Corruption In Kongi's Harvest By Wole Soyinka

help or a ray of help any time soon. Fortunately, through the charismatic leadership of African

War was inevitable: ‘This simple and seemingly innocuous action broke the last thread and split the last institution symbolizing Nigeria's nationhood and cohesion which had been regularly tampered with by the politicians since 1962. The rift between the Eastern Region and the rest of the country was total’ (ibid). In a meeting convened in Aburi, Ghana, by Ghanaian general Gen. Ankrah, leader of the eastern region military Lt. Col. Ojukwu understood the real issues at hand and convinced attendees that the only way for Nigeria to stay together is that it has to break apart, effectively implying secession. After a breakdown in communication, a frustrated federal government passes Decree no. 8 of 17th March 1967, which split Nigeria’s regions into twelve states. This was seen by Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon as a pre-emptive, non-violence weapon against the east. The eastern region was split into 3 states. Lt. Col. Ojukwu unsurprisingly rejected Decree no. 8 and states that the Enugu, (capital of Nigeria’s eastern region) is headed for secession. On the 30th of May 1967, the eastern region of Nigeria declares itself as the independent sovereign state of Biafra. The Federal military fired the first bullet on the 6th of July 1967. Now this essay will turn to providing a background to the development of Realism as an analytical theory of International Relations.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Europeans had raced to colonize the country Africa. Great Britain was the leaders at this time in colonizing the land filled with rich natural recourses. These recourses were considered a necessity to the industrialization of the world, specifically Nigeria. During this colonization that Great Britain was doing in their new land, you could imagine that the locals were not too happy about this. The British had no respect for the culture or Nigerian traditions. The longer they stayed the more that they adopted for each other's cultures. However even with the cultural exchanges between the two countries, there was much conflict for the people of a dark colored skin

Problems began for Africa when there was the “scramble for Africa. Africa was extremely divided throughout the continent. There was no nation intact. Even though they were divided into colonies, they still had no sovereignty. Since they had no form of nationalism it made it impossible to succeed as a

Within Africa, nations were trying to achieve independence with some achieving it easially. Most of Africa's nations share a consequence: weakness. This weakness, before decolonization, Patrice Lumumba, who is the Prime Minster of Congo, believes that Congo was prematurealy mocked, weakened, and partially dominated. Patrice believes that just because of their skin color, that was not an reason to be treated like the way they are treated now (Doc 4). Nkrumah Kwame, who was the president of the first nation to be decolonized in Africa, assumes the fact that many other African nations were struggling, weak, and helpless. With the fragmentation continuing, the outcome of the nations would be disastrous. He sites that South Africa is very wealth, but South Africa is also weak. This shows that hope is currently not on thier side, as a whole (Doc 5). Nelson Mandela was one of the largest known people that made a difference in Africa. Nelson, who was later tried due to revolts, believes that what he did for his people was not wrong. Infact, he believes that the whites are causing the problems againsts the blacks. Nelson tries to stop using peaceful revolts, but was later accused of planning to sabotage. In the situation he is in, it was hard to gain decolonization, but it was later gained (Doc 6). Assia Djebar, who grew up in Algeria which was still trying to decolonize, figured that new pictures form while decolonization was in

The story by Abani is set in an African background. It may be unfair to render the people as backward automatically, but their decision to act arbitrarily and against the wishes of the elders speaks of weakness regarding civility. Like the villagers in Jackson’s story, the bloodthirsty mob carries out an illogical and crude act with no regard for the life of the man they perceive to be a thief in the hope that the children will learn a valuable lesson.

Patricia Cornwell once said, “The root of all evil is abuse of power”. In Bacigalupi’s novel, The Windup Girl, the author exposes the Thailand government and food companies to be evil due to their abuse of power which led to the destruction of Thailand. Controlled by greed, these groups fought amongst each other for control over Thailand’s seedbank, using any means necessary to complete their goal. As a result, citizens and civilians living in the country got involved in the fighting. Through the use of metaphor, setting, and character, Bacigalupi expresses the message that social injustice endured by the many is often the result of an abuse by the few, showing in this case that it was the actions of the government and food companies that were the cause for the hardships endured by the many.

In the second half of the twentieth-century, African countries were able to gain their independence and strive to create unified countries. However, many countries were plagued with civil wars and the issues left behind the colonial era. The adversities faced by these new African nations are at the hands of their old colonial powers and the neo-colonialism that has taken place. These new independent countries were left to unify their people of different backgrounds, create a strong government and economy, and leave the post-colonial legacy behind.

In some parts of Africa the Europeans rule which means they ruled through government officials in the area. Some Europeans, however, abused that power. In an article by The Golden Coast Leader they define indirect ruling as a “System by which the political officer can drive the wedge of divide-and-rule through any tendency on the part of the people to come together to develop political ideas” (Document 10). Here, The Golden Coast Leader is showing how the indirect ruling system is not a great idea because it leads to Africans being unstable in running their own government. After having the Europeans run their country for so long the Africans of that nation most likely would not know how to do it for themselves. The Africans have only watched others rule, so they have no experience for themselves. Africans have no freedom in their own home, Nnamdi Azikiwe a young leader in Nigeria's fight for independence, who later became the first president of Nigeria stated, “We demand the right to be free to make mistakes and learn from our experience” (Document 8). Africans wanted to be able to make decisions for themselves and even if they do not make the best choice it’s okay because they can learn from that. Imperialism took that away from them, Africans never got to decide s for themselves. Learning from mistakes would make them grow as a nation, but the Europeans did it

The Republic of Niger, a poor, landlocked country, located in the heart of Sub-Saharan West Africa. Niger has seen its fair share of change throughout the decades; moving away from the control of the French Parliament in 1960, Niger formally declared its independence. Despite this bold act of independence, Niger would not see its first steps towards democracy until the early 1990’s, when they held their first open election as a free state. However, even with the empowerment of the people in a democratic government, Niger has seen itself nearly torn apart as a result constant coups, that have occurred as recently as 2010. Such instability has led to incredulous amounts of corruption and poverty, within the Niger government. This lack of stability and constant turnover in government, has been a driving factor behind the lack of resources available for education in Niger.

An example of Comrade’s Pillai’s selfish corruption is the way that he watches the workers of Paradise Pickles and Preserves:

The first was the weak sense of nationalism caused by all the ethnic groups where religion played a major part of the division. The main three ethnicities in Nigeria are Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo; the former is Muslim while the two latter are Christians. The second cause mentioned was the “divide and rule” which was a British tactic to employ ethnic groups against one another, and thus “helped ensure that ethnicity would be the main line of political cleavage after Nigeria became an independent country.” The third cause is the personal rule system based on “big men” and what this means is that Nigerian’s who worked for the British used their personal relationships to gain power and wealth, and in a certain way it is still used today in the Nigerian government. The fourth devastating cause was the “creation of an increasingly active and interventionist state during WWII and after until its independence in 1960, but that opened the doors to patronage, which would be used to gain political power and wealth. The past reveals the problems Nigeria has had for several decades, some of which have not disappeared but seem to get progressively worse. (CITATION)

Before we begin, let’s take a look at the country and its environs. Nigeria a former British Colony, located in the western part of Africa, it shares borders with Benin, Cameroun, and Niger. A growing population of 150million, labour force of 51million (70% Agriculture, 10% industry and 20% service), urbanisation is less than 40%, GDP is over $300billion, Per capita income is $2300. Nigeria is blessed with different cultures, languages and ethnic groups (252 in total); this was due to the colonization of the British in the early 19th century (Columbia Encyclopaedia). The British amalgamated its protectorates in 1914 to enable stable control and governance which made them create one Nation of Nigeria formed from all the groups, community and empires around the Niger area under their control. Nigeria had her independence on the 1st of October 1960 and since then various civil wars, political and religious unrest in the country to share power and resources amicably.

     Nigeria has been a country in political turmoil for a long time. The country was created in 1914 under British colonial rule and at that time it was considered a protectorate. It was not until 1960 that Nigeria received independence from the United Kingdom. One of Nigeria's problems politically is that it has over three hundred different ethnic groups. The three largest of these are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba. At the time of the independence of Nigeria it was split up into three states with each state being under the control of one of the major ethnic groups. The natural resources of the other 297 ethnic groups were exploited for the major three groups,

Modern African states have several problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. The effects of colonialism have been offered as a starting point for much of the analysis on African states, but the question of why African states are particularly dysfunctional needs to be examined, given the extent to which they have lagged behind other former European colonies in many aspects. In the first section, I will consider the problems with African states from the level of the state. That is, the nature of the states' inceptions and the underlying flaws may explain some of the issues that have been associated with African states today. Next I examine the development of, or lack of, civil