David Cameron Calls Nigeria Corrupt, and Its President Agrees

LONDON — It was a bracingly honest assessment, but the timing could not have been more embarrassing: Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, was overheard telling Queen Elizabeth II that Afghanistan and Nigeria were “fantastically corrupt countries,” and “possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

He made the comments at a Buckingham Palace party on Tuesday, in advance of a summit meeting in Britain on the topic of corruption, and they created considerable awkwardness. (It was coincidentally the same party at which the queen was overheard complaining about rude behavior by Chinese officials during a state visit in October.)

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria said through a spokesman that he was “deeply shocked and embarrassed” by Mr. Cameron’s remarks — but he did not rebut them.

Asked if Nigeria was “fantastically corrupt,” Mr. Buhari responded: “Yes.”

Mr. Buhari, who has devoted himself to rooting out graft in Africa’s largest economy, added, “I am not going to demand any apology from anybody.”

He then turned the tables, in a sense, on the British, asking for their help in securing the “return of assets” that were taken out of Nigeria by corrupt officials and business people and are now held in British banks.

Nigeria was ranked 136th, and Afghanistan 166th, out of 167 countries in Transparency International’s most recent Corruption Perceptions Index.

Mr. Buhari’s anticorruption campaign in Nigeria escalated last fall with the arrests of Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former oil minister, and Olajide Omokore, the chairman of a Nigerian oil company. A former defense minister, Bello Haliru Mohammed, was charged in January with corruption.

Plummeting oil prices have set off an economic unraveling in Nigeria, one of the world’s top oil producers, and the collective anger of a fed-up nation has poured out.

Afghanistan, a poor and war-racked country, has its own problems. It generates 90 percent of the world’s heroin, and the government and insurgents have battled each other for the profits from the drug trade amid recent Taliban advances and out-of-control corruption.

Mr. Cameron — whose main political worry is a vote scheduled for June 23 on whether Britain will remain in the European Union — tried to smooth over the gaffe on Wednesday. Without backtracking, he said Afghanistan and Nigeria had taken “remarkable steps forward” to counter corruption, and praised their leaders for “battling hard” to address the problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/david-cameron-calls-nigeria-corrupt-and-its-president-agrees.html

When Corruption Inc. Fights Back

"When you fight corruption, it fights back"- Nuhu Ribadu

The ominous title of John Campbell blogpost at the American Council of Foreign Relations website on January 20, 2016 was apt "Corruption fights back in Nigeria". At the time, some Nigerians commented  glibly that the write up is too simplistic and that Buhari's fight against corruption is selectively targeted at the opposition party. Fast forward four months later, even the blind could see that any attempt to fight corruption in Nigeria must contend with a virulent fight back by Nigeria Corruption Industrial complex, also known as Nigeria Corruption Inc (NCI).

In Nigeria, the endemic corruption in our body politic is not only deliberate and purposeful but deadly when it fights back. It is a corporation with huge arsenals in its armory and a "for profit" enterprise (I meant parasite). The hydra headed monster has several phalanges it can call up in its fight back. For instance, when cornered NCI could always rely on the retinue of Senior Advocate of Nigeria some of whom are permanently on its pay roll. If that fails, they could notch it up a bit, by summoning their Rolodex of retired, tainted but powerful justices also known as "legal luminaries". These are justices who retired as civil servants but today owns oil blocs and billions of dollars stashed away in Seychelles Islands.

How are they deployed? Check out the communique issued recently by some "legal giants" who met at a center in Lagos to pilloried the Supreme Court decision on Saraki's CCT trial. These "legal giants" and "leading legal luminaries" to quote Vanguard newspaper, wants CCT tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, to resign to ensure fairness in the matter. Their conclusion is neither grounded in law or facts, in actual fact, one could argue that they stood facts on its head when they claim that Umar is facing threat of prosecution. Danladi Umar, like every Nigerian who dare to fight corruption had a petition filed against him (by the way, this is another modus operandi of NCI, when cornered they cried "tu quoqe"- what about you!). The petition was first investigated by the Goodwill Jonathan administration and summarily dismissed. It was again refilled recently and dully investigated and dismissed by EFCC. There is no doubt that our "legal luminaries" care less about fairness or the constitution but rather to do the bidding of those who strut them out to defend the indefensible.

There is however more arsenals in the armory of NCI, if legal luminaries could not do it, they can always turn to law makers, who can be called upon to abandon their duties at the National Assembly and march in lockstep to any tribunal for solidarity during trial of any member of NCI shareholders. It doesn't matter if the nation's task or budget is delayed, corruption fight back is more important than law making for NCI. They don't care!

Perhaps, the most perfidious of NCI shenanigans in their corruption fights back gimmick is the "rent a crowd" scheme. Like the youth earnestly ask for Abacha crowd of yore, NCI can always round up hungry masses who for a fee can be made to carry placards proclaiming the innocence of any accused corrupt officials. They will of course follow up with "journalist for hire" who will help write sponsored slanted stories in major newspapers.

When you look at all of their gimmicky moves, one could pessimistically concludes that there is no hope for Nigeria, but I beg to disagree. In fact, their desperation is a sign of their end. Gone are the days when a slanted story in Lagos/Ibadan/Kaduna/Enugu press will bury reform efforts in Nigeria. Now, they have to contend with hundreds of bloggers and the indefatigable Saharareporters. Folks who will risk life and limb to get out the stories of corruption online before the muezzin call in Nigeria. The real heroes however are those judges, who like Ceasar's wife remains above board and refuse to compromise at the danger of losing their promotion, like the judge who dismissed Obanikoro's lawsuits against Punch and saharareporters. Others are those brave protesters in Abuja who refuse to look at every news stories from Nigeria from an ethnic prism. Therein lies our hope.

Sent from my iPa

Boko Haram Falls Victim to a Food Crisis It Created

"Ti ounje ba ti ku ro ni inu ise, ise bu se." - Yoruba adage (literally translated as "when you divorce hunger from lack,you reduced poverty")

When I read the above caption news story on the New York Times website, I went through several emotions, at first I was nonplussed and then I was elated which quickly turned into a sad sobbing state. The truth of the matter is that the entire story will ordinarily sound comical until you think of the human cost of the dastardly acts of Boko Haram and the harm done by these callous fundamentalist.

Without much ado, below is the story culled from New York Times 3/6/2016:

MORA, Cameroon — At first, the attack had all the hallmarks of a typical Boko Haram assault. Armed fighters stormed a town on the border with Nigeria, shooting every man they saw. But this time, instead of burning homes and abductinghostages, the fighters gathered cows, goats and any kind of food they could round up, then fled with it all. Boko Haram the Islamist extremist group terrorizing this part of the world, is on the hunt — for food.
After rampaging across the region for years, forcing more than two million people to flee their homes and farms, Boko Haram appears to be falling victim to a major food crisis of its own creation. Farmers have fled, leaving behind fallow fields. Herdsmen have rerouted cattle drives to avoid the violence. Throughout the region, entire villages have emptied, leaving a string of ghost towns with few people for Boko Haram to dominate — and little for the group to plunder. 
“They need food. They need to eat,” Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of the Far North region of Cameroon, said of Boko Haram. “They’re stealing everything.”
Across parts of northeastern Nigeria and border regions like the Far North, trade has come to a halt and tens of thousands of people are on the brink of famine, United Nations officials say. Markets have shut down because vendors have nothing to sell, and even if they did, many buyers have been scared off by the suicide bombers Boko Haram sends into crowds."
To read more go to http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/world/africa/boko-haram-food-crisis.html

Borrowing From Peter to Pay Paul: Our National Assembly and Buhari's $3.5 billion Loan

“In foreign policy, there’s a term for governments that don’t govern. We call them failed states. A state can fail for many reasons, but weak or clueless leadership is usually a factor. In a failed state, insurgencies grow, warlords arise, and chaos reigns.” – William Saletan, 2016

As usual, Nigeria is all over the news, foreign and domestic, all for the wrong reasons. According to Financial Times of London, “Nigeria has asked the World Bank and African Development Bank for a $3.5 billion loan. The request comes as Africa's largest economy grapples with a $15 billion budget deficit in the wake of the oil crash that has seen prices fall about 70% in the last year and a half.” There is no doubt that Nigeria’s economy is in dire straits and we urgently need a fix for the peculiar mess we found ourselves. What is in dispute is the willingness of our political leadership to take responsibility for their profligacy that brought our economy to its knees.

Our former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), the man who presided over the highest income ever generated by any Nigeria government, and who sadistically spend all on trivialities struts around the world capitals celebrating how he successfully handed over an empty treasury to his successor who by the way, handily won the election! As Punch newspaper editorial rightly quoted Christian Welzell and Ronald Inglehart, “Students of democracy increasingly emphasize the fact that democracy implies government by the people, not mere ‘electoral democracy’ in which elites have elections, but the citizens have little real influence on their actions.” 

To add insult to injury, our National Assembly, is busy sharing the loot called the national treasury by buying expensive and luxurious “state of the art” cars for themselves. When they take time off from looting the already depleted treasury, they fiddles while Rome burns, cue their current effort to pass ordinance that will ban “the internet from publishing negative articles about politicians” to quote one of them.  

It is in the mix of all this, that President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), approached World Bank and African Development Bank for a $3.5 billion loan. My first retort is to urge an opposition to that loan request until PMB can prove that he and his party are capable of managing the out of control and profligate National Assembly. Why should we continue to mortgage Nigeria’s future to make rich a conscienceless elite ruling class? PMB must guarantee to us that none of the loan will be use to pay National Assembly or the Executive branch emoluments or salaries. He should be made to guarantee that none of the money will be funnel through the office of the National Security Adviser to fund governorship election as GEJ did in Ekiti state. He has to guarantee that the loan will be transparently deployed for the benefit of the suffering masses of Nigerian and monitored by independent Nigerians who are not beholden to the current political class in Nigeria.

We have had enough of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,  so as to enable  Paul to be able to build skyscrapers in Dubai and jet off to Caribbean Island where they have plush homes. It is time we send a message that the only thing standing between full scale revolution in Nigeria and our profligate ruling class is PMB commitment to anti-corruption and time is running out for him. Nigeria has no faith in party politics and politicians who will steal and loot the treasury in other to win election. So we say NO! to borrowing from World Bank and ADB so the National Assembly could pay themselves mega salary. We say NO! to loans so governors could ride rough shod over us. Our current National Assembly and state governors have to agree to cut their coats according to our falling oil prices for us to move forward. Nigeria meets the definition of a failed state, we have clueless leadership, growing insurgencies, north and south and chaos reigns everywhere. NO! You don’t reward clueless leadership with $3.5 billion loan. It is time we start mobilizing the streets to come out and send that message to those in power.

WHO Report on Lassa Fever Out

Lassa Fever – Nigeria

Disease outbreak news
27 January 2016

The National IHR Focal Point of Nigeria has notified WHO of different outbreaks of Lassa fever occurring in the country.

Details of the outbreaks

Between August 2015 and 23 January 2016, 159 suspected cases of Lassa fever, including 82 deaths, were reported across 19 states. Investigations are ongoing and a retrospective review of cases is currently being performed; therefore, these figures are subject to change.

The 4 most affected states are Bauchi, Edo, Oyo and Taraba, which account for 54% of the confirmed cases (n=54) and 52% of the reported deaths (n=34). The remaining 15 States have reported less than 5 confirmed cases.

Samples of 54 cases, including 34 deaths, were confirmed for Lassa fever by reverse transcription polymerase-chain reaction (RT-PCR). All samples tested negative for Ebola virus disease, Dengue and yellow fever.

To date, 4 health care workers were laboratory-confirmed for Lassa fever; of these 4 cases, 2 passed away. It is important to note that these cases are not considered as cases of hospital-acquired infection as no confirmed or suspected cases were reported in the 4 different health facilities where these health care workers were employed.

As of 21 January, 2,504 contacts had been listed and 1,942 are currently being monitored. A total of 562 contacts have completed follow up. So far, none of the contacts have tested positive for Lassa fever.

Public health response

The WHO country office is supporting the Federal Ministry of Health (MoH) in coordinating the response, especially regarding surveillance (including active surveillance and contract tracing), case management, infection prevention and control, and sensitization of community and health workers. WHO and MoH have identified a need to reinforce trainings for clinicians and community sensitization.

Background

Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria and causes outbreaks almost every year in different parts of the country, with yearly peaks observed between December and February. The disease is an acute viral haemorrhagic illness caused by Lassa virus, a member of the arenavirus family of viruses. It is transmitted to humans from contacts with food or household items contaminated with rodent excreta. The disease is endemic in the rodent population in parts of West Africa. Person-to-person infections and laboratory transmission can also occur, particularly in the hospital environment in the absence of adequate infection control measures. Diagnosis and prompt treatment are essential.

2015: The Year Nigeria finally broke the Camel's Back

In this last piece for this year, permit me to review such an eventful year in the history of our country, Nigeria. We started the year with hope and optimism and we succeeded in overthrowing the vice grip of PDP on Nigeria. The fact that Nigeria was able to throw off the 16 year yoke of PDP is causa celebra".
It looked impossible at the time but the collective resolve of the Nigerian people finally brought the change.
Our job is not done however as we need to hold the current administration accountable otherwise they will go the way of PDP.

I beg to disagree: We are not all Dasukis!

"We are Dasuki, I'm afraid. Dasuki, indeed is us"- Okey Ndibe

The above is the concluding sentence from Dr. Ndibe's column this week. He arrived at that conclusion after dissecting the  Dasukigate saga currently going on in Nigeria's political firmament. The unusual logic as set out by the brilliant scholar, turned weekly columnist is that we all complicit in the criminal theft of the last GEJ regime because we refused to speak up when they were looting the treasury. He wonder why the civil servant at Central Bank, ministry or even the newspapers were silent whilst PDP officials engaged in daylight robbery. He therefore conclude that we all accomplice to the treachery and perfidy of our elected officials.

Let me hasten to say that I have huge respect for Dr. Ndibe, but on this score I respectfully dissent. I along with millions other Nigerians are not participe criminis" , and therefore could not be found culpable morally, legally or spiritually for the greed of our ruling class. It is mindset such as this that made Nigerians resigned themselves to fate and take all kinds of stupidity and maladministrations from our ruling elites. I will even ventured to say that Dr. Ndibe, given his voracious writtings and expose on the pages of newspapers is not liable for the crimes of GEJ or any of our political jobbers. Not only did he write compendium on the evils perpetrated durin 16 years PDP misrule, he was arrested at the airport by agents of the same administration for no just cause other than the fact that he dared criticized the regime in power.

No, sir, you are no Dasuki! There are millions of Nigerians who are victims and not the perpetrators of the evil that stalked our land! And it is instructive to note that they are still entrenched in Aso Rock, State house, National and state Assembly. In fact they just awarded themselves brand new BMW cars while many workers and pensioners are yet to get paid for months.

Let's call a spade a spade instead of labeling it an agricultural implement. The good book said the hand that sinneth should be the one to be punished. Vicarious liability is unknown to criminal law of theft and to every creed of faith known to mankind. Sir, we are not all Dasukis!