Tursday 19th Notes (3rd Period)

Obisanjo comes in as a bit of a compromise president. His ethnic group is Yoruba. Yoruba is normally S. W. but people in the N. accept him because of his first peaceful transfer of power. 1999 people hope his military backgrous would be enough to keep the military "in barracks" (meaning out of polotics). Within weeks of taking office Obi. suddenly retires all the military officers who had held positions of political power under the previous military government. He raised the minimum wage and created a special commission to look into ways to channel more oil revenue back to the impovershed and environmentally degradated Niger River Delta. Civil society groups thrived and so does the media. Obi. felt obliged to appoint the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party to high level positions in his government as high as Minister. Which brings back many corrupt politicians who line their own pockets with public funds. Obi. becomes openly disdainful to the legislature. But with the help of appointees he sought and won reelection in 2003. In 2005 we have the Nigerian gov. being confronted by militant that is armed, rampaging in the N. River Delta region. This was triggered inpart by the arrest in 2005 and filing of treason against a man who was a separatist leader; who publicly called Obi. a dictator and was in charge of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (a rebel group). He claimed to have 6,000 followers, when he issued a declaration of war against the oil industry in 2005 he was flown to the capital city, for talks with President Obi.. Rebels from his group forced Chevron oil to shut down two oil flow station which together produced 27,000 barrels of oil a day. A second larger rebel group comes in. This one is still active today. Called the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta which claims to be fighting for a greater local share of Nigerias oil wealth and is now an umbrella gorup for long existing armed gangs involved in the illegal tapping of pipelines and wells to rip off crude oil. Shell was forced to shut down a facility that moved 400,000 barrels of oil a day. 9 Americans were taken hostage, and they also blew up a shell pipline. The Niger Del. Region has seen little development in decades in spite of all the money from oil. In March 2006 militants release 6 of the hostages and this hipe of activity continues into the presidential election campaign of 2007 and has still continued. June 2008 militants in speed boats raid oil installation 85 miles off of the coast. Forced Shell to slash production. Rebel actitivity has cut their out put about 30%. The U.S. is the biggest purchaser of Nigerian oil. Cleavage-Ethnic w/diff. political parties. Religious Cleavage was also visible in Nov. 2008: over 400 die in fighting between Muslim and Christian gangs in a dispute over local elections in the central nigerian city. Military troups called in to quel the violance and killed an addition 47 people...mostly Muslims... didn't match the more than 1,000 people killed in 2004 w/fighting between Muslims and Christians. Ethnicity is the defining political cleavage. Religion, geographic region, whether urban or rural, and social class can be significant cleavages. Ethnicity and religion in Nigeria can be divided into six rather inexact areas or zones. N.W-Core North- dominated by the largest ethnic group Fulani. N.E. is a minority region and with the N.W. are predominately Muslim. The Middle Best is home to a wide range of minority groups and both Muslims and Christians. S.W. dominated by the seconds largest ethnic group the Yoruba. Approximately 40% Muslim, 40% Christian, and 20% African tribal. S.E. Igbu which is the third largest. Primarily Christian. Southern Minority zone near the N. Rive Delta are without alot of different minority groups. Political Elite tend to be urban, well educated, english speaking, involved in a cast economy. Most of the people in both city and rural are subjects and aren't political activists. They take whatever government lays on them. More likely involved in a patron-client network trying to earn enought favors to survive. Not well Educated. Over half the pop. is illiterate. Dont speak English, and are involved in a subsistance economy. Elites tend to want respresentative government, and want civil libersties. The masses tend to be so poor and hurt by a lack of education that they look more so for results than anything else. Oil revenues that flow into the government are extremely important to understand. They are supposed to fund government services at both state and naitonal levels. Flow of money makes possible the corruption that is very pervasive in Nigeria. The lowest level, security and customes officials at the large airports suggest that gifts would facilitate their progress through the aiports. At the highest level Babangida got new cars for each of his supporters when leaving power. The government money goes to their buddies. Many poorer people refer to them as lootacrats (sp?) This corruption is apart of tradition Nigerian culture. Have responsibility to people in their own village than other people. If people are uneducated they rely on more educated individuals to get things done. In return their loyalty follows the patron. If they get in to a position to access government power or government fuds the clients expect more rewards. Rents are moneys paid to national gov. by countries paying for their oil. Prebedalism is a disperse rents to ethnic based clients. There are two sides to prebend. which is an office holder and a client as well as many expectations for both. The north is different from the south. The south with oil enjoys the basis for a modern economy and exposure to dem. institutions under the British. The family is the first teacher of socialization...duh. The stronger than community loyaltyies. People are expected to support families even more than communities between 65-70% of children are in promary schools. More kids int he south than in the north attend school. The North has higher boys and education widley is seen as important but bew go byond primary school. Post secondary education is expensive.