CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA
LAGOS -- Preparations for the scheduled December election in Nigeria are .occurring in a tense social and political atmosphere. The general strike last June [see orld Outlook June 12, 19, September 11] was a very important event in the life of the country and it left a deep impression,. The hostility of the masses towards the ruling layers is generally shown quite openly and the government is turning more and-more. toward outright police methods, above all with trade - -union militants and members” of the: ‘political vanguard. CBee - Since the: 1959 elections; “the ‘political scene has ‘changed. New parties have been formed, splits have taken place; and it is possible that shifts registered on.a regional level and at certain gatherings will find a reflection on the electoral plane. It goes without saying. that despite an agreement announced here recently to “¢onduct the elections honestly, there. is not. the slightest chance of preventing even spectacular triekery and frauds -- including, of _ course, the use. of police pressures.
This. is all the more likely since various parties dominate the different regions and each one will try to liquidate the opposition in its own territory. It is sufficient to note in this connection the manipulation of population figures for electoral purposes in the various. regions. The census. of 1952+53. put the number of inhabitants in the country at .31,000,0003 the most. recent estimates listed 40, 000, 0005 but. now,, the total. is claimed to be 55,000,000 a figure . ‘that.. ‘seems. exaggerated. even. taking. into. account the nigh. birth rate.
The aspect that appears most paradoxical in the elections is that the two parties which have collaborated in the federal government -- the NPC [Northern People's Congress] and the NCNC [National Convention of Nigerian Citizens ] -- head two opposing electoral: blocs, The ‘NCNC is in a front with the AG [Action Group] in addition to the NEPU" [Northern Elements Progressive Union] to which it was already allied in 1959. The Action Group, which retains greater popularity than the other big parties, held a wider distribution of seats on a national scale in 1959 but it was excluded from the federal government and later also from the Western region which it controlled for atime. In reality the Action Group is the only big party everywhere in opposition and its leader Obafemi Awolowo remains in prison under a very heavy sentence (even if a little paradoxically the main, street in the Federal Territory continues to carry his name ) . ,
Against the NCNC-AG-NEPU bloc, which has taken the name UPGA [United Progressive Grand Alliance], stands the NNA [Nigerian National Alliance] which includes the: reactionary conservatives of the NPC -- who dominate the North and head the Federal government -and the NNDP [Nigerian National Democratic partyl which was formed after a split last March from the AG. Samuel Akintola is the best known leader of the NNDP. Another: participant in the NNA bloc is
the DP [Dynamic party], which claims to be socialistic but which in reality includes dangerous elements, even fascist types.
- To complete the picture, candidates will be entered by the SwaFP [Socialist Workers and Farmers party], a Khrushchevist grouping which is running under its own banner after being turned down on tts offer for an alliance with the AG and the UPGA.
The young NLP [Nigerian Labour party], founded by the former left wing: of the SWAFP, has decided despite its recent constitution -and practical difficulties, to run a candidate in Lagos -~ the well-known trade-union leader M.A.O.Imoudu. It will probably run a few others in another region,
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