You can watch the Mamdani-Predergast debate here:
http://pulsemedia.org/2009/05/24/the-darfur-debate/
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Mamdani - Predergast debate
Comment on Saviors and Survivors by Idrees: "
The Evil of Oil
The Evil of Oil: "The Evil of Oil
By Willie Etim & Sunday Ani
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Oil, explored and produced in the Niger Delta region, is a critical source of revenue in Nigeria and, in fact, is the engine of growth of its economy. But the pertinent question is, can Nigerians afford to ignore the plight of the people of the Niger Delta while continuing to depend on the resources produced from their soil?
Professor Steve Azaiki’s latest work, “The Evil of Oil,” documents relevant information that will help every Nigerian and friends of Nigeria to see the country’s oil industry from an unbiased perspective.
The author, who has written more than five books bordering on the crisis in the oil-rich region, in this new 600-page book provides incisive exposition into how the oil crisis began.
With the subtitle “Crises in the Niger Delta,” The Evil of Oil opens with a poem, “Victim” culled from Emerson Gobert Jr’s Lamentations as a prelude to the 11-chapter volume, which has a compulsive foreword written by Ijaw leader and First Republic Minister, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark.
Obviously a product of thorough and painstaking research, the work comes with authenticated appendices showing real time evidence of correspondence between the author, government, community and various committees set up at different periods to look into the crises in the region.
This current effort at chronicling the events and history of the contemporary crisis in the region also records in detail pipeline vandalism and a number of hostages taken in the region within a period of time.
The author thoroughly examines the Isaac Adaka Boro saga and the role played by some prominent Nigerians to ensure his release alongside his friends. This document, according to reports, are no longer available even in the National Library, thus making the book a veritable reference material for researchers and academics on the Niger Delta. This very vital information is in addition to the over 308 known cases in the region recorded in the book.
There are also pictures of the author with world leaders, including former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and other prominent Nigerian leaders in conferences toward finding solution to the Niger Delta crisis.
The author observes that violence that is increasingly becoming synonymous with the Niger Delta was alien to the people and their culture, and traced the present altercation in the attitude of the people to the period when oil was first struck in Oloibiri in 1956.
According to Azaiki, the crisis escalated because of the complacency, hypocrisy and total neglect of the region by subsequent federal governments in the country.
Another fact that is clear from the author’s findings is that at the base of all these conflicts are the oil companies prospecting in the region. The oil firms, particularly Shell and Agip, capitalise on the poverty level and use money to cause hatred, acrimony and division between and among people who had hitherto peacefully co-habited.
The following statement by Patrick Warri during the Peremabiri crisis captures it succinctly: “Shell reintroduced their diabolical strategy of divide-and-rule to cause disaffection and hatred among inhabitants of the community. Compensation payments were made to the paramount ruler secretly, thereby causing serious unrest,”
On the part of the federal government, the author agrees that it has paid lip service over the years. He refuses to accept the over-flogged excuse by the federal government that the Niger Delta terrain makes it difficult for infrastructure development, citing the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos as an example of a facility that was provided in a place that has the same terrain with the oil region.
Azaiki laments that instead of the federal government to provide amenities in the region that provides over 90 percent of the country’s annual income, it prefers to spend millions of naira acquiring arms and funding the presence of the Joint Military Task Force in the region to suppress the activities of the youths, who have resorted to violence as the last alternative.
By and large, the book is a must read for anybody who wants to understand the dynamics of the Niger Delta situation. Anybody who reads through the book will appreciate why the Niger Delta youths are engaging the government and the oil companies.
That is not to say that their modus operandi of pressing home their demand for a fair deal in the management of the resources that come from their land is the best available. But the fact remains that they seem to have exhausted every available peaceful means.
The Evil of Oil is a sequel to three earlier presentations on the same subject -Inequities in Nigerian Politics, Politics and Blood, and Oil Gas and Life in Nigeria - all of which are Azaiki’s way of exposing the ills that attended the lack of attention and mistreatment that has been the story of the region.
However, in his characteristic manner, the author sees hope and positive strength veiled by the violence. He has communicated this hope in the book as a genuine hope for the people of the region.
The author, as an academic, has published many articles, nationally and internationally. He has also co-authored many books, which include “Cassava: The White Gold,” “Agriculture in the Swamp,” “Agriculture in the Niger Delta, Methodical Manual Practical Studies of General and Agriculture Phytopathology,” “Diagnosis of Plant Disease,” “Diagnosis of Technologies in Nigeria” and “Democracy and the Promise of a True Federalism.”
Azaiki is a visiting scholar/fellow at the Institute of Petroleum Studies, University of Port Harcourt. He is also a Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Ukrainian Academy of Personnel Management, Kiev.
"
By Willie Etim & Sunday Ani
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Oil, explored and produced in the Niger Delta region, is a critical source of revenue in Nigeria and, in fact, is the engine of growth of its economy. But the pertinent question is, can Nigerians afford to ignore the plight of the people of the Niger Delta while continuing to depend on the resources produced from their soil?
Professor Steve Azaiki’s latest work, “The Evil of Oil,” documents relevant information that will help every Nigerian and friends of Nigeria to see the country’s oil industry from an unbiased perspective.
The author, who has written more than five books bordering on the crisis in the oil-rich region, in this new 600-page book provides incisive exposition into how the oil crisis began.
With the subtitle “Crises in the Niger Delta,” The Evil of Oil opens with a poem, “Victim” culled from Emerson Gobert Jr’s Lamentations as a prelude to the 11-chapter volume, which has a compulsive foreword written by Ijaw leader and First Republic Minister, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark.
Obviously a product of thorough and painstaking research, the work comes with authenticated appendices showing real time evidence of correspondence between the author, government, community and various committees set up at different periods to look into the crises in the region.
This current effort at chronicling the events and history of the contemporary crisis in the region also records in detail pipeline vandalism and a number of hostages taken in the region within a period of time.
The author thoroughly examines the Isaac Adaka Boro saga and the role played by some prominent Nigerians to ensure his release alongside his friends. This document, according to reports, are no longer available even in the National Library, thus making the book a veritable reference material for researchers and academics on the Niger Delta. This very vital information is in addition to the over 308 known cases in the region recorded in the book.
There are also pictures of the author with world leaders, including former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, and other prominent Nigerian leaders in conferences toward finding solution to the Niger Delta crisis.
The author observes that violence that is increasingly becoming synonymous with the Niger Delta was alien to the people and their culture, and traced the present altercation in the attitude of the people to the period when oil was first struck in Oloibiri in 1956.
According to Azaiki, the crisis escalated because of the complacency, hypocrisy and total neglect of the region by subsequent federal governments in the country.
Another fact that is clear from the author’s findings is that at the base of all these conflicts are the oil companies prospecting in the region. The oil firms, particularly Shell and Agip, capitalise on the poverty level and use money to cause hatred, acrimony and division between and among people who had hitherto peacefully co-habited.
The following statement by Patrick Warri during the Peremabiri crisis captures it succinctly: “Shell reintroduced their diabolical strategy of divide-and-rule to cause disaffection and hatred among inhabitants of the community. Compensation payments were made to the paramount ruler secretly, thereby causing serious unrest,”
On the part of the federal government, the author agrees that it has paid lip service over the years. He refuses to accept the over-flogged excuse by the federal government that the Niger Delta terrain makes it difficult for infrastructure development, citing the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos as an example of a facility that was provided in a place that has the same terrain with the oil region.
Azaiki laments that instead of the federal government to provide amenities in the region that provides over 90 percent of the country’s annual income, it prefers to spend millions of naira acquiring arms and funding the presence of the Joint Military Task Force in the region to suppress the activities of the youths, who have resorted to violence as the last alternative.
By and large, the book is a must read for anybody who wants to understand the dynamics of the Niger Delta situation. Anybody who reads through the book will appreciate why the Niger Delta youths are engaging the government and the oil companies.
That is not to say that their modus operandi of pressing home their demand for a fair deal in the management of the resources that come from their land is the best available. But the fact remains that they seem to have exhausted every available peaceful means.
The Evil of Oil is a sequel to three earlier presentations on the same subject -Inequities in Nigerian Politics, Politics and Blood, and Oil Gas and Life in Nigeria - all of which are Azaiki’s way of exposing the ills that attended the lack of attention and mistreatment that has been the story of the region.
However, in his characteristic manner, the author sees hope and positive strength veiled by the violence. He has communicated this hope in the book as a genuine hope for the people of the region.
The author, as an academic, has published many articles, nationally and internationally. He has also co-authored many books, which include “Cassava: The White Gold,” “Agriculture in the Swamp,” “Agriculture in the Niger Delta, Methodical Manual Practical Studies of General and Agriculture Phytopathology,” “Diagnosis of Plant Disease,” “Diagnosis of Technologies in Nigeria” and “Democracy and the Promise of a True Federalism.”
Azaiki is a visiting scholar/fellow at the Institute of Petroleum Studies, University of Port Harcourt. He is also a Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Ukrainian Academy of Personnel Management, Kiev.
Friday, 1 May 2009
ASRP » Obama Administration Budget Request for AFRICOM Operations and for Security Assistance Programs in Africa in FY 2010
ASRP » African Security Research Project » Obama Administration Budget Request for AFRICOM Operations and for Security Assistance Programs in Africa in FY 2010
05.01.09
By Daniel Voman*
At the beginning of May 2009, President Obama submitted his first budget request to Congress. The Obama administration’s budget for FY 2010 proposes significant increases in U.S. security assistance programs for African countries and for the operations of the new U.S. Africa Command or AFRICOM. This shows that—at least initially—the administration is following the course laid down for AFRICOM by the Bush administration, rather than putting these programs on hold until it can conduct a serious review of U.S. security policy towards Africa. This article outlines the administration’s plans for Africa in the coming year and the money it intends to spend on military operations on the continent. For more information, see the Department of State, Summary and Highlights for International Affairs Function 150: Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/122513.pdf) and the Department of Defense, Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request: Summary Justification (http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2010/fy2010_SSJ.pdf).
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