This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria [Hardcover]

Karl Maier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

A journey into contemporary Africa's most powerful, most corrupt nation.. To understand Africa, you have to understand Nigeria, and few Americans understand Nigeria better than Karl Maier. In the tradition of Philip Gourevitch's bestselling We Regret to Inform You...and Redmond O'Hanlon's No Mercy, This House Has Fallen is a bracing, disturbing, evocative report on the state of Africa's most populous, potentially richest, and most dangerously dysfunctional nation.Each year, with depressing consistency, Nigeria is declared the most corrupt state in the entire world. A nation into which billions of dollars of oil money flow, Nigeria's per capita income has dramatically fallen in the past two decades. All of the money has been stolen by elites. Also stolen has been democracy. Nigeria's leaders tend to elect themselves, often with the help of a gun. Military coup follows military coup. A rare democratic election is often merely a prelude to the next seizure of power by a general who wants greater access to the state's rapidly depleted vaults. A country of rising ethnic tensions and falling standards of living, Nigeria is a bellwether for Africa. And yet some think it is on the verge of utter collapse, a collapse that could overshadow even the massacres in Rwanda.A brilliant piece of reportage and travel writing, this book looks into the Nigerian abyss and comes away with insight, profound conclusions, and even some hope. To understand Africa, you have to understand Nigeria, and few Americans understand Nigeria better than Karl Maier. In the tradition of Philip Gourevitch's bestselling We Regret to Inform You...and Redmond O'Hanlon's No Mercy, This House Has Fallen is a bracing, disturbing, evocative report on the state of Africa's most populous, potentially richest, and most dangerously dysfunctional nation.Each year, with depressing consistency, Nigeria is declared the most corrupt state in the entire world. A nation into which billions of dollars of oil money flow, Nigeria's per capita income has dramatically fallen in the past two decades. All of the money has been stolen by elites. Also stolen has been democracy. Nigeria's leaders tend to elect themselves, often with the help of a gun. Military coup follows military coup. A rare democratic election is often merely a prelude to the next seizure of power by a general who wants greater access to the state's rapidly depleted vaults. A country of rising ethnic tensions and falling standards of living, Nigeria is a bellwether for Africa. And yet some think it is on the verge of utter collapse, a collapse that could overshadow even the massacres in Rwanda.A brilliant piece of reportage and travel writing, this book looks into the Nigerian abyss and comes away with insight, profound conclusions, and even some hope. *The first significant book on this subject in decades Nigeria is strategically vital to the United States-- it is one of our major suppliers of oil .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"We... ignore Nigeria at our peril," warns Maier, a journalist who was stationed in Africa for more than a decade (as a London Independent correspondent). Nigeria, the tenth most populous country in the world and the sixth largest oil producer, is home to more than 300 distinct ethnic groupsAand it is a society in total chaos. Billions of dollars have flowed into Nigeria in exchange for oil, yet most people live in grinding poverty; meanwhile, ethnic and religious strife threatens to split the country apart, and years of ineffectual and corrupt military rule have resulted in a lack of health and educational services. In painting an often depressing portrait, Maier (Into the House of Ancestors) argues these facts have combined to create civil disorder and despair in the country that is possibly the most important on the African continent. Maier untangles Nigeria's political and social chaos for readers by talking to individual NigeriansAdesperately poor Igbos, angry taxicab drivers, military and religious leaders, businessmenAand creating out of these encounters a compelling narrative, though one that fails to cohere at points when it feels as though Maier has pasted together old articles with the glue of historical background. In an effort to learn something about Nigeria's hopeAand despairAfor the future, he writes about Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni activist who was hanged by the government; about a doctor/hotel owner who is also the founder of a political party; and about angry young revolutionaries who no longer have any faith in the system. Throughout, Maier puts a human face on a disheartening situation that seems remote and impersonal to most Americans. Maps. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Maier (author of the internationally well received Into the House of the Ancestors, 1998) explores the promise and paradox of Nigeria, a nation of fractious ethnic groups, legendary corruption, and bountiful resources, overseen by dictators for all but 10 years since its independence in 1960. Maier, a reporter who was based in Nigeria for 10 years, recounts the history of this nation cobbled together from British colonial interests in its formative years and dominated by international oil interests in more recent years. This checkered past is reflected in the ethnic tensions among the Yoruba, Ogoni, Ijawi, and other tribes as well as by the tension between Christians and Muslims. Maier discusses Nigeria's struggle with democracy; he conducted extensive interviews with Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who came to power in a military coup in 1985 and led a repressive regime until 1993, when his hand-picked successor, Moshood Abiola, was elected. Babangida later annulled the election, and Abiola eventually died in solitary confinement. Maier also interviewed the father and son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and political activist, hanged by Babangida's military. This is a revealing look at a complex and troubled nation, the largest trading partner the U.S. has in Africa. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 edition (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891620606
• ISBN-13: 978-1891620607
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,323,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nigeria Diclassified, January 1, 2001

By 

Moses Tafarki (Concord, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria (Hardcover)

Incredible piece of work that kept me asking, how did he (Karl Maier) get so close to ask somuch. We never had a National leader. We had and still have villans. Karl Maier exposes the deception in the Sharia question, and the lies of a monolithic North. He exposes the entire history of Nigeria as a fraud, it is very embarassing and makes me very certain that some one will someday ask for accoutability. Every Nigerian should read this book. Embrace it for the credibility it has. Using Fr. Mathew Kukah, Dr. Mahadi, Bala Usman, to mension a few as sources only makes me feel that every Nigerian must read this.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A voice from Lagos, October 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria (Hardcover)

FEMI FANI KAYODE, writes in the Vanguard Daily, Lagos, Sept 17, 2000: American Karl Maier's newly released, highly celebrated and simply excellent book titled "This House has fallen: Midnightin Nigeria"...the book particularly is essential reading for anyone that really wishes to understand the monumental challenges that this country faces. Maier, in the finest tradition of professional journalism, has not only done his research thoroughly and written his book extremely well but he also speaks eloquently and dispassionately and with complete authority and understanding about the extremely complex problems of Nigeria.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quo Vadis Nigeria..., December 4, 2000

By 

Frederic Woodbridge "Fred" (ID, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria (Hardcover)

I grew up in Nigeria, my mother being an Ibo woman from Bendel (now Delta) state. Karl Maier has captured the essence of the country without waste or want: this beautiful country is in deep trouble. It doesn't take much genius to see this but Maier has gone one step further (a step the country's leaders have been unable or unwilling to take all these years) and suggested a solution to the problems (read the book to find out) and that's really where this book shines. It is a thought-provoking treatise but more than this, it is a call to action and action is what Nigeria and Nigerians need; action in the right direction!