Poll Feud in Nigerian Oil State

I. Poll Feud in Nigerian Oil State. BBC News Co. April 16, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7350050.stm

II. Bayelsa, Nigeria, an oil rich state at the delta of the Nile river, has had a major controversy since 10 governmental officials have been impeached, the newest one being Timipre Sylva. A reporter on the scene says that this is really a feud between two political parties, Mr. Timipre Sylva, the people’s favorite, and Goodluck Jonathan, the last governor of the state. Judge Saka Ibiyeye told the country that the election for Sylva never occurred. This is possibly because the voting had been ballot stuffed and fixed in a power struggle. A new election will occur in about 90 days.

III. Reactions-

a. The AP world theme that this article relates to is change and continuity from 8,000 B.C.E., to present. Nigeria, which was one of the first regions to include humans, has gone from local clans to a formed fitting structured government much like our own. April 2007 was supposed to be a turning point in the government because it was to be the first time transfer of power went from one civilian leader to another, thus ending the corruption. This never happened. Continuity would be the power struggle for oil and resources since the beginning of time.

b. Bayelsa is a fairly new Nigerian state, which was created in 1996.It was formed at the mouth of the Niger River and is extremely rich in oil. Because of this, the state has had a power struggle since its birth. Most of the voting had been fixed, or cheated, or the assembly or governmental officials had been impeached. The Nigerian April 2007 elections were supposed to be a landmark that the transfer of power was legit, and the corruption ended, however it was not the case. Governors in 8 of the 36 states had been impeached.

c. Based on the article, we can assume the author is British, and an outsider to this issue.

d. The author may be expressing some skewed opinions, because he is an outsider. He is not fully aware of the way the Bayelsan government works, and Bayelsa’s struggle for power therefore, when this author slandered the government, saying they “refused” to except the ruling was possibly out of lack of knowledge of he people. He also maybe agreeing with the European union who said the results was not credible, because he is of European decent.

e. A voice I would like to hear from this article is the Judge Saka Ibiyeye, because he had been making all the rulings, and he is also familiar with Bayelsan conflicts and government in the past. Perhaps he can explain why he said the results never occurred and the government officials were to be impeached.

f. This article was very confusing, because I first had to figure out who was on what side of the governmental feud. When I realized all of this I became angry. Oil is the main problem of this conflict. The government is supposed to be one and it should not be split into to ways. Even though it seems to have nothing to do with oil, the author continuously includes that phrase “oil state” within this article, even the title! Not only do the Nigerians want it, but also the rest of the world can soon take part in this feud because it is over something that everyone needs. Like the Middle Eastern conflict on a smaller scale, this argument over oil has led to government corruption and fixed voting. I personally think that what the judge has done was wrong, saying that no voting had occurred. Sylva did seem to be the favorite of the people, fixed or not, and it was taken from him. Also, I don’t think that Sylva did anything wrong and was wrongly impeached. What was supposed to be something so great has gone so wrong.

Comments would be Great!