ekt_bear:

was kicked out of it by Malaysia (in part due to ethnic/political differences.)

ekt_bear:

Oil today is what, 30% of Nigeria's GDP. If oil stopped today, would Nigeria bounce back and continue growing strongly like Singapore did after losing its safety net?

Part of the reason why Nigeria is the way it is because many of us are afraid of losing oil (me included in this "many of us", btw!)

Yet if we restructured the country, who is to see that the non-oil producing parts of the country wouldn't then find their own Lee Kuan Yews? Good leadership and good people seems to be the most valuable on earth, if Singapore is any indication.

logica:

Why would you not know how they were able to develop when it's already in your post? You need a light-bulb? They were formed on ethnic and political synergy (opposite of differences). A machine cannot work when all the cog-wheels are spinning in different and uncomplimentary directions.

ekt_bear:

I've been reading the book From Third World to First : The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 by Lee Kuan Yew over the past few days.

Just as a bit of background, Singapore is a tiny island nation in Southeast Asia that was formerly a British colony. It gained independence in 1963, joined a federation with Malaysia, and was kicked out of it by Malaysia (in part due to ethnic/political differences.)

So you have this very poor island nation with no natural resources whatsoever. Not even enough drinking water; they sourced their water from Malaysia. Surrounded by hostile countries like Malaysia and Indonesia who tried hard to enslave it through military and economic means. Yet despite this adversity, through excellent leadership Singapore is today one of the richest countries on earth.

Reading through his book, I got a very bad impression of Malaysia. Basically they come across as bigoted, backwards xenophobes. Yet despite all of this, even Malaysia has done a lot better than Nigeria: http://i55.tinypic.com/2iuqki1.png
(from the World Bank)

So where exactly did we go wrong as a country and continent? What excuse do we have for failure over the past 40 years? Singapore did it, and is not blessed with the natural resources that Nigeria is. People expected Singapore to fail, yet it succeeded.

This book has given me a lot of hope about how[b] good leadership can set a country on the right path[/b], but also made me a bit sad about how bad Africa has been run.

ekt_bear:

I guess their rationale was that it is better to be the major port city of a large nation than on your own.

ekt_bear:

Tribalism is mostly a Nigerian phenomenon as far as Africa goes. I don't really see it amongst most other Africans that I've met (just my general impression, not a fact by any means)

ekt_bear:

@alex101 and @logica: I understand your point. But if you want to use this tribalism/"too big" argument, then why are all these other countries in West Africa and most of Africa failures? Tribalism is mostly a Nigerian phenomenon as far as Africa goes. I don't really see it amongst most other Africans that I've met (just my general impression, not a fact by any means)

Would federalism or outright partitioning be enough to solve most of the problems? Benin Republic to the West isn't a great country, Niger Republic sucks, Chad Republic sucks, Cameroon isn't doing very well. And all these countries either have a dominant ethnic group or relatively little tribalism (at least to my knowledge).

Can we blame everything on tribalism? Seems a bit too simplistic, no?

logica:

You are kidding right? Are those African countries by any chance North African? Those are probably the countries with near homogeneous populations. "Tribalism" is a human trait, and not African. Even European countries have separated in the 90s talk less of African countries. And believe you me, if you by any chance had a country formed by France and Italy, they will very quickly grind to a halt. This is why Awolowo said "Nigeria is nothing but a geographical expression, and is not a nation like France, et cetera".

The other factor of course is interference by the so called "Western Powers". I have already mentioned the case of Patrice Lumumba and Congo several times today. Patrice Lumumba - progressive, intelligent, every bit the African the West cannot work with. But guess what, when the "Axis of Evil" aka Belgium and the US struck, they used the standard divide and conquer as there were tribal clashes. So again we go back to tribal differences.  A house already divided has already fallen. Interference is more difficult when the house is tightly bound.

ekt_bear:

The western powers interfere everywhere, not just in Nigeria/Africa. We cannot use that as an excuse, imo.

DRlulu:

SPLIT THE COUNTRY INTO 4 UNITS (THOUGH STILL THE SAME COUNTRY) 5 LET EACH UNIT CHART ITS OWN COURSE, WHAT YOU HAVE YOU KEEP [/b]BUT WITH TRADE AGREEMENTS AND AN EXPORT BASED ECONOMY, YOU WILL SEE HOW THE SO CALLED POOR AND NON OIL PRODUCING REGIONS WILL WORK HARD TO BECOME EVEN BETTER THAN THE OIL PRODUCING REGIONS , eg the north can  borrow money from the central govt or the rich oil regions to boost cattle farming, groundnut,sugar cane ,tourism,etc, the west can can return to mass production of cocoa to power their economy (we underestimate the value of cocoa), the middle belt is already feeding the country while the oil rich east can diversify their oil economy to provide other needed facilities to for the whole region like transport ,new cities ,technology etc.
start a new police force what we have now is a big joke.

My-Key:

All lazy arguments.

Tribalism has no place in this. Otherwise, Somalia, with her one tribe, one culture and one religion would be the epitome of prosperity.

The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. The conflict, which began in 1991, has caused destabilisation throughout the country, with the current phase of the conflict seeing the Somali government losing substantial control of the state to rebel forces. [size=24pt]The unrest initially consisted of a series of clashes between various tribalist factions[/size], but since the mid-2000s took a militant Islamist tone.

logica:

It seems you are lazy with digging up facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Civil_War

My-Key:

Somalis are one tribe, my friend. Clan-ism. Read wider than Wikipedia, buddy,

a group of families or households, as among the Scottish Highlanders, the heads of which claim descent from a common ancestor: the Mackenzie clan.

any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, community of customs and traditions, adherence to the same leaders, etc.

DRlulu:

SPLIT THE COUNTRY INTO 4 UNITS (THOUGH STILL THE SAME COUNTRY) 5 LET EACH UNIT CHART ITS OWN COURSE, [b]WHAT YOU HAVE YOU KEEP [/b]BUT WITH TRADE AGREEMENTS AND AN EXPORT BASED ECONOMY, YOU WILL SEE HOW THE SO CALLED POOR AND NON OIL PRODUCING REGIONS WILL WORK HARD TO BECOME EVEN BETTER THAN THE OIL PRODUCING REGIONS , eg the north can  borrow money from the central govt or the rich oil regions to boost cattle farming, groundnut,sugar cane ,tourism,etc, the west can can return to mass production of cocoa to power their economy (we underestimate the value of cocoa), the middle belt is already feeding the country while the oil rich east can diversify their oil economy to provide other needed facilities to for the whole region like transport ,new cities ,technology etc.
start a new police force what we have now is a big joke.

logica:

And what is the difference between tribes and clans? Maybe my actually reading widely more than you do made me know they are the same. Or maybe English is foreign to you?

You can follow the links or grab a dictionary and stop acting so learned when you are not.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clan

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tribe

okada_man:

BTW, If you say Congolese, Kenyans and Ghanaians don't do tribe, then you know very little about those countries