In a review of recent Nigerian history, Jean Herskovits advocates steps including the building of infrastructure in the Niger Delta and the cleaning up of the despoiled environment. Then, she adds, the government needs - in the Delta as everywhere else - to meet basic needs in education and health and create conditions - security and a reliable, constant power supply foremost - to permit economic diversification and the jobs that would follow.

This speech was delivered at the Coventry University African Studies Centre/Chatham House Africa Programme Conference Nigeria: the Biggest and the Best? 50 Years of Independence.

Jean Herskovits is Professor of History, State University of New York's Purchase College, New York.

More on This

Remembering Nigeria Scholar Professor Jean Herskovits

• Remembering 'Well-Disguised Nigerian' Jean Herskovits
• Amid Challenges, Local Work Matters
• Did Vengeful Gaddafi Order Abuja Bombing?
• How To Be a Nigerian - By Jean Herskovits
• Critical Time for Nigeria's Future
• Reflections on Fifty Years of Change

Debating Nigeria's Future and the Upcoming Polls

• PHOTOESSAY: Struggling For Fair Elections in Nigeria
• Nation Needs to 'Move Back From the Brink'
• 2011 Elections - Impending Catastrophe or Transformative Moment?
• Uncertainty Hangs Over 2011 Election
• Electoral Violence in Nigeria
• Political Violence And 2011 General Elections
• Constitution Amendment Controversy!
• Only Democracy Can Solve Our Problems, Says Civil Society Leader
• Jonathan Needs to Allay Fears of Ordinary Citizens - Civil Society Leader
• Our Bet Should Be with the People
• No North-South Armageddon Over Elections
• Bomb Blast - Before Campbell's Prophecy Comes to Pass
• Season of Uncertainty
• Critical Time for Nigeria's Future
• 'We Want Nation to Succeed' - U.S. Ambassador
• Clinton Attacks Corruption and Bad Governance
• Will Power Brokers Listen and Act?

Nigeria: Jonathan Needs to Allay Citizen's Fears

• Jonathan Needs to Allay Fears of Ordinary Citizens - Civil Society Leader