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Intrigue and Anger in Nigeria

Intrigue and Anger in Nigeria
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksAugust 17, 2018
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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With national elections in February, two recent stories suggest Nigeria may be in for a rough ride. Last week, heavily-armed masked men blocked entrances to the country’s parliament building without explanation, preventing lawmakers and journalists from entering. Confronted by angry crowds, the men dispersed when the acting president ordered the arrest of the state’s spy chief for meddling in politics. (The elected president, Muhammadu Buhari, was away for a “vacation” in the UK, a country where he has received medical treatment for an unspecified illness in the past.)

Then on August 12, hundreds of soldiers launched a protest against orders to redeploy to fight Boko Haram jihadists in the country’s northeast. Firing their guns in the air, they disrupted flights at Maiduguri airport for several hours. “We should not have been here for more than a year, but this is our fourth year,” explained one soldier. “We need some rest, we are war-weary and need to see our families.” Africa’s largest economy can expect another wild election season.

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