Nigerian Independence Day blasts kill seven

Two car bombs blew up on Friday as Nigeria celebrated its 50th independence anniversary, killing at least seven people in an unprecedented attack on the capital by suspected militants from the country's oil region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in the country's oil-rich southern delta, had threatened to attack the festivities and warned people to stay away.

"For 50 years, the people of the Niger Delta have had their land and resources stolen from them," the group said in a statement. While Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is oil rich most people live on less than $1 a day. The delta is very impoverished and polluted from spills.

A senior intelligence officer was among the seven killed, one of his colleagues from the intelligence service said on condition of anonymity.

"There were more casualties at the second explosion because the first explosion drew crowds to the scene, which is close to the second explosion," the intelligence officer said.

Police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said earlier that "my information is that there was an explosion in a house" and he could not confirm any fatalities.

However, some 10 cars were destroyed and the blast did not appear to originate from a house, an AFP journalist said.

Although most of its activities have been focused on the creeks and swamps of the delta, MEND has struck further afield, including at off-shore oil installations and in the heart of Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos.

"Several explosive devices have been successfully planted in and around the venue by our operatives working inside the government security services," the warning email, signed by MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo, said.

A third and smaller explosion hit a venue at Eagle Square where President
Goodluck Jonathan stood with other dignitaries, about a 10-minute walk from where the car bombs detonated. A security agent was apparently injured in that explosion.

Friday's attacks would be among the militants' boldest yet, striking in Nigeria's capital during an event with heavy security held hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the delta.

No interruption in Nigeria's TV broadcast

Broadcast television footage showed no interruption to the 50th birthday celebrations.

Shortly after the warning, Jonathan, who faces an election early next year, arrived in an armoured limousine dressed in his traditional black fedora hat and dark suit, before inspecting ranks of soldiers from an open-top jeep.

Jonathan is from the Niger Delta area, and many analysts thought his accession to the presidency earlier this year after the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua would have eased tensions between rebels and central government.

Despite the official pomp, the 50-year landmark has caused considerable introspection among Nigeria's 140 million people, many of whom regard the period since the end of British rule in 1960 as a half-century of broken dreams.

As well as a succession of brutal and economically disastrous military dictatorships and the squandering of billions of dollars in oil revenues, Nigeria suffered a civil war in the late 1960s in which a million people died.

"Leadership has failed the nation again and again and again," said author Wole Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, describing the post-colonial era as a "wasted generation".

"It has been backwards steps -- one step forwards and then ten back."

Despite the gloom, others feel that after 10 years of unbroken civilian rule, Nigeria is on the cusp of a major revival, supported by high oil prices, a flood of foreign investment and gradual liberalization of its economy.

In April 2006, MEND claimed responsibility for attacks on an army barracks and an oil refinery during which two people were killed. It also detonated a car bomb outside a state governor's office in December 2006.

Nigeria, a member of OPEC, is one of the top crude oil suppliers to the U.S. last year, attacks by militants led to a sharp drop in oil production, allowing Angola to replace Nigeria as Africa's No. 1 exporter.