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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 141-7-253
TITLE:             The Socialist Workers' and Farmers' Party of Nigeria: A Communist Party with a Mind of Its Own
BY:                RSR
DATE:              1966-8-10
COUNTRY:           Israel
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  

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10 August 1966

THE SOCIALIST WORKERS' AND FARMERS' PARTY OF NIGERIA:
A COMMUNIST PARTY WITH A MIND OF ITS OWN

The twin coups which have toppled two Nigerian governments
in the last seven months have diverted attention from one of the
more interesting, albeit less spectacular, components of Nigeria
politics. This is the Socialist Workers' and Farmers' Party
(SWAFP), the Moscow oriented communist party of Nigeria which
was founded in August 1963 and which, by November of that year,
had enrolled a membership of close to 200 0 in some twenty
separate groups around the country.

Unquestionably, the SWAFP owes its survival primarily to the
discretion its leaders have shown in locking horns with the
government in power. For, elsewhere in black Africa, more
self-assertive Communist parties are faced with virtual eclipse,
in a state of grim disillusionment, or have achieved only embryonic
development. In the Sudan, Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, and Madagascar,
communists are officially interdicted; the Sino-Soviet dispute has
so riven the organizational hierarchies in both Cameroon and Senegal
that the parties there have lapsed into inactivity; and the Sawaba
Party of Niger has been forced into silence by determined
governmental opposition. Only in Nigeria is there a party with a
reasonably intelligent leadership, trained cadres, propaganda
outlets, and good trade union connections.

Another reason for the comparative success of the SWAFP is
that it is first and finally a Nigerian party; it is the puppet of
neither Peking nor Moscow, and though certainly strongly inclined
towards the ideological position of the latter, it does not seem to
encourage any Soviet meddling in internal affairs.
The SWAFP has not attained its position as the most prominent
communist group in Nigeria because, of any dearth of rival pretenders.
Only a year after the formation of the SWAFP, in August 1964, left-

[page 2]

wing trade unionist Michael Imoudu formed the Nigerian Labor Party
which also styles itself the Marxist-Leninist Party of all
Nigerian Toilers. Imoudu has consistently declined to get involved
with the SWAFP which he feels is "bourgeois", and the
Secretary-General of the SWAFP, Tunji Otegbeye, has, for his part, declared
that the two groups could never merge, Another contentious rival
is the small and so far inactive Communist Party of Nigeria (CPN)
which has received neither Soviet nor Chinese endorsement. The
CPN has denounced the SWAFP as "the latest effort in a long series
of opportunist and egoistic acts which have contributed much
towards disrupting the Socialist movement in Nigeria." Nor
are the Chinese completely ignoring the "education" of the most
populous country in black Africa: on 31 May, the West African
Pilot announced that eight Nigerians would leave in June for two
weeks in Peking. The trip is being sponsored by the
Nigeria-Chinese Friendship Association.

One measure of the superiority of the SWAFP over its
competitors is the enthusiasm with which the Soviet Union has supported
it. Just a year after the Party’s foundation, in September 1964,
the appearance of an article in Problems of _Peace and Socialism
by the party's Secretary-General entitled "The Revolutionary
Movement in Nigeria", was almost immediately followed by the
publication of a lengthy piece in Pravda by SWAFP Vice-Chairman
Wahab Goodluck on "The Great Struggle of the Peoples of Africa."[1]
The virtually simultaneous appearance of two articles by
representatives of the same group in official organs of the CPSU can hardly
have been coincidental, and can be viewed as tantamount to Soviet
endorsement of the SWAFP's declared aims. Further evidence of
Moscow's approval of the party is supplied by the presence of a
delegation led by Secretary-General Otegbeye himself at the 23rd
CPSU Congress last April. Having led the delegation to the Soviet
capital, Otegbeye availed himself of the opportunity to warn against
foreign interference in the affairs of African nations under
the pretence of chiding the Chinese to flatter his hosts.
Criticizing Chinese tactics in the developing world, he declared
that "definite circles assign a secondary place to the working
class as compared with the national liberation front", a
mistake that has resulted in a "wrong orientation in Asia, Africa
and Latin America." Otegbeye went on to chide Chou En-lai without
actually mentioning his name: "Whoever advances the idea that
Africa is ripe for universal revolution underestimates the
objective factors at work on our continent." Thus, while what
Otegbeye said in Moscow is seemingly as innocuous as a bishop
commending the virtues of alcoholic abstention, it was in fact
a patent espousal of Soviet revisionism.

The SWAFP and Domestic Politics

The rather unmilitant attitude advanced by Otegbeye at the
Soviet Party Congress is symptomatic of the SWAFP's conception of

----------------------------------------

1) For a detailed analysis of these articles of. Robert Nassal
"The First Steps of the SWAFP, the Communist Party of Nigeria"
Eit et Quest, no. 342 16-31 May, 1965

[page 3]

itself as a force in Nigerian political life. Not only does it
subscribe to Khrushchev revisionism in its purest form on the
international level, it also embraces domestic policies which
would make the true-blue hardline Maoist shrink. In his article in
Problems of Peace and Socialism, Otegbeye notes that the struggle
for complete independence and socialism "can take on various forms,
ranging from struggle in Parliament all the way to armed struggle.
Everything depends on the experience of the people and the methods
which the leading classes have chosen to fight the people." The
SWAFP has also declared itself to be strongly against tribalism,
and is deeply concerned with the inculcation of a spirit of unity
within the country, In an interview with Radio Moscow broadcast
when he was in the USSR for the Party Congress, Secretary-General
Otegbeye declared that "the chief aspect that can make for unity
is the correct orientation of our people so that they accept
themselves as Nigerian, substituting fear of domination of one
side or the other for a new spirit of cooperation."

The SWAFP and the January Coup

Strangely, the party that might have been expected to protest
most vigorously against the military takeover in Nigeria at the
beginning of the year proved in the event to be among its most
generous boosters. Although Otegbeye was jailed for a brief time,
he was released after a sojourn of only ten days, and the
indignity was quickly forgotten. Shortly after his release, the
SWAFP came out with a strong statement of support for the new
regime.

Countrymen, it is your patriotic duty to educate
the masses that the passing away of the last government
was to the best interest of the people; that what the
army did was in reply to the wishes of the masses; that
Nigeria is one country. Every patriot of Nigeria should
give the necessary cooperation to the new Military Regime
so that it will be able to eliminate the evils of the old.
The Socialist Workers' and Farmers' Party pledges its
unreserved support for any measures taken to ward off
foreign intervention at this crucial stage in the nation's
life. The SWAFP has offered its support and assistance to
the new government. If the military regime takes up that
offer and moves decisively to extend democracy to the working
people and break the grip of colonialism, in both foreign
and domestic matters, it will receive the firm support of
the Nigerian masses.[1]

Future of the SWAFP

With the situation in Nigeria as fluid as it presently is,
it would be fatuous to predict the future of the SWAFP, Through-

-------------------

1) A Langa "Nigeria; Behind the Coup" The African Communist,
Second Quarter 1966

[page 4]

out the current crisis, the party has remained studiously quiet,
neither endorsing nor condemning the new regime of Colonel Gowon.
Judging by its past performance, however, the Party will play a
waiting game until the direction of the country under the
leadership of the second Sandhurst graduate to preside over its fortunes
becomes somewhat clearer. It is not, however, going too far to
surmise that the attitude of the SWAFP will be primarily
determined by its confidence in the regime's ability to unify the
country while protecting it from any foreign attempts at
domination. Presumably this would include any efforts by
Otegbeye's erstwhile Moscow hosts.

RSR

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