This House Has Fallen: Nigeria In Crisis PDF
Preview This House Has Fallen: Nigeria In Crisis
M A T H I S H O U S E H A S AFRICA I E R “Maier puts a human face on a disheartening situation that seems remote FA L L E N and impersonal to most Americans.”—Publishers Weekly T “Maier captures the sorrows and laughter of a nation that is desperate and resilient all at once.”—Business Week H “[Maier] captures ...a nation that is desperate and resilient all at once.” —Business Week “With a firm grasp of Nigeria’s embattled past—military coups, secessionist I uprisings, clashes in the oil-rich Niger River delta—Maier examines the S nation’s cracked foundation and broken pillars.”—Mother Jones H To understand Africa, one must understand Nigeria, and few Americans O understand Nigeria better than Karl Maier. This House Has Fallen is a bracing and disturbing report on the state of Africa’s most populous, potentially richest, U N I G E R I A I N C R I S I S and most dangerously dysfunctional nation. S Each year, with depressing consistency, Nigeria is declared the most corrupt state E in the entire world. Although Nigeria is a nation into which billions of dollars of oil money flow, its per capita income has fallen dramatically in the past two H decades. Military coup follows military coup. A bellwether for Africa, it is a country of rising ethnic tensions and falling standards of living, very possibly on A the verge of utter collapse—a collapse that could dramatically overshadow even the massacres in Rwanda. S A brilliant piece of reportage and travel writing, This House Has Fallenlooks into F the Nigerian abyss and comes away with insight, profound conclusions, and even some hope. Updated with a new preface and epilogue by the author. A L KARL MAIER has been the Africa correspondent for London’s Independent newspaper and a contributor to The Economist and the Washington Post. His L previous two books on Africa, Angola: Promises and Lies and Into the House of E the Ancestors, received glowing reviews internationally. He lives in Rome. N COVER PHOTOGRAPH: © CORBIS K A R L M A I E R 4c process - Clear Polyester All art is high resolution on disk. this house has fallen also by karl maier Angola: Promises and Lies Into the House ofthe Ancestors: Inside the New Africa T H I S H O U S E H A S F A L L E N - Nigeria in Crisis K A R L M A I E R A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States ofAmerica. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ- ing photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permis- sion in writing from the publisher. Copyright © 2000 by Karl Maier Maps copyright © 2000 by David Burles Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge MA 02142, or call (617) 252–5298. Paperback edition published in 2002 in the United States ofAmerica by Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301–2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid’s Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ Find us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com A Cataloging-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 0–8133–4045–4 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements ofthe American National Standard for Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48–1984. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The resilience, the wonderfulness, the energy—Nigeria can be com- pared favourably with the United States of America. I put it crudely sometimes that if you know how to package shit, you can sell it in Nigeria. I want this country to be the first black superpower. bola ige The only difference between South Africa and Nigeria is that here you have a group of blacks who don’t make up ten percent of the pop- ulation but control the economy, while the majority are poor. bashir kurfi This is an example of a country that has fallen down; it has collapsed. This house has fallen. chinua achebe Contents - Acknowledgments ix Preface xv 1 A Coup from Heaven 1 2 Voting Day 23 3 Army Arrangement 39 4 The Ogoni Wars 75 5 The Journey of a Thousand Miles . . . 111 6 The Faithful 143 7 Children of Ham 193 8 The Spirit of Odùduwà 227 9 “This Animal Called Man” 251 10 A Glass Cage 269 Epilogue 289 Notes 305 Further Reading 311 Index 313 Acknowledgments - The research and writing of this book were made possible in large part by financial support from the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Open Society Institute. Thanks also to the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College London. Among the very many people who provided me with their time, in- sights, and company, I am especially grateful to Chris Alagoa, Richard Dowden, Yomi Edu, Antony Goldman, Phil Hall, Mohammed Haruna, Michael Holman, Nick Ashton-Jones, Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Bill Knight, Abidina Coomassi, Father Mathew Kukah, Dr. Suleimanu Kumo, Bashir Kurfi, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Clement Nwankwo, Nduka Obaigbena, Bayo Onanuga, Barnaby Phillips, Patrick Smith, Ulukayode Sukoya, Mathew Tostevin, Bala Usman, William Wallis and his two an- gels, Ken Wiwa, Simon Yohanna, and Kabiru Yusuf. I am particularly indebted to Father Kukah and Patrick Smith for taking time out to read an initial draft, to correct errors of fact and in- terpretation, and to make valuable suggestions on its improvement. Sincere thanks also go to my agent, Gloria Loomis, and the book’s editor, GeoffShandler. As always, this book is dedicated to Sarah.
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