European nations and South Africa in retaliation for the withdrawal of their ambassadors over the weekend.

"Our ambassadors have no business remaining in their respective countries of postings," sniffed Alhassank Kpaki, minister of state for foreign affairs.

While Nigeria would appear to have become an international pariah overnight, it's been in since the 1967-70 Biafran war, an ethnic Bloodbath that claimed 250,000 lives.

Since independence in 1960, there have been 10 Nigerian heads of state--seven of them military dictators who came to power through . The country's population is 100 million, divided into many ethnic groups left by the British colonialists in live together as best they could in the borders of a single state.

World renowned bribes and pyramid recently led Gen. Colin Powell, the former chair of Joint Chief of Staff, to call Nigeria a nation of scammers."

The national carrier Nigeria Airways has an abysmal safety record, suffering under poor government management. At least 75 passengers were feared dead yesterday when a Boeing 737 crashed on landing in the north.

The Central Bank earlier this year seized 17 banks that had gone broke and scores of others are suffering due to corruption and a lack of foreign investment.

"After the last two decades of the fantastic growth of corruption...people just feel you might as well get on the gravy train," said Larry Diamond, a Nigerian specialist and senior research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute.

The oil industry, which accounts for 80 percent of Nigeria's export income, has crumbled under pro-democracy movements such as the one led by Saro-Wiwa and his minority Ogonis, who say their oil-rich southern lands have been destroyed by the industry.