Tuesday, October 10, 2006

One or two...

There've been a few Nigeria related stories surfacing in the British newspapers recently. The one that caught my eye, was the British Chancellor Gordon Brown's proclamation that Nigeria was a breeding ground for religious extremists. When I heard him say it, I remember thinking, "what the heck is he on about?" But on closer examination, his source (Bono) has a point. I always shout about Nigeria's post September 11 Osama baby name craze, and the country's Taliban wannabes as reasons why Gordon Brown's claim is plausible. The Telegraph had a little write-up a couple of weeks ago.

Mark Tran of the Guardian, has written a mini-analysis of the Niger Delta's oil curse.

3 comments:

Chxta said...

But you didn't notice what Bono actually said (what I've been saying for years which people want to eat me for): The problem is the kind of education that they receive...

Natura abhoret vacuo, so if the kids don't get access to the quality education that would open their minds, they'll get access to another quality of education that would open their minds...

Jeremy said...

I live 50 metres from a mosque representing a notorious Northern State. As you know, its Ramadam. Instead of the usual hour-long rant (call-to-prayer plus prayer itself) over the megaphone (which works miraculously come NEPA or not), the Ramadam rant lasts all day. Its extremely irritating to be disturbed for such long periods. I'm not sure if they are preaching jihad or treat-your-4th-wife-kindly, but it seems to me the one saving grace of Nigeria in this regard at least is that no one wants to be a hero and die for a cause. Hence the miniscule (or are there any at all) numbers of Nigerians who actively orient towards Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Chxta said...

Hehehe. Reminds me of a certain post made by Nkem...