El Paso, Juarez and Nigeria

I was in the US for almost the whole of last month, and one of the places I visited was El Paso in Texas. El Paso is just a wall away from Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico. In fact, both were once the same town until the Texas Revolution in 1835. Then, they went their separate ways, and eventually, Texas joined the US. The contrast between both cities today is the result of the different kinds of economic systems they run, something I talk about in my column with Financial Nigeria.

Picture taken with both El Paso and Juarez in the background. You should be able to tell, from the lights, which is which.

Talking about this is very depressing for me because it portends a very bad future for Nigeria. You see, like Nigeria, Mexico is a rentier economy that runs based on the whims of a powerful elite and their criminal associates. For 71 years, the PRI ruled Mexico and used electoral fraud, bribery, corruption, and repression, to maintain their grip on power. Does that sound familiar to the Nigerian?

This repression is what we are seeing now full-on as the APC implodes internally, the CPC faction goes fill on repressive, while the ACN faction cowers with its tail between its legs. Now that we are running a country where a difference in political opinion can get your account frozen, it will be interesting to see how the different parts of Seme, a town which has one half in Nigeria, and the other half in the Republic of Benin, will look in half a century. At least in Benin, they make an effort at the rule of law, while Nigeria is headed in the other direction.