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Article: Welding a nation. (political division between ethnic groups) (A Survey of Nigeria)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 21, 1993
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IF ANY one place brings together Nigeria's incurable taste for spending beyond its means, its admirable desire to pursue ethnically neutral nation-building and its irrepressible talent for making a mess of both, it is Abuja, the new federal capital. By 1975 the noisy chaos of Lagos had become so insufferable that Nigeria decided to build a new capital. Abuja was roughly in the middle of the country; local tribes were carted off and the site was declared ethnically neutral. Japanese town planners were hired- -as if to make sure the new city did not look too Nigerian.
Not much happened for years, as successive governments ran out of cash. Then General Babangida ...