ICG and GFI on Nigeria

Two recently issued reports from the International Crisis Group (ICG) and the Center for International Policy’s Global Financial Integrity program (GFI) provide insight into Nigeria as it prepares for national elections in April 2011.

The ICG report is a sophisticated analysis of Northern politics, ethnicity and religion in the North, which I highly recommend.

Both at home and abroad, corruption is widely recognized to be a major hindrance to Nigeria’s political, economic and social development. Unsurprisingly, the GFI report ranks Nigeria in the top ten (the only African country to make the list) for illicit financial flows with an estimated $130 billion from 2000-2008.