Yoruba Betrays Nigerians: Ethnic Violence and Mass Deportations of Immigrants in Libya
By WSWS | Published 28 October 2000
Nigeria and Libya concluded an agreement to repatriate thousands of Nigerians and within days forcible repatriations began, with 700 being airlifted in two days in a Libyan airliner. Doyin Okupe, special assistant on media and publicity to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said thousands of Nigerians living in Libya had become a “burden” on their host country by engaging in various kinds of “anti-social activities”. “The bulk of these Nigerians fall within the category of those that left in search of better opportunities abroad and ended up in Libya,” Okupe said.
More than 250 feared dead in Nigerian pipeline explosion
By WSWS | Published 14 July 2000
A damaged oil pipeline gushing fuel exploded in southern Nigeria early Monday morning, killing more than 250 people. Many of the dead were schoolchildren, whose uniforms could be discerned on some of their charred remains. The explosion took place near the village of Adeje with a population of 5,000, not far from the port city of Warri in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Despite its proximity to a city, it took 24 hours for fire crews to arrive at the scene. Fire fighters had to extinguish a further smaller blaze at the same spot on Wednesday.
Money laundering exposes Nigeria’s oppressors
By WSWS | Published 10 November 2000
It was not until the end of last month, more than two years after Abacha’s death, that Britain’s Financial Services Authority announced that it would begin an investigation into the laundering of stolen money from Nigeria through the City of London, several months after this was formally requested by Nigerian government investigators. Similar requests have been made to the German, US and Swiss authorities, but so far only the Swiss have responded by setting up their own investigation. The bulk of the $3bn. is reckoned to be in Switzerland, some of which has passed through the accounts of the Swiss affiliates of multinational companies.
Nigeria edges towards civil war
By WSWS | Published 4 March 2000
Following last week’s violent clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in Nigeria’s northern towns, this week saw a further round of bloodletting in the southeast of the country. In what were described as revenge killings, youth from the Igbo tribal group attacked the minority Hausa population in the city of Aba. As many as 450 people were killed, with reports of bodies strewn along the road from Aba to Port Harcourt, as fleeing motorists were pulled out of their cars and hacked to death. Other bodies lay around the main market and the burnt-out mosque. Riots were also said to have started after funeral processions were held for Igbos killed in the northern clashes.
Nigeria in midst of strike wave
By WSWS | Published 6 July 2000
Forty-seven thousand public sector workers have been on strike for two weeks in Lagos, with refuse dumps not cleared, water taps running dry and health services collapsing. Civil servants in at least 12 states, including Anambra, Abia and Ondo, began indefinite strikes this week. The dispute has been joined by other sections of workers, including those in the textile and clothing industry. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has been in talks with government officials. On Monday, the governors of the country’s 36 states said they would only agree to 5,500 naira ($55) a month as the level for the minimum wage. Workers are demanding between N6,500 and N7,500.
- US reasserts its interests in Africa, sending troops to Nigeria
- By WSWS
Published 16 August 2000
Several hundred United States Special Forces troops will be sent to Nigeria in the next few weeks to lead an extensive training mission. The move is the response of the Clinton administration to being sidelined by the British intervention in Sierra Leone in May this year, when the Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair deployed a thousand troops and several warships, after the virtual disintegration of a United Nations peacekeeping force.
- What Ails the American Economy?
-
By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen
28 Feb 2009
Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.
- What Ails the American Economy?
-
By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen
28 Feb 2009
Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.