Posted on 09/22/2006 7:47:21 PM PDT by Libloather
U.S. Probe Roils Nigeria Politics
By DULUE MBACHU
LAGOS, Nigeria - A corruption investigation in Washington has roiled Nigeria, leaving the top two leaders publicly trading allegations and nudging a politically volatile country closer to the brink.
Nigeria's president claims his estranged vice president is implicated in the bribery case against a U.S. legislator, and the vice president has responded with damaging allegations of his own against the president. The very public feuding in a country where politics often erupts into violence is particularly disturbing for Nigerians because presidential elections in which the vice president is expected to run are just around the corner.
Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer and the world's eight-biggest exporter, with exports currently 2.3 million barrels daily. But it's a country hobbled by a history of official corruption and bloody coups.
With both the president and vice president locked in a political duel, preparations are not being made for the crucial vote, said Clement Nwankwo, lawyer and founder of leading rights group, Constitutional Rights Project.
"What we see now is that there are no clear, defined possibilities about where Nigeria is headed," he said.
President Olusegun Obasanjo earlier this month forwarded to parliament a report of investigations conducted by the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The report includes allegations Vice President Atiku Abubakar diverted millions of dollars of public funds that ended up as loans to friends and business interests, including iGate Inc., a Louisville, Ky. telecommunications firm that tried to start business in Nigeria in 2004 and that has been caught up in the case of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson.
The Louisiana Democrat has been under investigation in the U.S. since March 2005 for allegedly using his position to help iGate _ which sought contracts with Nigeria and other African nations _ and seeking bribes in return. The FBI said it found $90,000 stashed in a freezer in his home.
Jefferson has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing, but was stripped of his seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Jefferson's spokeswoman would not comment; his attorney did not return calls for comment. Representatives of iGate could not be reached.
In Nigeria, Vice President Abubakar has countered the investigation agency's report with damaging allegations of his own. He said he and Obasanjo together controlled a bank account said by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigators to have been a conduit for illegal payments.
General elections in April 2007 could be the first successful transition from one elected civilian to another in the country's 46-year history as an independent nation. Military strongmen including Obasanjo, who ruled briefly as an army general in 1970s held sway for 29 years.
Whoever controls presidential power usually determines who gets the oil wealth in a country of more than 130 million people with more that 250 distinct ethnic groups, split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. For that reason, elections are often fought like wars.
Obasanjo, a southwestern Christian, is prevented by the constitution from seeking a third term. He has not indicated his choice to succeed him, but it's clear he does not want Abubakar, who has said he will run. Two former military rulers are among more than 20 prominent politicians who have declared interest in running for the presidency.
Many political leaders from the Muslim north have been clamoring for a return of the presidency to their region, which had held power longest in the past. A campaign to amend the constitution and extend Obasanjo's stay was defeated in parliament in May, with Abubakar and fellow Muslim northerners stoutly opposing the move.
Abubakar alleges his current woes stem from his "principled stand" against Obasanjo's continued stay in power.
Obasanjo's office denies the charge.
"What we see now are two former allies now trying to get rid of each other, making it messy," said Ike Onyekwere, a Nigerian political commentator.
A new World Bank report cited Nigeria among 26 countries at risk of failing and becoming hotbeds of terrorism and regional instability. Ignoring such states with many citizens living in extreme poverty could only let the situation get worse, the report warned.
When elected president in 1999, Obasanjo vowed to fight deep-rooted corruption that has left Nigeria with the reputation of being among the most corrupt countries in the world.
Critics have accused Obasanjo of focusing on inconsequential officials while tolerating the corruption of his influential allies.
Five ministers and former ministers and a former senate president have been charged since 2004, but no conviction has been secured, with the cases bogged down in the courts amid questions about whether prosecutors are doing all they can. The only significant conviction has been that of the former head of the national police Tafawa Balogun, who was jailed and stripped of assets for corruption last year.
But the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which has been the main instrument of a recently resurgent anti-corruption war, points to the investigation of Abubakar as evidence that there are no sacred cows.
Questions have also been raised about some of Obasanjo's own transactions. He recently confirmed media reports that Obasanjo Holdings Limited, his private company, owns some 200 million shares of Transcorp, an investment company that was a key beneficiary of the government's privatization of state companies. Transcorp bought the former state-owned national telecommunications company and took over the government's interest in the Abuja Hilton Hotel, among other key acquisitions. No details of Transcorp's shareholding structure were available, so it was unclear if Obasanjo's stake was a controlling portion.
Joint trustees of Obasanjo Holdings, Daniel Atsu and Lucky Egede, while confirming the company's holdings in Transcorp in a statement, denied it represents any conflict of interest, saying it was a blind trust.
Many Nigerians are hoping the April 21, 2007 election will avoid a replay of the 2003 vote, when Human Rights Watch said more than 100 people died in campaign-related violence. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, a former military ruler who annulled a 1993 election, has also indicated interest in running for the presidency, but neither Babangida nor Abubakar has yet launched a formal campaign.
Cosmas Ekpunobi, Abiodun Adelaja Abuja
EMBATTLED Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday stepped-up efforts to clear himself of alleged abuse of office by officially writing the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In the letter dated September 18 and entitled Re: PTDF Funds and Allegations of Impropriety - My Story, Abubakar alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's (EFCC) report indicting him of corruption "was to prevent me from contesting the Presidency of our great nation."
President Olusegun Obasanjo had earlier forwarded a letter to the National Assembly detailing alleged sleaze by his Vice Atiku, based on EFCC and administrative panel's report.
Atiku in his defence said the EFCC report has a "predetermined conclusion to pronounce my humble self, Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, guilty of fraud and embezzlement, in order to satisfy the callous and mischievous aims of those who seek to rely on the provisions of section 137 (1) (i) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 to prevent me from contesting the presidency of our great nation."
He further argued in the letter sent to the Senate President Chief Ken Nnamani and Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari that the EFCC report was "totally unspportable by the facts contained therein. A report that cruelly stands truth on its head."
Atiku said that even though the EFCC purported to be investigating matters involving a US congressman, Mr. William Jefferson, as they relate to Nigeria, the report it prepared in pursuance of the alleged investigation contains almost no reference whatsoever to the said congressman.
The vice president also absolved himself of all allegations relating to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Equitorial Trust Bank ETB, Globacom and Dr. Mike Adenuga (Jnr).
He equally cleared the air on the Trans International Bank/NDTV/Mofas Shipping and Otunba Johnson Fasawe and the Marine float/Umar Pariya deals
Atiku expressed surprise that all those who are now beneftting immensely from the success of the Obasanjo/Atiku Campaign Organisation at the polls now hastily retreat from the very machinery that brought them to power.
"Perhaps, this is human nature but it does not make it less astonishing that the very officers and ministers who now occupy their offices as a result of the victory at the polls of the Obasanjo/Atiku presidential ticket are the very ones now so quick to renounce the very people who worked tirelessly to help them get there."
He urged the National Assembly to confine the EFCC report indicting him into the dustbin of history where it belongs.
Meanwhile, Senate has said that it will not suspend work on the 2006 supplementary budget, despite the claim of the minister of finance Mrs. Nenadi Usman that the bill has been withdrawn.
A motion yesterday by Senator Farouk Bello Bunza to specifically draw the attention of the Senate the Minister's statement in Singapore was stopped by the Senate President who said that it is not within the power of the minister to withdraw such bill in the pages of newspapers.
Mrs. Usman was reported to have said in Singapore that the supplementary which had passed second reading in the Senate has been withdrawn.
But Senate yesterday, ruled that it would be wrong to suspend action on the bill based on the report on the pages of newspapers, and moreso when the chairmen of the relevant committees are still in Singapore with the minister.
I always wondered why that money they promised never wound up in my secret Swiss bank account.
Oh, wait ... Jefferson (D-LA) has it. Rats.
Does this mean that the guiy who keeps emailing me about the eleven million dollars he has to get rid of might be telling the truth? 8<)
William "Cold Cash" Jefferson hits Nigerian politics. That isn't a good combination.
Geez I would think Nigeria would have a more stable government to whether this...../s
"I always wondered why that money they promised never wound up in my secret Swiss bank account."
I guess it would be fun to re-write a Nigerian scam letter, but inserting names and facts to match this case?
We could then send it to our Congressmen, who seem to believe that an elected official should be able to hide dead bodies (and the weapons that match the wounds on the bodies) in their office with inpunity.
Sounds like trouble, no matter who wins!
What investigation?
You see any investigation?
I don't see no investigation.
Maybe now that Fitzgerald is looking for a back door out of the trumped up Libby case, he could step up and investigate a REAL crime....
The real story...is that there is massive corruption going on in DC...everyday. We need 20 private investigators and a threat of 20 years in prison for each crime to stop both sides from this continuing corruption game. This Nigeria episode...is just one of 1000 that are going on with senators and congressmen.
What a country.
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