More startling revelations about the way the United States and international oil companies view and treat Nigeria have continued to emerge from some of the US embassy cables released by a whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks.



One of the cables details discussions at a meeting between the US Assisitant Under Secretary of State, Mr. Johnnie Carson, and some executives of the IOCs in Lagos on February 7, 2010.



During the meeting, which looked at the challenges facing Nigeria and suggested ways of tackling them, Carson warned that “Nigeria had the possibility of becoming the next Pakistan in 25 years.”



Pakistan is generally described as the hotbed of religious crisis and a poor terrorist nation. It’s history has been characterised by political instability and conflicts. It is home to terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed; one of the most active militant islamist terrorist organisations in South Asia.



Another cable mentioned a former Shell Petroleum Development Company Vice-President for Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa, Ms. Ann Pickard, as claiming that some key officials in the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua took huge sums from oil firms as bribes.



At the February meeting, Carson said Washington viewed Nigeria as the most important country in Africa because of its huge population, large hydro-carbon deposit, peace keeping role in ECOWAS, seat in the United Nations Security Council and its financial market strength.



Carson noted that there was no way the US would not be interested in Nigeria given its enoumous potential and large Muslim population (seventh in the world) were capable of eclipsing Egypt by 2015.



He argued that for the US not to have a presence in Northern Nigeria was akin to having no presence in Egypt. For this reason, he added, the US was planning to have a consulate in Kano.



When told that the US was underepresented diplomatically, economically, commercially and militarily in the South-South and South-East, he admitted that Washington must return to Enugu, and Port Harcourt.



Carson, who described Cape Town, South Africa as being 100 times a better living place than Lagos, said, “Some places are more important than others within the Federal System of Nigeria.



“Lagos is one of the one of the most important places. It is bigger and more important than Cape Town even though the latter is 100 times better in terms of livability.”



The cable quoted him as saying, “No presence means no access, which leads to no influence. Without influence, you have nothing.”



Carson reportedly said that when he served in Nigeria from 1969 to 1971, the US had its embassy in Lagos with consulates in Ibadan, Kaduna, and briefly in Port Harcourt. It also had an Information Service post in Kano.



The Under Secretary of State pointed out that when Nigeria had a population at 50 million and did not produce oil, the United States was better and more broadly represented.



He added that with an embassy in Abuja and a consulate in Lagos now, the United States had experienced a huge loss in Nigeria.



The Washington top official added that the US expected a stable, legal, democratic and constitutional government in Nigeria with no military involvement.



He said that it was important for the Nigerian government to do better in the 2011 general elections because in 2007, only 10 per cent of Nigerian voters saw ballot papers.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101210411675

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Lot's happening and the wikileaks guy has been arrested , Hackers are fighting everybody that go against him , Swiss bank financial department was hacked because they froze mr assange's money , Visa card has been hacked because it withdrew its support for wikileaks , Keep hacking , I'll keep downloading , Up wiki !!!

Am loving this!
I just hope all dis infos woundn't kick start world war lll

Speechless.

Tell them , their father no fit stop the storm of change

I earnestly wish that how the death of Abiola and that of Abacha were planned and executed would be revealed so that we would know those responsible!

desgiezd:

I earnestly wish that how the death of Abiola and that of Abacha were planned and executed would be revealed so that we would know those responsible!

And IBB will say his hands were tied!!!

lol

He said that it was important for the Nigerian government to do better in the 2011 general elections because in 2007, only 10 per cent of Nigerian voters saw ballot papers.

Na true?     

We all know our country is Leaderless, corrupt, Broken, disunited, Inflation ridden, and yet when the Western Countries tell us the obvious we acted surprised and even have the guts to argue?!!!! trully i am amazed at the guts it takes to stare hard cold facts in the face and state the opposite, only a Nigerian is capable of such, My brothers and sisters, the fact remains that if we remain on the road, then this country is destined to be another Afghanistan, Iraq, or even Sudan in the not too distant Future, So pls lets us all go home listen to that old song by Eldee : I go yarn (, pls download if u haven't heard it b4 ), then pray for what is to come

I dey laugh again oo

"When told that the US was underepresented diplomatically, economically, commercially and militarily in the South-South and South-East, he admitted that Washington must return to Enugu, and Port Harcourt."



I am shocked! Even the U.S. recognizes that the East is very important. Anyone who denies this is a fool. Eastern Nigeria may be the most important region not only in Nigeria, but the continent as a whole!

na wa o.

kobo my dear where u dey? lets jaw jaw.

on topic- “Lagos is one of the one of the most important places. It is bigger and more important than Cape Town even though the latter is 100 times better in terms of livability.”

staggering stuff

Dude, you are free to believe what you want of the place. I don't understand why I would want to debate this topic of yours, on a thread warning that your Lagos could, in the next 20 years, become pakistan, if care is not taken.

Haven't these Western nations been predicting doomsday for Nigeria for quite a while though? I dare not hold my breath for this to happen.

Pakistan is actually richer than Nigeria, at least in a PPP/capita sense:

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=30&pr.y=4&sy=2008&ey=2015&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=694,564&s=NGDPDPC,PPPPC,LP&grp=0&a=

Haven't looked into literacy levels and other factors though.

So maybe it would be good if Nigeria turns into another Pakistan

^^^

What is good about a comparison that was done on a "as a hotbed of terrorism" basis

pls hw can i get to access the wikileaks site? it seems lyk it has bin blked by those guys we watch on Kiefer Sutherland's 24 (CTU? CIA? FBI?)

http://213.251.145.96/tag/UN_0.html

^^^ wikileaks

they are all stupid

gestapo:

^^^

What is good about a comparison that was done on a "as a hotbed of terrorism" basis

It was a poor joke, not really meant seriously.

It is very unlikely that we will become another Pakistan as Pakistan's insurgency is, for the most part, fuelled by insurgency in its neighbor, Afghanistan. As Nigeria is surrounded by relatively peaceful states, it is very highly unlikely that insurgency will evolve substantially beyond Boko Haram's current antics. Our economy is, also, much stringer and more resilient than most and, as such, is also very unlikely to worsen if the private sector continues to grow as much and perform as well as it is doing at the moment.
Nigerians also dont like to kill themselves.
Well that is with the exception of one fool
But we do need electricity!

The mistake by these geeks and the founders of wikileaks is that their efforts is nothing but war against the internet itself.

Governments around the world will now find e-mails and internet unsafe and this liberalism gone haywire by these wikileaks guys will simply drive Government Business information management system back into the stone age.

Oh dear! My Nigeria? becoming Pakistan?

oya make una begin pray o!

Ann Pickard
Country Chair, Shell in Australia and Executive Vice President, Upstream Australia

Ann came to Australia in March 2010 to take up the role of Executive Vice President Upstream Australia within the Shell Upstream International organisation, responsible for the exploration, production and gas commercialisation part of Shell’s Australian business.

Since then, her role has expanded to Country Chair of Shell in Australia, adding oversight of the manufacturing, chemicals, supply and distribution, retail, lubricants, trading and shipping, and alternative energy parts of the business.

Described by Fortune Magazine as the bravest woman in oil and one of the 50 most powerful women in business, Ann was Shell’s Regional Executive Vice President for Sub Sahara Africa, based in Lagos Nigeria, for the past 5 years. In that role she oversaw the company’s exploration & production, gas and LNG activities in the region.

Before that, Ann was Director, Global Businesses and Strategy and a member of the Shell Gas & Power Executive Committee with responsibility for Global LNG, Power, and Gas & Power Strategy.

Ann came to Shell in 2000, leaving Mobil upon the merger with Exxon. She has significant business experience throughout South America, the countries of the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and Africa.

Ann has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from the University of California, San Diego. She has recently joined the Board of the Energy & Minerals Institute, University of Western Australia. She is married and has two children.

Ann Pickard is a Director of Shell Energy Holdings Australia Limited and its subsidiary companies.

Better than been projected to be a failed state like Afghanistan

Did someone mention afghanistan; speaking of aghanistan. Here is a must watch
http://vimeo.com/5239964

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something just doesn't add up concerning wikileaks, can't quite put my fingers on it yet

Nigeria another Pakistan?

Naaaah! We too like ourselves for this country.
How many nigerians, even Boko Haram, will don explosive vests and take a one-way trip to
kabblooey land?

All said and done, none of all those ''experts'' can figure out why Nigeria has not gone the way of Sudan
with the advent of sharia States, or had a prolonged civil war like Angola, or crashed like Zimbabwe in the face of
wide spread corruption!

Here's my bit: God loves this nation, and on top of that, we Nigerians love life. We enjoy living.
Imagine those bad guys that blew up a world cup viewing centre being Nigerians!!!
They would have been watching the match too!!!

Wanton destruction just isn't our way, and those yankee control freaks should've known that by now,
You can't scare us into doing what we don't want to do, we're not Americans, who believe everything
the papers say.

I see no difference between Pakistan and Nigeria already.

With the way Nigeria is going, she will be worst off than Afghanistan and Iraq combined together by 2035.

Damn it!