THE OSTRACIZATION OF NIGERIA:

HOW NIGERIA BECAME A PARIAH STATE.

ANTHONY OKOSUN, (Tonyosun@yahoo.co.uk)

"If you die, them go carry your body go police station, you died unlawfully" Fela Anikulapo Kuti- Nigeria’s late, Afro-Beat Music, King.

Country Nigeria has died unlawfully, and the international community is now carrying the corpse to the police station; just like Fela sang. Take it or leave it. Nigeria has decayed into a pariah state. Like an old poor woman, Nigeria is not attracting any admirers nor suitors. Like Australia, Nigeria has suddenly become too far for the world’s eminent personalities to visit. Just like Afghanistan and Iraq, Nigeria has become too dangerous for the hyper security conscious eminent world citizens to visit. Like Pakistan and North Korea, it has become too politically incorrect to parley with Nigeria.

Adieu, Adieu, Adieu Nigeria. How are the mighty fallen. I remember how the elders of yore, used to day dream about the golden and glorious future that awaits Nigeria, the geo-socio-political settlement, then fondly referred to as the giant of Africa. I guess the African Union did not consider Nigeria a giant when they sent Ethiopia, to represent Africa at the G.20 summit that was hosted by England, in the first quarter of 2009.

In early 2009, His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa. The great man of God, quietly avoided Nigeria. The Pope visited Angola and Cameroun. It would be interesting to note that Nigeria’s catholic population is more than the combined population of Angola and Cameroun, many times over. Yet Nigeria, was carefully deleted from the holy padre’s itinerary. Who would blame the handlers of the holy father’s schedule. A visit to Nigeria, would be likened to the Journey of Christ through Jerusalem, on the way to his crucifixion and death, known as via dolorosa. While a visit by the Pope to Nigeria, would not portend the likelihood of a physical demise; however, it could portend an omen a la Nigeria’s well known corruption scandal. As my fellow Nigerian buddies would say "Abeg make unu leave the good Pope alone. Na weteen him go find go for Nigeria. Abee unu want make them go spoil him good name with corruption scandal of one kind or another. Abegy jor."

The Nigerian project has become so screwed up that everybody who is anybody in the international community is avoiding Nigeria. Whoever is not aware that Nigeria is a country; would be justified to think that Nigeria, was a prostitute with the dreaded HIV. Corruption scandals are so prevalent that one is even thinking, whether it cannot be felt, touched and smelled in the country’s seat of power, Abuja. Na wah.

A few year ago, global evangelist Benny Hinn, was furious after his ministry allegedly sent $4 million dollars (about N600 million) to the organizers of a Benny Hinn Crusade in Nigeria; in anticipation of a huge attendance running into millions of people. The man of God fell into holy anger, upon his arrival in Nigeria, when the organizers of the three day crusade could not satisfy him, with their explanation as to how the money his ministry sent for the preparation for the crusade was spent. Whereas, Pastor Benny was told to expect millions of attendees and his ministry sent money to Nigeria accordingly, in preparation for the expected millions of people; only a few thousand persons, attended the event http://www.rickross.com/reference/hinn/hinn45.html

According to reports Pastor Benny Hinn, on the third day of the 3-day crusade exclaimed in exasperation: " Four million dollars down the drain." 

According to the BBC in a report written by Sola Odunfa;  http://www.rickross.com/reference/hinn/hinn48.html 

"About 300,000 people attended the event each night - a modest congregation by Nigerian crusade standards. It is estimated that about 1 million worshippers attend the monthly Holy Ghost Congress service organised by The Redeemed Christian Church God (RCCG) at the same venue.

Whatever disappointment he felt on the first and second days of the miracle crusade, Hinn kept to himself - but he opened up with anger on the final day.

"Four million dollars down the drain," he shouted into the microphone from the huge rostrum.

He said that he had been assured by the local organising committee that at least six million people would attend the crusade - but the total turnout was only around one million. As a result, he realised that all the mega public address equipment he had flown in from the US was not needed.

He also complained about some claimed expenditures, the charges imposed on pastors who attended his day-time seminar, and journalists who sought to cover the crusade.

He then announced publicly that he would not provide any more funds, and that the local organisers should pay all outstanding bills from the collections they made on the first two days.

Hinn's complaints instantly overshadowed the spiritual context of the event. Some people from the congregation came out to declare that they received healing and other miracles after the prayers, but they were hardly audible."

The Benny Hinn Ministries is a global gospel preaching, healing and deliverance ministry. The ministry has been around the world with the message of salvation many times over, with no record of any negative occurrence. Why was the Nigerian experience different. True, Pastor Benny got the shock of his life, after so much money was allegedly spent, with no satisfactory explanation as to how and what the money was spent for. It is true that no body was accused of stealing any money. It is also true that when the event occurred, and the questions without satisfactory answers were asked, the global community noticed and warned themselves accordingly, about Nigeria

The Vanguard Newspaper, (a Nigerian newspaper)-[online edition] in a report dated 12 May, 2009, and entitled: NIGERIA: HALLIBURTON – U.S. $150 MILLION TRACED TO AVM BELLO’S ACCOUNT; and written by Ise-Oluwa and Ikechukwu Nnochiri, reported :

"It will be recalled that following public outcry over the $180million Halliburton bribery scandal, the Federal Government set up a five-man inter-agency investigation panel headed by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro. Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, inaugurated the panel on April 21, 2009, and charged it to, among others, examine the circumstances surrounding the Halliburton bribery scandal in the Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas Project A senior officer involved in the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity told Vanguard that by the time names are being mentioned in the coming days or we see the caliber of persons that are arrested, Nigerians would be shocked. He added that time has come for Nigerians to be told the truth about what is happening to their country. Indications are also rife that more important personalities, including very senior citizens of the country both in and outside government are among those indicted. Past ministers, and top government officials would soon be picked up as investigations progresses because of information available to the investigating team, the source said."

"It has come to light that over $150 million of the $180 million Halliburton bribe money was allegedly disbursed through the account of former Chief of Air Staff, AVM A.D. Bello (rtd), while the sum of $11.5 million of the bribe money was found in Ibrahim Aliyu's foreign account, according to sources at the Special Investigation Panel headed by Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro However, investigators are shocked that AVM Bello is sticking to his defence that though the account through which the $180 million was disbursed was his, he had no knowledge of when or how the huge sum of money was disbursed and who the beneficiaries were. AVM Bello (rtd) was also a former Managing Director of defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways, while Ibrahim Aliyu is a brother to the governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu. Both men have been in detention for some time after their arrest by the investigation panel."

As the Halliburton scandal is presently being investigated by the American congress and the FBI, the world, once again is watching very closely; and in the meantime, Nigeria has been ostracized.

The Trust newspaper, (a Nigerian newspaper)-[online edition] in a report dated 15 March, 2009, and entitled: Nigeria: Power Probe - $1.4bn, 224.6m Euro Contracts Illegal and written by Tashikalmah Hallah, reported:

"The Managing Director of the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, Mr James Olotu, has said that electricity contracts of $1.4 billion and €224.6 million awarded under the scheme were illegal, as they were not backed up with the enabling laws of the federation."

"The revelation is coming on the trail of claims by the NIPP boss that only former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the former Minister of Power and Steel, Senator Liyel Imoke now Governor of Cross Rivers awarded the contracts without reference to ministry officials."

"According to Olotu, NIPP is not a legal entity but was conscripted by the Obasanjo administration which awarded contracts amounting $1,463,381,898.88billion and €224,600.24 million, with letters of Credits opened for the various contractors handling the failed projects all over the country"

The Trust newspaper, (a Nigerian newspaper)-[online edition] in a report dated 7 May, 2009, and entitled: Nigeria: REA Scam – EFCC Arrests Senator, Three Reps On the Run, and written by Bosco Edet, reported:

"Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Sen. Nicholas Yahaya Ugbani was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday to explain his role in the contracts awarded by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to over 150 companies last year for rural electrification projects. EFCC investigation has revealed that the money embezzled in the alleged scam now stands at N6 billion not N3.5 billion as earlier reported, sources told Daily Trust yesterday. Others in the net of the anti-graft agency in connection with the case are the Managing Director of REA, Sam Gekpe, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Power Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi who was acting Minister when the contracts were awarded and one of the contractors, Emeka Ohagbena."

"EFCC is also on the look-out for three members of the House of Representatives implicated in the scam who are alleged to be on the run. A top official in the commission said, "We have been investigating the REA. There were two projects awarded. The first was for bridge extension which was awarded for N3.5billion and the second was for solar project at N1.8billion."

"The bridge extension project was awarded to 113 companies while the solar project was awarded to 45 companies. Chief Ohagbena owns nine of the companies and he got 21 contracts," the official said. Daily Trust gathered that the project was not initially part of the budget proposal sent to the House of Assembly last year but both the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Power slotted it into the budget."

The EFCC official said "when the budget office released the funds for the project last November REA hurriedly awarded the projects without following due process." The contractors were initially paid 15 percent mobilization fees to start the project but because of the Federal Government's policy on unspent funds the remaining 85 percent was hurriedly approved even when the contracts were yet to be completed. EFCC noticed that REA disbursed huge amounts of money into various accounts and stopped the payments to verify their source and purpose. "

Again as the Nigerian Power scandal is unraveling and being investigated , the global community is watching very closely; and in the meantime, Nigeria has been ostracized.

Nigeria’s history of election manipulation and result falsification, is so well known, and has already been well discussed in several other pieces by this writer, that it need not be over-emphasized in this piece. Recently Ghana and South Africa, put Nigeria to shame after their peaceful and well conducted elections in contra-distinction to Nigeria’s globally notorious history of fraudulent elections. The global community has become tired of waiting for Nigeria to grow up. The world has now decided to ostracize Nigeria.

Whoever thought that the June 12, 1993, election could just be annulled and we will move on, like nothing happened, should now think again. Not so fast, as you make your bed, so you lie on it. Nigeria is now reaping the fruits of years of not playing by the rules of integrity, fair play, decency and civilization.

Now, we know why the American President Barak Obama is visiting Africa shortly, but not to Africa as in Nigeria - Africa. Just like the Pope, he will be stopping by, very close to Nigeria. In fact, he is scheduled to visit Ghana, Nigeria’s next door, small population and small economy brother. However, just like the Pope, who was in Cameroun, Obama, would be avoiding Nigeria, to prevent those who are mischievously hunting the globally famous, Nigeria’s anti-corruption Czar, Nuhu Ribadu, from mistakenly or deliberately soiling his good name.

ANTHONY OKOSUN, (Tonyosun@yahoo.co.uk)

Robot  # 1 | 24.05.2009 22:58

Country Nigeria has died unlawfully, and the international community is now carrying the corpse to the police station; just like Fela sang. Take it or leave it. Nigeria has decayed into a pariah state. Like an old poor woman, Nigeria is not attracting any admirers nor suitors. Like Australia, Nigeria has suddenly become too far for the world’s eminent personalities to visit. Just like Afghanistan and Iraq, Nigeria has become too dangerous for the hyper security conscious eminent world citizens to visit. Like Pakistan and North Korea, it has become too politically incorrect to parley with Nigeria. ...Read the full article.

Zuma  # 2 | 26.05.2009 15:24

All well and good. The bonds of colonialism other countries have managed to sever, still remains the albatross of Nigeria. Great Britain. For that simple reason alone, Nigeria forever remains a pariah state, only when it becomes necessary to get into the beds of strange bedfellows for a quick 'rip-off' session. Snubbed when necessary, then wined and dined....all to the detriments of Nigeria and Nigerians as a whole. When will Nigeria as a nation stop playing the role of a 'cheap whore' to Great Britain especially? http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2855:gordon-browns-hypocrisy-and-parochialism-are-fuelling-genocide-and-corruption-in-nigeria&catid=81:external-contrib&Itemid=300 Gordon Brown’s hypocrisy and parochialism are fuelling genocide and corruption in Nigeria Tuesday, 26 May 2009 05:27 By Kayode Ogundamisi http://www.saharareporters.com/images/stories/yar_gordon_brown.jpg Yar'adua and Gordon Brown The tenth anniversary of Nigeria’s return to civil rule and the second anniversary of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s tenure is being marked the genocidal confrontation between the military's Joint Task Force (JTF) and armed groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The JTF, which is comprised of troops of the army, navy, air force and the mobile police, was set in 2004 to tackle the armed groups fighting against the exploitation and oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinationals involved in the extraction of oil and the complicity and neglect of the corrupt state and federal governments. Since 13 May 2009 the JTF have carried out a military operation on suspected militant camps in the Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta State, using gunboats, helicopter gunships and fighter jets. The JFT claims the offensive is being undertaken to root out militants but a number of villages including Opuye, Okerenkoro, Kurutie and Oporoza, are reportedly razed to the ground and many innocent civilians are reported among those killed. According to Amnesty International, “hundreds of bystanders, including women and children, are believed to have been killed and injured by the JTF and by the armed groups shooting at the JTF. Many houses in the communities have been set on fire and destroyed by the military. People are still in hiding in the forest, with no access to medical care and food. The main method of transportation for these communities is by boat. However, according to reports, people attempting to travel by water are being targeted by the JTF or members of the armed groups.” Oil companies operating in the Niger Delta have made record profits, and the various state governments received unprecedented oil revenue, in recent years. Yet the region remains impoverished, with no basic amenities or infrastructure. Oil and gas companies operating in the region import most food in the region due to the decades of contamination of the water and soil. Thus, the military blockade imposed by the JFT effectively means starvation for thousands of people. Federal lawmakers who said the operations should be extended to neighboring Rivers and Bayelsa States have endorsed the military operation. In response the JTF have attacked Abonnema in Rivers State. Residents of the town Odi in neighbouring Bayelsa State, which was burned down by the Nigerian military in a similar operation ten years ago, have also fled the town in fear of being overrun by the soldiers. One lawmaker, Alhaji Bala N’Allah, was reported to have declared, “Nigeria can afford to waste 20 million people in the Niger Delta to save the remaining 100 million population.” JTF spokesman, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, has also expressed not dissimilar views. According to him, "In the conduct of this national assignment some few members of the communities will be inconvenienced by our actions, but we did not do it deliberately. It is for the overall development of the communities in the long run and what we want to achieve for our children to benefit tomorrow.” The ongoing operation, codenamed 'Cordon and Rescue' which has seen the JTF use dozens of gunboats, several helicopter gunships and fighter jets, is a significant change in the government's approach to tackling a three-year-old insurgency that has disrupted nearly a quarter of Nigeria's oil production. The sheer scale and coordination of the operation are unprecedented and is a chilling reminder of Gordon Brown’s pledge last year to provide the Nigerian military with direct assistance to help return law and order to the Niger Delta in order to restore oil output. It will be recalled that with the unrest in the Niger Delta helping to drive oil prices to the record high of $145 per barrel last summer, Mr Brown announced at the close of the G8 meeting in Japan on 9 July 2008, that: "We stand ready to give help to the Nigerians to deal with lawlessness that exists in this area and to achieve the levels of production that Nigeria is capable of, but because of the law and order problems has not been able to achieve." His comments came ahead of a visit to London by the Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua in July 2008. President Yar'Adua came to power in May 2007 after a flawed election a win that was universally condemned by national and international observers. The European Union, said the polls had “fallen far short of basic international and regional standards for democratic elections and... cannot be considered to have been credible.” The head of the EU monitoring team, Max van den Berg, declared it one of the worst elections the EU had observed. In April 2008, Prime Minister Brown against Robert Mugabe made a strikingly similar judgement for what is arguably a lesser electoral fraud. According to Mr Brown: “No one thinks, having seen the results at polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election. A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all. The credibility of the democratic process depends on there being a legitimate government.” Three months later, Mr Brown was treating Mr Yaradua, another beneficiary of a stolen mandate, to a four-day visit. In addition to his meeting with Mr Brown, Mr Yaradua enjoyed the privilege of tea with The Queen, and a lunch hosted in his honour by the Foreign Secretary David Miliband with a wide range of British Ministers in attendance. During Mr Yaradua’s visit, both countries agreed to work together to tackle lawlessness in its oil region. As a result of the uproar created by Mr Brown’s previous statement in Japan, the Prime Minister chose his words very carefully at a press conference to mark the end of the visit: “The security training force that we are talking about will be support for Nigerians to be able to have trainers and others who can build up this capacity locally to deal with the problems of lawlessness that exist in the area.” However, anyone vaguely familiar with the problems in the Niger Delta would recognise that what needs to be tackled as a first priority is endemic corruption. Indeed the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nigeria, which visited Nigeria in late 2008, concluded that “There is no alternative but to make oil work for the benefit of Nigerians as a whole. This means first and foremost clamping down on corruption and improving transparency and making a concurrent improvement in government accountability.” Yet the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua has dismantled the anti-corruption body. Despite campaign pledges to tackle endemic corruption he has used his endless rule of law rhetoric as a pretext to nullify the limited progress made by the previous government in tackling high level corruption. He has also failed in his pledge to address local grievances in the Niger Delta. Ironically issues of transparency and accountability did not feature in the speeches made by Prime Minister Brown and President Yaradua at the end of the July 2008 meeting. Thus as the UK government continues to assist the Nigerian army defeat the militants the political leaders whose corruption and greed underdeveloped the Niger Delta and many of whom are fugitives from British justice remain untouched in the corridors of power in Abuja. Of particular significance in this regard is the immediate past Governor of Delta State – the scene of the current battle between the JTF and the militants - Mr James Ibori. Mr Ibori was convicted of theft at Isleworth Crown Court in January 1991 for stealing goods from a Wickes shop in Ruislip, where he worked as a check out cashier; and again in February 1992 for handling a stolen American Express Gold at Clerkenwell Magistrates Court. However, by 1999 he had risen in the world, and assumed office as the Governor of the oil-rich Delta State. As state Governor, Mr Ibori’s annual salary was less than £13,000 a year yet he was able to transfer millions of dollars to UK bank accounts with which acquired assets during his eight-year looting spree that ended in May 2007. The Metropolitan Police have frozen some of Mr Ibori’s UK assets worth over £17 million. However, in November 2007, the Nigerian government refused a request by the British authorities to extradite Mr Ibori, who is widely believed to have bankrolled the flawed election of Mr Yar’Adua as president in April 2007, for prosecution for money laundering in Britain. Consequently, Mr Ibori’s wife, sister and three associates including a London-based solicitor Mr Bhadresh Gohil, are currently facing charges of assisting Mr Ibori to launder money in the United Kingdom before the Southwark Court but the principal offender remains beyond the reach of British justice. It did not appear that the extradition of Mr Ibori featured during the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Yaradua nearly a year after the British extradition request was turned down. Nor was the extradition of Mr DSP Alamieyeseigha, the former Governor of the neighbouring Niger Delta State of Bayelsa (where the Nigerian army destroyed the town of Odi and killed scores of civilians in retaliation for the murder of some policemen by a local gang in November 1999) who jumped bail in December 2005 from the United Kingdom to escape charges of money laundering mentioned by the Prime Minister. When Mr Alamieyeseigha was arrested in London in September 2005, apparently after a tip-off from Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, £920,000 was found in suitcases in his £1.75m flat in Paddington. After several weeks in Brixton jail, Mr Alamieyeseigha was released on bail despite the fact that another Nigerian Governor, Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, who faced similar charges of money laundering in London fled to Nigeria after being granted bail the year before. Legend has it that Mr Alamieyeseigha escaped to Nigeria by allegedly disguising himself as a woman but he insists that the British authorities allowed him to escape. The continuing failure of the British authorities (after forfeiting his £1.25m bail bond) to extradite him to the United Kingdom appears to lend credence to his claim. Compared to his ruthless willingness to assist in the armed battle against militants in the Niger Delta, Mr Brown’s reluctance to ensure that the political leaders that impoverish the region face justice even when they have so flagrantly abused the laws of the United Kingdom is the height of hypocrisy and the depth of parochialism. During the pre-election food shortages and cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe in December 2008, Mr Brown branded the Mugabe government “a blood-stained regime that is letting down its own people” and challenged the international community “to say firmly to Mugabe that enough is enough." According to him: "The whole world is angry because they see avoidable deaths -- of children, mothers, and families affected by a disease that could have been avoided." Yet, two weeks after the Nigerian military’s sustained air raids, bombings and blockade have led to the avoidable deaths of innocent children, mothers, and families and rendered tens of thousands more homeless and fearing for their lives, there has been no murmur from Mr Brown; or from any British politician for that matter. Mr Ogundamisi is the Convener of Nigeria Liberty Forum, which is hosting the Nigerian State Symposium scheduled for 29 May 2009 at the London Metropolitan University, Holloway Road, London. At every critical turn in the history of Nigeria, is the guardianship of Great Britain, always working against the progress and integrity of Nigeria. Nigeria has no one to blame but Nigeria.