The Foreign Service Journal, December 2010

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 article published in Foreign Affairs ( www.foreignaffairs.com ) in Sep- tember, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell explains why some observers are worried about the country’s future. Following the end of military dicta- torship and a transition to civilian gov- ernment in 1998, Campbell says, “An elite consensus formed around an un- written power-sharing agreement, which dictated that presidential candi- dates would henceforth alternate be- tween the Christian South and the Muslim North — a system designed to avoid presidential contests that could exacerbate hostility between the regions and religions.” This system held until 2009, when then-President Umary Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim, became fatally ill but refused to cede power to his southern Christian vice president, Goodluck Jonathan. Yar’Adua died earlier this year and was succeeded by Jonathan, but uncer- tainty and dissatisfaction have only grown. “Nigeria’s Coming Election,” an editorial in the Aug. 19 edition of The Economist ( www.economist.com ) lists Nigeria’s three biggest problems: elec- toral fraud, a woefully unreliable elec- tricity supply and a violent insurgency in the oil-rich southern [Niger River] Delta. While the government has allocated money to improve election integrity through construction of a national voter registry, it seems unlikely that the reg- istry will be completed by the January 2011 election date. At the same time, the country is struggling to keep up with growing demand for electricity as the economy is projected to grow by 7 per- cent in 2010. Equally fragile is Nigeria’s shaky peace in the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta region contains a staggering 80 percent of Nigeria’s oil re- sources, but it has not benefited from that wealth. Instead, it has suffered from pollution and environmental dis- asters linked to oil extraction. In the February 2007 issue of Na- tional Geographic ( www.nationalgeo graphic.com ) , Tom O’Neill found a “sense of relentless crisis” in the Niger Delta, which he described in an article titled “Curse of the Black Gold.” The ‘crisis’ stems from Delta residents’ be- lief that the government has overlooked them, especially in distributing the country’s oil wealth. This longstanding grievance led to the formation of a separatist Delta rebel group in 2005, theMovement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which launched crippling attacks on the country’s vulnerable oil infrastructure. After several years of violent conflict, the government issued an amnesty for militants in 2009. This has temporarily C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... I t is no longer sufficient for a supervisor to state that an officer does political or economic work, or is a reporting officer. The expanded Foreign Service of today embraces such a variety of jobs that almost any position warrants … description in considerable detail. In some of the larger, less conventional Foreign Service offices (and most offices today tend to become larger and less conventional), exact delineation by the supervisor of what his subordinates are doing could bring out ways in which capacities of different officers could be better utilized. In some instances, this may result in a frightening increase in efficiency, but the risk is worth taking. — Everett K. Melby, “Efficiency Reports,” FSJ , December 1960. WWW.FSJOURNAL.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. Click on the Marketplace tab on the marquee AFSA Legacy afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com American Public University apus.edu Brehm School brehm.org Clements International clements.com Country Day School, Guanacaste cdsgte.com Cort Furniture cort1.com Fox Hill foxhillseniorcondominium.com Gifted Youth High School, Stanford University epgy.stanford.edu/ohs Hirshorn Company, The hirshorn.com J. Kirby Simon Trust kirbysimontrust.org Jakarta International School jisedu.org SDFCU sdfcu.org Valley Forge vfmac.edu WJD wjdpm.com