The general point of this blog entry is to try and educate the public about a country that lives a lifestyle that none of us could probably even imagine.
To begin, let me give you a brief history of the nation I will be telling you about, Nigeria. Nigeria with its current borders has been a country since 1966. During this time, Nigeria has gone through several coups. Many were by the military. Throughout its time as a nation Nigeria has been one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Having recently read the constitution of Nigeria during a class, I came across the following quotation, "The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power." Imagine a nation where a constitution claims to abolish corruption. This on its own to me shows the amounts of corruption in the nation.
Nothern Nigerian is ruled by tribunal versions of Sharia. Sharia is law based on the principles of the Koran and the culture of Islam. This causes a lot of conflict given that 40% of Nigeria's population is Christian (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html).
Now that you know all these things, do you think it is a worth while thing to provide humanitarian aid to a nation like Nigeria?
Do you think it is fair that the borders of Nigeria were chosen almost entirely arbitrarily by European nations?
Do you think that the battles of ethnic groups in Nigeria may be similar to those displayed in Iraq between Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish Muslims?
First off, Nigeria had it's independence as a nation in 1960, became a republic in 1963. Nigeria's laws are not "based off Sharia". Sharia is however practiced in some of the Northern parts of Nigeria because northern Nigeria has a relatively high concentration of muslims. The Nigerian Constitution is almost a modification of the American one, dividing powers and so on http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.htm
It is true that Nigeria has very corrupt system.
The ethnic wars in Nigeria are almost always religious, and almost always a reaction of a tribe to the killing of a member of that tribe by Muslims.
Interesting post.
I was noticing that the breif history was the main part of the blog and thought that was funny. Good info none the less.
Do YOU think the US should be invovled in that too?
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo
There would be a great price to pay if we became involved in Nigeria. The people of Nigeria must decide for themselves that they are unhappy and become politically active to cause change. We as a nation through physical force would only make things worse.
Ross Kressel
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/rosskressel
Well said. I was jsut checking to see you stance;) I think we could use that similar thoughts in other places too.
Good Point... We really do not want to look like the enemy.
~T
All truths are easy to understand once discovered; The point is to discover them ~Galileo