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U.S. Senator Feingold Writes Bush Over Yar'Adua Visit
The following is a...Read the full article.

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In fact, in their annual global corruption survey released last week, Transparency International revealed that Nigeria currently has one of the highest levels of petty bribery in the world.

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This and many more issues call for a reawakening. Let's hope the EFCC keeps the flag flying with the reawakening of our mood in the anticorruption crusade.

Corruption is the bane of our progress. It is the reason all our heroes are thieves.

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I respect Senator Russ Feingold. However i disagree with his order of priorities as it relates to Nigeria.

In our communication with the West, too many issues are lost in translation. Senator Feingold insists on a "commitment to reform". Problem is, reforms are difficult to evaluate. Reforms can only be measured on a long term basis. Nigerians cannot relate to a "commitment to reform". Nigerians to do not have any patience for reforms which value to the people can only be realized in the year 2020.

Election reform, the Niger Delta debacle, corruption etc, however laudable, are reform based. Yar-Adua would be best served to pursue result-oriented policies, without neglecting those fundamental reform based issues. He has to show results on a yearly basis.

His predecessor has established some measurable precedent to build upon. The successes in the economic sector must be built upon. Zero tolerance for corruption is nothing more than a slogan. To give it teeth, Yar-Adua must work with NASS to establish a one-strike corruption legislation that establishes a mandatory 25 year term of imprisonment for any act of embezzlement of public funds, on top of an expropriation of the stolen funds. In addition, the immunity clause of the constitution for the President and the Governors has to be revoked for any corruption-related offence. The original intent of the immunity clause of the constitution was to protect state and federal executives from vexatious litigations, not to shield felons from justice.

It does not take rocket science to ensure uninterruptable power supply to Nigerians. Our present budget can support the restoration and maintenance of our highways. I am convinced Nigerians can endure some long term reform if they can see progress in the day to day running of government. Senator Feingold may understand how Wisconsin and Washington works. He has very little clue how Nigeria works.

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an adaptation of ma earlier article herein.

Yar ‘Adua, G8 & Africa

Thursday, 07 June 2007
President Yar ‘Adua

Ever hopeful Nigerians were watching to see what direction the new government of Yar ‘Adua would take. One of the main indications of his intentions would be in the constitution of his cabinet as he selects his cabinet ministers and advisers, they thought. In real politics, one expects that political debts would be paid and favors granted his constituents. But the whole world was watching to see if his cabinet would be dominated by yesterday’s men or persons likely to make a difference. Being reputed to be a deliberative person, one expected that he was quite conscious of this fact and would screen his deputies to ensure that whatever the circumstance of their selection, they fit into his basic minimum requirement. It was also reported that the new president had said he would not interfere with law enforcement, specifically, the EFCC. Since it is an open secret that some of the president’s backers had run-ins with the EFCC, one hoped he does not try to rescue them or exert undue influence overtly or covertly to let them off the hook. How he handles this first pass would determine the flavor of his presidency. The President has failed to call his Attorney General to action. Nigerians have easily branded this new government, business as usual. Persons who are likely to change the rot in the Nigerian system are not likely to be the same men who made the mess or their attorneys; not discounting one or two who might have a 'Damascus Experience' of repentance. Nigeria yearns for new faces as policy-makers, the old having been tried and found wanting. To show seriousness, Yar Adua must fire Michael Aondokaa NOW!

G8, US Help

In a masterstroke, the invitation from Germany to attend the G8 was extended to President Yar ‘Adua, this happening, while the US and some were crying wolf over the controversial elections of April and their results. In diplomacy, Germany knew that politics brooks no vacuum, and for all concerned, while Democracy and good governance is an imperative, the issue of stability in Nigeria is currently paramount for political as well as economic reasons, more especially, oil prices. At this Summit , Diplomats may have felt first-hand what manner of leadership we have in Nigeria and whether President Yar ‘Adua would seek to speak for sub-Saharan Africa as Obasanjo did. Their dossiers on Yar ‘Adua being thin, because of his taciturnity, diplomats may have through informal ways and means seen whether he would be open to wheeling and dealing and how malleable he could be in regard to their agenda in Africa. The issue of elections not being free or fair is not a matter for such gathering since the President was not in charge of the elections or its conduct; indeed he could also argue that he was a victim too. Now Yar Adua is in charge and he can chart a new course especially after the Tribunal judgements. The White House has promised help.

Gleneagles Promises

Since the highly optimistic G8 Summit of Gleneagles Scotland , one is dismayed that while the rhetoric was good, the follow-up has been poor. In respect to the release of the funds promised, Africa has received aid in trickles. Then-President Obasanjo made a strong case for a holistic approach to Africa. He posited, and we agree with him, that Africa is not as much in need of aid as in need of partners who would invest in business ventures in the continent. Parties who are looking for obstacles quickly cite the lack of infrastructure. While the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were set up to re-develop Europe after the devastation of the Second World War, the institutions can modify themselves to development agents. This can be included in the agreements. The politics of aid has so many barriers that nascent economies find hard to surmount. For example USAID funds, the issue of capacity requirements for the qualification of even non-profits could be far too demanding upon the real agents of progress in Africa to qualify. What ends up happening is that monies budgeted for aid is walloped by Washington-based non-profits that know the nuances and politics of aid because they have long experience. What could have been a bridge, non-profits run by Africans in Diaspora, is ignored by the established system. The advantage of the use of Africans in Diaspora to help their kith and kin is that such persons have hands-on knowledge of the territory as well as the connections to influence policies in their home governments to achieve the stated goals. Additionally, most of the program money would be dispensed for programs rather than salaries of high-flying staff. Paying an African even such salaries benefit the continent as against others because of his/her nexus to the continent via repatriation of funds.

A Voice for Africa

By virtue of size, population and economy, Nigeria has been a recognized voice for Africa , and the new President would be expected to step into the diplomatic suit left behind by President Obasanjo. It is not by happenstance that Nigeria had intervened and mediated as a peace-maker in the rows since Apartheid South Africa , Liberia , Sierra-Leone , Zimbabwe and now Darfur . Nigeria had spent precious lives, Billions of Dollars and equipment in aid of our brothers on the continent before approaching international organizations for help. So our presence at the table in international relations is not fortuitous. While we humbly sit at the table, we must remind the global powers that Africa had been aiding the world for centuries with our human and mineral resources, some of which were physically stolen in very ingenious ways. While we are harmonious and accommodating, Africa , could exercise the option to look for other partners outside the western hemisphere, or for the heck of it, remain insular, since we survive on the bare minimum. Someone has to make a strong case for Africa and that person can be President Yar ‘Adua. Of course, the validity of the elections has nothing to do with his moral authority to represent Africa , being an African should surfice. The issue of disease and poverty on the continent is to be made reason for removing some of the protective embargoes of the developed economies who reject imports from Africa.

Western commentators have erroneously posited that they had helped Africa in the past without much progress. While we are grateful for genuine help, most of the efforts had been without real conviction. To say that "The problem is, of course, that generation after generation thinks it has found the solution, and generation after generation is disappointed" is so disingenious for the mere fact that no group until resently sat down to look for means to better the lot of Africa as an international global venture. On the contrary, what did occur was the Berlin Conference in historic Germany of 1884 where the issue was one of "The Scramble and Partition of Africa". Colonial powers led by Great Britain, did with Africa as it pleased them until it became economically unviable to continue with the policy of colonization, and upon various agitation on the continent for independence, the powers, most of whom would be in that group today known as G8, gave token flag independence to the colonies of Africa.


Business Opportunities


For too long, Africa had represented itself as a sick child needing medication, help and aid. While that may be some fish, we need to learn some fishing skills that may be more helpfull to all concerned. Short term, aid may be important, but to get out of the circle of poverty would take trade, robust trade being promoted and carried through by all the participationg nations. In this regard, Yar 'Adua had a far-sighted predecessor in Obasanjo who had beaten that path. Trade, in whatever form, would be more beneficial and have a longer term as well as stable effect on the continent than any amount of aid in Billions.

While in the US, President Yar ‘Adua needs to impress on the heads of the powerful nations that Nigeria is ready to receive their trade delegations, and this time, we trade in a mutually beneficial platform. Deals in the past that were skewed to benefit only the expatriates have to cease. The systematic plunder of Africa in the guise of business by conscienceless predators has to cease. To jump-start this new relationship, President Yar ‘Adua should offer as a matter of priority, land in Abuja to businessmen in any of the nations working with Nigerian partners to build an ultra-modern hospital with all gadgets and facilities as a short term mark of goodwill to obviate the need of government officials to jet out of Nigeria for the treatment of cough or ankle injuries. Business is completely voluntary but countries also expect their partners to indicate areas of priority. The emergency to be declare in Power can also be negotiated with serious business partners who are willing to step in with aid for a short term solution, while we go back to the drawing board in search of the one-time long term solution. Countries that are headquarters to the Oil Majors are also to be implored to talk as partners regarding the Niger Delta Master Plan and how each can contribute to our present development of the sector.

Russ Feingold as the Chairman House Committee on Africa, does have a say...As ma Senator from WI he is on point.

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A call to order right on target. I am quite impressed with the message sent here to die-hard and fanatical critics of the last administration who simply believe that the administration had nothing but the destruction of Nigeria at heart: "To consolidate the hard-earned political and economic gains made under the Obasanjo administration, President Yar'Adu must commit to a complete overhaul of Nigeria's democratic institutions..." Admittedly, I expected a more proactive hands-on approach from the present President. Achieving anything in the direction of the groundworks laid down by his predecessor would have meant some progress today. Unfortunately, President Yar'Adua is playing cheaply to the gallery by superfluously reversing policies and boosting the standing of a destructive and hardly qualified Attorney-General.

It is increasingly becoming questionable if the President himself and the AGF to which he is stubbornly holding on to (because they make no secret of sharing the same vision) are both equal to the challenges of the offices they are holding.