Not just another African disaster

Nigeria in crisis? When was it not? Since it lurched into independence in 1960, Africa's most populous nation has experienced a near-constant stream of coups, disasters and waves of repression and internal conflict. Chaos is the norm. Corruption is endemic. Inequalities have reached unimaginable proportions.

The numbers speak for themselves. In 40 years, Nigeria has witnessed one million deaths in Africa's biggest civil war, the assassination of two leaders, six successful coups and four failed ones, and 30 years of army rule. The country has exported £250 billion-worth of oil since the late 1950s, yet half of all Nigerians live in abject poverty without access to clean water. Notwithstanding the efforts of Irish missionaries and others, literacy is lower even than in war-torn Congo. The country is poorer than it was at the start of the oil boom in the 1970s; the value of the currency, the naira, has fallen from $2 to one cent.

It sounds like the makings of another African disaster story. And it is, but on a far greater scale than anywhere else on the continent. Eight countries have been sucked into Congo's civil war, without the West taking much interest. Rwanda's genocide barely caused a ripple of attention in the political salons of the developed world. But when Nigeria blows, the whole world will know of it.

For a start, the numbers are bigger. One in six Africans, or 110 million in 300 different ethnic groups, is Nigerian. The faultline between Christianity and Islam runs right through the country. By the year 2015, Lagos will be the Earth's fifth-biggest city, with a population of 23 million.

Secondly, Nigerians - the Italians of Africa - shout louder than most. This brash, heaving, dynamic nation is one of the most exciting places to be alive, and one of the most uncomfortable. Should conditions further deteriorate, a mass exodus is likely. Even before the oil runs out, millions of Nigerians have fled the chaos of their homeland. Almost every country now has a Nigerian community. Thousands have come to Ireland in the past five years, in the quickest creation of an immigrant community this country has seen.

Some observers believe Nigeria has the enterprise and artistic energy to drag the rest of Africa out of the doldrums. Its writers have taken readily to the colonisers' language, producing major figures such as Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri and Chinua Achebe. In sport and music, Nigerians excel at home and abroad. Nigerians are brilliant traders; in Dublin, for example, they have opened shops in the most run-down parts of the city. But the seamier side to this knack for commerce has seen the rise of a Nigerian mafia, dealing in drugs and credit card fraud.

In spite of its economic and geo-political importance, Nigeria has been largely neglected by a media that cares little about Africa anyway. The safari parks and temperate climate of Nairobi hold more appeal for foreign correspondents than swampy, humid Lagos. The author of this study of Nigeria's woes, Karl Maier, is a rare exception to this rule, having spent two of his 10-year African stint in the country.

Maier fuses recent history and reportage to explain how Nigeria has descended into a kleptocracy run by an elite of militicians (military/politicians) for their own benefit. The air force has more than 10,000 men but only 20 aircraft. Up to 75 per cent of the army's equipment is broken or missing. And these are the privileged sections of society.

Through neglect and negligence, the world's sixth biggest oil producer finds itself in the ludicrous position of having to import fuel to supply the demand of its own people. The black market is controlled by the military authorities, who are supposed to be cracking down on illegal trading. Unfortunately, little of the pulsing energy of modern-day Nigeria emerges in Maier's narrative, which is frequently confusing and sometimes repetitive. The writing seldom rises above the plodding, and the conclusion he quotes - that Nigerians must find their own solutions - is distinctly underwhelming.

Paul Cullen is Development Correspondent of The Irish Times. His book, Refugees and Asylum-seekers in Ireland, was published last year