Nigerians as a group, frankly, are marvellous scammers. - Colin Powell, quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p3
At the time of slavery's abolition (1930s) by the British, a quarter of the population of the Sokoto caliphate was enslaved - about two and a half million out of a total of ten million. - Illife, Honour in African History p121 quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p 33.
Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. - Obafemi Awolowo, Path to Nigerian Freedom p. 47, quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p 46
(Bello) In his distribution of patrimonial wealth he was in accordance with the established tradition whereby the rulers of Northern Nigeria were expected to distribute largesse to their subjects. Many Southern politicians could not claim to come from such an aristocratic tradition. They were simply men on the make. - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness pp 53
...it was neither the science, philosophy nor even the religion of the West which most impressed the natives: it was the material wealth, together with the power that was associated with it, which caught the imagination. - Otinin Onduka, Western Education and the Nigerian Cultural Background p99, quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p53
10,000 Tiv had been killed since Independence, and a further 3000people in the Western Region where the NNDP party was campaigning for elections in 1965. - quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p81
Any investigation in Nigeria into corruption in public life must be limited by the very pervasiveness of the corruption. - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p106
Te official justification for military rule was still the necessity of clamping down on civilian corruption as it had been ever since the first coup in January 1966.- Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p106
(Nigeria) a society of beggars, parasites and bandits. - Otinin Onduka, Western Education and the Nigerian Cultural Background p99,
(Four one Nine) .. a national affliction of epidemic proportions - Wole Soyinks, Cults, p14 159quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p15quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p 158
... in 2005 the U.S. Secret Service was reportedly detecting some 30,000 cybercrimes monthly with a Nigerian origin. - Femi Makinde, Punch,quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p161
60% of pharmaceutical drugs , that among drugs on sale in Nigeria in 2003, were said to be counterfeited, substandard or expired. - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p 180
By the beginning of this century an Italian ambassador to Nigeria reckoned that there were 20-30,000 Nigerian women working in the sex business in Italy. - Nwanndo Achebe, The Road to Italy, p`83, quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p186
most Nigerian criminals believe that spiritual power can have a positive effect on their own careers well as being a means to exploit others.- Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p193
The courier had been hoping to achieve a successful run using candles obtained from a Chicago branch of a Nigerian church, the Celestial Church of Christ, that had been blessed in order to make them spiritually effective. US officials said that the use of the ritual "seriously baffled" them.- Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p194
People go far more readily to a shrine of Ayelala than to the police if they have had their houses robbed, and they are far more likely to get their goods back, as Ayelala inspires respect and fear even among criminals. - quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p196
,,,of some 850,000 slaves from the Biafra hinterland that were landed overseas from 1640 to 1800,67.75% were from Igboland. - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p196
British colonisers liked to think that the abolition of the slave trade and of the institutions that fed it was at the heart of their mission to civilise West Africa, bu in the early days of colonial rule that did not well understand the nature of the enslavement believing that slaves were taken through raiding and that slavery would disappear with the institution of a Pax Britannica. They played less attention to the judicial role paid by oracles that made them so central to the functioning of society. - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p197
Inspector general of police,Balogun, who said in 2004 that, 'Nigeriais a distinguished member of the international community and as such we must, at all times, conform and be seen to conform with all norms, conventions and rules that are sine qua non to the peaceful ilving and respectable human coexistence.' This was shortly before his conviction on charges of embezzlement and fraud. - quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p206
Police in Thailand who in the 19r0s arrested a Nigerian drug dealer found the following prayer written on a piece of paper in his room: 'Almighty God in Heaven, I have the right to be rich. I have the right to be a millionaire, and no country has the right to pass laws that interfere with my reaching my goal of being rich. Any laws that are designed to keep me from this goal, are illegitimate.' - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p211
(Nigerians) continue to believe that that wealth can be accessed through relationships with powerful people -a simple statement of reality - but also through networks that combine the human world with the spirit world.Apter, The Pan African Nation p13, quoted in Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p213
... in so far as an individual is seen to contribute to the welfare of his community , he is not seen as corrupt. - Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness p 225
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