US Tabloid Warns of Imminent overthrow of Nigerian Govt

A United States newspaper editorial yesterday warned of the imminent overthrow of the Nigerian government as a consequence of sustained Islamic /Christ-ian conflict in the country.

The newspaper, Beaver County Times, in its online edition described Nigeria's government as kleptocracy warning Americans that they have only themselves to blame if they depended much on oil from the country.

The paper stated: "Nigeria's kleptocracy could be overthrown at any time by guerrillas, not to mention the instability created by the Islamic/Christian divide that boils over from time to time."

The newspaper went further and warned of political shakiness of major oil-exporters including Venezuela and other countries which could curtail their shipments of oil to the United States on the whim of its dictator.

"Sure, the oil companies are making tons of money, and the oil-rich nations of the world are rolling in dough. But the law of supply-and-demand and instability in many oil-rich countries are pushing up prices, not some oil executive/Arab cabal." the editorial continued.

Harping more on the likely overthrow of Nigerian government the paper stated : “None of this should come as any surprise to anyone who was paying attention.”

It could be recalled that, a recent US report said that Nigeria could collapse into anarchy and drag the whole of the region into bloodshed and chaos. The report by US intelligence experts was sent to Nigerian legislators by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo had said he had taken the unusual step of passing out a report from the US National Intelligence Council on Africa's medium-term prospects in order to encourage Nigerians to work together for stability.

The US report, which was entitled "Mapping sub-Saharan Africa's Future", notes in a section on violent disorder that: "20,000 people have been killed in Nigeria while that country has maintained its democratic facade."

The document does not represent the US government's official views, but was published on the website of the Central Intelligence Agency in March last year as the conclusions of a conference of experts on the continent.

The panel paints a bleak picture for Africa over the next 15 years, warning that poverty, corruption and disease will continue to undermine fragile states. They point to several factors which could provoke conflict and collapse.

"The most important would be the outright collapse of Nigeria," they warn.

"While currently Nigeria's leaders are locked in a bad marriage that all dislike but dare not leave, there are possibilities that could disrupt the precarious equilibrium in Abuja," the report adds.

"The most important would be a junior officer coup that could destabilise the country to the extent that open warfare breaks out in many places in a sustained manner," it continues.

"If Nigeria were to become a failed state, it could drag down a large part of the west African region. Even state failure in small countries such as Liberia has the effect of destabilising entire neighbourhoods.

"If millions were to flee a collapsed Nigeria, the surrounding countries up to and including Ghana would be destabilised.

"Further, a failed Nigeria probably could not be reconstituted for many years, if ever, and not without massive international assistance," it says.

Source: This Day Online