June 24, 2007 (LPAC)--In "Nigeria's Rigged Democracy" (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007), Jean Herskovits reviews the desperate condition of Nigerian society and the "foul play" of the April elections, and concludes, "[I]n the event of a coup carried out by leaders committed to returning the country to democracy within months, Western governments should pause before imposing sanctions. The notion ... may seem counterintuitive, but if nothing is done to redress the 2007 electoral travesty, many Nigerians would welcome a short-lived military regime whose goal was to arrange legitimate elections."

Herskovits' analysis goes well beyond "fair elections." She writes, "[M]ore has been wrong than right with Nigeria's economy under [outgoing President Olusegun] Obasanjo's stewardship. ... According to the Nigerian economist Sam Aluko, [the] budget crisis is the result of the government's 'policy of privatization, downsizing, and retrenchment of civil and public servants, non-payments of pensions, gratuities, and domestic debts which continue to accumulate.'" Herskovits, an old West Africa hand, is professor of history at the State University of New York at Purchase.