Customer Reviews

This House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This book is a good review of Nigeria's political history over the past 35 years. It is fairly even-handed. As with any project that is so broad there are certainly many areas that are left out or covered superficially. Also the book jumps around quite a bit. That being said there are few books that are successful in putting Nigeria "in perspective". This is one of them.

I begin by nailing my colours very firmly to the mast-this is easily one of the best books on Nigeria I have ever read. Any one who has ever been to Nigeria will relate to Maier's tale right from the "airport experience", and the novice will be eqully gripped. The rest of the book maintains the high standard. I suspect that part of the reason this book is so credible is that it is based on Maier having "been there and done that" to an extent that makes me as a Nigerian vaguely ashamed that a foreigner appears to be more widely travelled in, and to know my own country better than I do. Add to this the fact that he had wide access to different sources, and that he presents his story humorously yet seriously, and the reasons why this is such a good book become clearer. The greatest acheivement of this book is that it gives a picture of Nigeria(past and present) that is uncluttered by any prejudices of the author, which is no mean feat. An excellent book, warmly recommended.

The earlier review by Brian R. stated it perfectly. This should have been a book that you couldn't put down... the kind of book that compels you to turn the page. And while Karl Maier deserves credit for providing a look at the political turmoil and chess games of Nigeria (espeically in the 1990s), I was itching for a sense of the day-to-day life of the Nigerians. This is still a book that deserves to be read. The author has faced a monumental task of trying to get a handle on Nigeria but, like the leaders of the last 30+ years have shown, this is an elusive task.

This is an excellent work that presents Nigeria in a more complete and authentic way than any Nigerian author could have done. For one thing, Karl Maier's access to notable players in the wired Nigerian saga seems so broad and complete that even the best of African historians must feel somewhat humbled. The book is candid, factual and umbiased and tells the country's story in a style that easily catches the interest of a world that has grown apathetic to the plight of a very well-endowed nation with an unbelievable capacity for economic and political rambling .

This is a well written book written book by a reporter who knows Nigeria intimately haven lived there on and off for 10 years. He travelled the length and breadth of Nigeria and interviewed various personalities to get their own unique perspective. In the North he interviews people like Babangida the former President and asks him questions about the june 12 election annulment,Zakzakky one of the Islamic leaders and also Zamfara state Governor.In the middle belt he interviews the Zango Kataf leaders and also gives a perspective on Kafanchan.In the West OPC leaders Fasheun and Adams are interviewed and Human rights Campagners such as Gani Fawehinmi and Beko Ransome Kuti.In the East he interviews Ojukwu and The Biafran veterans while in the Delta region gives an account of the events relating to the Oil communities crisis and the Lives of Adaka Boro and Saro Wiwa are put in perspective.In conclusion this book is necessary reading for anybody remotely interested in Nigeria and the significant events of the last 10 years.

An accessible account of contemporary Nigeria. Maier is a good storyteller (gets the hook of Gen. Sani Abacha overdosing on viagra into the first chapter) but the book is more than mere sensationalism. It is good on the multitudinous conflicts in Ogoniland which culminated in the execution of playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa; and is quite good on the constitutional maneuverings that have led to the introduction of Islamic sharia law in several northern states. Should be the standard popular introduction to contemporary Nigeria.

Karl Maier has spent a lot of time in Nigeria over the past decade or so (for this alone he deserves some kind of award). "This House has Fallen" is his journalistic account of the slow disitegartion of sub Saharan Africa's most populous country. Maier document's the country's struggle to shrug off military dictatorship, its economic collapse, its environmental catastrophes, its ethnic and religous violence and its hopeless corruption. Particularly surprising was the fact that a country that is the world's sixth largest oil producer has to import gasloine because of damage to its refineries and has experienced massive gasoline shortages. Maier also throws in a lot of historical material to provide perspective. The problem with the book is that he spends most of his time interviewing various political and religous leaders (almost at random, it seems, which makes the book confusing). What I wanted more of was descriptions of day to day living conditions in the country and interviews with more average citizens. As political travel writer and humorist P.J. O'Rourke once said, you'll never find out what's really going on in a country by interviewing its politicians. Overall, this is an informative book, but it is not as compelling a read as it should be given its subject matter.