Product Description
This digital document is an article from WWP-Business Opportunities in Africa & the Middle East, published by Worldwide Projects, Inc. on December 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1188 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: NIGERIA: GOVERNMENT AUTHORISES CONSTRUCTION OF FIRST PRIVATE SECTOR POWER GENERATION PROJECT, MOBIL PRODUCING NIGERIA LTD. [NIGERIA/USA] - Order #: 122899.
Publication: WWP-Business Opportunities in Africa & the Middle East (Newsletter)
Date: December 1, 1999
Publisher: Worldwide Projects, Inc.
Volume: 8Issue: 12Page: NA

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
In thirty-three years of political independence, Nigeria has been governed more than two-thirds of the time by military dictatorships. This book examines the relationship between the dictatorships and the Nigerian press. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between the press and the Muhammadu Buhari regime. Chris Ogbondah presents recent information on the institutional measures utilized by each military junta in attempts to suppress the dissemination of ideas and opinions in the press. This book also presents comprehensive information on the effects of those institutional measures on the press. Some examples are drawn from the author's own experience as a journalist in Nigeria during part of the first thirteen years of military rule. Contents: Introduction; Tradition of Press Freedom; Auiyi Ironsi and the Press; Gowon, Mohammad/Obasanjo and the Press; The Press under Buhari's Rule; Babangida and the Press; Rationales for Suppression of Expression; My 27-Hour Ordeal at an R-State Guardroom. ... Read more

Product Description
To understand Africa, you have to understand Nigeria, and few Americans understand Nigeria better than Karl Maier. In the tradition of Philip Gourevitch's bestselling We Regret to Inform You... and Redmond O'Hanlon's No Mercy, This House Has Fallen is a bracing, disturbing, evocative report on the state of Africa's most populous, potentially richest, and most dangerously dysfunctional nation.

Each year, with depressing consistency, Nigeria is declared the most corrupt state in the entire world. A nation into which billions of dollars of oil money flow, Nigeria's per capita income has dramatically fallen in the past two decades. All of the money has been stolen by elites. Also stolen has been democracy. Nigeria's leaders tend to elect themselves, often with the help of a gun. Military coup follows military coup. A rare democratic election is often merely a prelude to the next seizure of power by a general who wants greater access to the state's rapidly depleted vaults. A country of rising ethnic tensions and falling standards of living, Nigeria is a bellwether for Africa. And yet some think it is on the verge of utter collapse, a collapse that could overshadow even the massacres in Rwanda.

A brilliant piece of reportage and travel writing, this book looks into the Nigerian abyss and comes away with insight, profound conclusions, and even some hope. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Not a bad primer on a torn country
An interesting journey through a dangerous country.

Perhaps too much time is spent interviewing religious and political zealots and kooks who simply spout their own personal agendas in the book, or vent observations already obvious to the reader, and rarely offer true solutions. I would have rather read more of the author's personal experiences and conclusions about Nigeria.

Overall, not a bad effort and an important book for those who want to learn more about why Africa is such a mess.

A post colonial prejudice by a western journalist
It took me some time to get a copy of this book from a friend to read. But after reading it, I was glad not to have a copy myself. It is not that the contents of the book do not correspond with the nigerian situation, but the total lack of objectivity in the book. Maier clearly shows that he is among those we hear are paid to promote and justify the exercise of colonialism in Africa: that africans can not rule themselves. If Nigeria as a house has fallen, then it is due to the wrong foundation upon which the house was built which was the British mess and exploitation. Where Maier tried to remember that there was no nation like Nigeria before colonialism, he avoided telling the truth of the emergence of Nigeria as a consequence of British selfishness. For example, he mentioned that Nigeria had a great agricultural potentials in products such a palm oil and so many things, but quickly added these were exported to England and "inturn Nigeria got millions of tones of cosmetics and gins". Or where he slightly mentioned the activities of oil firms like the royal dutsch/shell in Nigeria, the environmental harzards are not taken note of. For God's sake why could he not tell us the truth that the aim of colonialsm was primarily for the need of his sponsors. Or when he metioned the amalgmation of north and south of Nigeria and termed it "for the purpose reducing deficit of the north", was the aim not to enhance more agricultural opportunities for the great Britian. It was on this bad foundation that ethnic kingdoms like the Igala, Yoruba, Benin and many others who had a very effective leadership and administrative autonomy were forced and forged into the nationhood of Nigeria which even became a problem before the exit of the foolish masters-maier's ancestors. Thank God, people like Alan Burns, a one time Birtish governor in Nigeria still live to write the truth: "Those Europeans who were interested in one protectorate knew little of the other, and wasted no sympathy on their neighbours, while among the inhabitants of the country the lack of uniform system of government had already accentuated the already existing difference of race, religion and culture" (Alan Burns: History of Nigeria,London, 1969. Pg. 11). I would wish that Maeir make out time to reason why he needs to blame his motherland for the many attrocities committed in Nigeria and africa as a whole of which the present situations are hangovers. I could have better not read this monographs of journalistic nonsense called a book on Nigeria, and would never recommend it to any objective mind.

Lots of Problems
I do think that the author had good intentions when he embarked on this endeavor, and there are some interesting anecdotes.I like the way he attempts to look at different aspects of Nigeria in every chapter: faith, ethnicity, etc.However he did not sufficiently contextualize the problems Nigeria faces in terms of Nigerian history or put them in their global economiccontemporary context, either.
Someone might argue that he could only include some things and not others but as someone who teaches African history I can only emphasize how crucial it is to fully explain Nigeria's colonial past, the way it was governed etc. if you want to understand why there is such deeply rooted regionalism there and so many awful divisions.Maier only makes brief reference to "divide and rule" tactics of the British but even the one example he gives shows how devastating and bizarre and destructive colonial tactics were.Of course, that gets all of one paragraph, unlike the tireless accounts of seemingly senseless violence.Same with his mentioning that Shell oil funded all kinds of conflicts.He'll mention these things and then put all the blame on Nigerians.
Unfortunately there are so many untrue prejudices about Africa, that any book like this just feeds the fire of "Afro-pessimism" as it has been called: namely, Africans "can't govern themselves".The book contains a lot of stories of disorder and strife rather than emphasizing the resilience of the human spirit or how many democratic activist movements there reallyhave been.
Any time you have something like this it's "reporting", not analysis.And this is a good series of articles but NOT a good introduction to the topic.Nigerians aren't scary, but the position that impoverished nations are in today is terrifying, and if we just cloud the real issues at stake by marveling at how "savage" the "dark continent" is we'll lose sight of the fact that Nigerians are people just like us-but without the infrastructure or funds to check massive corruption at the highest levels of government.And that's what colonialism did, create a parasitic elite.So if we really want to solve Nigeria's problems, why don't we stop blaming Nigerians and marveling at their dilemmas and instead help come up with solutions?

This rivals the experience accounted at bahiasun.com
I was impressed...here is an outsider who has managed to secure and lay down the "facts" around the demise of the geographical area known as Nigeria.It paints a picture of dismay, butreads very well.Can't blame the author.

the standard popular introduction to contemporary Nigeria
An accessible account of contemporary Nigeria.Maier is a good storyteller (gets the hook of Gen. Sani Abacha overdosing on viagra into the first chapter) but the book is more than mere sensationalism.It is good on the multitudinous conflicts in Ogoniland which culminated in the execution of playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa; and is quite good on the constitutional maneuverings that have led to the introduction of Islamic sharia law in several northern states.Should be the standard popular introduction to contemporary Nigeria. ... Read more

Product Description
Given the size and population of Nigeria in the African continent, political stability and peaceful coexistence among its diverse nationalities are imperative for development and democratic consolidation that could serve as a model for the region and Africa. This volume, put together by seasoned Nigerian scholars, addresses the strategies for “taming” the military in order to avoid future coups; solving the ethnic diversity question through national reconciliation; confronting the religious problems in the polity; de-marginalizing women in politics and society; ameliorating human rights infractions by law enforcement agency; promoting university-community partnership for the purpose of building viable communities and constructing a sustainable democracy. ... Read more