Nigerian failings
As Joyce McMillan (Perspective, 9 May) alluded to, there is in Nigeria an “economic system associated with western power”. This system is based on oil and Nigeria is a substantial contributor to global supplies. Surely, not only is there a moral dimension to the US and the others’ intervention but also significant economic interests? Oil workers have been killed and millions of barrels of oil lost to crime and corruption.
However, the main interest of China and the West is a secure supply of oil. Arguably, humanitarian intervention and political and economic interests coincide in what former US president George W Bush might have called a “failed state”.
Ellis Thorpe
Old Chapel Walk
Inverurie, Aberdeenshire