Teaching Comparative

Complicating analysis of Nigerian politics

I'd guess that Linda Polgreen, the New York Times reporter who wrote the piece excerpted here, studied comparative politics. Who else would use "cleavage" the way she did in the article. With all the emphasis on the geographic-ethnic-religious divisions in the Nigerian populace, it's probably good to be reminded of the economic and social class cleavages.

In a Dream City, a Nightmare for the Common Man

"The license plates here supposedly say it all: Abuja is 'the Center of Unity.'


"A massive mosque, golden dome glinting amid four minarets, sits on one side of town, representing Nigeria’s population of 65 million Muslims. An equally vast nondenominational church, with copper-plated flying buttresses soaring skyward, sits less than a mile away, representing a roughly equal number of Christians...

"But these days the deepest cleavage in Nigerian society yawns wider here than it does almost anywhere else — the chasm between the tiny, rich and powerful elite and the vast, impoverished majority of the nation’s 130 million people...

"In the interest of cultivating an image as a world-class city, comparable to London, Paris, New York or Hong Kong, the government has been razing unauthorized and unsightly slums, clearing out street hawkers and banishing popular and cheap motorcycle taxis, all in the name of spiffing up the city...

"Abuja’s vast interstate cloverleafs, nestled in the moss-covered rock monoliths, would not look out of place in an American suburb, but only the lucky few can afford cars.

"The streets are often empty, crowded only occasionally by cordons of luxury sedans and sport utility vehicles, the entourages of government ministers.

"For visitors, black London cabs cruise the topiary-lined boulevards. Their fares run about $8, far beyond the reach of most Nigerians.

"The master plan’s housing estates unfurl with the orderliness of a planned subdivision: town houses and apartments for the well heeled, tract homes and villas for the even better heeled. But there is little provision for the army of civil servants, whose low wages place the graceful homes of Abuja out of reach.

"As for the maids, drivers, security guards and laborers without whom this city would cease to function... there is no place for them at all..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:59 AM