Suchergebnisse

This article examines the migration of African, including Nigerian, footballers to Europe in search of better professional opportunities. The paper situates the migration of Nigerian footballers to European football clubs in the political economy of international football and the location of African footballers in that context. The search for "greener pitches" among African footballers is, the paper argues, largely a product of a combination of political and economic factors, central to which is the neoliberal market ideology underlain by globalization and the technological breakthroughs in information and communications technology, and the massive developments that the world has witnessed in the transportation system. The paper highlights how the role of international organizations like FIFA, UEFA and CAF has led to the emergence of unscrupulous elements whose activities have served to undermine the growth and development of African football. By way of conclusion, the article suggests that unless these apex governing bodies of world football join forces, the exploitation of aspiring young African footballers seeking to migrate to Europe will persist, with grave implications for the development of the "beautiful game" in Africa.

This paper examines oil and security in Nigeria, with special reference to the crisis-ravaged Niger Delta. Its focus on the Niger Delta and its festering crisis stems from that region's critical importance to Nigeria. As the nation's treasure base, the Niger Delta provides over 80 percent of government revenues, 95 percent of export receipts, and 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Also, the bulk of Nigeria's bio-diversity and some of her best human resources are derived from the Niger Delta. This paper posits that beyond the well-known threats to the security of the Nigerian state, the lingering crisis in the country's oil- producing areas is a grave threat to human security in that region. Since poverty, environment and food security are key to national security, the ruthless exploita- tion and destruction of the natural environment upon which the inhabitants of the Niger Delta depend for their livelihood and sustenance pose major threats to human security in that region and, by implication, to the Nigerian state. The paper suggests that to resolve the crisis, government policy on petroleum should be more inclusive, taking into consideration the peculiar problems and needs of the oil-producing areas, as well as those of the Nigerian state and the oil indus- try itself.

Das politische Selbstverständnis der Vereinten Nationen als "Weltregierende" (s. S. 5) stand seit 1945 den außenpolitischen Interessen Nigerias gegenüber. Die nigerianischen Diktatoren nutzten die UN als Instrument zur Dekolonisierung und verfolgten ihre außenpolitischen Ziele konsequent. Das Werk untersucht die zentrale Funktion der UN in der Friedenssicherung, Nigerias Stellung in der UN, das Konfliktmanagement, die außenpolitischen Beziehungen Nigerias und die Dynamik der Krise in der Demokratischen Republik Kongo. (DÜI-Gbd)

This paper examines environmental conflict and internal migration in Nigeria's oil producing Delta Region. While it is true that the literature and discourse on the Niger Delta have dealt substantially with the violence and tensions resulting from the militarization of the region and brutal repression over the years of restive communities, it needs stressing that scant attention has been paid to the critical issue of environmental conflict and internal migration in the Delta region. The paper contends that the dynamics of environmental conflict and internal migration in the Niger Delta are deeply rooted in the contradictions thrown up by oil-dependent global capitalist system and the processes of globalization, which have fed into and escalated the complex dynamics of internal migration, the rentier character of the Nigerian state and the oil industry in the ecologically fragile Niger Delta region. The paper locates these contradictions in, among other things, the penetration of global capital into a largely rural society, environmental pollution and degradation, the nature of development which perpetuates inequality and differential access to resources, the paradox of poverty amid wealth, and the restiveness and violence it generates in the region. In conclusion, the paper argues that, while environmental conflict and internal migration pose serious challenges to the development of the oil-rich region, in particular, and the Nigerian state in general, the Nigerian state and its joint venture partners (the multinational oil corporations) must the challenge of genuinely tackling, in a holistic fashion, decades of exclusion and injustice, corporate neglect, environmental destruction and other oil-based contradictions that have continued to spawn environmental conflict and internal migration in this oil-rich, but ecologically fragile ecosystem.