Nigeria
By Dianne Vellinga.
Table of Contents
You wake up with the sun in your face. It’s hot, extremely hot. There are some birds outside making noise, but that doesn’t really bother you. You think about yesterday. Yesterday was good. You almost fall asleep again. Suddenly you here some soft whispers and you can here footsteps. People are in front of your house! You jump out of your bed and get your gun. ‘Wake up mom and dad…wake up!" you scream. But it’s too late.
When you open your eyes, you see that your house is up in flames. You’re tied up with ropes and people are screaming at you. What do they want from you? The only thing you can think of is where mom and dad are? Then you turn your head and see them…. dead.
How would you feel if you were born in Nigeria?
Nigeria is a country that is still developing and is now dealing with economic, political, social and religious issues. It has the ability to become a strong economic country, because it has a lot of natural resources and is strategically situated. Nigeria is the sixth-largest producer of oil in the OPEC and by far the largest in the African continent. It is also dealing with ethnic and religious tensions. Since the colonial time in the 1900’s Nigeria has been divided into areas where each area had their own religion. It is estimated that there are 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, but the four dominant groups are the Hausa and the Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the southwest and the Ibos in the southeast.
My main question for this project is how is Nigeria, as a Third World-and-the most populated country in Africa, dealing with his independence and democracy after facing problems as ethnic and religious tension and separation that contributed in an economic decline? And how does the media intervene in this all? Because of this project I hope I would like the people who would read this to learn how to understand why a country like Nigeria has the potential to become a well-developed country. Instead of taking their natural resources and cheap labor away for the good of the industrial countries, these wealthy countries should consider to help them build an independent country that is self-sufficient, because they have the knowledge and technology. But why don’t they do that? Why do they take the most important natural resources and intellectual people out of the country, also known as brain drain? Is the western world too afraid that this country would become a threat to them if they help them? Are they maybe afraid to have another opponent or maybe even worse that they have to share their power?
I would like to start this research paper by creating several chapters who divide the broad information in smaller and detailed pieces. I will start with the demographic and geographic elements of the country, supporting it with a map of Nigeria. Then I will split up my next chapter that will discuss the relevant history of Nigeria, including the colonial period (1849-1960), the transition period: from British rule to Nigerian independence (1960’s), independent Nigeria (1960-1985) and Nigeria from 1985 until now. The next chapter will explain and discuss the media coverage of Nigeria in the United States by using the New York Times and the Guardian (the national newspaper of Nigeria). The conclusion and the connection statement will be chapter 4 and 5. And the last chapter will consist of the educational value.
Chapter 1: The demographic and geographic elements of Nigeria.
Let’s take a further look at the demographic and geographic elements of Nigeria. With its 125 million people, Nigeria is the most populated country of the African continent. It’s also the tenth largest country by population in the world. The capital is Abuja.
‘Nigeria is located at the eastern terminus of the bulge of West Africa and has a total area of 923.768 square km’. (G.T Kurian, page 1472) The national boundaries results from its colonial history (cultural, as well physical boundaries), in the north by Niger, east by Cameroon, south by the Gulf of Guinea in the South Atlantic Ocean and west by Benin’. The relationship between the countries is overall good, because they all signed a bilateral agreement. There had been cases in the 1980’s when there were some border disputes, for example between Chad and Cameroon, and between Nigeria and the immigrants of Equatorial Guinea. But Nigeria tries to have a good relationship with every neighboring country, because they want to reinforce boundary claims and protect human rights of the Nigerian citizens, for example for the migrant workers. Nigeria also pursues to strengthen the economy in Africa. They formatted ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) to develop the region’s economy for self-suffiency, also tried to weaken the colonial divisions and wanted to end the border disputes to eventually unite Africa as a whole. This idea of a united Africa was designed to be an answer to the EU (the European Union). ‘And although Nigeria represents 3% of the surface of Africa, it contains about 20% of the total African population’. (http://.lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ngtoc.html, data June 1991) Map Nigeria: www.geographic.org/maps/nigeria_maps.html
Chapter 2: The history of Nigeria.
To understand the future, you must know the past. History is an important key to understand why things as wars happen. You must ask yourself why it happens and why the past has so much influence on the issue of today. So that’s why we will go back in time to find out what have happened in Nigeria that makes the country now economically, but also politically unstable.
2.1 The colonial period (1849-1960).
The British influence over Nigeria in the 19th century was completely unplanned. It dates back from 1849 when the British used some trade routes in Yoruba land to gain access to the markets of the Sokoto Caliphate and Bornu. The British didn’t want or planned to have another colony (Nigeria), but they just wanted to gain access to economic markets, but eventually it turned out that they annexed these trade routes and conquered Lagos in 1851 and in 1886 they made Lagos a separate territory. In the meantime, in 1884, the United African Company, who was formed by the four largest British firms on the Niger, signed more than 70 treaties with local rulers. In 1886 the United African Company became the Royal Niger Company and its territory became known as the Oil Rivers Protectorate and this was renamed as the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1893.
Although there was resistance from the Nigerians itself, the British government maintained their power. They decided to merge all these small areas in two Protectorates. Areas south of Idah became known as the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and the areas north of Idah became known as the protectorate of Northern Nigeria. In 1906 the Colony and Protectorate of Lagos was also merged with the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In 1924 Northern and Southern Nigeria became the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria.
This was one of the most crucial moments of Nigerian history, because now these two different regions with their different languages, and different ethnic groups with their different religions became one. To rule this united country, the British constructed the indirect rule, whereby basically the political power was decentralized. The British government had the end-responsibility, but they shared their power with the local Nigerian rulers. This system created some independence for the local rulers, because they had some power over their own people. There was also an advantage for the British government, because this system was really cheap and highly affective. The system created a nice atmosphere between the local people, the local rulers and the British government. But if sometimes things went out of hand, for example riots arose, the British military came as soon as possible to calm things down, but this could also happen in brutal ways with sometimes a fatal ending.
During the colonial period there were more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, but the four largest ethnic groups controlled the country. Therefore the British divided the country into three regions. In the north we find the Hausa’s and the Fulani’s, who were Muslim. In the west we find the Yoruba’s, who were Christian or animist. And in the east we would find the Ibo’s, who were mainly Christian or animist. ‘47% of the total Nigerian population were Muslim, 34% were Christian and 19% animist’. (G.T Kurian, page 1474) The African continent is the deepest religious continent of the world. The British didn’t allow missionaries in the Hausa and Fulani areas, so these regions didn’t receive the western education as the Yoruba and the Ibo’s in the south got. This promoted economic and educational disparity between the two regions. But the religious policy of the British government had some contradictions. They promoted freedom of religion, religious practice and the right for religious education, but they restricted the Muslims in the north to get in touch with Christianity. Polarization between Christianity and Islam often occurred where a "religious difference" was associated with geographic and ethnic differences. Islam and Christianity compete and influence much of the country, especially in the belt of the states between the Muslim north and the Christian south. Despite of all these tensions, the non-Muslim / non-Christian minority communities live generally peaceful throughout the country.
Nigeria became a part of British imperial expansion that was focused on exploiting raw materials, minerals and foodstuffs. And after 1930 they exported also tin, cocoa, rubber, timber, groundnuts and palm oil. And then there is the oil. The production of crude petroleum first discovered in 1956, has transformed the Nigerian economy. ‘The petroleum constitutes 98.6% of the total value of exports’. (G.T Kurian, page 1483) The Niger Delta, in the south of Nigeria, is the main producing area of Nigeria. ‘The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) undertakes oil extraction and exploration in partnership with several major oil companies, such as Shell-BP, Nigerian Gulf Oil, Mobil, Texaco, Agip/Philips, Ashland, Occidental and Japan Petroleum. The major export destinations are the United States (46.2%), the Netherlands (12.1%), France (10.1%), Germany (6.6%), the United Kingdom (2.3%) and Ghana (1.2%)’. (G.T Kurian, page 1483)
The colonial period, 1849-1960, has a great impact on Nigeria right now. Because of the separation of the north and the south in the beginning of the 20th century, the united Nigeria is still dealing with great differences between these areas. They have different religions, speak different languages (although English is the official / national language) and have different levels of education with consequences in economic and educational disparity. Nigeria was dependent on the British in this period and that affected them after they got their independence in 1960. The Nigerian government is still dealing with major economic issues, what results in polarization between the upper and the lower class. For example the export and import planning for their natural resources have never sufficient enough been used. These resources have always been taken away from the lower class of Nigeria. Look at the oil; 98,6% is getting exported. And what is in it for the lower class of Nigeria? A 30-cent hour wage. On the other hand, the upper class that gets the opportunity to succeed, because they obtain the technology and knowledge how to produce the oil and export it in the most efficient way, becomes richer and richer. So eventually Nigeria doesn’t improve or develop, it now has to deal with new problems.
2.2 The transition period: from British rule to Nigerian independence.
The British rule emphasized on the difference of class, region and community. And how did the local Nigerian respond to that? You had two groups in Nigeria reacted in a different way to the British domination. ‘The first one would say that the British rule didn’t mean anything to them. They never saw the British officials and lived their lives in their small villages. But everything changed when the government introduced the tax system. Everyone had to pay taxes and it didn’t matter if you could afford it or not, you just had to pay it. This new policy affected the daily lives of the Nigerians and that makes them join group two. Group two consisted also of business people, professionals and others who were fighting for their independence. In the 1930’s they emerged as a nationalist movement’. (Video: ‘Africa’s triple heritage’, part Africa’s colony legacy reflected in the modern world 1885-1935) During this same period, the Great Depression and later the World War II, reduced British investments, imports and government spending in Nigeria. This led on the one hand to some space between Britain’s military and economic leadership and the becoming independent Nigeria. But on the other hand it helped Nigeria to fall into an economic decline, because the prices of agricultural exports dropped below the World market rate, workers faced wage ceilings, traders encountered price controls and the Nigerian consumer experienced shortages of imported goods. Because of all this, labor activity grew more and more; strikes became common in an every Nigerian daily live.
Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Owelle of Onitsha, generally known as ‘Zik’, was one of the greatest nationalist leaders of Nigeria. He was born at Zungeru in the north of Nigeria and he had been around as a commanding political figure for longer than Nigerians could remember. He had been the Premier of Eastern Nigeria in 1954-1955, the President of the Federal State in 1960, Governor-General and Commander-in-chief of the Federation of Nigeria in 1960 and the President of Nigeria in 1963-1966. He died in his ninety-second year on 11 May 1996.
2.3 The Independent Nigeria (1960-1985).
I would like to discuss the independent Nigeria; their government (democratic and military), the Biafra War, the freedom and human rights and their domestic and foreign policies, what included the economy, defense, health, education, food supply and the media. After World War II, all the colonies in Africa wanted their economic and political independence. In 1960 Nigeria became an independent republic, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with Nnamdi Azikwe (‘Zik’) as first president. The president had the executive power of the federation, but it could also be directly exercised through the vice-president, ministers of the government (in total there were 22 ministries), or the officers in the public sector. The executive power of a state was vested in the governor and could be directly exercised through the deputy governor, the commissionaires of the government of that state, or the officials in the public sector. These powers couldn’t obstruct the executive powers of the federation. The appointment of the federal ministers and state commissionaires is subject to the approval of the Senate or the State House of Assembly. For example, a war declaration must have the consent of both the Senate and the State House of Assembly.
But in 1966, a part of the army, led by Major Chukwana Kaduna Zneogwo, rises in revolt, killing several premiers in the government. Supporters of the government overthrew the coup, but eventually the council of ministers handed the government over to the armed forces. Legislation at both the federal and state levels continued to be proclaimed by decree. All decrees were exempt in the courts and under the military government. They enforce their authority through the national police, the military and the Nigerian Security Organization (NSO).
At the same time, the ethnic groups in Nigeria had some struggles too. The Hausa’s and the Fulani’s in the north, who dominated the Nigerian politics after the independence, were afraid for competition out of the south, especially from the Ibo’s. This Christian group was compared and considered as the Jews in Nazi-Germany in 1939-1945. They were successful in their jobs, intellectual and were often wealthier than the rest of the Nigerians. Large numbers of Ibo’s went to the north to find jobs. The Hausa’s and Fulani’s were of course intimidated and scared that they would lose their jobs from an Ibo, so they applied certain discrimination rules. But eventually this didn’t work out as the way the wanted it to work out, so massacres followed. First there were 30,000 Ibo’s slaughtered. After this massacre, 2 million Ibo’s fled back to their homeland down in the southeast.
In May 1967 the Ibo’s declared their independence from Nigeria and their region became known as the Republic of Biafra. This act resulted in a war that continued for two-and-a-half-years. Starvation and many massacres followed, but in 1970 the Biafran resistance collapsed and Biafra became a part of Nigeria again. After this civil war (also known as the Biafra war) what resulted in 1 million deaths from killing and starvation, the government attempted to weaken these ethnic tensions in Nigeria by dividing the existing regions in smaller units, but this solution couldn’t prevent the almost unsolvable ethnic problem in Nigeria.
In terms of political and civil rights, Nigeria is considered as a not-free country. The military forces, which became the military government in 1966, created a dictatorship. They suspended the political parties and the parliament. They also introduced secret trials by specially constituted tribunals. Persons who were suspected of corruption, violated the currency, imported and exported any goods, destructed public properties and used or possessed drugs were all secret tribunal verdicts. These detainees weren’t allowed for any further appeal. Most of the military officials were corrupt.
In 1978 the State Military government was abolished. In this year’s constitution, the broad human rights of the Nigerians were guaranteed. The new government reviewed all the remaining decrees and cases of current and former detainees, who violated the law of the previous military government. They released approximately 150 persons who were detained without any charges. In 1979 elections were held for a new House of Representatives and the Senate. Also this year, the first civilian president, Shehu Shagari, was elected. This all seemed very prospective for Nigeria. The Nigerians got a democratic government and maybe this would help them to change the economic, political and social status of Nigeria.
But unfortunately in 1985 General Ibrahim Babangida came to power with a military coup that was widely supported by intellectuals, the press, some former politicians and the business community. As you can see this is the elite of the Nigerian population. They rather wanted to have the military rule the country than the new democrats would do, because the elite was better off in a military dictatorship than in a democracy. They had more privileges than the middle-and-lower classes had. They also could abuse the system, because corruption and mismanagement flourished in the elected military government.
Also in 1985, the oil prices plunged and Nigeria faced a severe economic crisis. Nigeria has always been one of the 49 low-income countries of the world. It’s a free-market economy based on oil and is dominated by the private sector. Economic planning has always been an issue. It started right after World War II under the U.K. Colonial Development and Welfare Act. This was continued after the independence with several development plans. In 1975-1980 the third national development plan was based on investments, which would come from the public sector and the remainder from the private sector. And in 1981-1985 the government laid emphasize on the development of agriculture and industrial infrastructure. The government also wanted the country to become self-sufficient and laid emphasize on housing, education and health.
There were problems in the education sector; 66% of the population was illiterate, teachers were hard to get and there were not enough schools for every region. Federal universities have been reduced and private universities have been closed. The government introduced with their third national development plan (1975-1980) free and universal education for children from 6 till 12 years old. In primary school the children were taught in their local language (in total there were 250 local languages), but after two years the instruction was only in English.
Nigeria is known for the one of the most unhealthy and most disease-ridden countries in the world. Diseases as cerebrospinal meningitis, yellow fever, hassa fever, AIDS, malaria, guinea worm, trachoma, river blindness, yaws, sleeping sickness and leprosy were very common. And after the civil war (or the Biafran war) starvation, increased infant mortality rate and malnutrition were also common aspects.
Another issue is food supply and their different regions. 51% of the country is used for agriculture. It contributes 38% of the GDP and 7% of the export earnings. Agricultural holdings are generally small and scattered over the country. Small and simple tools characterized the peasant production. Multinational corporations or the public authorities owned the production on a large scale and was most of the time exercised in the form of plantations. The main products were cassava, yams and cocoyams in the south and cowpeas, millet, rice, corn and guinea corn in the north. Raising livestock was restricted primarily to the north, because the tsetse fly, in other regions, created diseases for the cattle. Almost one-fourth of the 11 million cattle are owned by the Hausa’s and Fulani’s in the north.
But Nigeria is still not self-sufficient. It receives foreign aid from the IMF and the World Bank. This bilateral help forces the country to opens its markets so that the rich countries can use their cheaper labor and natural resources. In 1976 "The Operation Feed The Nation" helped to increase the food production. Perhaps the only thing common to the Nigerians was the communal ownership of land and absence of any individual property. The chief controlled the land, so that the Nigerian still could work on the lands; not for his own sake, but for the sake of the state. Freehold land outside this system existed only if the land was used for plantation or corporation.
‘Since the end of the civil war (Biafra war) Nigeria has been strongly involved to regional, but also continental affairs; for example, the establishment of the Economic Community Of West Africa (ECOWAS) on a regional level and becoming a member of the U.N in 1960 on a continental level. Nigeria’s share of the U.N. budget is 0.10%. That’s not much, but it still gives some international recognition. In 1978 President Carter visited Lagos and that acknowledgement was of great importance’. (G.T. Kurian, page 1478)
The media was also an issue in Nigeria. Should the government control the media or was the law of freedom of expression and press, who was guaranteed in the constitution of 1979, more appropriate? The Federal military did issue a decree in the same year that tended to prevent full expression of opinion. This decree makes it an offense for any person to ‘publish in any form, whether written or otherwise’ a state-ment, message, rumor or report that brings the Federal Military Government to disrepute or ridicule. The print media included privately owned and state-owned publications. The Federal government owns 100% of one large daily newspaper and 60% of others. Most state governments own a daily newspaper, but they have to be responsive to the Military government. There are also several privately owned newspapers with a wide circulation. In total there are 20 major national dailies and 16 major national weeklies published. There are 18 provincial papers and 6 local-language papers. There are also foreign magazines that have a wide circulation, such as The Daily Times, National Concord, New Nigerian, The Guardian, Daily Sketch, Vanguard, Daily Champion and The Tribune.
The radio and television are a part of the state monopoly. The Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) controls the radio. It operates from Lagos, but the reception is very poorly outside the city. The television is operated by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and has 25 stations nationwide that reaches more than 30 million Nigerians. Several states also run their own stations.
The period from 1960 until 1985 is characterized by military rule. They influenced Nigeria political, economic and social. There was a gap of three years, but unfortunately the first elected civilian government couldn’t overrule the power of the military. The civil war (Biafra war) made Nigeria a country who became much more involved in the foreign affairs, after been involved in the slave trade.
2.4 Nigeria from 1985 until the present.
Nigeria was ruled by the military in 1985 led by General Ibrahim Babangida. But it was clear that Nigeria had to become a nation where civilians would rule and that meant that the military had to make place for democracy. Several actions, such as starting local elections in 1990 and presidential and legislative elections in 1992, were promoted, but in some mysterious ways (the General called them off) all these elections were postponed into the future. In 1993 the President Babangida had to swear in a National Defense and Security Council and Transition Council to help to guide the country towards civilian rule, but this also didn’t really work out for Nigeria, because later that year General Babangida resigned. Through another military coup the Minister of Defense, Sani Abacha, became the new military ruler of Nigeria. He also postponed all the promises to change Nigeria into a democracy. Many committees were established to promote democracy, such as the Federal Character Commission, the Committee on Devolution of Powers and the Committee on National Reconciliation, but none of them could convince the President to change his policies. But there was one breakthrough in 1995, where for the first time since many years were local elections.
This start led to the ending of the military dictatorship in 1999. Because of this political change, many Nigerians expected economic, social and also religious development. After the many years of corruption and mismanagement of the elected officials in the military government, people were ready for something different. Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba from the southwest, became the civilian president. But there were still many problems, because a country that has had 30 years of military rule couldn’t just change in one day into a nice and neat democratic country. The first problem was that the new president (who still rules) is a Yoruba. I talked about that the Hausa’s and the Fulani’s always had the political power in these last 30 years of military rule and now this changed too. This political change created new tensions between the ethnic groups, because the political power moved from one to the other ethnic group. Uncontrolled violence and string of disasters were the consequence of these tensions. Look for example at the explosions at the ammunition depot in Lagos (February 2002, New York Times). The capital, Abuja, couldn’t maintain the power to prevent this disaster and that’s why it still continues, even in the year 2002.
The other problem was that the external debt of Nigeria was higher than ever, this comes forth through corruption what was done by the military government for more than 30 years. In 2002 the external debt is 30 billion dollars.
Now many Nigerians are divided by thoughts, because some of them want the military to come back and rule again and others want to continue the struggle for democracy. The first group sees the daily violence of the ethnic groups and are afraid for another civil war. Since 1999 there have been more than 10,000 deaths, because of this violence. Ndabiya Shiagbongboyi, an elder from Ushafa, said, "They promised to build a new road, but they never did anything. They promised to build a secondary school, but up to now—nothing. We don’t enjoy anything from this democracy". (New York Times 2/24/2002) Though it is the middle and lower class that has great expectations, because they see the development in health (every month there are giving new medicine supplies to the hospitals), freedom and human rights, regular gasoline supply and regular electricity. Abdulrasaq Tijani, a local government official, said "The military ruled us for 30 years. This is only the first three years of democracy. Let us practice democracy for 30 years before we give up". (New York Times, 2/24/2002)
After analyzing and putting the history of Nigeria together, we understand much more why a country as Nigeria is struggling with economic, political, social and religious issues in the 21st century. Look at the uncontrolled violence that is happening right now. It all has to do with the colonial time when the British divided Nigeria in three main areas, so that these areas went through different levels of development. This also has to do with the attacks on the United States at September 11th 2001, because the ethnic tensions between the Muslims and Christians are visible again. Although the president, Olusegun Obasanjo, emphasized to the Nigerian people that there was no association between the Islam and the violence of terrorism, the ethnic riots appeared.
I would like to talk more about this topic, because it is from a global significance. But I think first that we have to ask ourselves why and how the media intervenes in all of this, so that’s why I shall start this next chapter, the media coverage.
Chapter 3: The media coverage.
What is the media and why is it an important and powerful tool that provides information? I also wonder why the media in different countries can distribute different stories of the same topic and make the people believe their side of the story instead of making the people decide for themselves what is right or wrong.
In Nigeria the media is used as the societal watchdog. Many political groups channeled their demands and support through the press. The media could act as a watchdog, because of the large number of newspapers and radio and television stations (what I already discussed in chapter 2.2), and because of the wide degree of press freedom.
In the year 2002 many political and economical changes occurred in Nigeria what led to religious chaos. I already discussed in chapter 2.3 that riots appeared and signs of military oppression became more visible. This of course makes the average Nigerian wonder why a democracy is the solution to all these chaotic problems. And many of them still don’t know if it would be an answer, even the president. I think that no one knows, because Nigeria hasn’t experienced a democracy at all. The country has been under control for so long now, that it is struggling with its independence in terms of dealing with its own political and economical issues. And the media isn’t making it any easier. Watch the news or read the newspaper. If you look at the African coverage in your local newspaper or in one of the major national ones, you would be disappointed. The African news in the New York Times doesn’t cover the news as you’ve had wanted, because most of the time it gives you the main story of what have happened, with some emotional details, to pretend to make the people more involved into the topic. Then they’ll try to find some link with terrorism; the big news on the moment that interests the average reader that now can say that somewhere in Somalia terrorist groups have been spotted. Especially this link to terrorism makes it difficult for Nigeria to deal with its already existing religious and ethnic tensions, because it makes it easier to start a religious war, because everywhere in the world Islam is to blame for it, so why not in Nigeria?
On the other hand the national newspaper of Nigeria, the Guardian, gives a lot and detailed information on the African continent. Many people on the streets or at work are involved in these stories, like the ones I discussed in chapter 2.3. This creates emotional commitment, but also credibility, because many eyes have seen these strings of disasters, like the explosion in the ammunition depot in Lagos (February 2002, New York Times).
The coverage of the same stories are in these two newspapers, the New York Times and the Guardian, differently told and written. Because of this, these stories are different interpreted and that is most of the time a basis for chaos. Nobody knows exactly what is going on, what is right or wrong, and groups with political purposes get the opportunity to start making a mess in the country.
Nigeria as the most populated country in the African continent is in the year 2002 dealing with economic, political, social and religious issues. It’s recovering from the slave trade and the colonial period in which the British dominated the Nigerian trade routes, natural resources and the people. Especially the thirty years after the independence in 1960, Nigeria has suffered a lot in terms of military domination, violence, polarization between social classes and religious, ethnic tensions.
And now the question is if democracy can end the daily violence, the political disunity, the ethnic riots, the debts. Many Nigerians see that other countries in the western world succeed in democracy, so why can’t it be the same for Nigeria?
I think that democracy can work in Nigeria, but not right now. First, there has to be made major changes in the country, starting with the basic needs for every Nigerian. This means that the money from the IMF and the World Bank has to be used for food-supply, building houses, health and medical treatment, education, social welfare etc. This basis will help building a strong and solid country. But even though this plan sounds great, the outcome is different. And why is that? Most of the time the people who run the country (the military or the elite) are corrupt or have their own money. And they would only run the country with their own purpose; to become richer and richer. And this of course doesn’t help the local Nigerian; instead it makes them more miserable and poor.
And why don’t the Western countries help this country? Why don’t they come up with solutions? It will come down to this: no profits, no interests. Nigeria’s natural resources and cheap labor would only be a trigger to give the Western countries the idea to actually help the country, but in these days they can already use these sources without helping them, so why change that? Why spend your money on something that is not really necessary now?
I would think different about this, but sadly this is how it goes. But I hope one-day people will follow their heart instead of the smell of money.
Chapter 5: The Connection Statement.
After reading issues about Kashmir, Argentina, Guantanamo Bay, the D.R.C and many others, I feel that I have learned a lot. I enjoyed every research paper, because I know that everyone in the class has put effort in it and that the information is very useful. Every issue that has been discussed in one of the research papers has been in the newspapers and must be considered as of global significance. It’s mostly because of an unexpected or long-term event that these topics have been chosen. I like that every paper has their historical explanation why such things happen now in the year 2002 and it gives me a better understanding and clear view.
All these projects have connections with one another, such as underdevelopment what contributed in exploitation of natural resources in the D.R.C and Nigeria. Underdevelopment can also be seen in border disputes, because of religious and also nationalistic ideals. Look for example at the African continent where it is clear that colonialism has left her trace. But also the Kashmir and the Palestine-and-Israel conflict connect to the idea of border disputes. Both countries that are involved in this matter are fighting because of religious, but also nationalistic ideals. The power structure believes in getting a state, but most of the people in the country believe that the religion has brought them to fight for this particular land or city.
All these projects have also connections with the United States; some more define than others. For example Cuba and Argentina have more closer and stricter connections than my own topic Nigeria. This has to do with history, the geographic and demographic connection, certain religions etc. In Cuba for example the United States intervenes because of political differences; communism. That’s why the embargo is now still intact. And in Argentina for example the peso is now related to the American dollar, because of their major debts in the past.
I would say that after reading all these papers I am more informed about the topics that I regularly read in the newspapers. But isn’t it weird that we have to do so much research about one topic to understand why wars appear in Congo, or that Argentina is now in an economic crisis? Does this have to do with our educational system or is the media or the Bush administration to blame? Let’s talk about this more in the next chapter where I will discuss the educational value of this project.
Chapter 6: The educational value.
I already discussed in the previous chapter that I really liked the way in which the papers of everyone in the class have been set up. It is put in a logical order and that’s why it makes it easier to pick out certain important historical points that make the connection of what is written in the newspapers today. I would say that making this project and reading everyone else’s was very useful and made me think more critical about certain topics.
This project was part of our class: History behind the news. In this class we discussed the history behind the stories on the front page of the newspapers. We started off with learning the principles of the propaganda model, what I found quite interesting. We read certain books and articles and saw movies to clarify this mass media model. We also used the New York Times to find certain examples about this subject. I specially liked the book from Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky ‘Manufacturing Consent’, what really helped me to understand the principles of our propaganda model. Also the articles from Michael Parenti in ‘Inventing Reality’ helped me to compare these two sources and figuring out my own truth about the propaganda model. Another source was the video "the myth of the liberal media" and that was great, because many people in the video explained and told their own point of view about this subject.
After a couple weeks of discussing this topic and comparing different sources with one another we jumped to another issue; the rogue state, a model for understanding U.S. foreign policy. This issue interested me even more, because now I could apply the basic principles that I learned in the weeks before. I was really interested in the topic, especially when I read Noam Chomsky ‘Rogue States’ and used some articles of William Blum ‘Killing Hope’. We mostly used Africa as the continent where we could apply the U.S. foreign policies. It really amazed me that the United States has had so many interventions in other countries; especially when I found out that leaders as Saddam Hussein and also Osama Bin Laden had been supported by the United States before they became ‘the bad guys’. Discussing this issue helped me to understand what is going on today with the ‘new war on terrorism’, but makes me also think more critical. Everything what the Bush administration says today or in the future about this issue or other foreign policies, makes me more cautious about the fact that money has a lot to do with it and that human rights and freedom often are used for justification.
We talked about many other issues in our class, but also this one caught my eye; the U.S. perceptions of Islam. It has a lot to do with the previous issue, but we dig more into the world of Islam and find out how the media intervenes in our perceptions. Using the book from Edward Said ‘Covering Islam’, made me help to understand what the purpose is from the media and specifically towards the world of the Muslims. We also used William Blum ‘Killing Hope’ and that clarified a lot of questions I had, because this book gives many examples of U.S. interventions in different places in the world. But if I have to tell you what issue I liked the best through this semester, I would say the issue about U.S. as a rogue state. I learned and now can interpret and analyze the certain problems that occur because of this topic. It made me think critical and helped me to decode certain stories in the newspapers today.
What you can see is that the structure of the class is very logical. And the learning process was therefore quite the same. In every class we discussed our thoughts and the feedback we received was quite important, because sometimes people have different ideas or perceptions and that makes it more interesting. It demands you to think critical and choosing your words wisely, what I found sometimes hard. But still it was good to do this every time, because it felt that you were more involved and that listening to others and their ideas was of great importance.
And what I already discussed previously in this chapter is that I learned a lot from the readings and watching the videos. They gave examples and also different points of view what broaden my knowledge about the topic. Although some books were better than others, it was still readable and helped me.
So overall I learned much more than in my other classes this semester. I will definitely use this new information that will help me on my way to adulthood.
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