There is a disappointing history of looting and killings dating back to over a century ago in what is considered today’s Nigeria and Cameroon. Borno, Nigeria’s northeastern-most state, witnessed the enslaving and killings for no reason led by Rabih Fadi Allah, an Islamic renegade, and Muhammad Ahmad, an Islamic reformer, during the late 1800’s.With such a hurtful impact on their country, there would be hope that violent and immoral actions would not reoccur for Nigerians.
Today, Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country and largest economy, is seeing terrorization in its northeastern peaceful towns. Unfortunately it has had over approximately 12,000 deaths in the northeast since 2014 due to powerful Islamic insurgents. This group’s name translates
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How can a country that generates such large amounts of money from a great resource be one of the poorest in the world? The problem is not that Nigeria has no money, but how it is distributed. Nigeria’s local and national authorities steal parts of the oil revenue that has not yet been already taken by gangsters or militia. Most of the money is tapped for regional governments. In addition, some politicians gave gangs weapons to rig elections for them to win. Thirdly, fuel importers and marketers controlling a billion dollar scam have pressured Nigeria’s officials for proclaimed debt money. The government is so caught up in the scam of the fuel crisis. This year, Nigeria’s recently elected president Muhammadu Buhari replaced every person on the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation due to constant missing oil and oil revenues. For example, a former Nigerian oil minister was arrested last year in London after his attempt to steal funds and lodge it into another country. The poor lack of government management and leadership by Nigeria’s elites is adding to the issue of why the Boko Haram repulses. The mismanagement of resources by the government results in a weak, untrained military with limited resources to fight the terrorist
“Nigeria has always been a divided country plagued by weak governance, ethnic cleavages, and corruption”("The Historical Background of Boko Haram", 2014). Also, “Boko Haram was born in this context, with religious fervor growing in the Muslim north and finally manifesting itself in violent Islamist terrorism"( "The Historical Background of Boko Haram", 2014). When the British pull out the region, it left the Northern parts of Nigeria unstable and not ensuring that northern Nigeria opened the door to corruption by terror groups. “The system led by Bifurcated country with a productive south flush with oil wealth and impoverishes north struggling to reconcile modernization with dictates of the orthodox and rapacious power broker”(Wall, 2015). The country was not modernized like the southern part of Nigeria and majority of the people were uneducated and poor.
Nigeria is a country that faces a great deal of corruption and inefficiencies by the government, often leaving the majority of the population in impoverishment. BH uses this to their advantage, by building up a base of supporters under desperate conditions . However BH is not the heroic group that fights in the interest of the “average man”. BH is an extremely violent terrorist organization that uses the killing, kidnapping, and torture of innocent people to advance their agenda. The government of Nigeria has failed to launched an effective counter-insurgency and has essentially left the well being of their population to the discretion of a terrorist group. At the same time, the efforts made to curb the violence by BH has often been detrimental to the civilian population. The current situation of Nigeria, with the continued violent attacks against the civilian population, is the fault of two parties; the terrorist organization committing the brutal acts and the incapable government who does almost nothing to stop them.
It is important to care about Africa because it is the most forgotten continent by the Western world. Africa doesn’t have the same impact as the Middle East with western society’s dependence of natural resources, such as oil and minerals. It does not escape the issue that several African rebel groups severely abuse women and children, forcing them to become child soldiers and raped at young ages. Several of human right abuses caused by the rebel groups go unpunished. In order to gain attention by the government, the rebels control territories in resource-rich areas in return gain more power and rise to destabilize the order of the state.. Rebels have strategic goals in gaining attention by increasing their value in natural resources as rebels, to increase their influential value of capturing the state (Humphrey, 2005). The question that appeals to many researchers is how do rebel groups’ resources affect the government response to their
In the fateful year of 1884, the Berlin Conference convened (Berlin Conference). The Nigerian natives did not know this, but, because of that meeting and many other factors, they would soon be conquered by Britain, pressured to convert to an alien religion, and would hurt culturally and economically not just during their time as a colony, but even after they achieve independence, with the their future political system inefficient and hard to reform as an added bonus. To begin, this paper’s goal is to reveal the symptoms of Britain's reign over Nigeria and how they continue to be a huge nuisance even today in the form of huge economic, ethnic, and political difficulties.
... Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 8(3), 77-88. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2349548361).
Gambrel, Jon. “Nigerian Rebels Seize Seven Oil Workers”. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 21 Nov, 2011 from
This book looks at how conflict in Nigeria has impacted women and children. It looks at the social, political, and cultural impacts of such violence at entire generations of Nigerian people. It looks at the the potential future impact on the countries development,...
...at shocked me through all these articles is how there weren’t a single positive story about Nigeria. I had to get to the third page before I found something that was “kind of positive” about Nigeria. These definitely illustrate what the speaker was saying about single stories. Also 8 out of 10 stories where related to Boko haram. Therefore it won’t be a surprise for me to hear that people believe that Boko haram is the daily cup of tea. I didn’t really found anything that was directly related to the chapter because most of the stories were about BOKO haram crisis. The only thing that I found related to the chapter was how the Biafra war that has opposed the three major’s ethnics groups: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausas is still reflecting on the actual Nigerian crisis. In the north were these crisis are occurring, only certain ethnic groups or religious groups are attacked.
Immediately after landing in Nigeria, I noticed how disparate this nation was compared to the United States. Many young children were on the streets trying to sell merchandise to make ends meet. Growing up in the United States, I occasionally saw people - always adults - begging, but never young children. What struck me the most was a young boy, wearing a ripped soccer jersey and no shoes, try to sell me water saying, “Mmiri, mmiri maka ire ere,” which, in Igbo, simply means “Water, water for sale.” Immediately I gave what I could
Nigeria is the most populated nation in Africa and lies on the continents fault line between the largely muslim north and the predominantly christian south. For several years now radical muslims have been carrying out a holy war or “jihad” against christians in Nigeria in hopes of one day establishing a separate Islamic state in the country’s north. Over the last decade there have been thousands of christian fatalities perpetrated by muslim extremist.
Oghre, Ben. “Nigeria’s Population Is A Silent Killer .” Nigerians of America. N.p., 30 Sept. 2007. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. .
Firstly, let me analyze the point of view a neorealist could have on this topic. Since the neorealist theory attributes only a little influence from human nature, its whole analysis of conflicts revolves around the state actors. Taking into account that the anarchic international system is the force that pushes states to want power, its point of view is that there is little relevance for the US to intervene in Nigeria and fight the non-state actor Boko Haram. However, when having a detailed look at the circumstances one can see the neorealist policy being applied. Using power as means to secure resources is essential for this policy. Being dependent has a major negative impact for any world power. The US as well as the EU are eager to increase their independence. To support the Nigerian government means that friendly relations are held up, thus keeping the market open for the western investors and securing the extraction of resources from this country. This in fact means that the West becomes less dependent on oil from the Middle East, as Nigeria is the largest producer of oil in Africa (US Energy Information Administration, 2013). The neorealist reasoning for supporting Nigeria is thus rather the cost benefit analysis regarding the long-term interests the West has in Nigeria, than the concern for t...
The question to be answered in this paper is to what extent has the resource curse affected the Nigerian economy and government? Resource curse is a term that states the observation that countries that have a plethora of natural resources (e.g. oil, coal, diamonds etc.) usually have unstable political and economic structures (Sachs, 827). Nigeria is categorized as a nation that has succumb to the resource curse as it has an abundance of, and an overdependence on, oil, and a decreasing gross domestic product (GDP) (Samuels, 321-322). Nigeria is known for its specialization and overdependence on oil and according to Ross, nations of such nature tend to have high levels of poverty, large class gaps, weak educational systems, more corruption within the government, and are less likely to become democracies (Ross, 356). The political instability and regime change in Nigeria will be observed in this paper. The resource curse has greatly weakened Nigeria as it has led to the numerous regime changes, the hindering of the nation’s democratization, corruption in the government, as well as, civil conflict.
Out of a sample of 1456 women aged 15 to 25 years, 97.4 percent were aware of people being trafficked for prostitution (1322). Women from the state are mostly trafficked to Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands (1316). Interestingly enough, some of these women may be transported by family relatives or friends, or family members are aware that these women are trafficked for sex (1321). There were women who willingly and freely agreed to be trafficked for sex. This is rather contradictory to the notion that Nigeria is a nation with “strict sexual and moral values as well as strong respect for marriage sanctity (Aborisade 301). The majority of what was represented in the Media concerning sex trafficking were forced kidnappings and women and children being abused by their traffickers. Both Aborisade and Aderinto and Okonofua et al’s articles treat sex trafficking as a poor decision that is not safe to the ‘victim’s’ wellbeing. Rehabilitation centers exist in Benin and Lagos state intended for trafficked women to assist them overcome potential traumas and reintegrate into society. In Aborisade and Aderinto’s research, women with different trafficking experiences and characteristics such as age, react differently to these rehabilitation centers. Younger women (10 to 15 years) adjust easier as opposed
Nigeria, with its prodigous oil and natural gas reserves, has the potential to be one of the most affluent places on the planet, were it not for the rampant corruption that defines it. Instead, it is the 20th poorest country in the world1. Much like the guanxi of China, Nigeria practices prebendalism—the use of high-level positions to gain personal wealth. In other words, people exchange money for political favors, which of course creates a greedy and corrupt society. The extent of this fraudulency is such that most of Nigeria's oil wealth is sucked up by one per cent of the population, while more than 60% falls below the poverty line. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has determined that 92% of Nigeria lives on less than one dollar a day2. Meanwhile, it is estimated that in the past 50 years, three to four hundred billion dollars have been stolen by government officials.