Three weeks ago the BBC World Service Trust, a charity for the British network, was angling for a share of State Department funding to promote Internet freedom. But after Americans revolted at the idea, the organization has pulled out entirely, failing to even submit a grant proposal. The BBC charity has developed a lucrative relationship with the U.S. government during the Obama administration. U.S. tax dollars are supporting at least two BBC World Service Trust projects: The State Department gave the organization $300,000 for work in Burma and USAID gave …
On April 9, Nigerians head to the polls to vote in the presidential and gubernatorial elections. Since 1999, when the country returned to civilian rule, each election has been marred by violence, bribery, and allegations of fraud. Adding to the already daunting challenge is President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to run for election, disregarding the unwritten power-sharing agreement between north and south. Jonathan assumed office last year when his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died while in office. This situation raised political tensions in Nigeria because the presidency is supposed to rotate between …
Religious violence in Nigeria is becoming as visible as the government’s inability to control it. On Sunday, ethnic violence ravaged the southern city of Jos. Men armed with machetes wreaked havoc on southern villages in retaliation for the violence that claimed 200 lives in January. Outbursts of religious violence are not unknown to Nigeria. Riots and violence between Muslims and Christians have claimed over 2,000 lives between September 2001 and 2008. In July 2009, Boko Haram, members of an Islamic extremist sect, launched multiple attacks in Northern Nigerian states that left …
Nigeria regained a president on February 9, 2010, when the parliament voted a provisional transfer of executive power to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. Nigeria’s elected president Umaru Yar’Adua, suffers from chronic illness and left Nigeria for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia in late November 2009. Jonathan, a former university professor and governor of southern Bayelsa state, is now the acting president and commander in chief of the armed forces until Yar’adua is fit enough to return and resume his duties. The action is not without critics. Opponents claim the move …
Al-Qaeda’s strength in Africa is expanding. Cells in northern Africa are spreading southwards to Nigeria, eager to recruit impressionable Muslims to join their international terror network. In the wake of January’s violent clash between Christians and Muslims in the diverse city of Jos, al-Qaeda’s immediate reaction was to equip and train young Muslims for jihad. According to the Washington Post, Abdelmalek Droukdel, leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) announced that al-Qaeda is prepared to provide training, manpower, munitions, and various other resources to push Nigeria’s young men into …
The election of President Barack Obama resonated loudly throughout Africa. His victory raised expectations that Africa would assume a more prominent place in U.S. foreign policy. This was not in 2009 to be the case. To its credit, the Obama Administration has in its first year done a good job reminding Africans of the challenges they face. In July, the President spent a day in Ghana and delivered strong messages in his Africa policy speech. He talked about importance of good governance, stronger institutions, and ending festering conflicts. The future, …
It was revealed this week that U.N. member states owe $18 million in parking tickets to the City of New York. According to the news story, the top three debtor missions are Egypt (over 17,000 tickets for $1.9 million), Kuwait (over 11,000 tickets for $1.3 million) and Nigeria (over 8,000 tickets for $1 million). Nigeria has also been accused of “failing to pay real estate taxes on commercial parts of its ‘Nigeria House’ building on 44th Street and Second Avenue.” The rest of the top 10 parking deadbeats are (in …
The attempt by a 23-year old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on December 25 starkly reminds us that the roots of terror run deep into Africa as they do into the Middle East or AfPak. For two decades terrorists like Osama bin Laden, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the mastermind of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and Kenyan-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a major al-Qaeda terrorist killed in a commando raid in Somalia in September 2009 have …
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), the explosive Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate aboard Northwest Airlines flight 253, is among the most powerful of explosives in the world and was widely used to blow up airplanes in the 1970s and 1980s. The only reason the passengers of Flight 253 are still alive today is because Mr. Abdulmutallab’s syringe detonator failed for still unknown reasons. Yet despite the facts that PETN is easily detected and Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father warned the U.S. embassy in Nigeria about his son this November, Homeland Security Secretary Janet …
Initiative for Public Policy Analysis executive director Thompson Ayodele writes about hunger, trade, and his homeland Nigeria in The Madison Times: Food prices have skyrocketed internationally. In my own Nigeria, rice has epitomized the crisis after doubling in price since last year. … It’s not hard to link African food crises to inappropriate government agricultural policies that stifle the continent’s great agricultural potential. Over the years, nothing has been done to address low crop yields. To the contrary, government has seemingly gone out of its way to hamper production with …
