Talk:Nigeria

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Citing Refrences

In order to view the cited references, I will add a References level 2 headline. It is encouraged to use the wiki reference mark up below when trying to cite a reliable website. (Neutrall 08:54, 29 June 2006 (UTC))

I should like to add that the best sources often are offline sources, i.e. real books from libraries. In my opinion, we should strive to make Wikipedia a compendium of all knowledge, not just of the knowledge published elsewhere on the internet. Additionally, the reliability and verifiability of many websites is unclear. — mark ✎ 11:03, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Frankly there is no current data on this ethnic issue

• I will list reliable sources that simply and more accurately depict the major ethnic groups.

• [1] - Library of Congress
• [[2] -CIA - The World Factbook
• [3] - National Geographic
• [4] - Worldpress.org

• If there cannot be a resolve as to which is the largest ethnic group, I suggest that the ethnic groups be listed in alphabetical order.
• On the other hand since Nigerians are all one; editors can follow the lead of the Nigerian 2006 census and omit data regarding the major ethnic groups rather than providing speculative data.

• In my opinion; the article will not be significantly changed if the ethnic information is omitted. Since I have been following Nigerian census, the population of the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic group which is seperate from the Fulani ethnic group have been very close. (Neutrall 12:57, 1 July 2006 (UTC))

Federal ministers of Nigeria

The article Federal ministers of Nigeria can use a few editors. Feel free to contibute to the article. Tnx (Neutrall 23:44, 2 July 2006 (UTC))

The new year of 2000 was brought in with the heir of Nkeiru Ugwoaba a native of Negeria currently residing in the United States.

Avoid bias in your edits

Nigeria has many ethnic groups so it is important that this article remains "politically unbiased". All new edits can be presented in a way that no one ethnic group is cast in bad light. Any controversial edits without citing reliable sources is open for reversal. (Neutrall 20:33, 3 July 2006 (UTC))

Well a bit better if it's politically unbiased (stating everything objectively) rather than politically correct (altering facts that might displease someone).

History Section Glosses over Post Independence History

The History section jumps from the colonial period the the present with a vague gloss-over that fails to even mention the Republic of Biafra:

"Ethnic and religious tensions following independence led to the Nigerian Civil War and the start of intermit democractic and military rule that did not end until 1999, when the democratic republic was permanently re-established with the election of Olusegun Obasanjo as its current president. Recently, supporters of Obasanjo had tried and failed to extend term limits following rejection by the national assembly. New elections are set for 2007."

Note typo here and propagandistic "permanently re-established" (we don't know if it's permanent) as well.

One other note -- the colonial period is barely touched on in this piece. It's very peculiar in that regard, almost as though that very large and important subject is off-limits in Nigerian discussions.

Dates

In the article, there are years in which there is no AD or BC clarifier. Fllmtlchcb 04:19, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

POOPcitations for this but I'm sure someone else will back it up. 86.138.189.255 02:51, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Educational System

"The 3-3-6 secondary year system has many faults and this can be seen when children of the senior secondary schools are applying to overseas schools especially England."(Chigwell School overseas student from Nigeria).

Eh? "Many faults" like what, exactly? The "3-3-6 secondary year system"? Look, it's 6-3-3-4: six years of primary education, three years of junior secondary education, three years of senior secondary education, and four years of tertiary education. Many schools are underfunded and have inadequate facilities, yet continue to churn out a sufficient number of bright and capable students as to overwhelm the nation's most selective universities, which has led to an explosion in private tertiary institutions. (This is from personal observation and experience.)

I think that piece needs to go. 72.229.138.234 03:12, 30 September 2006 (UTC)Oluseyi

Also what about a discussion on the proposed Public-Private-Partnership for unity schools in the country?! (Tripol)

Sport other than football?

Surely Nigerians play some sport other than football. I think it's strange that the entire "sports in nigeria" section covers only its World Cup history. Borisblue 02:11, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

• Nigeria is one of the top African teams in Basketball. see Nigeria national basketball team.--Thomas.macmillan 16:36, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Foriegn relations of Nigeria mess

The foreign relations section smacks of original research, with such uncited phrases like "although the government rejects this..." etc. Also, it needs to be cleaned-up. The spaces are missing between sentences.--Thomas.macmillan 16:36, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you on both counts, unfortunately I have little information on sports. when i attempt to overhaul most of the page upon i return from Wikibreak in a few weeks i will re-write the foreign relations section which is completely inadequate, not to mention that it doesnt conform to NPOV. --gozar 20:30, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I believe the wikipia encyclopedia should be a compedium of knowledge.If the foreign relations is a "mess" in your opinion,you should be courteous enough "re-write" gramatically without deleting facts.You just cannot pretend to know all the facts there is about the foreign relations disposition of Nigeria since 1960.Nigeria is a geographical area that came it being in 1914.Since then,it's history,composition, experience and rightly or wrongly a sense of responsibility to the black race have played a role in fashioning her foreign policy.It is therefore not by accident that Nigeria took certain predictable positions on African issues.Some of the quoted works were written by credible authors on African renaissance who actually went to Nigeria and researched.The most factual information is not always on the internet.You might have to do some real study using real books in your local library if you are truly concerned about "re-writing the mess".But, because you are writing directly into a globally accessible encyclopedia not just your own personal website,you must constrain yourself to write historical facts not imagination of what you think.I believe you are doing a noble thing here when you bring out facts for easy internet accessibility about the country of Nigeria and not writing your own fictional fantasy. So that the Wikipia encyclopedia would remain helpful to those who wish to learn about Nigeria's foreign policy and its monumental achievements since 1960.Perhaps Nigeria had faultered in other endevours like its notoriety for 419 fraud,ethnic & religious intolerance,corruption of its politicians,generally increasing poverty,economic woes etc,etc,etc. Nigeria is way bigger than just the negative vices that some are hell bent on making her solely stand for.Nigeria also did achieve a lot of positive successes especially helping to move OAU in the direction of supporting independence struggles in Africa.Ofcourse,the Nigerian leaders at the time understandably denied some of its well documented anti-colonial activities beyond her borders because her economic interest favoured avoiding a confrontation with the western nations that supported some of the very minority regimes Nigeria so desperately sought to help overthrow.Therefore,until you are able to do your own highly publicised credible work on modern Nigeria and the role of its foreign policy.Your personal view point of "mess" is just what it is YOUR OPINION.Please,also stop banning other people's web name if they donot necessarily share your opinion. Cheers Ibadan pikin. 10-12-06

Part of the problem is that this section fails to provide specific citations for claims (which is odd for some of the less contentious statements), mixes fact and opinion (e.g., various claims for the impact of actions taken by the Nigerian gov't), and fails to acknowledge different views. In other words, even if it was ultimately a reasonably objective, balanced account, the casual reader would have no way of knowing that - and the tone would suggest otherwise. Another part of the problem is that there are way too many typos - it looks like someone went on a typing frenzy and couldn't be bothered to edit what they wrote. Besides its rather jumbled formatting, the list of references at the end of this subsection doesn't tell the reader what they are cited for, and the list has some notable omissions. There's a desperate need for footnotes. Some quotes on opposing views would help, too. Ratufa 21:14, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Royal Family

A bit of history on this dispute, perhaps ? North or South ? Which tribe ? Wizzy…☎ 07:17, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

The year 2000 was brought in with the heir of Nkeiru Ugwoaba. The young princess currently resides and attends her future education in the United States but contributes and accepts full responsibilities to her royal duties while serving her country.

Official Languages

I updated the "official languages" info, (which only listed English). Actually, besides English, Nigeria's official languages include Edo, Efik, Adamawa Fulfulde, Hausa, Idoma, Igbo, Central Kanuri and Yoruba. Source: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=NG — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.86.120.67 (talk • contribs) 19:07, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I see someone took out my edit on Nigeria's official language in which I (correctly) pointed out that Nigeria has a number of official, national languages. I included an authoritative source, as well (see above). This is disappointing, as Wikipedia continues to bill itself as a "reference" source, when in fact it does nothing more than spread ignorance and misinformation across the Web--especially when it rejects fact-checking. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.86.120.67 (talk • contribs) 18:58, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

English is the official language of Nigeria.[5] [6].The source referenced above (Ethnologue) lists "National or official languages". Of languages spoken in Nigeria, Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Fulani are the four main languages spoken by ~2/3 of the population. Ethnologue's definition: "National or official languages. National languages are those languages spoken by a large portion of the population of a nation. Official languages are those that have been designated as such by an official body."[7] — ERcheck (talk) 07:02, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Please read the Constitution of Nigeria: "Business of the National Assembly shall be conducted in English, and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba when adequate arrangements have been made therefor".

Sultan

Given the events of the last few days, we need to work on documenting the office of the Sultan of Sokoto and personalities related to it. I am not in Nigeria and don't have access to documents, but I am available if anyone can take the lead. Please drop me an email from my User page.

----iFaqeer 03:08, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Joke?

The article that is supposed to be about the country Nigeria has been replaced with an article about a person. What has happened to the article that was there last tuesday? I suppose that this is some sort of joke. Can this please be corrected? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.212.249.58 (talk) 10:03, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

Twinning

I posted the original information regarding Yorubas having the highest twinning rate in the world. It has ended up under 'entertainment'. It belongs under 'ethnic groups' as an aside, or in the general introduction. Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.22.21.50 (talk) 02:55, 11 December 2006 (UTC).

Cities- Is the list really too long?

Ratufa, I wonder if you didnt know Nigeria was a very populous place? So where do you expect 150 million people would live? Inside a single city or else they should live in the forest or ocean abi?Please if you are not a Nigerian (a fat lie) but a roving geographer.You should then go to Indian,Brazil,US,Pakistan,China,Japan,Bangladesh page and tell them that their cities are too many.Also remember to add that you are not from their country.

Despite a request that I made on Ilesa baby's talk to begin a discussion here rather than continuing to extend the list of cities, she instead reverted, including reverting a subsequent addition on government structure. This is disruption and I am treating it as such. You are all encouraged to lay out your viewpoints on this, but I won't allow the addition of peacock language and reversion of good content to stand. - BanyanTree 21:34, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

 Banyan tree,

Please who are you to determine what stands and what doesnt? Are you Obasanjo, Abacha or Babangida? You see what i mean by the larger than life intolerant military mentality that have continued to ruin our country Nigeria? You want to highlight your own city,but others have no right to highlight other key cities in Nigeria.Just ask yourself what is it i hate so much about Ilesa that i can't stand to see it.Well,you may not like Yoruba,TOO BAD! We are the a good 25% of Nigeria.So you can very much say you dont like Nigeria.Look,you can block,ban,unban,unblock or do as you please on Ilesa Baby,it wont solve the problem.Unless you can convince me here that Ilesa is not a city in Nigeria or does not qualify as one using your own criteria.I might listen to your criteria if it is plausible.Until you do that,if delete my dear town,any day or ANYTIME i come on this page ,(Even in 100years time)i shall put Ilesa back as a sacred Yoruba city that it is.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.80.74.66 (talk • contribs)

IlesaBaby, presumbably we'll find out Nigeria's population very soon, but no matter how big it is in absolute terms, the question for the short list of cities is their relative size compared to each other. If we want to make a list of the top 12 cities of India, I'd generally look for a much bigger population than I would in compiling a list of the top 12 cities of Australia. Whether Nigeria has 150 million people or a 100 million people, when it comes to population, what should matter for a list of key cities is how the various cities compare to each other.

To me, the main question comes down the purpose of having a list of cities on the main page if there is already a link to a much longer list right at the top of this list. As I see it, it is to give the casual non-Nigerian reader (say, some undergrad student, a journalist looking for a quick summary, would-be tourists, etc.,) a snapshot of the diversity of urban Nigeria. This short list only needs to mention about a dozen representative, large cities. Wikipedia asks contributors to aim for a neutral point of view, so what criteria should be used in drawing up such a list? We could look to size, regional representation, function, history, etc. We could be guided by outside sources, like government publications, tourism guides, etc. that have been published. We could look at what cities have airports (okay, not quite as many right now, but still), which cities are on major highways, etc. Guided by those sorts of reasonably objective criteria, people can discuss here the merits of adding, say, Calabar or Kano or Enugu, and then play around with a brief description (remembering that there's already a link to a longer description), until a brief entry is reasonable enough that nobody can be bothered to revise it anymore. Or someone can just add an entry, and watch as others edit that new entry, hopefully adding a short comment explaining why they've changed it. Somebody added Calabar, and nobody has thought it should be deleted - revised, yes; removed, no.

Not all country descriptions on Wikipedia even have a list of key cities. I can see that a representative list of cities would be valuable for Nigeria, especially since its a big country yet many non-Nigerians can only name Lagos, and maybe Abuja. Few, maybe even in Nigeria itself, have a real respect for the diversity and history of urban Nigeria. But to be useful, the brief descriptions have to reasonably factual and accurate. Calling x place "serene" or "crime-free" doesn't meet those criteria, especially when the latter is demonstrably false. If you think the main Nigeria page should mention Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, the UNESCO World Heritage Site ( see http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1118 ), fine, but that has nothing to do with a key Nigeria cities, anymore than Stonehenge should show up on a list of key cities of the UK.

And, just for the record, I've been to most of the countries you've listed. Some of my favorite cities in India are not places I would ever put on a short list of India's key cities. And Sanchi might be sacred to Buddhism, but it definitely isn't one of India's key cities now. There's no insult in not being big. The point of the list of cities is to inform, not to praise or insult or promote. Very flattered that you apparently think I'm Nigerian, but I unfortunately cannot accept the compliment. 206.113.98.48 23:29, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Gozar, while I admire the attempt to find an elegant solution the cities list, I see a few problems with the new text. One, it misses the fact that urbanization in what is now Nigeria is at once very ancient and in some cases suprisingly recent, driven by outside forces. Two, it gets us back into the issue of absolute numbers; nobody knows the exact population of any city in Nigeria, but I would shocked if only six cities were over a million (Abuja, for one, must to be over a million now - I have been told 2 million, but that seems too high, unless that's for the whole FCT). Related to that, Lagos must be least 12 million, if not much more (depends on the boundary); where does the figure 8 million come from? Three, the rate and nature of urbanization appears to be rather uneven - I would not call Lokoja "urban" in anything but a purely numerical sense. More generally, my guess is, most readers won't bother with reading the individual city entries, and certainly won't bother to compare them. The original city list, as I saw it anyway, was a kind of cheat-sheet for those who just want to read the main page on Nigeria. Ratufa 01:07, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

The source i used for the figures is here, admittedly i probably should have delved deeper into the stats but i thought the link to the list would sufficiently provide your cheat sheet and allow users to find the information required. If a 'cheat sheet' is desirable, the city list linked to on this page could certainly be improved significantly.

would the current format function so long as the population data is updated? my reasoning was that the current version would put an end to constant edits of city figures by limiting the scope in accordance with population size; there also appear to be few country pages that maintain a large, bulleted list of cities, even highly urbanised ones like India and the PRC, both of which are featured articles. --gozar 20:06, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

ive made another attempt at a resolution, note that i've allowed for two different links, the first of which supports my original edits. Note, however, that the lists disinguish between "urban area" population and "city proper", with "urban area" tending to have a much larger population. For instance, based on city proper, Lagos is the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa but for the entire urban area Cairo is much larger. I admit that this could lead to confusion but i believe linking to both sources makes a situation that is neccessarily unclear somewhat acceptable. additional discussion is encouraged on this matter.--gozar 18:35, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Scammers?

Is it worth noting that the majority of international scammers come from Nigeria? Or how about that they openly train people scam in Nigeria? It is also believed that the government supports it. Just some ideas. Crud3w4re 08:16, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Health Workers and Health issues

I know that one of the issues facing Nigeria is the brain drain from health workers leaving for richer nations, but it's not mentioned. As this is the central issue in my Model UN course, I'd appreciate any help I can get on the issue. 68.239.1.220 03:29, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

You are right.Nigeria experiences brain drain in almost all fields of endevour.Infact, many Nigerian university Professors have had to move not just to Europe or America,but to other middle eastern and African countries. The case here is not just pay as many simply imagine.It is a combination of several factors from an absent proper work environment,job satisfaction,under employment to the policy that many states in Nigeria operate an apartheid like discriminatory policy against people from other regions or a minority religion or ethnic group.To understand the Nigerian brain drain phenomenon is to first understand that there is truely no such thing as "Nigerians" in the same sense as we say French ,English,Americans or Isrealis.Nigerians means an array of explicitly distinct peoples who live in the area called Nigeria by the British colonial government.These different peoples which can be likened as Americans,Saudis and Isrealis mixed up in one volatile country fiercely and many times violently compete for Federal resources. So for you to truely understand the underlining reason for the Nigerian brain drain is to truely understand the Nigerian quagmire.The reason for the anger fuelling the Niger Delta crisis over sharing of oil resources,why a Nigeria census can never truely reflect the real figure because people need to inflate their population to keep a lion share of the Federal resources and why the periodic sectarian violence is a recurring decimal in Nigeria.

What the hell are you talking about? Nigeria is a country. The inhabitants of Nigeria are Nigerian. That is their nationality. Please stop posting stupid messages on this forum.

• hey guys, guys, since much of the info discussed in the "health issues" heading is related to information in "demographics", perhaps more closely than to "societal issues", id like to know what people think of moving the "health issues" section to its own page (i.e. Health issues in Nigeria. Some of the information discussed above (if sources can be found) might be added and a link could be inserted into the "demographics" section for the new page. If no one poses objections i may go ahead and accomplish this in the near future.--gozar 16:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

419 email/fax scams

According to this article in the New Yorker, 419 scams are not only a flourishing business ( for a rather small % of the country's population ), but openly tolerated. The Nigernian government has for years blamed the "mark" or victim of the scam; one government official said that there would be no possibility of this type of scam if there were no wealthy and immoral westerners seeking huge, easy fortunes. I believe this is notable because of the billions of emails that have crossed the globe ( what editor hasn't deleted several of them? ), the fact that Nigeria has a law in their criminal code specific to this type of scam, and that the government is complacent - not one 419 scammer is behind bars. FireWeed 19:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

To some Nigerians, 419 fraud is just a tax on those who underestimate them. It's a different cultural attitude. I think the government official you quote reflects a widespread viewpoint, that you can't scam an honest person. The Nigerian confidence trickster understands greed and how to manipulate it; one could respect their cleverness if used for legitimate means.
Bear in mind on the other hand that Nigerians are absolutely intolerant about direct theft, and have an attitude towards those who steal which makes western politicians chasing the law-and-order vote seem like wimps.
By the way, the statement 'not one 419 scammer is behind bars' is contradicted by one of the references used in the article. Rexparry sydney 04:04, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Important note

Please: Immediately revert ANY changes that remove the 419 section - People who revert the section may be scammers who do not wish to see the bottom line disappear. WhisperToMe 04:28, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

User:Tsadori removed the section soon after I inserted it [8] - I reverted Tsadori's edits. I do not believe Tsadori is a scammer, but I harshly criticize the removal. WhisperToMe 04:31, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

{{editprotected}}

Under the Issues Section near the bottom in the section discussing the Miss World location change it talks about the women and "childre" that died....should be children...

Done. Thanks for pointing that out. Picaroon 21:32, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Cuisine

If anyone else copies and pastes that trivia item from the BBC about the Abuja dogmeat restaurant as encyclopedic coverage of Nigeria's cuisine it'll be reverted. Can someone please do a proper overview! Rexparry sydney 23:32, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I found that there are already plenty of articles on Nigerian dishes in Wikipedia which could be linked and it only took a few minutes to start a section. I hope a proper Nigerian cook can improve it.

Rexparry sydney 00:50, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Neutrality of Government and Politics section.

As an American, I can't help sense a certain hostility in the tone of this section. In particular the last two sentences of the third paragraph draw conclusions about the merit of Nigeria having a Democracy at all, and makes a remark about minority vs. majority rights in American democracy.

Is there a feeling in Nigeria that Democracy is not an appropriate form of government? If so, then this section could be fleshed out with discussions of the political movements involved and provide references.

Does the last sentence about America have any relevance to an article about Nigerian Government and Politics? If so then it would probably benefit from being fleshed out more so that persons like myself could follow the logic.

2verb 23:04, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the article is in pretty bad condition. I've tried to rectify some of the things you pointed out about the politics and government section. Feel free to be bold and remove information that should have a citation that doesn't, and to try to remove spin from sourced items to make the compliant with the NPOV policy. Picaroon 23:16, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

I think it would be very educational for most Westerners to have the benefit of some African viewpoints on democracy, and I hope that some Nigerian writers will oblige. (A starting point might be Fela Kuti's song 'Democrazy — demonstration of craziness'). The nostalgia that exists in some parts of Africa for former military dictatorships and one-party states is quite understandable, and some of those regimes better reflected the population's wishes than elected governments in multiparty states. For instance in the early 1970s The Guardian commented that Kaunda's one party state was more democratically representative of Zambians than the then UK government was respresentative of the British. It may have all ended in tears, but it was undeniably what the people wanted at the time. However, the subject is too big and too pan-African for a section within the Nigeria article -- it needs an article on 'Democracy in SubSaharan Africa', warts and all. Rexparry sydney 00:14, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree, although it would not just be educational for westerners. The idea extends outside of Africa though. A Serbian I know feels nostalgic for what outsiders referred to as a police state. So in essence, you need an article titled something like "Views of Democracy" with appropriate subsections. 2verb 03:42, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism?

I'm pretty sure somebody is correcting bits of this as I speak, but somebody is vandalizing small portions of this page. For instance, a few minutes ago in the fact sidebar Nigeria's economy was listed as being 'communism,' which is incorrect. This has since been changed, although the new label of 'democracy' does not match up with older edits. Also, the state motto has been vandalized (the word 'Obey' has been changed to the word 'disobey'), and the capital, which is really Abuja, has been changed to read 'Samai.' I do not have an account and do not really understand how to revert to an older edit of the page without messing anything up, so if somebody who is watching this sees this, I think that the edit of 18:04, 31 March 2007 or the one directly before it is probably the most recent correct edit. Um. Thank you. 68.231.76.101 00:11, 1 April 2007 (UTC) Jo

It's been fixed. In the future, you can check the page history to see where it was vandalized. Then, click the revision before the vandalism, edit that version of the page, and save it. That's called a revert, and will remove then vandalism. Picaroon 02:26, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Elections

Well, the general elections are coming up in a few days. Whether or not there is an influx of vandalism, there is sure going to be a lot of updating to do. Picaroon 00:44, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Environment

Wikipedia lacks articles on Nigerian environment. There is an article on environmental issus but for Niger Delta only. There is a little bit on environmental degradation but without references. I have started a section headed Environment following Geography, with the environmental degradation item moved there and edited, it needs referenced material added on urban environmental problems, deforestation, soil degradation, water issues, desertification, etc, with a view to creating a nucleus for a separate main article. I hope this is OK. Rexparry sydney 00:46, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

The last fifty edits suggests that you and I are the only ones actively improving this article. I think we can assume a change is fine until and unless the other person gets up in arms about it ;). Anyways, yeah that sounds reasonable, because the Delta certainly can't be the only place with noteworthy environmental problems. Picaroon 02:06, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

nigeria foriegn debt

Nigeria no more own foriegn debts as described in the pages, please update pages to reflect this foreign debts have been settled. and not in the process of been settled . the debts have been settled —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 164.11.204.51 (talk) 13:24, 25 April 2007 (UTC).

Small business in Nigeria

What are some Small business Ideas that are currently viable, beneficial and profitable in Nigeria? (Neutrall 20:43, 25 April 2007 (UTC))

On economy section, please mention that Nigeria is the third largest economy in Africa, and has been grouped by Goldman Sachs in the N-11(Next eleven economies) and is estimated to be on the top 20 world economies by 2025.

Religion in Nigeria

The main article Religion in Nigeria lacks the details on minor religions which hvae been added to the section 'Religion' in this article. The section here is supposed to be a summary for the main article, I propose moving the details of the minority religions there. In any case some of them have so few adherents that they are not notable enough to warrant mention in the country article. Rexparry sydney 00:26, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

The minority religions in Nigeria on this page, I believe is a very brief skim of the overview and is appropriate. They consist of nought more than 1 mention per religion and 1 cite thereof for each religion with no extraneous material whatsoever. This would be a great way to hyperlink to more specific information. The main article Religion in Nigeria now has a easily expandable summary similar to that found on this article. Any attempt to expand minor religions shall not be done on the main Nigeria page but on the similar copy found on the religion page. In summary, there is simply a list of minor religions, which were cited solely to be credible and to avoid a fact tagging, they are not intended to replace the main article, but to give interest to readers to explore further,as I believe the best way to get action on the less edited page is by heavily interlinking relevant information. Imbelieve 01:23, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

That seems reasonable to me. Let's see what others think. Rexparry sydney 06:57, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree, but you can not delete everything on religion.

Conflicts in these areas, nigeria, congo, my marine group was in the area years back- Somalia. These conflicts are causes of having no job, no life, etc. Then things happen. And warfare is all they know.

Request for addition of url

{{editprotected}} news: http://www.mynaijanews.com

I've disabled the editprotected request. This article is only semi-protected. If there is consensus for the addition of this link, almost any editor can add it. Cheers. --MZMcBride 02:20, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Arbitration?

Since the author of the 419 article is adamant on letting it stay on then I request for a resolution. My opinion is that the article should be merged with some statement on corruption and be removed. I don't see the point of having an extremely biased article on the page especially dealing with a large and diverse society like Nigeria.Alexplaugh

That is not Wikipedia:Arbitration - Even if you tried, Arbitration would throw your case out, since you did not use Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. I am asking you to get a feel for the encyclopedia and its boundaries BEFORE engaging in disputes. The 419 Nigerian scam is a known issue in Nigeria, and too many sources to name exist that explicitly state that it is a major issue in Nigeria. I am asking for this to be restored right now. I do not feel that there is a reasonable reason to completely exclude 419 from an article about Nigeria. The section (or, if in case of a consolidated crime section, a sentence) must exist, because 419 generates a lot of money in Nigeria. 419 also has stained Nigeria's national image. It must be mentioned. WhisperToMe 06:23, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

NOTE: The "Crime in Nigeria" article does not exist yet. Perhaps what we can do is mention 419 in more detail there (though not so much as in the Advance fee fraud article, of course) - But we should have one small sentence in the main "Nigeria" article regarding 419. WhisperToMe 06:56, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Named because it became widespread from Nigeria in the 1990s, the 'Nigerian scam' or '419 fraud' emailed to people outside Nigeria offers a commission for help to avoid foreign exchange controls to get money out of Nigeria. At some point an advance fee or bank account details will be requested, and the perpetrator disappears with the fees. Many such schemes operate from Lagos. Another form of fraud involves using stolen credit cards or forged cheques or letters of credit to obtain goods in high-profile online marketplaces such as eBay, from outside the country. See the main article linked above for further details.

"Not everyone agreed with Pastor Joshua's methods. He had been called a charlatan, a religious practitioner of "419" fraud. Pastor Joshua admitted to having his critics but insisted they only proved that he was doing God's work. "Without persecution, there is no progress. If you want to be the best among equals, you should expect persecution. The more the persecution, the greater the success."

The following is from a book. did it say 419 was a request sent abroad, I maintain the article is limited, overtly and ridiculously chauvinistic and tries to appropriate a term to fit into its own world view.

• Uh, then why are you disputing this section? Or are you talking about the Advance fee fraud article? (Its talk page is at Talk:Advance fee fraud)? WhisperToMe 16:34, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Don't you get it, it is contentious, in my opinion, a poorly written section that you think should be on the Nigerian page. The presence of 419 is not the dispute, the meaning, the facts of 419 is in dispute and also the fact that you have presided as the overall judge of something that is filled with bias and overtly chauvinistic and can't see the obvious problems of the article. Please don't waste my time. Next step of dispute resolution.

I think one sentence referring to Advance fee fraud can be left in. Nigeria is a huge country, with one quarter of the population of sub-saharan Africa, and has a lot more things 'staining its image' as well. Wizzy…☎ 18:19, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

One sentence it is, Wikiwizzy :) - "Advance fee fraud (Also known as "419" and the "Nigerian scam"), common out of Nigeria, has pulled money into the country and serves as the central scheme of a criminal underworld in Nigeria [2]." WhisperToMe 18:29, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Note on deletion of 419 scam references

I understand that the 419 fraud issue is sensitive and embarrassing to many Nigerians. At the same time, it has unfortunately become a global issue associated with Nigeria and should probably be referenced in the Wikipedia entry in some way.

I submitted the piece below (which was promptly deleted), but was not involved in previous disputes regarding this issue. I leave it to other Wikipedia members to decide if any of this should be restored:

Advance fee fraud (419 e-mail scams)

Large numbers of advance fee fraud e-mails, known as '419 e-mails' in reference to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud, are sent every day by individuals in Nigeria to e-mail addresses around the world. A typical example is an e-mail claiming to be from Mariam Abacha, who is seeking the help of a foreign individual to move millions of dollars embezzled by her late husband, Sani Abacha, overseas. The victim is promised a percentage of the funds in return for their assistance, and is tricked into wiring sums of money to Nigeria via Western Union or other untraceable methods to facilitate the movement of the funds (the money is said to be needed to pay lawyers' fees, bribe officials, etc.). Once the victim's funds have been exhausted, the scammer disappears, never to be heard from again. There are many variations on this basic idea, some involving persuading the victim to deposit forged or altered checks to their bank account and then wire the proceeds to Nigeria. Other common scams involve fake lotteries and fake banks, still others are initiated via online marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay and involve overpayment for auctioned items.

Many of the e-mails originate from cyber-cafes in Festac Town, Lagos, although some originate from other parts of West Africa or are sent by overseas Nigerians in cities ranging from Amsterdam to Bangkok. The United States Federal Trade Commission describes 419 e-mails as having reached 'epidemic proportions' and warns that 'people who have responded to these advance-fee solicitations have been beaten, subjected to threats and extortion, and in some cases, murdered' [9]. Educated Americans have fallen victim to these scams and have themselves become complicit in fraud, some even ending up in jail (e.g. John W. Worley, a Massachusetts psychoanalyst who believed he was corresponding with the Abachas and wired more than US$600,000 to Nigeria before he was arrested for depositing fraudulent checks [10], and Victor Whitworth, a Connecticut pastor who thought he was accepting a large donation from a 70 year old convert to Christianity in Nigeria [11]). In some cases, American victims of 419 scams have been driven to suicide or murder by their losses (e.g. Mary Winkler, who shot and killed her husband, also a pastor, after they became involved in a 419 scam [12]). There have also been high-profile victims outside the United States, such as David Maka, a New Zealand politician who fell victim to a 419 scam [13].

The attitudes of the some Nigerians towards these scams are exemplified by Nigerian singer and comedian Nkem Owoh's 2005 hit I Go Chop Your Dollar, which portrays them as a way out of poverty for Nigerians and a form of revenge on the greedy Westerners gullible enough to fall for these pitches. Nkem Owoh, seemingly an actual 419 scam artist, was himself arrested in a raid on fraudsters in Amsterdam in July 2007 [14]. However, Nigerian officials have admitted that the association of the 419 e-mail operations with Nigeria is a blot on the country's reputation [15], seriously damaging the credibility of legitimate Nigerian businessmen, and have enlisted the help of Microsoft to help them track down the perpetrators [16], seemingly with limited success so far.

In recent years, the practice of scam baiting has arisen in response to the 419 e-mails. Based primarily in the United States, members of scam baiting online communities respond to the 419 e-mails with fraudulent pitches of their own, turning the tables on the scammers in an effort to consume time and resources that would otherwise have been directed towards finding additional victims. The most public example of scam baiting is NBC's Chris Hansen's undercover sting operation for his show To Catch a Con Man, in which Hansen poses as an American businessman who is about to fall victim to various 419 type scams before revealing to the fraudsters that they have been secretly filmed.

NOTE: Yes, it is true that we do not want to add too much content about 419 here, as it is a separate article. Yet, I found Plaugh's comments to be inappropriate, so I gave him a warning. If Plaugh tries to blank his talk page, he is violating Wikipedia rules and will find himself blocked. WhisperToMe 19:10, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Just a quick note - a user is allowed to edit their talk page, to include removing warnings if time has passed and the discussion/events are not still ongoing. There is no wiki rule against it, and many admins uphold this right so as not to force a 'badge of shame' onto a user. Rarelibra 02:56, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

RESPONSE: Thank you - I won't intervene in this matter any further (original poster).

Couldn't we just move this all to the 419 page? It's badly written right now and doesn't seem neutral to me. Eoghanzer 13:41, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

The section above is not in the article. WhisperToMe 17:14, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

"groundnuts"

Note that the groundnut link refers to more than one plant, while "groundnuts" links to peanut. Perhaps someone knows what is meant here. David R. Ingham 04:25, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Princess Of Nigeria

I was just at her party last night and i forgot her name please remind me, also what is it called when she is your moms aunt? then what is she to you.