VOA标准英语2015--尼日利亚拉各斯州下届州长将面临诸多挑战

Challenges Await Next Governor of Nigeria's Lagos State 尼日利亚拉各斯州下届州长将面临诸多挑战 

LAGOS, NIGERIA—

Here’s what you get if you’re the governor of Nigeria's Lagos state: You get people, millions of them, spread through so many glitzy estates and unplanned neighborhoods that no one knows exactly how many there are. You get a city with towering high-rises and slums built on garbage.

And you get to manage what is by itself one of Africa’s largest economies, said Tunji Lardner, executive director of the West African NGO Network and a lifelong Lagosian.

“If Lagos were a country, it would be the fifth-largest country in Africa," Lardner said. "It also means that Lagos is, by certain estimates, responsible for perhaps 40, 50 percent of national GDP. It also means, ironically, that some of the wealthiest people in Africa are in Lagos, as well as some of the poorest people in Africa."

Nigeria's political scene was upended late last month when President Goodluck Jonathan lost the national election to Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition¹ All Progressives Congress.  It was the first loss by an incumbent² president since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999.

Jonathan’s People's Democratic Party is hoping to maintain influence with a win by Jimi Agabje, its candidate in the Lagos state governor's race. Buhari's party is hoping to further consolidate³ its power by getting candidate Akinwunmi Ambode elected.

Whoever wins has big shoes to fill. Lardner credits the state's two most recent governors with cleaning up the streets and building up a tax revenue base that’s the best among Nigeria’s 36 states.

Khadijat Sanni has benefited from that leadership. She’s spent most of her life living in Oshodi, home to a popular market and bus station where she sells beverages⁴ wholesale⁵. The Oshodi she knew growing up was chaotic⁶ and unregulated, but that's no longer true.

“Then we were in primary school in Oshodi here, talk, everybody selling, no control, they just do things the way they like," she said. "Smoking, all these things, selling in railways, those things. But, thank God, there are many differences in Oshodi now.”

Not all parts of Lagos have benefited equally. In the Ajegunle neighborhood, people filled in swampland with trash to build ramshackle houses. Tolulope Sangosanya runs a resource center for local children. When a fire broke out recently, she said, firefighters didn’t show up. That’s just one way the powers that be have neglected the neighborhood, she said.

“We do something, and we don’t trickle⁷ it down to the grass roots," she said. "You fix the main road. You do not fix the inner streets.”

It’s not just Lagos that’s voting on Saturday. Contests for governorships will take place in most of Nigeria’s 36 states.

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

3 consolidate   

v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并

参考例句：

• The two banks will consolidate in July next year. 这两家银行明年7月将合并。
• The government hoped to consolidate ten states to form three new ones.政府希望把十个州合并成三个新的州。

4 beverages   

n.饮料( beverage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• laws governing the sale of alcoholic beverages 控制酒类销售的法规
• regulations governing the sale of alcoholic beverages 含酒精饮料的销售管理条例

5 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

6 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

7 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。