Yearbook 2008
Nigeria. By mid-year, the country's courts had rejected
eleven of the 2007 governorship elections with reference to
electoral fraud. According to
Countryaah reports, several dozens of elections by members of
the federal parliament or state assemblies were also
annulled.
However, a special court rejected the protests against
the election of President Umaru Yar'Adua on the grounds that
there was insufficient evidence of cheating in the
presidential election. The rash was supposed to give the
president greater confidence to pursue his own political
line, including a sharp fight against corruption. In
October, Yar'Adua announced that the state had withdrawn the
equivalent of US $ 3.4 billion from ministries and
government agencies. During the fall, he also carried out
extensive government reform and replaced 20 ministers.
Disagreement over the result in local elections was said
to have triggered riots with about 400 casualties between
Christians and Muslims in the city of Jos in November.
Nigeria's dangerously unilateral dependence on oil as
practically the only export product was clearly illustrated
during the year. In June, the government announced that the
high oil price made it possible to invest $ 10 billion on
improved infrastructure, half of which was to strengthen the
electricity supply. Only four months later, the oil price
collapse forced the government into sharp budget cuts.
In February, the suspected leader of the MEND (Nigerian
Liberation Liberation Movement) rebellion, Henry Okah, from
Angola, where he was arrested, was expelled in 2007. He was
charged with 62 counts of treason and terrorism and risking
the death penalty. After the disclosure, MEND carried out a
series of attacks on oil plants, which caused Shell and
Chevron to temporarily shut down parts of its production.
The British government offered to help Nigeria with training
military in the fight against MEND, which was rejected by
both the rebels and local human rights groups as a serious
provocation.
President Yar'Adua appealed to the outside world not to
trade stolen oil and compared the international ban on
"blood diamonds" from the African civil war. The equivalent
of at least 100,000 barrels of oil is estimated to be stolen
every day in the Niger Delta. The thefts are considered to
fund the activities of MEND and other armed groups.
After dismissing three of the country's top military, the
president announced in September that a new Niger Delta
ministry would be formed. The ministry's tasks would include
creating jobs in the oil-rich area and expanding the civil
infrastructure there. At the same time, MEND launched a
series of new attacks following information about an army
offensive against the rebels. The attacks were quenched
after a week following appeals from local elders. Over the
next few days, police arrested a few hundred suspected MEND
members.
Despite widespread local protests and criticism from the
government, Nigeria in August finally finalized the Bakassi
Peninsula to neighboring Cameroon. In 2002, the
International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the
area belonged to Cameroon under a 19th-century agreement
between the then colonial powers of Great Britain and
Germany. Parts of the peninsula were handed over to Cameroon
in 2006.
Conflicts in the Niger Delta
In addition to the religious and ethnic dimension,
several peoples have risen in protest because they feel left
out politically, socially and economically, not least in the
Niger Delta, which for more than three decades has supplied
a large portion of Nigeria's state revenue through the
production and export of oil and gas. The contention issues
are the right to land and water, as well as claims for
compensation for environmental damage.
Several armed groups have been formed in the oil fields
of the Niger Delta, some of which are purely criminal gangs,
while others are pursuing political goals; the latter
demanding that a larger proportion of the oil wealth should
be allocated to the local population. The groups, of which
the best known are the Niger Delta's People Volunteer
Force (NDPVF) and the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta (Mend), are behind sabotage actions
against oil installations and kidnappings of Nigerian and
foreign citizens engaged in the money-laundering industry.
In 2004, Nigeria's waters were ranked as the world's most
dangerous, with widespread piracy. In 2006, two Norwegians
were kidnapped together with two Ukrainians from the
Norwegian-owned utility ship "Northern Comrade", but all
four were released soon after. Bander is also responsible
for an extensive theft of oil in an organized business of a
very large scale and linked to international cartels. This
theft is estimated to have a value of 4-18 billion dollars
per year.
A program for economic development in the region was
rejected in 2006 by Mend. Most rebels belong to the ijaw
ethnic group, Nigeria's fourth largest. The NDPVF has
demanded self-government for the ijaw people. The actions
against the oil industry in the Niger Delta have at times
reduced Nigeria's oil production and exports by up to 1/5,
that is, to an extent that has raised questions about the
country's ability to act as a large and stable supplier of
oil, including to the US; Nigeria is the United States fifth
largest source of imported oil. The reduced supply from
Nigeria, and the uncertainty caused by the actions of the
Niger Delta, were a contributing factor to the strong
increase in oil prices in 2007-2008.
In 2006, Nigeria and the United States signed a security
agreement on joint patrol of the waters, while Nigeria
sought assistance from China to strengthen security in the
Niger Delta.
Critics of political developments in Nigeria have pointed
out that the turmoil surrounding the 2007 elections, with
some lack of legitimacy for Yar'Adua as president with
limited national political experience, will make it more
difficult to resolve the serious security problem in the
Niger Delta, where there was a conflict that threatened the
country's oil industry, and thus also the economy. However,
Yar'Adua just got through an extensive amnesty program in
2009, where militia groups were given political amnesty and
opportunities for job training programs against handing in
weapons. The violence and conflict in the Niger Delta has
subsided significantly, but never completely disappeared.
The fight against corruption
President Obasanjo made the fight against corruption a
major political issue, but succeeded only to a limited
extent in bringing about widespread corruption. Nigeria is
considered by Transparency International as one of the
world's most corrupt countries. In particular, the political
elite is considered to be corrupt, and the struggle for
political office, not least at the state level, is therefore
very much about the possibility of personal enrichment,
which in turn contributes to the widespread irregularities
in the conduct of elections. According to official
estimates, more than $ 400 billion has disappeared as a
result of corruption.
An anti-corruption unit, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), was established in 2003 and
has appealed to several political leaders. A corruption case
in 2004, called Nigeriagate, involved several large
multinational corporations, and the Swiss government agreed
to return Nigeria's government nearly $ 500 million from
accounts of former President Sani Abacha in the same year.
In 2007, the government announced its intention to look
at all privatization agreements made during the previous
regime, as privatization is a major source of corruption.
President Yar'Adua also initiated a process of restructuring
the oil industry and dissolving the state-owned Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which has been
scandalized through corruption.
At the same time as corruption has not succeeded,
widespread human rights violations have persisted.
Furthermore, Nigeria has become one of the central transit
countries for drug trafficking, especially heroin from
Afghanistan, but also cocaine from South America, to Europe.
For several years, Nigerian gangs have become notorious for
their scams through letters. |
