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Africa's well-known developmental political problems remain. … But these problems also exist in political communities in every other part of the world. More important, they do not exhaust the story of politics in Africa. For every horrific political story in Africa, there is another story of courageous and creative political enterprise accomplished under circumstances that those who live and vote in developed democracies could not even begin to imagine.

The Conference of Nationalities organized in Nigeria by the Campaign for Democracy, and held on December 17-19, 1998, has come and gone with little impact either on the national consciousness or on the process of transition to democracy. At the outset, I should state that I have never been convinced that the type of national conference planned in Nigeria after the expiration of the regime of Sani Abacha was going to be as useful as the most successful Conferences Nationales pioneered in francophone Africa. From the particular example of a similar conference in the Republic of Benin, the weaknesses of the Nigerian parley can be crystallized. The choice of Benin is quite easy. The Conference Nationale there was a resounding success. That triumphant experiment is a much better yardstick for measuring the Nigerian effort than, say, the failed one in Togo, although the Togo case is not without humbling lessons for the Nigerian organizers of the Conference of Nationalities.

Complaints about Africa's media image have been voiced for years, and for long little seemed to change. Civil wars, famine, squalor and primitivity have continued to dominate the headlines and to paint a grim image of mankind's ancestral home. The recent media fixation on Somalia is but one in a series of this one-dimensional coverage. In the early 1960s, the anarchy in Katanga (Zaire) dominated the news and defined Africa. In the late 1960s, it was the Nigerian civil war and the consequent misery in "Biafra." In the 1970s, the real and conjured eccentricities of Uganda's Idi Amin became the African news. Political conflict in Zimbabwe and South Africa dominated much of the 1980s, until the starvation of Ethiopians eclipsed everything else. Recently, the grim images were of Somalia. While these events warranted the press attention they received, their coverage to the near exclusion of non-crisis modem African life has left a severe knowledge gap and perpetuated a historical image problem.

As president of Nigeria since 1999, former general Olusegun Obasanjo has burnished his legacy of engagement in two transitions from military dictatorship to constitutional government by affirming his resolute opposition to militarism as a form of government. In 2005, however, a shadow descended on the president's legacy of dedication to democracy. He evidently favored consideration of a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to seek a third term despite widespread public disapproval of any such maneuver. By graciously accepting the defeat of the amendment, Obasanjo has solidified his contribution to Nigerian democracy, but much remains to be done.

Fünf Artikel befassen sich kritisch mit den Aussichten des jüngsten Übergangs zur Demokratie in Nigeria. Ob mit der Wahl von General Obasanjo zum Staatspräsidenten die Macht der reichen Eliten, korrupten Politiker und des Militärs ebenso wie die ethnischen Spannungen zugunsten demokratischer Strukturen begrenzt werden können und sich die Wirtschaft des Landes erholen kann, muss sich erst noch erweisen. Dass politischer Einfluß in Nigeria immer noch teuer erkauft werden muss, demonstriert auch ein Blick auf die Verfahren zur Parteienzulassung. Warum die Nationalkonferenz vom Dezember 1998 nicht zu einem erfolgreichen Start für die Demokratiebewegung wurde, zeigt ein Vergleich der politischen Ausgangsbedingungen in Nigeria und Benin. Wie sich die militärische Hegemonie in Nigeria im Laufe der Jahrzehnte entwickelt hat und welche Hürde sich damit der weiteren demokratischen Entwicklung in den Weg stellt, wird ebenso erörtert wie die Bedeutung des Föderalismus für das Land und General Obasanjos Neigung zur Schaffung zentralistischer Strukturen. (DÜI-Ply)