnam was anti – Communist and was supplied by America during the war while North Vietnam was pro – Communist and fought the south (and the Americans) using weapons from Communist Russia or Communist China. In Afghanistan, the Americans supplied the rebel Afghans after the Soviet Union invaded in 1979 while they never physically involved themselves; thus, avoiding a direct clash with the Soviet Union (the one time this process nearly broke down was the Cuban Missile Crisis).

So why were these two super powers (America and Russia) so distrustful of the other?

When you are thinking about the causes of the Cold War, the most important thing is to separate in your mind the long term underlying factors from the series of clashes and misunderstandings which actually triggered the breakdown in relations. It is impossible to identify a time when the Cold War ‘broke out’. After 1945, a series of clashes and misunderstandings meant that the ideological differences widened more and more into open hostility.

For more than 40 years (1945-1989) the USSR was in conflict with the West. But that conflict never came to open warfare (‘hot war’), because the existence of nuclear weapons made hot war MAD (‘Mutually Assured Destruction’). Although, both sides tried to undermine and destroy each other, they dared not let it go to actual fighting – that would have destroyed them.

Logic would dictate that as the USA and the USSR fought as allies during World War Two, their relationship after the war would be firm and friendly. This never happened and any appearance that these two powers were friendly during the war is illusory.

Before the war, America had depicted the Soviet Union as almost the devil-incarnate. The Soviet Union had depicted America likewise so their ‘friendship’ during the war was simply the result of having a mutual enemy - Nazi Germany.
There is no doubt; the USSR and the USA were separated by a huge ideological gulf. So the only thing that held the allies together was the need to destroy Hitler’s Nazis. Given their underlying differences – when Hitler was finally defeated in 1945 – a Cold War was perhaps inevitable.

The USA was a capitalist democracy; the USSR was a communist dictatorship. Both sides believed that they held the key to the future happiness of the human race. Neither was conflict new to the two sides. Stalin could not forgive Britain and America for helping the Whites against the Bolsheviks in the Civil Wars (1918-1921), and he believed that they had delayed D-Day in the hope that the Nazis would destroy Russia. In the meantime, Britain and America blamed the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 for starting the Second World War. Also, the two sides’ aims for Germany were different – Stalin wanted Germany to be ruined by reparations, and he wanted a buffer of friendly states round Russia to prevent a repeat of the Nazi invasion of 1941. Britain and America wanted a democratic and capitalist Germany as a world trading partner, strong enough to stop the spread of Communism westwards.

While defensive and counter – defensive alliances (NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization) against Russia; (the German Democratic Republic – East Germany) against America were formed. After the Berlin Blockade, the pattern of foreign relations as a ‘Cold War’ was set: the USA and the USSR acted as rivals in a competition for world domination.

That war has never ended

The Cold War in Nigeria: The Case of Plateau State

While there has been a varying degree of cold war between political gladiators in Nigeria since 1999, the cases of Plateau and Anambra states stands out

It is worth noting that Dariye as the governor of plateau state has had problem with Obasanjo, the current president. When he was accused of looting money – the ecological fund – he pointed at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a party through which Obasanjo came in to power, both in the 1999 and 2003 general elections. Part of the ecological funds was used to sponsor PDP’s campaign for the 2003 general election

There is no gainsaying that Joshua Chibi Dariye has committed some heinous crime against humanity. He is also corrupt – stealing about US$ 9 million, from a state like plateau is no small crime. Given that the condition in Jos, the state capital is so terrible, only equal in comparison to Yola, my state capital (I have been to Yola only once in my life, and that was June 2006), the predicaments of the local governments is better imagined than told.

Observing from a close range, (myself, having spent some great deal of my lifetime in Jos: I left Jos, August 2006) one can assume to have some acceptable picture and command of analysis of the whole scenario.

It is a truism that all the crime committed in plateau were committed right under Draiye’s nose.

The case of plateau is however an attempt to canvass for dominance, an attempt to change the status quo. How? The state is viewed as the only non – Muslim dominated northern Nigerian state. Empirical evidence has confirmed to the rumored circulation of letters from eminent Nigerian Muslims, urging fellow faithfuls to buy, no matter the cost, houses, landed properties etc. in plateau, especially, within the state capital. Why? To increase the numerical figure of one religion at the expense of the other.

Moreover, appointment to political offices, the question of looting, non execution of any economic project etc has been the avoidable consequences of the corrupt leadership of Dariyes’ administration.

………crises has however emerged, with different reasons been ascribed to them.

Dariye, while trying to curb the anomaly – a result of external forces to create tension within the state (actually senator Ibrahim Mantu is at the fore – front of this move, including many others that were to benefit from Dariye’s fall) – seized the opportunity to intensify his looting skills…..

…the result was his indictment (in Nigeria and abroad) by the court of law and his subsequent removal from the seat of power.


Whatever has happened before his order for reinstatement by Jos high court, is another big plus for the Nigerian Judiaciary. It signifies that the court can no longer be muzzled to do the bidding of the presidency. But it can never be a justification for his coming back as the governor of that raped state.

At the end, the link between Nigeria's internal cold war and that of the USA vs Russia are:

They (the perceived/real enemies) initially seemed to be friends;
They wanted each other for selfish reasons;
Each party concerned believed he was wiser;
Each also believes he was right;
Both parties are unforgiving;
Both pretends to use the ideally constitutional means to resolve the crises;
They used different means to destroy each;
Sometime, the innocents became the victim;
At the end, someone must surely be ousted out.

I must confess that, I am in concord with my friends’ point of view: Dariye doesn’t have the moral stand/fiber to govern any state in Nigeria, not again.