by KarlI spent the last 10 days of October in Abuja, Nigeria, with a colleague from NCSL and a staff person from the Wisconsin Legislature conducting a training program for committee clerks of the Nigerian National Assembly. The workshops that we conducted were successful and well-received. But we were also dismayed by the challenges that our Nigerian colleagues face in trying to assert the independence of a nascent legislature in the face of a long tradition of strong executive (often tribal) rule and a pervasive culture of corruption among elected officials. See an official summary of the Nigerian program and my comments on comparisons between Africa and the U.S. and my experiences in Nigeria and Brazil.
Is it possible for me to feel sillier than I look in these photos? Definitely. The problem wasn't the traditional Nigerian garb itself but that I felt incredibly self-conscious as a white man wearing this outfit. In Nigeria, outside of my American businessman's Hilton hotel, I didn't see anybody who looked like me, and certainly not any whites wearing traditional costumes. But the outfits were a gift that our hosts gave us and asked us to wear for our farewell dinner, so, apparently, they didn't think that it was silly as we did.
Here's another photo of our three-person team with the director of the Policy Analysis and Research Project (PARP) of the Nigerian National Assembly, Dr. Ladi Hamalai, who contracted with us to do this project. Ladi is the only one who looks like she belongs. The rest of us--Corina from NCSL and Bob from Wisconsin--look a little bit like characters out of Harry Potter. Give me a wand, and I'm Dumbledore.My camera wasn't working in Nigeria, but my partner on the NCSL team, Corina Eckl provided me with the following photos in a slideshow (double click to enlarge):
1 comment:
After pointing out some needs for editing in the original version of this post, brother Eric sent this comment:
"I imagine the Nigeria trip was discouraging beyond even your reservations about “strong executive” (read ruthless tyrannical?) rule and “a pervasive culture of corruption.” Many years ago I was hired to help a barely literate Nigerian prepare a slide lecture on a family planning project that had obviously been a total failure. I couldn’t decide which aspect of the project was most dismaying, and I was ashamed of helping to put a good face on it.
"Will you look further into the comparison with Brazil? I get the impression that Lula has been on the whole successful, despite early setbacks and problems of corruption; but I’m sure that problems with government institutions are hard to change.
We haven’t yet put up our pictures of the South Sea cruise we took with Dick’s mother in early October. There’s not enough to say for a blog, but we had a good time, and we have some nice pictures as well as nice memories. The most fortunate Pacific islands are the Cook Islands, now under the protection and guidance of New Zealand. The missionaries did a pretty thorough job of obliterating native cultures; but tourism has brought back the grass skirts and ukuleles. Some of the music and dances prepared by the school children who welcome us seemed to reflect Hawaiian adulterations, but they were fun to watch, and on the relatively unpopulated islands we visited, once we got away from Tahiti and Bora Bora, the people seemed wholehearted and free of the cruder kinds of tourism sycophancy.
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