Does Nigeria work?
While researching Nigeria I came across the debate highlighted below on the BBC news web site. It seems that asking students to read and evaluate the arguments would be a good end-of-unit activity.
There are also two dozen responses from Nigerians all over the world which make valuable and interesting comments on the debate.
Debate: Is Nigeria a failed state?YES, says lawyer and poet, Ogaga Ifowodo
NO, says agribusiness consultant, Waziri Haruna Ahmadu
Ifowodo: "Most, if not all of the indices of failed states, declare Nigeria well on its way to joining that disreputable club.
"Nigeria boasts a government unable to deliver basic social services.
"It is plagued by corruption so endemic and monumental it is hard to separate it from state policy.
"It lacks the capability or discipline to prevent threats to public safety and national integrity and is assailed by active challenges to its legitimacy..."
Ahmadu: "It is obvious, all the signs of a state heading for failure - where a constitutional authority increasingly shows an inability to provide basic services like guaranteeing security to life and property, maintenance of economic and social services, infrastructure and food security - are not evident.
"On the contrary, for the first time in the country's history, Nigeria is attempting to address its economic and social infrastructure inadequacies.
"The economy has never been more open to new investors and the government recognises the imperative for private-sector investments in critical infrastructure such as power, transportation and energy..."
See also:
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Labels: capacity, concepts, legitimacy, Nigeria
Foreign aid for Nigeria
The open question still is, "If you pour money into a corrupt system, where will it go?"
European Union gives Nigeria $1bn 'for peace'The European Commission has signed a $1bn (£602m) development pact with Nigeria, aimed at tackling corruption and promoting peace.
A substantial amount of the funding will be spent on resolving conflict in the oil-rich and crime-plagued Niger Delta, the EU's development chief said.
The money will also target electoral reform and improving human rights.
But correspondents say many Nigerians will doubt the money will get to its intended targets...
$1 BILLION EU FUNDS
25%: peace and security
44%: governance and human rights
16%: trade, region integration and energy
15%: environment, health, culture and sciences
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Labels: corruption, economics, Nigeria
Radicalizing some of the protests?
Frustrating hopes for democracy by manipulating elections causes protests, but if the protests yield little, some dissidents become radicalized and lose hope that the system can respond to popular will. Similar hardening of positions can take place on the establishment side of things. See
"Divine right to rule in Iran" from last Friday.
Divisions test mettle of Iran’s oppositionFive months after a disputed presidential election spawned the largest antigovernment demonstrations in this country in three decades, Iran’s opposition movement appears rudderless and divided, with protesters increasingly at odds with their leaders’ insistence on preserving the country’s system of religious government...
Iranians involved in the movement say growing numbers of protesters are refusing to compromise with the ruling hierarchy, a system of Shi’ite religious and political rule ushered in by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, which ended a 2,500-year-old monarchy...
During the most recent street protests, on Nov. 4, demonstrators reflected the harder line when they shouted slogans mainly against Iran’s top leaders, instead of their more usual calls in support of Mousavi.
Video clips captured on cellphones and posted on the Internet showed people tearing down posters of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for the past 20 years. As the heir of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, Khamenei wields ultimate religious and political authority in Iran and is highly revered.
In the government’s view, such protests confirm suspicions that the opposition wants to topple Iran’s political system...
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Labels: dissent, Iran, politics
New Execs for the EU
The EU has selected a president and a foreign minister. The foreign minister is likely to be the more powerful of the two.
European Union settles on a Belgian and a Briton for top postsHerman Van Rompuy, the prime minister of Belgium, is to become the EU's first full-time president Jan. 1, filling a post aimed at helping strengthen and streamline the alliance...
EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton, a member of Britain's Labor Party, was chosen as the bloc's new foreign minister...
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Labels: EU, leadership
The imaginary, legitimate government
The non-stop campaign is obviously not unique to the USA.
Caroline Welch who teaches in the upper school at The Albany Academies (in Albany, NY) pointed me to this article.
Grassroots politics is fascinating. Is it effective? Why would Obrador choose this form of campaigning in Mexico? What sources of legitimacy does the actual government claim? What sources of legitimacy does Obrador's government claim?
Mexico Has a President Who Runs Things and One Who Doesn'tLike a lot of countries, Mexico has a federal government... But Mexico has another body, the so-called "Legitimate Government," which claims to be running the republic, too. It meets here in the capital every 15 days in a former garage...
Some countries like the U.K. have shadow governments, complete with shadow cabinet members made up of the opposition. But these groups usually don't claim to be the actual government, as is the case with Mr. López Obrador and company...
It all began in 2006 when the former Mexico City mayor almost became Mexico's real president, losing the election by a hair... Then, as a culminating gesture of defiance, he held a mock inauguration in the country's main square...
With this, many assumed they had seen the last of Mr. López Obrador -- at least until the next election in 2012.
But while the leftist has faded from international headlines, he never really went away in Mexico. He went on to found a parallel executive branch of government that proposes new laws, issues statements, holds elections, officiates during Mexican Independence Day, and even circulates its own form of identification card for Mexicans...
Nowadays, Mr. López Obrador tours the country giving presidential speeches where he is introduced as the real McCoy. After three years of this, he will soon have visited all of Mexico's 2,438 municipalities. That would make him, he says, the first politician -- indeed, maybe even the first man -- ever to have done that...
"We are in a land run by oligarchs," Mr. López Obrador began one recent morning in Nacajuca, a tiny Mayan village deep in Mexico's southeastern jungles. As the temperature rose, so did his voice as he railed against high prices for tamales, corporate tax loopholes and political corruption...
Perhaps no event captures the Legitimate Government's audacious style better than Sept. 15, the night of an age-old Mexican Independence Day tradition known as "el grito," or "the cry (of independence)." A half million Mexicans flood the main square as the president waves a flag and yells out revolutionary slogans, re-enacting the call to arms that brought Mexicans to rebel against Spain 199 years ago.
This year, as President Calderón performed his "grito," Mr. López Obrador could be found with his cabinet a few miles away in another plaza, giving what was called the "alternative" grito...
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Labels: legitimacy, Mexico, politics
Transparency
Transparency in government and even business decision making that affects national or global economics is generally thought to be a good thing.
Transparency International has helped publicize the idea and make it desirable. The latest ranking of 180 countries has been released.
How would your students evaluate the importance of transparency? Would they see any disadvantages to transparency (can there be too much)? What differences are implied if a country is ranked 19th or 135th? Do your students understand how this ranking is done? Do they think the process creates legitimate results?
There are many good teaching ideas and online materials at TI's
Policy Research web page.
Corruption Perceptions Index 2009The rank shows how one country compares to others included in the index. The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public-sector corruption in a country/territory.
The CPI is based on 13 independent surveys. However, not all surveys include all countries. The surveys used column indicates how many surveys were relied upon to determine the score for that country.
The confidence range indicates the reliability of the CPI scores and tells us that allowing for a margin of error, we can be 90% confident that the true score for this country lies within this range.
1. New Zealand
2 Denmark...
17. UK (tied with Japan)
19. USA...
79. China...
89. Mexico...
106. Nigeria...
146. Russia...
168. Iran...
178. Myanmar
179. Afghanistan
180. Somalia
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Labels: comparative methodology, concepts, International Organizations
Putinesque?
The idea of a cult of personality around a political leader is not new. Khrushchev denounced the "cult of personality" built up around Josef Stalin. Sadaam Hussein maintained a cult of personality to bolster his regime. The Kims in North Korea have done the same.
So, is Russia likely to produce another cult of personality? Bare-chested, macho man Putin certainly could become a cult hero.
There was
a very popular song about him in Russia a few years ago. (
See the video with subtitles of "I Want a Man Like Putin.")
United Russia's youth group, NASHI
often acts like a vehicle for hero worship of the prime minister.
What do the Russians think?
One-in-Four Russians See Putin Personality CultSome people in Russia think prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin is the subject of a personality cult, according to a poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center. 23 per cent of respondents share this opinion.
An additional 26 per cent of respondents say there is no Putin personality cult in Russia at the moment, but it could be developed. 38 per cent say there are no signs of any such cult...
Russians have named streets, pop songs and vodka after the current prime minister. The latest sign of admiration for Putin is a book of poetry for children called Putinyata...
Polling Data
Do you think Vladimir Putin is the subject of a cult of personality in Russia?
Yes, all its signs are already present
Oct. 2009 23%
Oct. 2007 22%
Not yet, but it could still happen
Oct. 2009 26%
Oct. 2007 27%
No, there are no signs of this cult
Oct. 2009 38%
Oct. 2007 38%
I make it difficult to answer
Oct. 2009 12%
Oct. 2007 13%
Source: Yury Levada Analytical Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted from Oct. 16 to Oct. 19, 2009. No margin of error was provided.
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Labels: leadership, politics, Russia
Remittances
Remittances to Mexico are occasionally in the news here in the USA. I had no idea of the size of remittances to Nigeria. Solomonsydelle, a blogger who writes the
Nigerian Curiosity blog, says that remittances were 5% of the Nigerian GDP in 2005 and that the 5% might be only a quarter of the actual amount of remittances.
If the people who send all that money back to family in Nigeria are also able to vote in Nigerian elections (and the elections were fair), what political effects should we expect?
NIGERIA - $10 BN IN REMITTANCESNigerians abroad send at least $10 billion in remittances to their loved ones at home. This amount makes Nigeria the 6th highest destination for remittances according to the World Bank. That also makes Nigeria the top remittance destination on the African continent...
From
People Move, a World Bank blog about migration, remittances, and development.
Nigerians are expected to take care of a lot more than just their immediate family. As a result, the average Nigerian family consists of a mother, father, children and many dependents such as in laws, cousins, and sometimes, neighbors. Once a young Nigerian gets a job, and sometimes even before that, he or she must begin to contribute to dependents...
On a fiscal level, remittances act as a source of capital second only to foreign direct investment...
Unfortunately, remittances are expected to drop between 2009 and 2011 as a result of the global economic slowdown...
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Labels: economics, Nigeria, politics
State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday
Karmin Tomlinson, who teaches in Oregon, wrote that "The 2009 Opening of Parliament is on Wednesday, Nov. 18!
"My students always enjoy the pomp and grandeur of the ceremony, especially Black Rod!"
Thanks, Karmin, for spotting the date.
CSPAN usually offers the BBC coverage live. BBC might offer a web cast. (It's not on the CSPAN schedule yet. BBC coverage begins at 10:30am - that's 5:30am EST, I believe.)
If you find out whether it will be web cast, let us know.
The ritual is always eye-opening. The Queen's speech, while more important
politically, is less interesting to watch, but reviewing the text is often worthwhile.
Details on the ceremonies are on the DirectGov web site:
State opening of Parliament 2009
State opening of Parliament 2009Parliament will be opened by the Queen at 11.30am [HM the Queen will leave Buckingham Palace about a half hour earlier] on Wednesday, November 18, 2009.
Peers who will be present at the ceremony may apply for a place in the chamber for their peeress or husband, and for their eldest son or daughter above 14 years of age.
A limited number of seats in the Royal Gallery will be available for guests of members of both Houses of Parliament. Members of the House of Commons should apply for these seats to the Speaker’s Secretary, House of Commons, London SW1A 2PW.
Application forms will be sent to those peers eligible to attend in due course.
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Labels: legitimacy, UK
The President speaks
Russia's president gave the annual state of the state speech. He sounded a different tone than that of his prime minister, but he didn't directly challenge the government.
A second article describes the main points of the speech in a very different way.
Which bit of coverage is likely to be more accurate? How can we judge? (You'll really need to read the complete text of both articles to judge.)
Russian President Says Modernization Is NeededPresident Dmitri A. Medvedev on Thursday called for sweeping reforms to modernize Russia’s economy and revamp crumbling industrial and military infrastructure, all while strengthening the country’s democratic institutions.
Mr. Medvedev addressed these issues, as well as corruption and law enforcement, in his annual state of the nation speech.
“In the 21st century, our country again requires modernization in all areas, and this will be the first time in our history when modernization will be based on the values and institutions of democracy,” Mr. Medvedev said.
Since assuming the presidency in 2008, Mr. Medvedev has sought to cast himself as a reformer and moderate, in contrast to the often hard-line, conservative approach of his predecessor, Vladimir V. Putin, who is now prime minister...
Medvedev Warns Russia Opposition Not to Rock BoatPresident Dmitry Medvedev warned Russia's opposition in his annual address on Thursday not to use democracy as a cover to "destabilise the state and split society."
The harsh words came alongside modest pledges by Medvedev to boost regional democracy in Russia. They showed the Kremlin's desire to ensure stability and prevent unrest amid a deep economic recession.
"The strengthening of democracy does not mean the weakening of law and order," Medvedev said in his address to Russia's p
olitical elite gathered in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
"Any attempts to rock the situation with democratic slogans, to destabilise the state and split society will be stopped."...
The president spent most of the 100-minute speech talking about the need for Russia to move its economy away from its Soviet roots in heavy industry and energy extraction towards 21st century sectors such as medicine, telecoms and space. Foreign policy was hardly mentioned...
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Labels: economics, politics, Russia
Nigeria: hope for change?
Ever since I first studied about Nigeria in the mid-1960s, I've been whiplashed back and forth between optimism and pessimism. One day things seem hopeful and the next day they appear hopeless.
Of course from a distance, an incredibly complex set of "places" like Nigeria can look like whatever the latest reporter describes.
To see the latest, get out your copy of
The Economist for November 14 (or use the link below) and turn to page 30. There's a good update on some things Nigerian. It might make a good supplement for the end of your study of Nigeria. You could choose a number of observations from the article as writing or discussion prompts.
Hints of a new chapter[U]nusually hopeful things are happening in the Delta...
[O]ver the past three months the militants have been giving up both themselves and their guns in unprecedented numbers...
It is rare to have any reasons to be cheerful about Nigeria...
Yet for all this, while other African countries such as Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Rwanda have been improving in the past decade, Nigeria has, in many ways, gone backwards...
[I]n 1999, 12 of the northern Muslim states adopted sharia law, putting an enormous strain on the unity of a Nigerian state that had previously been run only under the secular, civil law bequeathed to it by British colonial rulers...
Terrorism-watchers are also concerned that al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups from across north Africa may have attached themselves to some of these Islamic sects to mount attacks on the government...
Much rests on the enigmatic figure of the country’s president, Umaru Yar’Adua...
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, political culture, politics
Divine right rule in Iran
Divine right to rule is familiar to students of European history. There's even a Chinese version of it. But it's not familiar in Muslim countries. However, in Iran, at least one interpretation of the regime's constitution asserts a divine right to rule for the supreme leader.
Iran's Supreme Leader Cannot Be Removed - OfficialIran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cannot be removed from his post because his legitimacy comes from God, an official close to Iran's most powerful figure was reported Friday as saying...
Mojtaba Zolnour, a Khamenei representative in the elite Revolutionary Guards, told a gathering of Khamenei's representatives in Iranian universities that the clerical body that chose him, the Assembly of Experts, could not remove him.
"The members of the assembly ... do not appoint the Supreme Leader, rather they discover him and it is not that they would be able to remove him any time they wish so," he said, according to a report on the website Mowjcamp, which backs Ahmadinejad's opponent Mirhossein Mousavi.
In theory Khamenei can be removed by the 86-man Assembly of Experts, which approved him as successor to Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. But the system has never been tested.
"In the Islamic system, the office and the legitimacy of the Supreme Leader comes from God, the Prophet and the Shi'ite Imams, and it is not that the people give legitimacy to the Supreme Leader and are able to remove him when they want," said Zolnour, speaking in the religious city of Qom...
Khamenei has the final say in all matters of state according to the system of Shi'ite religious rule established by [what] Khomeini called 'velayat-e faqih', or rule by a religious jurist.
The jurist rules in the absence of the 12th Imam, a figure in Shi'ite theology directly descended from the Prophet Mohammad who disappeared in 9th century Iraq...
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Labels: constitution, Iran, leadership, legitimacy
Problems with capitalism
About ten years ago, the joke about the Russian economy was that it took 75 years to discover that communism didn't work, but it only took 10 years to discover that capitalism didn't work. We all know that the second experiment is an ongoing project.
The transition to a market economy in Russia is filled with thousands of details. And when those administering the transition are used to doing things one way... And when those administering the transition find they can benefit from the details... You know how to end those sentences.
An Oasis Is No Match for Bulldozers and BureaucratsIn the 1950s, the Soviet government set aside a bit of land on the Moscow River for Maria I. Gurlynina’s family and several dozen others to grow food...
“They gave us this land and told us to develop it,” Ms. Gurlynina, now 78, said. “They said we could stay here forever.”
Then, early one morning last year, the bulldozers arrived.
The municipal government had declared that the Soviet-era permits giving Ms. Gurlynina and her neighbors use of the land were invalid...
It is a predicament not uncommon in Russia. The Soviet government’s land monopoly may have ended some two decades ago, but the ability of the authorities to give and take away territory has not, real estate experts here say.
While private land ownership is not forbidden today as it was in the Soviet era, current real estate laws are vague: residents can buy homes and apartments, for instance, but not the land they stand on. In all cases people are left open to the caprice of corrupt officials and businessmen...
Government critics have accused the Moscow authorities of using ambiguous land laws and the ignorance of residents to snap up lucrative plots and resell them to private interests.
Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow’s powerful mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov, is a billionaire who is one of the city’s most successful real estate developers and Russia’s richest woman. Her company, Inteko, has benefited from several major Moscow government contracts...
In the legal vacuum that followed the Soviet Union’s collapse, many of the original canal workers began passing their plots to their children or selling them, believing their lengthy stewardship of the land gave them the right to do so. The new owners have built sturdier and more luxurious homes, despite having no titles for the land...
Because laws on land ownership remain incomplete and cumbersome, it is not clear who in this case and many similar ones throughout Russia is legally in the right, said Dmitri I. Katayev, a former Moscow City Council member who helped draft the first property laws after the Soviet collapse in 1991.
Though there are bureaucratic mechanisms in place for Russians to assume ownership of former communal apartments and private homes, he said, “The government just forgot about the issue of land.”...
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Labels: civil society, corruption, economics, political culture, rule-of-law, Russia
Dissent in China often looks like something else
In this case, dissent looks like investigative reporting. Why?
Editor Departs China Magazine After High-Profile TussleThe pioneering editor of the top Chinese business magazine has left her post with plans to start anew, after a tussle for control involving much the same mix of political and financial intrigue that she made her mark uncovering.
Hu Shuli [left], 56, resigned Monday from Caijing, the magazine she built into a thriving print and Web outlet that specialized in investigating government corruption and corporate fraud...
The owners of the magazine had come under pressure from Communist Party officials to rein in Caijing's aggressive journalism, people at the magazine have said...
In 11 years at Caijing, editorials by Ms. Hu pinpointed interest groups and bottlenecks that she said blocked economic overhauls. And exclusives by Caijing hastened the demise of some of the more notorious felons in China.
But the magazine’s own troubles have involved just the sort of topic that Ms. Hu and Caijing relished covering.
The political price of success grew in recent years. Ms. Hu found herself increasingly at odds with [the magazine owners] and their Communist Party guardians, according to employees and other colleagues during interviews in recent months...
Moreover, as the central authorities lavish official Chinese media giants with support to grow and compete globally, they also have made moves to tighten their chain of command over muckrakers like Ms. Hu...
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Labels: China, dissent, politics, rule-of-law
