Word: nigerianism
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...Africa never ceases to amaze." So wrote V.S. Naipaul in A Bend in the River, and last week, true to the novelist's assessment, Africa amazed again. As recently as a fortnight ago, Nigerian President Alhaji Shehu Shagari, 58, was being hailed as the enlightened leader of black Africa's most populous and, in many ways, most promising democracy. Several days later, he was under detention in Lagos, while Major General Mohammed Buhari, 41, organizer of a coup that deposed Shagari, was proclaiming to his countrymen that the armed forces had saved the nation from "total collapse...
...continent of nations still suffering 25 years later from the pains of birth and persistent poverty, Nigeria has a special significance. Its population, estimated at 90 million, is greater than that of any country in Western Europe. One of every five or six Africans is a Nigerian. Because of its oil resources, which have made it the third largest supplier of petroleum to the U.S. (after Mexico and Britain), Nigeria is the wealthiest nation in black Africa, with a gross national product that is more than half as large as that of the other black African nations combined. Unlike many...
...problems than he had before. He created a new ministry charged with rooting out corrupt officials. Just two days before the coup, he delivered an austerity budget aimed at reducing the government's capital spending by 30% and imports by 40%. The belt-tightening was greeted with grumbling by Nigerians, already beset by high food prices and 50% inflation and angry over the ostentatious luxury enjoyed by many of the country's leaders, though not by Shagari. Said a Nigerian economist: "Palm oil is more than ten times as costly as it was a few months...
...radio and television stations in Lagos and had begun to take prominent politicians into custody. They temporarily cut international telephone and telex lines and closed down airports, border posts and the port of Lagos. At 7:30, a member of the new junta, Brigadier Sana Abacha, announced over Nigerian radio that the Shagari government had been overthrown. For the most part, Nigerians seemed to accept the news with a shrug and an instinct that the change was not going to make matters any worse...
...Food prices fell sharply, if temporarily, in Lagos last week. But it will take more than the announcement of a crackdown on profiteering to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production, as it had been until a few years ago. As for corruption, it has long been endemic in Nigerian life...