Thought provoking & a must read..

Princeton N. Lyman, the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa,
delivered a very poignant speech on the panel titled "The Nigerian State and
U.S. Strategic Interests" at the Achebe Colloquium at Brown University. Lyman suggests that rather than continually emphasize
Nigeria's strategic importance, it would behoove us to consider elements
that might eventually lead to Nigeria's irrelevance on the international
stage.

TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH (TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE VIDEO SPEECH)

Thank you very much Prof. Keller and thanks to the organizers of this conference. It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honor of Prof. Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.

I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I Ambassador there, I
have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humor in the face of challenges etc.

And I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friend from the legislature, because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favor by stressing Nigeria's strategic importance.

I know all the arguments: it is a major oil producer, it is the most
populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peacekeeping, and of course negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc.. But I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria's importance creates a tendency of inflate Nigeria's opinion of its own invulnerability.

Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they
have many of which we have talked about: disgraceful lack of
infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.

And I am not sure that that is helpful.

Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria's importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.

We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.

What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigerian. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?

And the answer is "Not really."

And oil, yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year program that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world. And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.

And Angola is rivalling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.

So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply.

And what about its influence, its contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.

Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or after many many promises making any contributions to Somalia?

The answer is no, Nigeria is today NOT making a major impact, on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa that it was making before.

What about its economic influence?

Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de industrialization going on in Nigeria a lack of infrastructure, a lack of power means that with imported goods under globalization, Nigerian factories are closing, more and more people are becoming unemployed. and Nigeria is becoming a kind of
society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not
make it a significant economic entity.

Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?

Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s and I remember in one meeting a minister from a country not very friendly to the United States came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and
all its dire plots and in things in Africa and was going on and on and
finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said: "You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our oppostion but that we will find you irrelevant."

The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message, that Ghana symbolized
more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.

And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said "what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy, would it be a model for good governance, would he
obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?"

No he would not, so he did not go.

And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed but she also went to Angola and who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binational commission in Angola.

So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary.

Because what it means is that Nigeria's most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.

And that is a sad sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great.

And that takes an enormous amount of commitment. And you don't need saints, you don't need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.

I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless, but it was becoming to turn around, later to become to every person's amazement then the eleventh
largest economy in the world. And I remember the economist in my mission saying, you know it did not bother him that the leading elites in the government of South Korea were taking 15 - 20 percent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one, and that was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea economy and turn its economy around.

It has not happened in Nigeria today.

You don't need saints. It needs
leaders who say "You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it."

Thank you

2 get Nigeria wrkin agn wil b very difficult bt d shortest way is 2 divide d country dat way everybody wil fight 4 Der survival

Now thats what i call been straight forward,when oil is no longer relivant what north and waste nijaria be like

Now where are the mods to take this to the front page?

Why are the mods contributing the failure of this country? These are the kind of threads that Nigerian youths should be reading so they can deconstruct this contraptive hellhole called Nigeria. I read the whole article and I found it really educating and revealing on the failed status of Nigeria, yes, Nigeria is big for nothing!

If there is anything I need from God, it is the grace and Favour from God to take my family out of Nigeria. It is really important for any rational and visionary individual to escape Nigeria. Your children will thank you for it.

I keep on telling people that Biafra will finally happen and it will happen without firing a single shot.

dometome:
I keep on telling people that Biafra will finally happen and it will happen without firing a single shot.

This is what everyone is praying for, I don't want war REFUGEES in my SW.

7lives:


This is what everyone is praying for, I don't want war REFUGEES in my SW.

God bless you sir.

Part of the reason why I want the country is divided is to have the cancer called igbo to be removed from yorubaland and we shall achieve it.

Nigeria has failed!

resurgent2019:


God bless you sir.

Part of the reason why I want the country is divided is to have the cancer called igbo to be removed from yorubaland and we shall achieve it.

Nigeria has failed!

NIGERIA HAS REALLY FAILED, WHAT IS THE BLUE PRINT ON MOVING NIGERIA FORWARD, WHAT PLANS DO THEY HAVE IN PLACE, SAY 5YR, PLAN, 10 YRS PLAN, 15 YRS PLAN, 20 YRS PLAN THAT WILL BE SIGNED AND GAZETTED SO THAT EVERY SUCCESSIVE GOVT WILL FLOW THE PLAN, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE PARTY OF GOVERNMENT IN POWER.

WE CANNOT CONTINUE LIKE THIS, I EXPECT A GOVERNMENT THAT WILL COME INTO POWER AND FOCUS MAINLY ON THE POWER SECTOR, THAT WILL BE THE BIRTH OF A NEW NIGERIA

dapsonlou:
Thought provoking & a must read..

Princeton N. Lyman, the former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa,
delivered a very poignant speech on the panel titled "The Nigerian State and
U.S. Strategic Interests" at the Achebe Colloquium at Brown University. Lyman suggests that rather than continually emphasize
Nigeria's strategic importance, it would behoove us to consider elements
that might eventually lead to Nigeria's irrelevance on the international
stage.

TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH (TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE VIDEO SPEECH)

Thank you very much Prof. Keller and thanks to the organizers of this conference. It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honor of Prof. Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.

I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I Ambassador there, I
have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humor in the face of challenges etc.

And I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friend from the legislature, because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favor by stressing Nigeria's strategic importance.

I know all the arguments: it is a major oil producer, it is the most
populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peacekeeping, and of course negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc.. But I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria's importance creates a tendency of inflate Nigeria's opinion of its own invulnerability.

Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they
have many of which we have talked about: disgraceful lack of
infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.

And I am not sure that that is helpful.

Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria's importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.

We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.

What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigerian. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?

And the answer is "Not really."

And oil, yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year program that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world. And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.

And Angola is rivalling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.

So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply.

And what about its influence, its contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.

Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or after many many promises making any contributions to Somalia?

The answer is no, Nigeria is today NOT making a major impact, on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa that it was making before.

What about its economic influence?

Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de industrialization going on in Nigeria a lack of infrastructure, a lack of power means that with imported goods under globalization, Nigerian factories are closing, more and more people are becoming unemployed. and Nigeria is becoming a kind of
society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not
make it a significant economic entity.

Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?

Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s and I remember in one meeting a minister from a country not very friendly to the United States came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and
all its dire plots and in things in Africa and was going on and on and
finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said: "You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our oppostion but that we will find you irrelevant."

The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it. When President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria, he was sending a message, that Ghana symbolized
more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.

And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said "what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy, would it be a model for good governance, would he
obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?"

No he would not, so he did not go.

And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed but she also went to Angola and who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binational commission in Angola.

So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary.

Because what it means is that Nigeria's most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.

And that is a sad sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great.

And that takes an enormous amount of commitment. And you don't need saints, you don't need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.

I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless, but it was becoming to turn around, later to become to every person's amazement then the eleventh
largest economy in the world. And I remember the economist in my mission saying, you know it did not bother him that the leading elites in the government of South Korea were taking 15 - 20 percent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one, and that was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea economy and turn its economy around.

It has not happened in Nigeria today.

You don't need saints. It needs
leaders who say "You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it."

Thank you

Nigeria is a failed state today because of decades of hausa/Fulani & their Yoruba sheer ladies marginalizing Igbos period.

Any system of governance in Nigeria(eg the worst of the worst kind we have now) multi-ethnic, religious, regional diversity which is not grounded in equity, justice, fairness, rule of law, void of religious extremism etc, is bound to fail any way.(is common Sense).

... but, the most poignant question here is whether these hausa/Fulani and their yoluba sheer ladies get it?. Have "experience become their best teacher" or the swamp of dysfunctional/corrupt system they have being swimming in for the past 60 years too sweet (like beautiful Igbo women Toto) for them to let go?. Will they even accept responsibility for the tragic failure?. Have they even accepted the fact that our beloved country now is the extreme poverty capital of the world with more poor people than India. Igbos have being crying and dieing in their millions telling the whole world relentlessly that the Nigerian system foundationally is rigged against them firstly & collectively rigged against all Nigerians. The world don't buy that argument simply because the hausa/Fulani & their Yoruba sheer ladies as in majority are neck deep in their swamp of injustice, fairness and dysfunctionality that is too sweet to let go. The world have written us off, and those it surprises you that this written off is initiated from the same powerful governments that have always always support the hausa/Fulani hegemon on Nigeria up to date?.

7lives:


This is what everyone is praying for, I don't want war REFUGEES in my SW.

Who wants to go to brown roof place? The most unlivable place in the world.

This speech was made in January 2010 when GEJ and PDP were in power....i hope they are not using it mistakenly as a campaign against Buhari cause every thing said there is a condemnation of their government.���

..Dundees at work for a dead party!

resurgent2019:
Now where are the mods to take this to the front page?

Why are the mods contributing the failure of this country? These are the kind of threads that Nigerian youths should be reading so they can deconstruct this contraptive hellhole called Nigeria. I read the whole article and I found it really educating and revealing on the failed status of Nigeria, yes, Nigeria is big for nothing!

If there is anything I need from God, it is the grace and Favour from God to take my family out of Nigeria. It is really important for any rational and visionary individual to escape Nigeria. Your children will thank you for it.

Holyshit! I thought Igbos were your problem?? You see, instead of focusing on how to liberate your family, you run from thread to thread shouting how Igbos are are this and that.

A lot of you are frustrated and only find solace in "hating" Igbos.

Nigeria problems de affect everyone, if you like no mind your business.

This topic should be on the front page

Nigeria can't continue disgracing it's people, Africans and blacks while putting a big strain on the world while the global community looks the other way perpetually. Europe is now feeling the heat because the thousands of refugees stampeding on its borders everyday are largely Nigerians escaping from the madness going on in the country and they know that it will only get worse if nothing is done to salvage the situation. A time will come when a call for referendum will be demanded for, this time not from the East but from Europe and America. Nigeria is too bastardized the way it is and something urgent has to be done!!