Word: nigerias
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...flatfooted dismay with which enlightened liberal opinion in this country and Britain first greeted the coup in Nigeria is no doubt due to the complexity of politics in that country. An enlightened liberal who has mastered the names of Nigeria's four regions, two electoral coalitions, four major parties (there are lots of little ones), three major tribes (not to mention six semi-major and more than 200 minor ones), and top twelve political leaders, and who has dutifully memorized the phrase "Nigeria, symbol of democracy in tropical Africa", has surely exhausted his capacities for the assimilation of detail...
...Africa, political stability is a thin veneer that can flake off with the slightest scratch of a military finger. Since mid-December, three black governments* have been toppled by military coup. For a while last week Nigeria seemed on its way to becoming the fourth. What makes Nigeria different is that it is no tiny tinhorn republic. It is the continent's most populous nation (56 million people), its economy is one of Africa's most prosperous, and-with 250 tribes and tongues-it has long been considered one of Africa's most democratic and stable countries...
...beneath the surface, Nigeria has long been roiled by fierce tribal undercurrents, originating from its four fiercely proud regions: the dominant Moslem North, where more than half the country's people live, the oil-rich Eastern area, and the more industrialized (asbestos and textiles) Western and Midwestern regions. Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa's ruling National Nigerian Alliance (N.N.A.) draws its strength from the North, and the opposition United Progressive Grand Alliance (U.P.G.A.) is powerful in the rest of the country...
...Under Siege. That was too much for the opposition, and off it went on a violent rampage that has flared sporadically ever since. Homes, shops and autombiles were put to the torch, and hundreds of pro-North sympathizers were tortured and killed. Last week, when Commonwealth nations gathered in Nigeria's seaport capital of Lagos to discuss the Rhodesia question, they found a city under siege. Extra police patrolled the downtown area, and roads were littered with charred automobiles. Then, shortly after Prime Minister Harold Wilson arrived back in England, all cable, telephone and radio communications out of Nigeria...
Later reports indicated that General Aguiyu Ironsi, chief of Nigeria's army, had remained loyal to the government...