[size=18pt]29th November 1999 - BBC News
Hausas flee Lagos as ethnic violence leave a hundred dead[/size]

Hundreds of people are fleeing Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, in the wake of riots which are reported to have killed over 100 people.

Members of the minority Hausa community have left Lagos, in south-western Nigeria, and are heading for the nothern Hausa heartland.

Fighting broke out late on Thursday between members of Nigeria's two largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba - who form the majority in the south-west - and the Hausa, who dominate the north of the country.

The authorities in the northern city of Kano were reported to be preparing for possible fighting as Hausa people arrived from the south-west.

Kano, which has a substantial Yoruba minority, saw severe fighting in July, after Hausas fled there to escape violence in the south-western town of Sagamu.

Appeal for calm

In Lagos, Governor Bola Tinubu met leaders of both communities to appeal for calm, promising to guarantee the security of residents.

On Sunday, Hausa leaders said the community needed protection from the police and blamed a hardline Yoruba nationalist group, the Odua People's Congress (OPC), for the killings.

Armed police are patrolling the suburb of Keto where the unrest began, and have been working with community leaders to collect and bury the dead.

But they say they do not have sufficient numbers, or training, to properly control all the sensitive areas in the city.

Eyewitnesses who went to the scene on Sunday spoke of bodies still lying in the streets, in rubbish dumps or floating in streams.

They described hundreds of homes in ruins, and burned-out cars littering the streets.

The violence that erupted in a Lagos market on Thursday was the worst in a series of bloody incidents in Nigeria since military rule ended in May.

The trouble began when ethnic Hausa and Yoruba traders began fighting for control of a popular food market.

The clashes have led to renewed fears for the stability of Africa's most populous country.

[size=18pt]8 December 1999  - World Socialist Web Site
Obasanjo orders full force Army assault on town of Odi , Niger Delta leaving approx 500 civilians dead[/size]

After just six months of civilian rule in Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo has unleashed the army in the oil-producing Delta region, resulting in a massacre of the population in a small town. At the same time he instituted a shoot-to-kill policy and a police roundup of members of a militant tribalist organisation in Lagos. Both measures were clearly designed to intimidate the growing opposition to the government which is carrying out IMF-dictated policies, exacerbating the already appalling levels of poverty and unemployment.

Hundreds of troops were sent into the town of Odi in the Bayelsa state region of the Niger Delta area over the weekend of November 20-21 in response to the killing of 12 policemen the previous month, allegedly by youth protesters. The youth were from the Ijaw ethnic group—the main tribal group in Odi and one of several minority tribes in the Delta. There were reports that artillery was used, resulting in a number of deaths, and the area remained sealed off for over a week.

A group of Nigerian journalists were then allowed to visit the town together with an investigative mission from the National Assembly on Monday, November 29. Their reports present a horrifying picture. Every building in the town, which is 3 kilometres from one end to the other, was in ruins. The town contained about 25,000 inhabitants, most of whom had fled into the surrounding countryside. Roofs were burnt and walls breached with thousands of spent shells on the ground. Only four buildings, including a church, a bank and a school, were left standing.

Soldiers manning roadblocks were carrying a range of weapons, including FN rifles, AK-47s, genera purpose machineguns and bazookas. Numbers of corpses were left rotting by the roadside or dumped into surrounding waterways. When the Senate President leading the delegation, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, asked the commanding officer why they had carried out such total destruction he claimed that the Ijaw youth had automatic weapons and it was necessary to avoid more army casualties. The reporter for the Nigerian Tempo said that the pattern of destruction did not fit this explanation. "All the destroyed houses follow the same format—a burnt roof and breached walls, which makes it look like each house was taken out on its own." Also there were no remains of household furniture, which meant that "either property has been looted or they were destroyed and dumped into the River Nun".

Reports state that only a few older women remained in the town. Irorogha told how her husband had been killed in front of her and Dora Nana described how the soldiers shot and killed her four children. When asked where their men were, the women said that many had been killed and dumped into the river.

A human rights lawyer and member of the Ijaw National Congress, Bello Orubebe, interviewed by the Nigerian P.M. News, said that on the eve of Okadigbo's visit 375 corpses had been recovered from Odi, but that the total dead could not be ascertained because the soldiers would not allow access for the retrieval of corpses for burial.

As well as deploying the army in Odi the Nigerian regime has also reacted with extreme force in response to the ethnic unrest that broke out in Lagos on November 25. Obasanjo was quoted in a television interview saying, "The police have been instructed that any criminal should be shot on sight. Anyone who calls himself OPC [the Oodua Peoples Congress] should be arrested and if he doesn't agree he will be shot on sight—we cannot allow this country to be overtaken by hoodlums and criminals. When people decide to behave like animals then they must be treated like animals.”

A massive police and security operation in Lagos state has led to the arrest of about 200 members of the OPC, a group which calls for greater self-determination for the Yoruba, one of the three main tribal groupings in Nigeria. How many OPC members have been killed by police acting under Obasanjo's orders is not clear. The ethnic conflict was between Yoruba and Hausa youth, and appears to have started in a dispute between Hausa and Yoruba traders at Mile 12 market in the Ketu district. Fighting lasted over 24 hours and more than 100 people were killed. Market stalls, shops and residential buildings were burnt down as youths attacked civilians indiscriminately with machetes. According to the Tempo newspaper, armed mobile policemen took part in the killings. They cite one witness who saw the police murder five innocent civilians in their compound, including her brother.

It seems that, despite Obasanjo's denunciation, the OPC had little involvement in the conflict. Both the local governor of the area and even the police commissioner have said that the OPC were not responsible. Obasanjo accused the governor of "feather-bedding" the OPC.

Behind the massacre in the Delta region is the government's resolve to suppress the militant organisations of the various tribal groupings. Poverty and unemployment, together with the oil pollution in this region, has led to gangs of youths attacking oil installations and kidnapping oil workers.

In Lagos too, political commentators point to the high levels of poverty and unemployment levels of 50 percent and more as the cause of ethnic conflict. The mass of the population had expected the civilian government would tackle the appalling social decline, but Obasanjo's actions show that this is far from the case. As the Financial Times commented, “The actions of his administration have been startlingly similar to those of past regimes which wielded a lot of stick and little carrot when attempting to stem the activities of minority rights groups.”

Obasanjo's administration has received Western backing to boost gas and oil production, expand private investment, pay off the huge debts built up by the military regime, and cut out the high levels of corruption amongst the Nigerian elite. He has accepted IMF demands for its representatives to set up a mission at the Nigerian Central Bank and the Finance Ministry, monitoring every aspect of the economy. As in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, IMF privatisation policies can only increase the levels of unemployment and poverty.

Insofar as the method of political rule has changed since the previous military dictatorship, the elections—which were largely fraudulent—have given a greater role to regional elites and handpicked politicians. Obasanjo has attempted to cultivate the competition between rival regional and tribalist groupings by offering limited handouts—for example $50 million to renovate the infrastructure in the Delta region. In the budget the government promised that each of the 36 states which make up the Nigerian federation could keep 13 percent of revenues generated locally, again a limited concession to the oil-rich Delta region. Such politics can only encourage tribalist conflicts.

Given the absence of socialist politics to unite the working people and poor masses throughout Nigeria against the transnationals and international banks, tribalist groupings like the OPC—which claims to have 3.2 million members—and the Ijaw, Ogoni and other movements of the Delta, have come to the fore. In the northern areas Hausa politicians have attempted to impose Islamic fundamentalism.

Tribalist politics are nothing new in Nigeria—they were fomented by the British colonialists in the first half of the century and led to the civil war of 1966-70. They were only suppressed during the last 30 years by military rule. To maintain its IMF policies, Obasanjo's government will increasingly have to resort to the kind of brutal methods it has used in Odi and the Lagos suburbs.

GenBuhari:

[size=18pt]29th November 1999 - BBC News
Hausas flee Lagos as ethnic violence leave a hundred dead[/size]

Hundreds of people are fleeing Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, in the wake of riots which are reported to have killed over 100 people.

Members of the minority Hausa community have left Lagos, in south-western Nigeria, and are heading for the nothern Hausa heartland.

Fighting broke out late on Thursday between members of Nigeria's two largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba - who form the majority in the south-west - and the Hausa, who dominate the north of the country.

The authorities in the northern city of Kano were reported to be preparing for possible fighting as Hausa people arrived from the south-west.

Kano, which has a substantial Yoruba minority, saw severe fighting in July, after Hausas fled there to escape violence in the south-western town of Sagamu.

Appeal for calm

In Lagos, Governor Bola Tinubu met leaders of both communities to appeal for calm, promising to guarantee the security of residents.

On Sunday, Hausa leaders said the community needed protection from the police and blamed a hardline Yoruba nationalist group, the Odua People's Congress (OPC), for the killings.

Armed police are patrolling the suburb of Keto where the unrest began, and have been working with community leaders to collect and bury the dead.

But they say they do not have sufficient numbers, or training, to properly control all the sensitive areas in the city.

Eyewitnesses who went to the scene on Sunday spoke of bodies still lying in the streets, in rubbish dumps or floating in streams.

They described hundreds of homes in ruins, and burned-out cars littering the streets.

The violence that erupted in a Lagos market on Thursday was the worst in a series of bloody incidents in Nigeria since military rule ended in May.

The trouble began when ethnic Hausa and Yoruba traders began fighting for control of a popular food market.

The clashes have led to renewed fears for the stability of Africa's most populous country.

interesting.

very very interesting. as far as i am concerned, the best head of state ever mentioned is muhammad buhari. the man should be given second term. oh, no wonder he shed tears. he knew those to deal with and restore our confidence. he is far better than the incumbent i must confess but ethno-religious sentiments beclouded nigerians. here we are, PEACE!

News story inserted 23 March 1995

[size=18pt]10 December, 1999 -  BBC News
Sokoto and Kano States move towards Shari'a Law days after Zamfara State pioneered the law[/size]

Two more states in northern Nigeria have taken steps to introduce Islamic law, which was pioneered by Zamfara state in late October.

The Kano state parliament passed a bill adopting shari'a yesterday; it is to take effect after various committees have worked out the details for its implementation.

The day before, the government of Sokoto state, which borders Zamfara, announced a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol and on prostitution -- to take effect in two weeks' time -- as part of the introduction of shari'a. A BBC correspondent in Zamfara state says that people there seem genuinely to welcome the new move, which is intended only to affect the Moslem majority.

He says alcohol has entirely disappeared from the state, except in the army officers' mess, and that women-only taxis and buses have begun appearing on the streets.

News story inserted 3rd February 1999

[size=18pt]13th January 2000, BBC News
Biafra Revisited: Thirty years on [/size]

It is 30 years since the end of one of post-independence Africa's first and most bloody wars.

The Nigerian civil war not only came close to tearing Africa's most populous country apart, it also provoked passions in many other parts of the world, particularly in Britain, the former colonial power.

Nigeria became independent in 1960. Like most ex-colonies in the continent, its boundaries had been defined quite arbitrarily to demarcate where the competing claims of the imperial powers collided.

Consequently Nigeria was composed of semi-autonomous Muslim feudal states in the desert north, and once-powerful Christian and animist kingdoms in the south and east, which was where the country's only significant source of income - oil - was exploited.

Ethnic split

At independence, Nigeria had a federal constitution comprising three regions defined by the principal ethnic groups in the country - the Hausa and Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the south-west, and Ibo in the south-east.

But as the military took over in the mid-1960s, and the economic situation worsened, ethnic tensions broke out.

Up to 30,000 Ibos were killed in fighting with Hausas, and around 1million refugees fled to their Ibo homeland in the east.

On 30 May, 1967, the head of the Eastern Region, Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, unilaterally declared the independent Republic of Biafra.

After initial military gains, the Biafran forces were pushed back.

Over two-and-a-half years later, 1 million civilians had died in fighting and from famine.

Photographs of starving children with huge distended stomachs from protein deficiency horrified people around the world.

Finally, Biafra was reabsorbed into Nigeria.

Responsibility

Today, Chief Emeka Ojukwu enjoys the role of elder statesman, living in comfort in the former Biafran capital, Enugu.

Forgiven by the Nigerian authorities in the early 1980s, he admits to no remorse for the events of the civil war.

"At 33 I reacted as a brilliant 33 year old," he says. "At 66 it is my hope that if I had to face this I should also confront it as a brilliant 66 year old.
"Responsibility for what went on - how can I feel responsible in a situation in which I put myself out and saved the people from genocide? No, I don't feel responsible at all. I did the best I could."

For the men who fought for the Biafran cause, defeat has been followed by 30 years of humiliation. The wounded veterans line up in their wheelchairs alongside the main roads in Enugu, begging for money from passers-by.

Men like former Sergeant Michael Okafo believe they are being punished for fighting on the losing side.

He wants food, he wants to educate his children and he wants shelter. He wants to be treated like any other Nigerian.

Exclusion
When the civil war ended, the government promised the Ibo people that there would be no victors and no vanquished.

The authorities were desperate to avoid a repetition of the ethnic tensions which preceded the war.

Chief Ojukwu believes the Ibos have been largely excluded from power ever since and this could cause instability in the future.

"None of the problems that led to the war have been solved yet," he says.

"They are still there. We have a situation creeping towards the type of situation that saw the beginning of the war."

British stance
There is plenty of resentment but little talk of secession among the Ibo today.

During the war, Mrs Oyibo Adinamadu was a leading women's activist for the Biafran cause.

But only a few African countries recognised it as an independent state.

She even travelled to Britain to lobby the then Labour government, which refused to meet her.

Instead Britain was a key arms supplier to the federal government, enabling it to crush the rebellion, because it believed that Biafran secession would create regional instability.

The then British Labour Foreign Secretary, Michael Stewart, agonised over this policy.

"It would have been quite easy for me to say: This is going to be difficult - let's cut off all connexion with the Nigerian Government," he says now.

"If I'd done that I should have known that I was encouraging in Africa the principle of tribal secession - with all the misery that could bring to Africa in the future."

Equitable

Today, Mrs Adinamadu thinks that equitable distribution of resources will encourage the Ibo of eastern Nigeria to believe in the future of the country.

"And if the easterners are treated fairly, and other parts of Nigeria too, and you see an equitable handling or distribution of what is available, and then of course working to develop and to progress - I think easterners would like to stay in Nigeria," she says.

But following Nigeria's recent return to democracy, many of the country's diverse peoples, not just the Ibos, are demanding greater autonomy.

Nigeria is a young country. The vast majority of its population is under 30 years old and only a small proportion have direct memories of the war.

But the causes of the Biafran conflict - ethnic rivalry and mistrust - are as relevant today as ever

News Story inserted 1st June 1966

[size=18pt]26 January 2000  - BBC News
Obasanjo's Shame: Anger as  Nigerian power cuts increases[/size]

There've been angry scenes in Nigeria in the past few days as power cuts have interrupted fans' enjoyment of African Cup of Nations football matches.

Last night, the match between Morocco and Congo was disrupted by a fifteen-minute blackout at the stadium in Lagos.

Fans sang songs mocking the national electricity power authority over how frequently power failures take place.

And on Sunday in the central city of Jos, police used teargas after a crowd set fire to the offices of the electricity authority.

They were angered when a power cut stopped them watching Nigeria's opening game on television.

news story inserted 17th may 1976

[size=20pt]3rd February 2000 -  BBC News
'Obasanjo's government is the worst Nigeria has ever produced, his spending of money without National Assembly approval is Criminal' - Senator Joseph Waku[/size]

The magazine Tell, quoted Senator Joseph Kennedy Waku as saying that President Olusegun Obasanjo's government was the worst Nigeria had ever produced.

The senator is quoted as saying that the way President Obasanjo has been spending money without the National Assembly's approval, is criminal.

According to the magazine, the senator said that if the government behave like a dictatorial regime it would be better for what he calls the professional coupists to take over.

News story inserted 28th June 1986

[size=18pt]8th February 2000 - BBC News
Super Eagles beats Senegal in African Nations Cup - Nigerians living in Senegal are attacked by local youths[/size]
More than a dozen Nigerians living in Senegal have been injured, some seriously, by hundreds of armed local youths.
The fans went on the rampage on Monday night in protest at Senegal's defeat by Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations.

According to eyewitnesses, several shops owned by Nigerians and other foreigners were attacked by youths, armed with clubs and knifes, in the densely populated Medina suburb in the capital, Dakar.

Senegalese fans stormed the Nigerian embassy, smashing windows, tearing up signposts and damaging an official car.

They also attacked the Zimbabwean embassy, claiming the game's Zimbabwean referee was biased.

Many Nigerians sought refuge at their embassy, which was under heavy police guard on Tuesday.

Many of the injured were badly beaten up and were taken to hospital.
A correspondent for the BBC in Senegal says the Nigerian community there is still anxious for its safety.
No immediate arrests were reported.

In the the dramatic quarter-final in Lagos, Nigeria's Super Eagles came from behind to win 2-1 in extra time.

The winning goal in extra time sparked a pitch invasion by celebrating Nigerian fans that delayed the game for 10 minutes.

[size=18pt]5 April 2000  -  BBC News
Obasanjo raids and searches Thisday newspaper offices, after it investigates corrupt practices[/size]

Police in Nigeria have burst into the offices of one of the country's main newspapers, searched it for subversive documents and tried to arrest the editor.

The paper, Thisday, said it suspected the search was related to its investigation into alleged corrupt practices by senior aides to President Obasanjo.

Correspondents say the forced closure of newspapers and arrest of journalists was common during the government of the late Sani Abacha, but it's the first such police action since Mr Obasanjo came to power last year.

News story inserted 26th June 1998

[size=18pt]25th May 2000 - BBC News
Obasanjo unperturbed by over 2000 people killed in tribal and religious violence over the first year of his presidency[/size]

Where the violent clashes occurred, there were killings, burning of cars, properties, private businesses, churches and mosques, and looting of shops.

Resorting to army
"We now live in perpetual fear because of the incidents of terror unleashed by rampaging youths in their battle to ensure Islamic sharia law is in operation in the city," said Kaduna resident Kate Obosa. "I don't stay out beyond six in the evening."

And frustrated Nigerians have noticed that, all too often, the new civilian authorities have been forced to call on the army to restore order.

The reasons for the numerous outbreaks of violence have been bewilderingly varied. In the commercial capital Lagos, the nearby town of Sagamu, and the northern city of Kano, it has been tensions between the country's two biggest ethnic groups, the Yorubas and the Hausas.

In Kaduna and the south-eastern city of Aba, religious differences between Christians and Muslims have merged with ethnic rivalries.
 
The violence has left many people in Nigeria bewildered. Rivalries between different groups which were kept under wraps, or were even deliberately exploited, during military rule, are now erupting with a vengeance.

Calls for devolution
While still celebrating the new freedoms associated with the restoration of democracy, Nigerians have been forced to think long and hard about the country's future. In most parts of the country there is a now a clamour for a greater devolution of power to the regions, and to the many ethnic groups which were carelessly thrown together by the British colonialists to form modern-day Nigeria.

Since May 1999, several ethnic and pressure groups have emerged or gained prominence in Nigeria. They include Odua Peoples Congress (fighting for the south-western Oduduwa States), Arewa Peoples Congress (protecting the interest of ethnic northern Nigeria) and Middle Belt Forum (canvasing for their geographical identity which is distinct from northern Nigeria).

Among others are Egbesu Boys and Ijaw Youth Council (seeking increased share in Nigeria's wealth for the impoverished oil-rich Niger Delta region), Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign States of Biafra (fighting for the separatist eastern Biafra State which had resulted in the 1967-70 Nigerian civil war) and Bakassi Boys (fighting against social ills in Nigeria).

"It's as if there is no cartilage between the bones; for as long as we are thrown together in this way the painful friction is bound to continue" argues Ayo Obe, a leading Lagos human rights activist, 

Obasanjo unpeturbed
When Nigeria's last remaining prominent political exile, Chief Anthony Enahoro, returned home in April he delighted many by calling for a sovereign national conference as a first stage in the creation of a federation of loosely bound ethnic groups.

At a welcoming rally in Lagos, he told an excited crowd, "We must not fear radicalism or radical ideas,  surely we must see that the future lies in Nigeria becoming a union of nationalities".

Amid the clamour for reform, and the cries of dismay at the wave of violence, President Olusegun Obasanjo appears remarkably unperturbed.

News video inserted 31st July 1966

this are really educative!

[size=18pt]Tuesday, 13 June, 2000 - BBC News
Nigerian strike is over after Obasanjo apologises for increasing fuel prices by a massive 50%[/size]

Trade union leaders in Nigeria have called off a general strike after the government agreed to scale down further the fuel price increases it imposed earlier this month.

A statement by the Nigerian Labour Congress said the increases for petrol and other fuels would be restricted to about ten per cent, and it called on workers to resume work immediately.

The government had originally imposed a fifty per cent increase, which was later scaled back to twenty-five per cent.

The five-day strike paralysed large parts of the country and yesterday, President Olusegun Obasanjo apologised for not consulting widely enough. Correspondents say fuel is heavily subsidised in Nigeria, and frequent attempts by governments to reduce the subsidies have been thwarted by strikes and protests.

News story inserted : 25th February 1980

[size=18pt]14 July 2000  - World Socialist Web Site
Hundreds of desperate people feared dead in Warri pipeline explosion as they try to collect leaking fuel; Obasanjo accuses the victims of being greedy[/size]

A damaged oil pipeline gushing fuel exploded in southern Nigeria early Monday morning, killing more than 250 people. Many of the dead were schoolchildren, whose uniforms could be discerned on some of their charred remains.

The explosion took place near the village of Adeje with a population of 5,000, not far from the port city of Warri in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Despite its proximity to a city, it took 24 hours for fire crews to arrive at the scene. Fire fighters had to extinguish a further smaller blaze at the same spot on Wednesday.

Such is the frequency of fire outbreaks on pipelines in the Warri area that fire fighters have practically given up any effort to quell them. The usual practice is to cut off the flow of oil in the pipes and let the flames burn out.

Sometimes the pipelines are damaged by militant activists trying to force the government and oil companies to compensate local communities for land use and pollution. More often, villagers break open the pipeline and collect the fuel either to sell on the roadside or to power cheap generators and other motors. Villagers said the Warri pipeline had been punctured for this purpose by street vendors on Sunday night.

By Monday local people had also begun collecting fuel from the damaged pipeline. Many of the dead were still clutching fuel buckets they had been using. Some had attempted to outrun the flames from the explosion but had been unable to get away, as the fire destroyed fields and buildings in a 2 kilometre radius. Mass graves have been dug to bury the dead.

Villagers said many of those who had survived the inferno had gone into hiding in order to avoid being prosecuted for theft. “When we heard the explosion and saw the raging fire we considered it as normal because the breaking of pipelines and siphoning of fuel is happening all the time,” said Adeje resident Monday Ochuko. “But when people started screaming we rushed there and saw the bodies,” he said, adding that he had taken his family to Warri for fear of a police roundup of suspected fuel thieves.

Statements by Nigerian government officials emphasised how widespread the fuel theft has become. “The tanker drivers puncture the pipeline and pump gasoline into their vehicles and then drive off, leaving fuel gushing out. Villagers then come in with their buckets and jerry cans,” one said.

It is a testimony both to the scale of poverty in Nigeria and to how little the people of the region benefit from its rich natural resources that so many risk their lives regularly to gain fuel. For many there is little other means of making a living. The practice has triggered numerous explosions in the past. In 1998, 1,000 people died in an explosion at the nearby village of Jesse.

In addition, whilst Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer, its inhabitants suffer from shortages of petroleum products. The four refineries in Nigeria have been run down under successive administrations and nearly all of the oil is now exported and refined elsewhere. The Warri pipeline owned by state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) was originally built to carry crude oil to a refinery in the northern town of Kaduna. It had to be modified later to transport refined products, following a prolonged shutdown of the refinery for repairs. The Kaduna refinery once had a throughput of 110,000 barrels per day.

Doyin Okupe, a spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo, spoke contemptuously after the explosion, which he described as an “avoidable tragedy”. Pipeline vandalism “is driven by poverty and greed,” Okupe said adding, “they know the risks.” Nigeria has a network of more than 3,125 miles of pipelines criss-crossing the oil-producing country. Obasanjo, who came to office in May 1999, has set up a special task force of soldiers and police backed by helicopters to protect the pipelines.

Thanks @ Genbuhari.Keep it up.

5th February 1985 -  Toledo Blade, Ohio. Newspaper
Buhari rejects IMF terms for loan , and says Nigeria will match British oil prices

The Nigerian leader, Gen. Muhammad Buhari, says his country will match Britain;s oil prices even if it means undermining the pricing structure of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
The London business daily reported that General Buhari, in an interview in Lagos, also reaffirmed Nigeria's rejection of the International Monetary Fund's terms for a $2.4 billion loan.
General Buhari was quoted as saying the benefits if membership in the cartel outweighed the disadvantages, but that the 13-nation organization had to be realistic and allow flexibility for member countries in financial dificulties, such as Nigeria.

If Britain's North Sea oil prices dropped, Nigeria, which gets 95% of its foreign earnings from oil, would follow suit, he was quoted as saying, adding: "We will have to do that to survive."
General Buhari rejected monetary fund demands that Nigeria devalue its currency, the naira, by 50 to 60 per cent and that the west African country reduce domestic fuel subsidies, the Financial Times said.
The military leader, who came to power in a Dec. 31, 1983, coup, reportedly said higher prices for food and other items would result from devaluation.

1. He rejected the condition of the IMF loan due to high interest rate possibly
2. He refused to devalue the naira against the dollar to prevent higher prices for food and other items. What a good leader

30 June 1986 - The New York Times
Babangida announces plan to devalue Naira

LAGOS, Nigeria, June 29— The military Government, accepting the Western prescription for reviving the collapsed economy, has announced a plan to devalue Nigeria's currency, the naira.

President Ibrahim Babangida, in a nationwide television address Friday, outlined a plan intended to reduce the official value of the naira slowly until it coincides with the black-market rate.

While Gen Buhari rejected the devaluation of the Naira in 1984, Gen Babangida accepted the devaluation in 1985

@Revolutnz
Thanks for your comments, it is very much appreciated.

Babangida devalued Naira by a massive 2,200% , which means that whilst we were able to get $1.13 for our Naira during Buhari's era, after Babangida's devaluation, the Naira could only fetch $0.04 cents, rendering the Naira effectively worthless and plunging the Nigerian masses into hardship and poverty that we are suffering today.

News story inserted 11th November 1993

[size=18pt]2nd August 2000 - BBC News
Jigawa state adopts Sharia Law[/size]

The people of the northern Nigerian state of Jigawa have been celebrating the introduction of Sharia or Islamic law.
It is the sixth state in northern Nigeria to adopt Sharia during the course of the year.

But the state authorities, aware of the political sensitivities have kept events low key.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in fighting between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria this year over the introduction of Sharia.

Bus loads of supporters of Sharia turned up in the tiny state capital, Dutse, but crowds milled around with little sense of purpose.

It has been a public holiday, and thousands of people have benefited from the traditional Islamic distribution of grain to the poor and disabled, a process known as zakkhe.

But people were urged to stay at home and pray.

Many bars have closed down, hotels stopped selling alcohol and prostitutes have left.

Panacea

Muslims in northern Nigeria feel strongly that Sharia has been misunderstood by Christians, who have tended to concentrate on the fact that it introduces punishments such as amputation for theft and flogging for people caught drinking alcohol.

But in Jigawa, a rural and a poor state, the fiercely conservative peasant farmers appear overwhelmingly in favour of a return to Sharia.

After 40 years of misrule and corruption, Sharia has come to be seen in the north as a panacea to political and social problems.

There is a widespread belief that a return to Sharia will also herald a return to a more orderly and caring society.

The Christian minority there has little choice but to accept the new situation.

On Tuesday, another northern state, Katsina formally adopted Sharia but without the fanfare that has characterised the introduction of the code in other states.

The states of Kebbi, Bauchi and Borno have also signalled they are moving towards adopting Sharia.

The Federal Government has urged state authorities in the mainly Muslim north not to take any action that could endanger national unity.

News story inserted 8th September 1963

[size=18pt]17 August, 2000 - BBC News
Obasanjo appears silent on Row over demands for Shell to clean-up oil spill and pay compensation[/size]

The authorities in Nigeria's southern Delta State have asked the multi-national company Royal Dutch/Shell to help clean up an oil spill which local communities say has caused widespread destruction to farmland and fishing reserves.

A spokesman for Shell told the BBC that the company was considering the request but felt aggrieved because, although the spillage originated from one of its wells, it had been caused by a deliberate act of sabotage.

For the past two weeks, Shell has been involved in an acrimonious dispute with communities in the Ugheli area close to the town of Warri.

A spillage from an oil well has resulted in widespread pollution - the equivalent of thousands of barrels of crude oil has spread through surrounding rivers and creeks and across farmland.
Residents of about 10 villages say they have been badly affected.

Chief arrested

Police reinforcements have been drafted to the area in order to maintain law and order.

But the police have also arrested a prominent local chief whom Royal Dutch/Shell accuses of having deliberately sabotaged the oil well by removing its head.

Such acts of sabotage are common in the Niger Delta.

Individuals and sometimes communities carry them out in the hope that they will be paid compensation by the oil companies or that they will be offered employment in the clean-up operation.

Shell officials in Nigeria are furious about this latest incident and - although the company is considering how to clean up the spill - it is likely to resist any attempt to make it pay compensation.

News story inserted 20th October 1975

[size=18pt]26th August 2000
Obasanjo pulls out all stops to impress as US President Bill Clinton makes a brief state visit to Nigeria as part of his Africa tour[/size]

Mr Clinton, accompanied by his daughter Chelsea, was welcomed at the airport by his counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo.

There was a 21-cannon salute before the two presidents inspected a guard of honour and traditional dancers in flowing African dress also took part in the welcoming ceremony.

Speaking to the press after talks at Mr Obasanjo's official residence, Mr Clinton pledged US support for "the most important democratic transition in Africa since the fall of apartheid".

Brave start

Mr Clinton went on to the National Assembly building to deliver a speech to a joint session of parliament.

He told deputies they had embarked on a brave beginning, but he warned of the danger ethnic and religious divisions in Nigeria.

"Now at last you have your country back," Mr Clinton said. "You have beaten such long odds to get this far, I am certain America will walk with you in the years to come."

The speech was interrupted several times by applause and roars of approval, especially when Mr Clinton praised the assembly's role as a check on the executive.

Earlier, Mr Clinton said he had asked Mr Obasanjo to lobby for an increase in the amount of oil being pumped by Opec, the oil cartel of which Nigeria is a member.

Mr Obasanjo agreed, saying: "We will work to bring an element of stability into the price of oil. It is in the interest of all concerned that that should happen."

Following his visit, Mr Clinton will fly to Egypt, where he will meet President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the Middle East peace process.

He is also due to visit Tanzania on Monday, where he is hoping to witness the signing of a peace deal between Burundi's warring factions.

Delicate stage
Mr Clinton's visit to Nigeria is a public show of support for Mr Obasanjo's government, and its reforms, which are currently at a delicate stage.

Mr Obasanjo became Nigeria's first democratically elected leader for more than 10 years following the death of military ruler Sani Abacha in 1998.

News story inserted 8th May 1984