Contrary to global trends, Nigerians love America

The US's image has declined worldwide since 2000, even among its allies, but polls in Nigeria show climbing approval rates.

from the February 28, 2007 edition

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"They're just like the cowboys!" and don't care what others think, he says, underscoring his comments with expletives and affecting an American drawl.

President Bush gets Oladimeji's support, too. "He's an action man. He will roll up his shirt-sleeves, not even [wearing] a tie, and move in," Oladimeji says.

International relations analyst, Remi Oyewumi, says such positive responses to America and the Bush administration are less common in Nigeria's Muslim north. Indeed, the Pew poll shows an 89 percent favorability rating among Nigerian Christians and only 32 percent among Muslims, who predominate in the north. But even in Jordan and Turkey, considered US allies and overwhelmingly Muslim countries, American favorability was only about 12 percent.

According to Mr. Oyewumi, northern Nigerian Muslims are less likely to have a favorable opinion of America for the same reason that many Christians in the south look up to the US – the war on terrorism.

"America is seen as the leader of the Christian West against the Islamic world," says Oyewumi, a Muslim, but also of the southern Yoruba ethnic group. "The religion factor is crucial."

In 2004, Islamic religious leaders in northern Nigeria urged parents not to take part in a global program to immunize all children against polio, calling it a CIA plot to reduce Muslim populations. The vaccines would reduce fertility in Muslim girls, they said, before ultimately relenting.

In the Christian south, Oladimeji says he'll keep entering an annual visa lottery by the US Embassy that allows winners to go to the States. Suddenly, his love of America appears fickle. "I'll work – even in a restaurant or on a farm [in the US]. I just don't want my family to suffer. I want to leave for the sake of my wife, son and daughter," says Oladimeji. "Ultimately – I want to go wherever I can get a visa."

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For further information:
•	Is the US a positive influence in the world? Globescan.com
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