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Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria - Politics - Nairaland

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Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Sunofgod(m): 10:49pm On Feb 13, 2012
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton says poverty is fueling the religious violence tearing at Nigeria.

In a speech Monday, Clinton acknowledged he was "really worried" about the security problems now plaguing the nation, which includes increasingly violent attacks by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

Boko Haram is based in and has launched attacks across the nation's impoverished Muslim north.

Clinton noted that region remains one of the poorest of the whole country. Clinton suggested more direct investment and opportunities for those in the north, while still allowing for possible military action against the extremists.

Clinton appeared Monday night in Lagos at the ThisDay Awards, an annual ceremony hosted by Nigerian newspaper magnate Nduka Obaigbena.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/clinton-poverty-helping-fuel-violence-nigeria-15576609
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by ektbear: 10:54pm On Feb 13, 2012
Wtf is wrong with these goddamn westerners.

Who is expected to make "direct investment" in the north?

The private sector, or the public sector?

If the latter, why? What moral right do they have to a larger share of government spending than what they've received over the past 40-odd years?

It is nobody's fault but their own that nothing came of it.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by ektbear: 10:55pm On Feb 13, 2012
And I even really like Bill Clinton.

But he has missed it.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Kobojunkie: 11:55pm On Feb 13, 2012
Sun of god:

Clinton noted that region remains one of the poorest of the whole country. Clinton suggested more direct investment and opportunities for those in the north, while still allowing for possible military action against the extremists.

Duh!! undecided undecided undecided undecided
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by htajz: 12:10am On Feb 14, 2012
the north choose to be poor, they have been the ones rulling nigeria besides their leadershipsystem does not encourage middle class .
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 4:05pm On Feb 15, 2012
SLS said same thing and roof is being brought down.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Fhemmmy: 4:06pm On Feb 15, 2012
ekt_bear:

And I even really like Bill Clinton.

But he has missed it.

I dont think he has missed it at all, he is saying the fact, but he fell short of advising that something has to be done to protect the investment and educating the people to accept development.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by BashMe1(m): 4:07pm On Feb 15, 2012
Eeeyah, old age don catch up with am. sad
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by DisGuy: 4:10pm On Feb 15, 2012
ekt_bear:

Wtf is wrong with these goddamn westerners.

Who is expected to make "direct investment" in the north?

The private sector, or the public sector?

If the latter, why? What moral right do they have to a larger share of government spending than what they've received over the past 40-odd years?

It is nobody's fault but their own that nothing came of it.

who are they nigerians or foreigners?

he is of the understanding that the country is still one, not we, them etc, if you were prescribing a solution for lets say wales, scotland, you wont group them as 2 different entities
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 4:15pm On Feb 15, 2012
Poverty plus religious radical fanaticism.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by tit(f): 4:22pm On Feb 15, 2012
I agree with clinton.
Let us in the spirit of brotherhood give every able bodied man in Borno
20 pounds or the equivalent.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by hercules07: 4:25pm On Feb 15, 2012
I feel justified, this was what SLS was talking about, poverty brings social problems, we need to look at one another as Nigerians, one section suffers, all other sections suffer.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by pmarine: 4:29pm On Feb 15, 2012
Please what has he missed? He is on point. He has identified the genesis of problem and likely solutions which makes sense. You guys should go up north and compare with the south, it's a glorified desert, even Kano is a shadow of what it used to be. Anyways, the northern governors, ex military head of states, emirs et al that embezzled the funds should plough it back to develop the northern region; shikena,
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Akintola11(m): 4:32pm On Feb 15, 2012
'This Week in Nigeria:$1 billion cement plant inaugurated, Christmas bombing suspect re-arrested, Transport committee created & much more!'

http://thinkafricapress.com/nigeria/blog/week-nigeria-1-billion-cement-plant-opens
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Wallie(m): 4:32pm On Feb 15, 2012
ekt_bear:

Wtf is wrong with these goddamn westerners.

Who is expected to make "direct investment" in the north?

The private sector, or the public sector?

If the latter, why? What moral right do they have to a larger share of government spending than what they've received over the past 40-odd years?

It  is nobody's fault but their own that nothing came of it.

I think you missed his point. He's only taking cognizance of the current BH situation. Nobody denies the fact that the Northern politicians have nothing to show for their share of the national pie.

But to arrest the current problems with BH, he’s suggesting that the government should not only look for a military solution and should address the underlying issue that caused a group like BH to be welcomed. Same is true for MEND and other like groups.

Yesterday is gone along with the billions of stolen dollars but today is here and we can make sure that the money earned does not end up like that of yesterday’s.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 4:40pm On Feb 15, 2012
frosbel:

Poverty plus religious radical fanaticism.

Yes, Clinton as forgotten that lipsrsealed

To the issue of more direct investment, will I be the one, southerners, easterners, westerners or even foreigners to do it?

The north has all what is takes to develop their entity, but I am afraid they all have been distracted because all their block heads have to offer is to greedily plunder the wealth of the Niger Delta. They better use those monies wisely now!
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Demdem(m): 4:49pm On Feb 15, 2012
its good when the whole article is copied out  smiley smiley opening post seems to be misleading lipsrsealed lipsrsealed


Former U.S. President Bill Clinton warned Monday that the rampant poverty that plagues oil-rich Nigeria — felt most acutely in its Muslim north — is fueling the religious violence now tearing at the nation.

A radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram claimed Monday it killed 12 soldiers and beheaded three government informants in its bloody wave of sectarian violence against Nigeria's weak central government. While Clinton never named the sect in a speech Monday night in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, he admitted he remained "really worried" about the security challenges in Africa's most populous nation.

"You can't just have this level of inequality persist. That's what's fueling all this stuff," said Clinton, who appeared along with Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at the ThisDay Awards, an annual ceremony hosted by Nigerian newspaper magnate Nduka Obaigbena.

Poverty is endemic in Nigeria, and corruption has siphoned away billions in oil earnings since the country began exporting crude more than 50 years ago. New government statistics released Monday showed that in Nigeria's northwest and northeast, regions besieged by Islamic insurgents, about 75 percent of the people live in poverty.




Analysts say that poverty, despite decades of military rule by leaders from the north, coupled with a lack of formal education has driven the region's exploding youth population toward extremism.

In the last year, Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, has carried out increasingly sophisticated attacks in its campaign to implement strict Islamic law and avenge Muslim killings in Nigeria.

Boko Haram is blamed for killing at least 286 people so far this year, according to an Associated Press count. At least 185 people died in the sect's coordinated assault in January on Kano, the largest city of Nigeria's north.

Those attacks have strained relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. Clinton called for Nigerians to embrace their similarities, while also asking the government to speed public works projects such as providing electricity to a nation whose people are long accustomed to running their own generators for power.

"It is almost impossible to cure a problem based on violence with" violence, Clinton said. "You also have to give people something to look forward to when they get up in the morning."

However, Clinton acknowledged Nigeria cannot rule out using military or police force when dealing with the instability. The unease in the country, as well as the threat of possible Boko Haram violence even in Lagos, could be felt as heavily armed soldiers and officers stood guard outside the luxury hotel as he spoke Monday night.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/clinton-poverty-helping-fuel-violence-nigeria-15576609#.TzvTck4gfXo

Nigeria's population in poverty
•    1980: 17.1 million
•    1985: 34.7 million
•    1992: 39.2 million
•    1996: 67.1 million
•    2004: 68.7 million
•    2010: 112.47 million
Source: Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Kobojunkie: 4:51pm On Feb 15, 2012
Clinton is 100% right.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Demdem(m): 4:53pm On Feb 15, 2012
Deleted
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Demdem(m): 4:54pm On Feb 15, 2012
ekt_bear:

Wtf is wrong with these goddamn westerners.

Who is expected to make "direct investment" in the north?

The private sector, or the public sector?

If the latter, why? What moral right do they have to a larger share of government spending than what they've received over the past 40-odd years?

It  is nobody's fault but their own that nothing came of it.

ekt_bear:



And I even really like Bill Clinton.

But he has missed it.

Abegii, read the whole article and lets av ur opinion once again.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 5:02pm On Feb 15, 2012
My own take is this: The root cause of Boko Haram is misinterpretation of religious texts by a few religious extremists, but poverty fueled it by provided an army of illiterate, easily brainwashable, vulnerable youth.

SLS blames it on poverty, and you call him a religious/ethnic bigot; Clinton says same, you call him senile. Poverty-violence relationship is almost unimpeachable. The poorest countries/regions in the world(Somalia, Congo, etc) are the most violence-ridden.

My problem with that SLS statement is the time, not the statement itself, and a wrong assumption that making more funds available for the violence-ridden region will eliminate poverty, where histiry shows that more allocation=more money into governors private coffers.

If you want to disagree with these people(SLS, Clinton etc), intellectualize it, compare facts, not imputing motive to their view.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Wallie(m): 5:16pm On Feb 15, 2012
Jarus:

My own take is this: The root cause of Boko Haram is misinterpretation of religious texts by a few religious extremists, but poverty fueled it by provided an army of illiterate, easily brainwashable, vulnerable youth.

SLS blames it on poverty, and you call him a religious/ethnic bigot; Clinton says same, you call him senile. Poverty-violence relationship is almost unimpeachable. The poorest countries/regions in the world(Somalia, Congo, etc) are the most violence-ridden.

My problem with that SLS statement is the time, not the statement itself, and a wrong assumption that making more funds available for the violence-ridden region will eliminate poverty, where histiry shows that more allocation=more money into governors private coffers.

If you want to disagree with these people(SLS, Clinton etc), intellectualize it, compare facts, not imputing motive to their view.

You can’t stop a handful of people from going rouge based on religion but when those that went rogue have the backing of the populace then you’re dealing with an issue that is not religious merely exacerbated by it. They would have easily found another common denominator like nationalism or tribalism that unites them. Germany, MEND, Shiites vs. Sunnis comes to mind.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 5:28pm On Feb 15, 2012
corruption and unemployment i say is the major problem why Nigeria is in violence
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by kbdrim(m): 5:32pm On Feb 15, 2012
If a man is comfortable and has a good reason to live for, It would be difficult to convince him to become a suicide bomber. Poverty makes you desire that everyone around u experiences the same thin. POOR MANS PRAYER- GOD DESTROY THIS WORLD SO WE CAN ALL START OVER AGAIN
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 6:34pm On Feb 15, 2012
Interesting hoiw people are concurring with this theory when it was said by Clinton, but when SLS said same few weeks, same people called him name.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 7:12pm On Feb 15, 2012
How much did Nduka pay Clinton as appearance fees? Clinton, go use that money and invest in the North, ok?
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by nagoma(m): 7:34pm On Feb 15, 2012
It looks like u can't have sensible logical discussion on Nairaland these days. Clinton has some points so did Sanusi.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by wordychap: 7:58pm On Feb 15, 2012
"more direct investments in the north" clinton's not far from being right but lets be practical, non-northerners and christians are spited n even killed by d northerners, how wud investments thrive in such atmosphere? what the north needs is education- unfortunately they're fighting it, when a good percentage of them get to know they need other people to boost their economy, they'll be welcoming n investments can trigger in with time.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by SNCOQ3(m): 8:09pm On Feb 15, 2012
kbdrim:

If a man is comfortable and has a good reason to live for, It would be difficult to convince him to become a suicide bomber. Poverty makes you desire that everyone around u experiences the same thin. POOR MANS PRAYER- GOD DESTROY THIS WORLD SO WE CAN ALL START OVER AGAIN

I have to differ. The suicide bombers responsible for 9.11 were guys whose stomachs were full. This is how Newsweek Oct. 15, 2001 described them:

"What make Al Qaeda killers seem especially menacing is their apparent normalcy and independence. Most of the Black Tuesday hijackers were not like the Palestinian suicide bombers, poor loosers brainwashed and bribed to strap on a bomb and take a one-way bus ride to Allah. The half-dozen leaders were educated and middle class."
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by phreakabit(m): 8:39pm On Feb 15, 2012
Funny how an outsider thinks he knows more about the country than those within it. He should be more concerned with which of his female aides he should molest next. Poverty my azz! These guys are brainwashed islamic extremists, they don't do what they do for financial benefits. They do it for the love of their god. They think they are doing his work. . . . .
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 9:03pm On Feb 15, 2012
SNCOQ3:

I have to differ. The suicide bombers responsible for 9.11 were guys whose stomachs were full. This is how Newsweek Oct. 15, 2001 described them:

"What make Al Qaeda killers seem especially menacing is their apparent normalcy and independence. Most of the Black Tuesday hijackers were not like the Palestinian suicide bombers, poor loosers brainwashed and bribed to strap on a bomb and take a one-way bus ride to Allah. The half-dozen leaders were educated and middle class."  
that, like that of Faruk Mutallab, are exceptions. but I still hold, that poverty is secondary cause though.
Re: Clinton: Poverty Helping Fuel Violence In Nigeria by Nobody: 9:09pm On Feb 15, 2012
Are those actually doing the bombings poor? It also reminds me of the American airline attempted bomber! Well, if poverty is the issue here, which I doubt it is, then the problem can be solved with making sure the leaders of that region respond to investments creation and provision for other avenues to reduce unemployment. The other thing is that the Northers and their leaders have supported these suicide bombings for sometime now, and we can see many times where some of the top Northern elites have been allegedly accused of sponsoring the sect.

There have been many times the country tried to provide for the education of these Northern population who likely rejected being educated or frown at it in other to give an excuses for religious indoctrination. Yet, they expected to be in the best positions within the country with no good qualifications or less. The governors can be a prime examples of what I am trying to pass across as facts. Indeed, the Northern patronizing of nomadic education has even been met with mixed acceptance, only to see few roaming the whole country with their cattle procession.  This is not the first time we have seen this country to be worse off on the poverty red line. One time the country was 20th poorest nation in the world, that austerity measures, like SAP, etc were introduced to arrest the situation with not single benefit coming out of it yet, there was nothing like suicide bombing. I can actually related this current situation to political one. The Northerners believe it is their right to rule and that has not seemed to be the case in this present time and they resort to violence. Believe it or not, if the president happened to be from the North we wouldn't have seen such a magnitude of bombings as we witness now. Perhaps, MEND would have been the ones doing the violence - in all ramifications, the problem still boils down to[b] political incompetence, marginalization and bigotry[/b].

Nigerians are known to be relaxed or comfortable at the agonizing face of poverty, even late famous Afro beat legend, Fela Kuti, once sang a song on the views of the population on poverty. then, we can no longer look further to claim beyond reasonable doubt that poverty has never been the root of the suicide bombings in Nigeria but political. We have all in one way or the other insinuated it to be religion yet it has gone beyond that, most especially, during the incumbent.

On Bill Clinton assertions, there are evidences that he knows something is not right and poverty is endemic to Nigeria - for such it can easily be seen to be the root cause. Whereas, the culprits are right at our nose, the Northerners, most especially, the core North are not ready to co-operate but, are willing to fight to be the head(the president). Another thing, they are very good in mismanagement of public fund and religious.

I disagree in many respects with many comments here that they must be embraced as brothers, yet we have seen many attacks on Southerners ,who are trading or investing in the North, properties been destroyed and lives lost. The people of the North are arguably the most resistant, intolerant and dangerous in all part of the country. On the other hand, they aren't willing to change in the long time to come.

If there must be immediate solutions they have to come in the forms of their leaders(the Sultans, Emirs, Governors, senator,etc) to educated them on tolerance, rule of law, unity and start to create employment for the teeming population as well as educate them on family planning(I doubt if they would ever paid attention to that) and securing of the borders in the North. The violence we have seen has spilled into neighboring countries, which is a good reason to prove that it is not just matter of employment but political motivation to cause chaos and crisis.

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