Nigeria: Oil Rich But Hungry
A generation ago, the African nation of Nigeria launched a plan to embrace modern farming. But today the country is more dependent than ever on imported food.
Mr. Bigg's is the largest fast food chain in Africa's most populous country. This Nigerian chain, loosely modeled on McDonald's, offers hamburgers and French fries as well as local fare.
Famines often occur during times of drought, but their causes go much deeper than a lack of rain.
Droughts and floods can cause food crises. But so can politics and economics.
The nation blessed with Africa's largest oil reserves and some of its most fertile lands has a problem.
For centuries, nomads from the Fulani ethnic group have driven their cattle across thousands of miles of African grazing lands, through countries including Mali, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.
Food production in Nigeria is not keeping pace with population growth. The question is why? The country is not lacking in arable land and has not had a major drought for many years.
Inhabitants of this village of mud houses in northern Nigeria say they woke December 12 to find 5,000 cattle chomping through their ripe crops.
In my last blog entry I wrote about the many commercial farms in northern Nigeria that have failed. I wrote that my visiting them did not help me much in fathoming what went wrong with them all.
I first came to the dry, remote north of Nigeria 25 years ago on a rather strange holiday to visit a Dutchman I knew who had the job of managing a commercial farm there.
I first came to the dry, remote north of Nigeria 25 years ago on a rather strange holiday to visit a Dutchman I knew who had the job of managing a commercial farm there.
During the annual Durbah festival, over the period of Eid, the various district heads of each Emirate come to their Emir to show their strength in warriors and horsemen and to demonstrate that they
This weekend Nigerian journalist Abubakar Kabir Matazu invited me to drive with him and his children to his home town of Katsina in the far north of Nigeria to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid a
I arrive in Nigeria with news that hundreds of people have been killed in the town of Jos as a result of fighting between Muslims and Christians.
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David Hecht has reported from Africa for more than 20 years and in 1994, co-authored a book on contemporary Africa titled “Invisible Governance”. He has contributed to such publications as Fortune,...