As Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller takes the helm of the nation, there has been intensified debate about the state of Jamaica. And some Jamaicans are very gloomy about the current plight of the country.

There is no doubt that Jamaica faces challenges. But I travelled around Nigeria last week with a group of British MPs. This West African country is potentially much richer and more powerful than Jamaica could ever be. Yet, in certain crucial aspects Nigeria is in an even worse position than little Jamaica, and contemplating the Nigerian situation might cause even the gloomiest Jamaican talk show host to count their blessings.

Nigeria's greatest blessing has been oil; but it has also been its greatest curse. It is the sixth biggest oil producer in the world. Oil accounts for 95 per cent of exports by value and 80 per cent of government revenue amounting to billions and billions of pounds. But the discovery of oil has been an ecological disaster for the Niger Delta (one of the most populous parts of the country) where the oil is extracted.

Shell and other Western Oil companies have, in collusion with successive military dictatorships, raped the region. Petrol contamination of the water table has made local water undrinkable. Farming and fishing grounds have been ruined and gas flaring in the Delta is cited as Africa's single biggest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

It is symbolical of the brutally exploitative nature of the oil industry in Nigeria that the natural gas by-product (which other oil producers like Trinidad liquefies and markets) is simply burnt in giant flares which cause incalculable environmental damage.
This compares with Jamaica's experience with the bauxite industry where a more organised and genuinely patriotic civil society has been able to insist on reasonable environmental standards and some contribution to infrastructure.

Unemployment and destitution in the Delta are sky high. The local people are so desperate that the region is in a state of virtual civil war. Over 1,500 people a year are killed in Delta clashes.
In Jamaica, religion is generally a force for good. And Prime Minister Simpson Miller has called on the churches for help in nation building.

OBASANJO. has many achievements to his credit, but is trying to amend the constitution so that he can serve a third term

Nigerians are a deeply religious people with high levels of church attendance and a host of remarkable pastors. But religion has also been yet another cause of instability. Religious tensions between Christians and Muslims have caused periodic riots.

In 2003, there was serious rioting in the Muslim north because of the staging of the Miss World Beauty Pageant in Nigeria. In February 2006, there were clashes between Christians and Muslims following the publication of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Dozens died and the Anglican Primate Peter Akinola was accused of stoking inter-religious tensions. The rioting was the more remarkable because most Nigerians had not actually seen the cartoons.

On this visit I asked some educated Nigerian Muslim women what they thought of the 2003 incident in which a Nigerian woman had been convicted of adultery and under Sharia (Muslim) law was sentenced to death by stoning. They insisted that the procedure had not been followed correctly. (Apparently there had only been one witness and there should have been four.)

So I asked whether, if the procedure had been followed correctly, they would have been in favour of the stoning. They said yes.
Whatever the educational challenges in Jamaica, you would be hard put to find women (however illiterate) who thought stoning a woman to death for adultery was correct.

And when it comes to corruption, Nigerians make Jamaicans, and every other nationality in the world, look like mere amateurs. Billions of pounds of oil money have been looted by politicians. By 1998, 70 per cent of private wealth had been taken out of Nigeria. Under pressure from Western donors, the government is beginning to take action against corruption. The inspector general of Police and the ministers of education and housing were dismissed last year.

The minister of education is currently on trial for corruption, along with six former senators including an ex-Speaker. And a state governor was arrested at Heathrow Airport on corruption charges. But no-one believes that this is any more than scratching the surface. And there is a suspicion that the government is using the corruption issue to take out its opponents, while its own equally corrupt supporters sit tight.

Since independence in 1963, Nigeria has enjoyed only short periods of democratic rule, but there have been 29 years of military rule under a succession of generals. In 1999, the country returned to democracy with the election of President Obasanjo (himself a recycled general). He has many achievements to his credit and has appointed some able technocrats to key positions, including a brilliant woman finance minister on secondment from the World Bank.

But electoral democracy in Nigeria is a fragile flower. Now Obasanjo is trying to amend the constitution so that he can serve a third term; and there are even rumours that he wants the presidency for life.

Jamaica has some problems, but people who want to dub it a 'failed state' should look more carefully at other countries in the developing world with far more serious social, political and economic problems.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Culled from ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 09.04.2006 10:02

salstep  Villager

# 2 i thought nigeria independance was in 1960???? Posted by salstep| 09.04.2006 10:10

DeepThought  Villager

# 3 "Ist black British MP to visit Nigeria" the papers trumpeted, as if God himself was about to descend from heaven and visit Nigeria My reaction: SO WHAT? I sincerely hope that the usual display of warped hopitality concieved by the warped minds of nigerian officials did not happen. Or was this woman met at the airport by a dancing troop of half naked men and women accopanied with Yes ma! Yes ma !! ministry officials? When will Nigerians learn? Rolling out the red carpet for people who don't merit it? My point: O Yes, Nigeria and Nigerians have problems.We definitely know that and are hopefully working on it. It becomes condescending and in very bad taste when a guest tries to point out to a host problems the host is already aware of. But there is a time, place and occassion for everything. We critics definitely do not deny anything that this woman has said. In fact we have worse things to say about Nigeria. But even we the most vitrolic critic know when to keep our traps shut. An occassion of visitation as a guest is not the time to play avenging crusader. Anyway, what should one have expected? Rather than a redundant publicity seeking bashing, what Nigerians badly need from this woman is to go back to the british paliament and introduce a bill to make public the bank accounts of all Nigerian officials and their relatives in Britain. Posted by DeepThought| 09.04.2006 12:15

Akinyi

# 4 What really is the difference between Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, haiti, Guyana. There really is no difference. They all suffer from lack of good leadership, black disdain for another black, crave for anything white. These countries can identify with one truth- they were better off when they were ruled by white men. Some will quickly say Nigeria got her independence in 1960 so what? Haiti got her independence before USA. Look at Haiti today and look at USA. Posted by Akinyi| 09.04.2006 12:43

Fadu

# 5 What Diane Abbott is saying about Nigeria is not a strange issue, the word nigeria is synonymously corruption in UK and other parts of the world and likewise the word jamaica is synonymously drugs and killing in UK. The two nations have their evil areas of expertise the word peadophile is also synonymously middle age white man. Now not that all these crimes don't entwined with one another, of course a white man commits corruption and do drugs/kills. nigerian also commits peadophiliac acts, jamaican do others as well. Corruption, drugs, killing and peadophiles etc are not what we should condole no matter wherever you come from. What Dianne failed to realise or noticed in nigeria is greed and wickedness from the people on top (government) she used the word recycled generals, that explain everything, despite the good things general obasanjo has done, why the third term for God sake, tell me where is the democracy in his plan. he might mean good however this is not democracy. Since the nigeria independence in 1960 that nation haven't experienced a decent government why? is all to do with religion. some parts of nigeria belief(s) is their right to rule the nation, why on earth should they have that notion, unfortunately they are less educated part of the nation. That is the root of corruption in nigeria, how can uneducated person think it's his right to rule a nation as big as nigeria, again that is why their corruptions is unreasonable, uncalculative stealing, don't care about the repercussion due to their illiteracy. Dianne i understand you and i know where you are coming from, it is painful. Whoever that is going to solve nigeria corruption problem is not yet born. Fadu UK Posted by Fadu| 09.04.2006 12:50

pukpabi  Villager

# 6 Salstep, So of all what this lady said, the only thing you got from the write-up is the mistake made on Nigeria's independence date. Of what significant is the date of independence when you are still dependent on almost everything except corruption and lack of values. Hey! good job on your Civics lessons. Posted by pukpabi| 09.04.2006 13:06

Naija for life  Villager

# 7 DeepThought, Thank you for living up to your name again. I thought I was the only one who saw the dispiritingly negative slant of this woman's impressions of Nigeria. Knowing full well the hospitality that Nigerians are wont to unstintingly accord their visitors, I am pretty sure that this woman, especially considering her ancestry, received the most august and heartfelt treatment any official could hope for. And in return for this dignity, what have Nigerians reaped by way of gratitude? A scathing, blistering dismissal of our country that stands for all to see as an exceptional display of bad manners. It is a sad testament to the perfidious tendency among our so called African brothers and sisters that this person felt no compulsion to aknowledge the resilience many Nigerians display in contending with the desolation engulfing them. Disheartening that she was moved by no feelings of kinship with Nigerians to empathize with their plight, to praise the school teacher soldiering bravely on in spite of salaries well in arears, and the farmers dilligently tilling their lands to coax sustainable yields out of them, all without the benefit of subsidies indispensable to farmers in her own country. If she felt it neccessary to recite the all too farmiliar litany of our politicians' failings, and their fondness for defalcation, why didn't she mention the hotel steward who found $700,000 in a coat pocket and returned it to the owner who wasn't even aware it was missing? Why didn't she mention the police commander who refused a bribe from a Chinese national attempting to stave off the siezure of his contraband goods? Why didn't she allude to our unflagging exuberance and generally affecting warmth? No, instead she choose to wallow in the muck of negativity and roll around in the sludge of hackneyed negative perceptions about Nigeria. Perharps, Ms. Abbott, having demonstrated her keen insight in cataloging our shortcomings could prevail upon the oil companies in her country to undertake their bounden task of stopping the pollution in the Niger Delta, restoring the atmosphere to its previous pristine state and investing more vigorously in the Niger Delta communities. Unfortunately it is very unlikely that this captious individual will pursue any of the suggested priorities. Courage, as we all know, has all too often served as a convenient sacrifice for procuring the benefits of hopping onto the bandwagon. Posted by Naija for life| 09.04.2006 13:29

I Love Nigeria  Villager

# 8 Dianne Abbott, Did not deserve our hospitality, she is as moronic and as dumb as they come! Posted by I Love Nigeria| 09.04.2006 13:30

Onos  Villager

# 9 P.A. wrote: Did not deserve our hospitality, she is as moronic and as dumb as they come! Aha, weren't you just rejoicing on the Main Square about her planned visit to Nigeria? Or have you forgotten she was highlighted as one of your "GOOD NEWS" to Nigeria in recent times? Now you are heaping all sort of venom and bile on the "poor" woman. Tsk, tsk, tsk... what a backstabber you are! Morale of the story: Think things through, Adujie, before jumping to celebrations just because you think you are the only one who loves Nigeria. Someday, when the veils are removed from your eyes, you will discover that Obasanjo, whose praise never ceases to escape from your lips, is worse than this woman. Posted by Onos| 09.04.2006 13:56

DeepThought  Villager

# 10 Thanks NFL Just to set the record straight for any who cares. I'm not against criticism of Nigeria by anyone including foreigners. But when I see no purpose except personal gratification in a criticism , I take issues. If the purpose of Ms Abbott's criticism was to either help improve Nigeria or even Jamaica, one would have understood and kept silent. But the purpose of Ms Abbots criticism appears to be nothing more than an empty comparative justification based upon bad premises, leading to even worse conclusions; that the bad state of Jamaica should be tolerated by Jamaicans because Nigeria is worse!! This Owellian reasoning is beyond baffling. It is not only patronizing but actually harmful and insultive to BOTH Nigeria and Jamaica . So after thousands of taxpayers money is spent, apparently Ms Abbott's message to the world is : Jamiacans should be happy... though your country may stink, it doesn't smell quite as bad as Nigeria !!!! ??? I wonder how happy Ms Abbot would be if I told her that though she smells, she has no cause for alarm because the guy down the street smells worse? Duh :p I 'm certainly sure Ms Abbott's reasoning is not indicative of the intelligence or attitude of the average British blacks. O.K, Ms Abbott I smell. But I already know, and I care enough to want to take a bath, so if you care enough to help why don't you give me soap or clean water to bath.... or keep your yap shut rather than crackling about how I should be happy because the other guy smells more!! Posted by DeepThought| 09.04.2006 14:05

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