Nigerian-born singer, Nneka, performs on David Letterman’s show. Someone writes on Twitter, ‘it feels good to hear ‘Nigeria’ being mentioned for something good on US National TV. …’

I wrote about her first album a couple of years ago here.

Sola Odunfa, Nigerian journalist, writes in an article on the BBC website:

I often ask myself: Should Nigeria break up, how many countries will it produce?

I am not aware that any three of its more than 200 ethnic groups sincerely agree so much as to come together in a peaceful independent state.

There is so much distrust that any major national crisis can only lead to civil wars here and there but at the end of the day the leaders will contrive a common interest and settle for a truce.

That is what I think. Breaking up is hard to do, especially so in the case of Nigeria.

I’ve met many people who say that Nigeria should break up, and I quickly tell them that the problem with Nigeria is not simply that there are too many and too different ethnic groups in the country. The bad eggs leaders are not going to go away with a breakup; they are actually going to be the ones who take over power in whatever nations are formed after a breakup.

Besides, how many countries would we have after the breakup? Many people argue along the lines of the three biggest ethnic groups. But then, in each of the three regions, there are several minority ethnic groups, and the picture that one sees in the Nigerian nation – of ethnic groups feeling marginalised because they belong in the minority – will be replicated in each of the three new nations that are formed along those large ethnic lines.

And then there is the issue of the Niger Delta…

It seems we are stuck with what we have; thinking about how to make it work is what we should be doing.

Theme song: Neil Sedaka’s Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

A news story on crossing from Benin to Nigeria, through the Seme border:

“At every half kilometre, you encounter checkpoints manned by all sorts of agencies. This is a real problem to the sub-region,” he said. “On a bad day, from the Seme border down to Lagos, you meet over 70 checkpoints and they all ask the same thing, ‘what do you have for us’. They are all unlawful.

Although the report mentions the list of prohibited items, it does not say that the real reason that the border is that policed is because of that list itself. I have written somewhere else that the Nigerian state should consider other measures apart from outright prohibition. As long as the list of prohibited items is long, that border, as well as the road that runs from the border to Lagos, is going to remain as policed – either legally or illegally – as it is at the current moment.

I spent most of last year travelling the road.

$140 per barrel is the appropriate price of crude oil - Rilwanu Lukman, Nigerian Petroleum Resources Minister. Hat-tip to Nigeria, What’s New?.

Mr Obasanjo on Hardtalk.

The disconnect of the Pope.

Are we really in the age of mass intelligence?

Individuals give NGOs more funds than donors.

The Berlin wall came down 20 years ago this year. A look at Berlin by The Economist’s More Intelligent Life.

The credit crunch is dragging down the global economy and raising political tensions.

I just read in the current edition of Intelligent Life:

Adichie’s follow-up to “Half of a Yellow Sun” is a collection of stories about Nigeria’s professional classes ans their struggle to cope with corruption, which infects every aspect of their lives from school exams to hospital treatment. The luckier ones can escape to a new life in America, but – as the cheated-on wife in “limitation” discovers – separation from their culture and relatives brings problems of its won. Revelatory and perfectly pitched, this is a fascinating meeting of the third and the first.

After that big brute of a book, who wouldn’t look forward to a new one? The book – The Thing Around Your Neck – will be out in April, from Fourth Estate.

Naomi Klein on the similarities between 2002 Argentina and present day Iceland.
Akin on the Pfizer/Nigeria legal battle.
Was the recent Jos violence a religious violence? Check out this BBC podcast.
Who has the right to carry a Nigerian diplomatic passport? Next.
The world’s largest cybercafe? NigerianCuriosity