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Nigeria: Ten years of civilian rule
Nigeria marks its first 10 years of unbroken civilian rule on Friday after emerging from nearly three decades of uninterrupted military dictatorship on May 29, 1999.
The political elite in Africa’s top oil producer are rolling out the drums to celebrate the milestone. And why not?
Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler who won elections in 1999, ended Nigeria’s pariah status and brought Africa’s most populous nation back into the international fold, helping secure an $18 billion debt write-off in 2005.
Niger Delta war flares up
Nigeria’s security forces have been carrying out their biggest co-ordinated operation for more than a decade – and possibly since the Biafran war – in the Niger Delta this month, using helicopters, aircraft and gunboats as well as three battalions of ground troops to try to flush militants and criminal gangs out of the creeks around Warri.
The military says it has destroyed camps belonging to Government Tompolo in Delta state which were seen as a key training ground for rebel fighters and a hub of oil bunkering – the theft of industrial quantities of crude oil worth millions of dollars a day – in the western delta.
Major-General Sarkin-Yaki Bello, who commanded the operation, has said he ordered a pinpoint helicopter attack on Tompolo’s home in the village of Oporoza on May 15. Local residents said a traditional festival was being held at the time and that hundreds fled into neighbouring communities. They say innocent civilians were killed.
Some Ijaw community leaders have accused the military of a targeted ethnic campaign as soldiers entered remote communities in the delta’s mangrove creeks to try to hunt down suspected gang members believed to have gone into hiding.
Good day,
Fellow country men, it has seems to me our dear president Umaru Yaradua is slack in resolving the securuty issues of the Niger-delta once and for all.
The way and manner militants keep blowing up pipelines and desecrating the delta with oil spill has become appauling. One would wonder if these sole called militants bent on polluting the delta are indeed patriots the Niger-delta requires.
The answer is NO.
I see no reason why the Federal government should keep on meeting the 13% oil derivation aggrement to all problem prone Niger-delta states as it has been showned that the governors of such states are not sincere. They collaborate with the militants, habour them and provide arms and top secret information which amounts to treasonable felony.
This has to stop and sincerely speaking it’s a
I employ the military to take over the entire problem prone Niger-delta, the FG to discontinue to 13% oil derivation until a round table negotiation is finalized.
Angola is turning into Africa’s “dubair” and her government is scoring goals, i see no reason why Nigeria with all her gifts should concede the spot to angola, our government can also refurbish the entire delta to be developed like dubair & Angola.
The activities of militants must stop as there is no true developement in crisis, even when there seems to be one, it is destroyed in the long run.
A word is enough for the wise.
The time to reset is now.
Long live the federal republic.
New hope for Nigerian football
The progress of two Nigerian teams into the group phase of the African Champions League defies the supposed impact of the continuing exodus of the country’s top talent to almost every distant footballing corner of the world.
Kano Pillars caused a major upset last month with their shock win over defending champions Al Ahly, albeit on the away goal rule, while Heartland FC eliminated last year’s runners-up Coton Sport of Cameroon at the same stage of the competition. Both results plunged the established order into disarray and offer now the Nigerians a chance to prove their immense resources.
Nigerian club football has had steady representation in the Champions League over the last 13 years but besides Enyimba, the state sponsored team from Aba State, no club has ever displayed title winning potential.
Much of that has to do with the flight of players from the country, off in search of better earnings and opportunity on foreign football fields. There are more than 200 Nigerian footballers playing across the globe, from the top leagues in England, Germany, Italy and Spain to lesser footballing markets like India, Vietnam and even in Albania.
Hopefully, this is new beginning for football in Nigeria. This country produces some of the best players in the world but never manages to keep them , its a shame
What chance for democracy in Nigeria?
Can Nigeria, the so-called “giant of Africa”, live up to its claim of being the biggest democracy in the black world? Not if its latest state governorship election is anything to go by, argue some in Africa’s most populous nation.
The re-run of elections for the post of governor in southwest Ekiti state were seen as a test of whether Nigeria’s electoral system has improved since flawed federal and state polls in 2007.
But for the opposition, it turned out to be as much of a charade as all the other re-runs in states where the 2007 results were nullified, all of them won by President Umaru Yar’Adua’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and all mired in controversy.
The official results showed the PDP candidate in Ekiti winning by a narrow 4,000-vote margin. The Action Congress opposition party has vowed to challenge the results in court. The re-run had to be postponed in two of more than 60 wards because of violence as frustrated voters protested against the alleged falsification of results.
Tume Ahemba, this is another example of lazy and jaundiced reporting that has characterized western media perspective on issues involving Nigeria. From your comment it is obvious that you sat in your cosy hotel room to concort this report and that you are lazy in your research and analysis. Two examples will do to expose this:
1- ‘…all the other re-runs in states where the 2007 results were nullified, all of them won by President Umaru Yar’Adua’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’ this is incorrect, as you should have known that Labour Party won recently re-run election in Ondo State and in Edo State another opposition party won, both against PDP.
2-’…southwest is Nigeria’s most politically volatile region’. If you are as informed about Nigeria as you would have wanted us to believe, you should have substituted that ‘politically volatile…violent’ for politically consciousness, informed or even liberal.
As for the “a giant with clay feet”? well, yes, we are begining to suspect that and Nigerians, well meaning ones, are already working to replace that with feet made of the finest grade of steel.
I agree with Wale Ajani, too much sentiment with Ekiti re-run, what we need is action to correct the wrong not noises, this will defeat cynics like Ambrose Ehirim.
God bless Nigeria and her beautifull people
Managing anger in the Niger delta
Much of the news that comes out of the Niger Delta, the vast network of creeks home to Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, is generated either by militant leaders claiming spectacular attacks on oil industry installations or by the military, keen to publicise its victories flushing out crude oil thieves from camps nestled deep in the mangroves.
Rarely heard are the voices of the “boys” who have taken up arms and make up the rank and file of the militant gangs. Oil theft on an industrial scale or kidnappings for ransom make some of their bosses rich. Peace negotiations see others rewarded with the veneer of political legitimacy and a comfortable new government-funded lifestyle. But the grunts tend to share little of the spoils.
There are two dialectical philosophies on the issue. Author Frantz Fannon (Wretched of the Earth) made clear that Africa and Africans are not likely to see better days until they use the very means (violence) that was used to push them to the very bottom of the human hierarchy. And the indomitable Chairman Mao once said that “power flows from the barrel of a gun.” Only when the exploiters are checkmated by the exploited can there be peaceful resolution of the long-running rapid descent of our homeland in economic deprivation and cultural collapse.
Back to Africa?
Earlier this month, players in a Sierra Leonean football team were hailed as heroes when they returned from Sweden – because they all came home.
In the past, they might have been more likely to scarper and seek asylum while they had the chance.
It was a quirky tale, but one that leads to a serious question: are people starting to see more opportunities in Africa?
If you only see and think about the bad side of Africa, that will be all you will see and experience, it is all about perspective.
If you you run away and stay away for long period without adequate contact with your motherland, thinking you will never go back, because the place is ‘bad’, when the good tiding comes, as it is happening now, going back will always be difficult and you may not know what to do with yourself. Always be conscious of the fact that you are a sojourner in a foreign land, no matter your status.
It is important that Africans fight the stereotype … black continent, political strife, poverty, insecurity, corruption and other such negative labelling.
While abroad, be loyal and faithful and law abiding to your host country and do same when you are back home.
As for me, I started planning for my return the very day I set my feet on European soil. I am proud to be African, to be Nigeria and to be a Yoruba man.
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As noted by Bola-Wola Makinde, the independence date for Nigeria was in 1960 and not 1964.
Although, the military rule in Nigeria until 1999 was horrible, I am not sure the civilian rule has brought much welfare to people. The wealth of the country is still as unequally divided as during military rule and not much economic and social development has occurred since then, though civilian rule has managed to keep stability and increase freedom in the country