Dear friends and comrades,
Many of you will know about
Femi’s campaign for reinstatement. If you don‚t then please
read the background notes below. The Justice for Femi Campaign has
been quite successful. Several Nigerian newspapers have covered our
work and printed the international petition. The Nigerian Labour Congress
is now backing the campaign and the British Trade Union Congress are
considering whether they too can back it. But the truth is that there
is a long way to go.
Femi is a lifelong trade
unionist and socialist. He has fought against every military government
in Nigeria for the last twenty-five years. For this he has been rewarded
with more that two years in prison, where he was been beaten, starved
and tortured. Through this Femi has remained a committed campaigner
for the Nigerian working class, editing Labour Militant in the 1980s
and then as a founding member of the radical, anti-privatisation National
Conscience Party.
However as a result of
the dismissal and victimisation he has been forced onto the breadline.
He relies on the kindness of friends and family, who themselves face
great hardship. We are keen to raise money to help both Femi and the
campaign for his reinstatement. It is also hoped that if enough money
is raised Femi will be invited to England for a speaking tour. Making
a donation to the campaign will hand a lifeline to one of Nigeria’s
most important and courageous trade unionists and activist.
Please make any donation
you can through the bank account below, and email us (at the address
below) to let us know what you have been able to contribute. You can
either send cheques to the above address (payable to Justice for Femi
Campaign) or make direct payments to this account:
Bank: Halifax plc
Account name: Justice for Femi Campaign
Account no. 00197760 Sort Code 11-14-35 Roll Number D/94561103-8
For transfers in US$ please
instruct your bank to make the payment via the banks US correspondent,
American Express Bank, New York. Quote Halifax plc SWIFT code HLFXGB22
and the account details above.
For transfers in all other currencies please arrange payments to be
made via Bank of Scotland, Glasgow quoting:
Beneficiary Bank: Bank
of Scotland, Glasgow. SWIFT code BOFSGB2S
For Account of: Halifax plc. Account No 53133
Beneficiary: The account details listed above
Yours fraternally,
Leo Zeilig and Dele Olawole
Background information
Employed in 1993 to work
as a lecturer at the Polytechnic in Ibadan, Femi's work was always
highly regarded and he has continued to produce original research
on the labour movement and globalisation. But in December last year
he received a letter stating that his work was "no longer required"
on the grounds that the Polytechnic was being "restructured and
reorganised". The Polytechnic’s own procedures for dismissal
were not followed, a committee to investigate the dismissal, as stipulated
by the college authorities, was not established and his dismissal
went unanswered.
The decision to remove
him was transparently a political one. Femi has been a persistent
and trenchant critic of those who run Oyo State, namely the Alliance
for Democracy. In August 2000 the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics
(ASUP) helped to organise a strike to demand an increase in wages
to match the nationally approved wage structure for tertiary institutions.
Femi was a key figure in organising that strike and as a leading campaigner
in Nigeria he was a source of inspiration to others on the strike.
Within a few days of the
strike being called, students independently held a huge and popular
demonstration in support of the strike's demands. Police attacked
the demonstration. The government alleged in the aftermath that students
had destroyed state property. The Governor of the State personally
denounced the students who he claimed had been led astray by leftwing
and Marxist lecturers. A Commission of Inquiry was set up, and made
the recommendation that radical lecturers and students must be "flushed
out" of the Polytechnic of Ibadan. Femi’s dismissal followed
the publication of the report.
Despite the Polytechnic's
claim that his dismissal was simply a question of "restructuring",
another report by a Visitation Panel recommended that more lecturers
be employed in Femi’s old department, the Department of Business
and Public Administration. Legal action has been taken by Femi’s
supporters in Nigeria but the reality is that the judiciary is not
independent of the executive arm of the government; and the government
employs and pays the judges. Despite this Femi is still determined
to take his case through the courts.
Femi's suffering is that of his nation. Nigeria has undergone a political
transition to a "democratic" government -- a civilian regime
-- for which activists and campaigners like Femi have spent their
lives fighting. It is in these circumstances that those campaigning
for real democracy find themselves. The perplexing paradox that haunts
Nigeria today is that everything has changed yet everything stays
the same. Multi-National Companies still act with impunity in the
oil rich south supported by a national government that claims it is
committed to democracy and equality. As Femi has said, "the civilian
government in Nigeria has proved to be more intolerant than military
dictatorship".
The international campaign
calling for the reinstatement of Femi Aborisade is a crucial fight.
It is a way of supporting the continued struggle for democratic rights
in Nigeria while expressing our solidarity with a person who, in his
relentless battle for the working class and poor of Nigeria, is a
lesson for us all. It is a terrible indictment of the current government
that one of its most remarkable individuals has been forced into terrible
hardship.
Justice for Femi Campaign
justiceforfemi@hotmail.com
Flat 24 Vista Apartments,
23 Woodlands Crescent,
Greenwich, London SE10 9UH
+44 (0)7759 220157
