Nigeria - The Scoop

As OPEC's fourth-largest oil producer, Nigeria is oil-rich and human-rights poor, the scam capital of the world, a boot camp for fatigue-clad banana dictators, and the Bermuda Triangle of currency. For all but 9 of its 40 years of independence, Nigeria has been ruled by the military. But in May 1999, army general and former Nigerian strongman Olusegun Obasanjo became Nigeria's first elected president since 1979, replacing the boys chomping on stogies behind Ray-Bans working for General Sani Abacha and later General Abdulsalami Abubakar after Abacha died in mid-1998. Abacha and Abubakar (to a lesser extent) and a previous succession of military rulers siphoned off the country's multibillion dollar annual oil earnings, returning hardly a trickle to Nigeria's oil-producing regions. Years of pilfering (for example, in one hand-in-the-cookie-jar case, Nigeria Airways said in February 1996 that the US$100 million paid by the government in 1992 to create an international airline had vanished without a trace) have left 108 million Nigerians largely without power, communications, education, health care and, ironically, fuel. In the final weeks of Abdulsalami's rule, a torrent of unbudgeted spending slashed Nigerian foreign reserves from $7 billion to $4.6 billion. The budget deficit for the first quarter of 1999 surpassed the military government's projections for the entire year. Officials said the first quarter deficit at 38 billion naira (US$410 million) compared with the yearly projection of 34 billion naira. Ouch.

Obasanjo has his work cut out for him. More than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria's population of 108 million have been manhandled by eight different military rulers since 1960. And the situation looks only bleaker. Fully two-thirds of the 55,000 people in Nigerian jails have never had a trial. In the Niger Delta, the Pengassan oil workers' union are threatening to pull out unless their grievances are addressed. And the local Ogonis, whose land Nigeria's oil is pumped from, have demanded a greater share of the wealth. In short, after 15 years of military rule, Nigerians are going to demand greater freedom and wealth-and if it doesn't come quickly (it won't), Obasanjo probably won't be around too long, and Nigeria will continue to be what it's always been: a capricious non-nation of back-stabbing clans and ethnic groups thrown under the same flag by colonialism.

When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

A group of chanting, dancing and shouting youths were seen parading down the streets of Kano with an unusual object on the end of a long stick. It was the head of Gideon Akaluka, an automotive spare parts dealer who had been accused of using the Koran for toilet paper. He was originally arrested and detained for the charges, but a group of Islamic youths broke into the jail, beheaded him and presented his head to their traditional leader, the emir of Kano. The emir sent a messenger to tell the crowd that they had acted in a barbaric manner and that he was shocked. The crowd reacted by caning the courier with 100 strokes. There was never any proof of the victim's guilt brought forward. Don't expect many job applicants at Kano Express Couriers.