In Nigeria, power still flows from barrel of gun

Forget election promises, advertising, televised debates or even cheap mud-slinging and pork-barreling. The first thing you need to win an election in Nigeria is plenty of guys with guns.

And nowhere are there more thugs for hire than here in the Niger Delta, where resentment of the government is high and the stakes are even higher -- it’s home to the nation’s vast oil reserves.

For the most violent intimidation operations, politicians call on “the boys in the creek,” militants who roam the region’s waterways with machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles.

But sometimes the planning of a political operation calls for brains. That’s when they hire “the boys on the campus,” the armed university “confraternities.” With names such as the Vikings, the Klansmen Konfraternity, the Black Axe or the Pirates, they are more like cult gangs.

Then there are “the boys in the street” -- school dropouts, for run-of-the-mill intimidation such as beating up political opponents and their supporters.

“It’s all about violence,” said Jackie, who described himself as a former “scarlet,” a leader of the Buccaneers cult, declining to give his surname. “The Nigerian election is not like an American election. If a politician wants to seek office, he needs to get some boys to work for him.”

Jackie, a sociology graduate and engineer in the oil industry, described the violence in heroic terms.

“It’s about fighting oppression in the system,” he said, adding that people turned to violence when democracy failed them.

With today’s presidential and parliamentary elections, Nigeria hopes to see its first transfer of power from one civilian administration to another, an important test of its democracy as President Olusegun Obasanjo steps down. But the credibility of the vote is in doubt after observers reported rigging and violence last weekend in state-level elections, most pronounced in the Delta region.

Late Friday, in neighboring Bayelsa state, militants attacked the state government buildings, police headquarters and an electoral office in the capital, Yenagoa. There were reports of heavy gunfire and explosions. The state’s governor, Goodluck Jonathan, is running as the ruling party’s vice presidential candidate.

Analysts say rigged elections would undercut Nigeria’s faltering steps to democracy and trigger more militancy and violence as people lose faith in the process.

“The April elections face a serious prospect of failure, which in turn threatens the Nigerian nation itself,” a report by the International Crisis Group said last month. It warned that widespread popular rejection of the results could cause violence, the collapse of state authority and even a slide back to military rule.

Jackie still acts as a “consultant” to Buccaneers, and most of his boys have been so busy with the elections that it’s hard to track them down. He did introduce Emmanuel, 27, and Vincent, 26: bespectacled, earnest-looking young men, both mechanical engineering graduates, both jobless. They discussed the campus violence -- killings, hacking off limbs and shootouts among gangs -- on condition that their last names not be used.

A stream of political emissaries tried to hire them and other Buccaneers before the state elections, offering money and good government jobs after an election victory, Emmanuel said.

“The activities are like going to their opponents to burn their houses, killing their children and possibly killing their opponents,” he said, as though explaining a simple math problem to a not-very-bright student. He said he declined the offers and that groups such as the Vikings and Klansmen were doing the job.

Jackie said politicians paid as much as $78,000 to campus cult groups for their services. He took pains to point out that the Buccaneers were idealists arrayed against an oppressive regime (but said other confraternities were more criminal and willing to work for the highest bidder).

“It has to be violent because this is the Nigerian situation,” he said. “That’s the way it is here. You make someone understand that: ‘You are supporting the government candidate for your own selfish reasons. And I say you should support this candidate who will have the interests of the community at heart. If you don’t listen to me, I’ll bring violence and you will run.’ ”

The “boys in the creek” know a thing or two about how to “bring violence.” The militants hiding in camps along the creeks snaking through the Delta grew powerful when politicians armed them to rig the 2003 election.

Now they are involved in large-scale oil stealing -- known as bunkering -- importing sophisticated weapons and, increasingly, kidnapping foreign oil workers for ransom, with Americans fetching a premium.

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Into the swamp

The launching point to meet the boys in the creek is a foul-smelling stretch of black, sole-gripping sand in a part of town so bad that locals warn against hanging about a moment longer than necessary.

Our speedboat weaved rapidly through narrow waterways, and low-hanging mangrove branches slapped us about the head as the pilot laughed uproariously.

Militant leader Ateke Tom, who claimed responsibility for two police station bombings that killed several men on the eve of the state elections, is based on a desolate stretch of mangrove swamp swarming with crabs and mosquitoes. He claimed to have 2,500 men at five bases, though only several dozen were visible.

Wearing a brown velour tracksuit, a baseball cap and a chunky gold pendant shaped like Bambi, he sat at a small wooden table with several cellphones and a bottle on the table, sipping kaikai, homemade palm vodka as rough as lighter fluid.

Behind him slouched three sullen guards with machine guns and assault rifles. Overhead, thunder rumbled.

He said he had helped Gov. Peter Odili rig elections here in Rivers state in 2003, but the politician reneged on payment, including jobs for his boys.

“They used me to rig the election and I did it for them. I checked everything, I paid people. I did so many things. Everyone was afraid of me and the PDP won the elections,” he said, referring to the People’s Democratic Party, which also controls the national government.

Last year, government forces attacked Ateke Tom on his home turf in the town of Okrika, outside the state capital Port Harcourt, killing 68 men, after which he and his boys “went to the creek” to fight the government, setting up camps in the swamp.

But their location can hardly be a secret from the authorities, with oil company helicopters frequently buzzing about overhead.

Ateke Tom said he had no regrets about the bombings last week. “I’m not a criminal. If you are fighting, people will die, just like Odili killed my men.”

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‘Not free and fair’

On April 14, puzzled constituents wandered the streets of Okrika asking whether anyone knew where they could vote in the state elections.

There were no ballot boxes or voting materials until closing time, 3 p.m., residents said. Opposition supporters were angry, but even a ruling party supporter expressed dismay that he could not cast a vote.

“It’s like cheating from INEC,” said Victor Williams, 30, referring to the Independent National Electoral Commission. “No, it’s not free and fair. I’m disappointed.”

Williams, who backs the PDP, said the party had little support in the area but was declared the winner. A better way to win real votes, he said, would be building roads, schools and hospitals.

Opposition supporter Andrew Sekibo, 23, a business administration graduate, said the militants had turned to violence and kidnapping to protest the lack of basic government services in the Delta.

“People believe that kidnapping white-skinned people like you will get the message across to the international community,” he told a reporter. “I don’t blame the boys. I blame the government.”

The payoff for those who win office in the Delta is a license to loot. Politician Victor Fingesi, who defected to the opposition before the 2003 elections, said “practically every high government official” in the Odili government -- of which he was a member -- as well as generals and other powerful figures, stole oil.

Fingesi said a few ruling party people warned before the 2003 elections that arming the militants would create a monster. The boys in the creek are now so well-armed that they can overpower the military in skirmishes and defend their territory, he said in an interview at Port Harcourt’s Polo Club, where he stables his 10 horses.

“They exchange crude for guns,” he said of the militants. “There’s a bigger threat. People are enriching themselves by stealing oil and they’re becoming as powerful as the government. Some day, they will challenge the government.”

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robyn.dixon@latimes.com