Corruption in Nigeria is ‘Unbelievable’ Says Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton - Alarmed by Corruption in Nigeria

According to the U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Nigeria’s failure to deliver basic services helped foster extremism in young people, such as the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who was accused of trying to blow up a U.S. jet on Christmas. At a town hall meeting with officials of the State Department, Secretary Clinton said Nigeria faces a threat from increasing radicalization that needs to be addressed.  She went on to say that “The failure of the Nigerian leadership over many years to respond to the legitimate needs of their own young people, to have a government that promoted a meritocracy, that really understood that democracy can’t just be given lip service, it has to be delivering services to the people, has meant there is a lot of alienation in that country and others.”

Mrs Clinton told her audience that poor governance and deteriorating living conditions made Nigeria’s disaffected young people ripe targets for militants looking for recruits to attack the West. “The information we have on the Christmas Day bomber so far seems to suggest that he was disturbed by his father’s wealth and the kind of living conditions that he viewed as being not Islamic enough,” She added that  ”But in this case, and in so many others, such young people are targets for recruiters to extremism, there has to be a recognition that in the last 10 years, a lot of the indicators about quality of life in Nigeria have gone the wrong direction.”

According to her “The corruption is unbelievable.” She said she met with a group of Nigerians in the capital, Abuja, “people were standing and shouting about what it was like to live in a country where the elite was so dominant, where corruption was so rampant, where criminality was so pervasive. “And that is an opening for extremism that offers an alternative world view,” she opined.



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