Word: nigerias
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...Nigeria's President and military commander General Ibrahim Babangida turned over power to a mostly civilian interim government, ending his eight-year rule. The new head of government is Ernest Shonekan, 57, a businessman and lawyer who chaired the transitional council created in January to return the country to democracy. Most members of the interim government have close ties to Babangida, and many believe he will continue to rule behind the scenes...
...nation's wealth has been squandered through lavish government spending whose main effect is to create new opportunities for kickbacks. Food has grown so expensive that even a university lecturer who earns 10 times the average annual wage of $219 says his children have forgotten how meat tastes. Though Nigeria is the world's 10th largest oil exporter, motorists line up for six hours to buy gasoline -- and then must bribe the attendant to fill the tank. Propane for cooking is so scarce and expensive that city dwellers are scrambling for firewood or electric teakettles to boil their drinking water...
...plunge in living standards has finally driven many of Nigeria's 100 million people to turn against President Ibrahim Babangida, the army general who has ruled the country with an arbitrary hand since 1985. He has repeatedly promised to restore the democratic government Nigerians believe they deserve; just as often he has gone back on his word. Since he annulled the results of a presidential election in June won by one of his handpicked candidates, Moshood Abiola, on the ground of alleged electoral fraud, Babangida has convinced the public that he will never willingly step aside...
...damage is most evident among Nigeria's battered middle class, the true believers in the Nigerian Dream. To survive these days, they are more likely to make deals than make things. Young Amie, a 34-year-old Yoruba who graduated from the University of Lagos with a degree in chemistry, was fired from his job at a grain-milling factory after the government banned imported wheat. Unable to find another post related to his training, he began importing "fairly used cars," as Nigerians call preowned automobiles. "The country would be better off if I were to engage in the production...
...NIGERIA: The Silence That Roared...