Word: nigerias
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...preparation of this week's story, which included reporting from the majority of countries in black Africa, Clark was able to work alongside five old Africa hands. Correspondent James Wilde, who covered Africa for TIME from the mid-1960s to 1971, including the Biafra revolt in Nigeria, was back in that country last week to report on the sudden military coup. He got there, barely, in a small chartered plane from the Ivory Coast. "Over Lagos," says Wilde, "the harmattan, a dust-laden wind blowing from the Sahara, had reduced visibility to 500 yds. On our first...
...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...
Thus the Dec. 31 coup that toppled Shagari dealt a blow to the hopes of a black Africa that had looked to Nigeria as a trail blazer for democratization. The fact that Shagari could not retain power, even though he was overwhehningly re-elected last August, highlighted the pattern of failure that has plagued black Africa in the quarter-century since most of its nations became independent. The problems of Nigeria are, by and large, those that afflict the entire continent: abject poverty, rampant corruption, gross mismanagement, tribal enmity, uncontrolled population growth. If, in spite of its assets, Nigeria cannot...
...announcement last Saturday over Nigeria's Radio Lagos was brief and enigmatic. Claiming to speak on behalf of the country's armed forces, Brigadier General Sana Abacha of the Nigerian army declared that he and his colleagues had "decided to effect a change in the leadership of the government" of President Shehu Shagari, 58. "This task," said Abacha, "has just been completed." The general then announced that all political parties were being banned and communications with the outside world suspended, and that a dusk-to-dawn curfew was being imposed. Only four months after Nigeria...
...justifying his actions, Abacha cited Nigeria's "grave economic predicament," brought about, he said, by an "inept and corrupt leadership." Oil normally accounts for 90% of Nigeria's export earnings, but the world petroleum glut sent those revenues falling from a peak of $26 billion a year to $10 billion. Corruption in Nigeria is rampant...