8- "Small by Small, Nigeria dey Burn"
Corresponding Author(s) : sanya osha
Africa Review of Books,
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2004): Africa Review of Books, Volume 1, n° 1, 2004
Abstract
This House has Fallen: Midnight in
Nigeria by Karl Maier
Public Affairs, 2000, 327 pp.,
$18.99, ISBN 1891620606
A feature that most commentators would not fail to discern about Nigeria is its legendary resilience. One always marvels at how the dysfunctional country manages to stumble from one crisis to another without experiencing a decisive debacle or irreversible slide towards genocidal conflict like other African nations such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan and Somalia. All the ingredients that could cause the final dismemberment of the nation are present in copious amount: virulent ethnicity, massive governmental cor- ruption, an over-ambitious and indisciplined military establishment, religious intolerance, widespread crime leading to a breakdown of law and order, acute pauperisation of large segments of the population, collapsed social services and many more minuses.