Nigeria: NaijaLeaks on corruption in Yar'Adua's circle

NaijaLeaks and getting wet

A leak is of no significance when the sun shines but you will be well informed that you have a hole in your roof when it rains, this spate of WikiLeaks released last night had a roofless Nigeria exposed to a tropical torrential downpour and the possibility that beyond ruining the furniture the house might well be swept away in the torrent.

Having reviewed the three cables, in fact, there are four, one pertains to corruption in high places [1] as a background to late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s rule of law mantra, two pertain to the activities of the oil conglomerate Shell in Nigeria; on attacks on infrastructure [2] and establishment espionage [3] and the last pertains to the power vacuum [4] at the beginning of 2010 with President Yar’Adua comatose and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as acting president.

NaijaLeaks will be the nominative term to refer to WikiLeaks concerning Nigeria as suggested in Twitter streams attributed to Idris Bello by SolomonSydelle of Nigerian Curiosity.

The rule of flaws

Each leak requires its own exhaustive review and hopefully some justice can be made of each attempt to contextualise the issues.

The first cable was created on the 21^st of February 2008 just about 9 months into President Yar’Adua’s first term in office in which a Kano businessman alleged corruption within the President’s close circles.

The public face of President Yar’Adua was one of an honest leader not given to ostentation, of modest means and with a mandate to stem corruption within the Nigerian government hierarchy. We are almost suffocated with the continuous goal of adhering to the rule of law giving the idea that things would be done according to the book.

Apparently, even during his governorship days according to the cable he kept himself aloof of the dregs of corruption by having a “Mr. Fix It”, Dahiru Mangal [5] who was an ace smuggler using routes through the Niger Republic and dispersing his wares in the Kano marketplace.

Questionable business impunity

The president stood accused of nepotism and cronyism because Mr. Mangal is also a native of Katsina where the president was from and Mr. Mangal had become a wholesale customs department importing goods and taking duties to a the amount of $2 million as a flat-fee of shipments of about 100 containers per month.

Mr. Mangal also ran an airline which was amongst those chose to ferry pilgrims to Hajj in December 2007, an activity that was dogged with inefficiencies and blatant corruption that left certain pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia and that is not to talk of the ones who were not airlifted from Nigeria at all.

However, with all this clout, Mr. Mangal was made a Special Adviser to the President and whilst he had to desist from direct involvement in illicit activities, his network was already established and he could like the President keep them at arm’s length whilst bringing the network close to the Presidency where corrupt activities can attain an air of normalcy and the veneer of official sanction.

First in line lady takes the spoils

Other uncorroborated matters concerned the ostentatious tastes of the First Lady Turai Yar’Adua, the purchase of a $10 million house in London not declared in the President’s assets, people purporting to represent the First Lady in deals that required pay backs to facilitate completion.

All sorts of conclusions can be drawn as to the content of the cables but the most interesting one has to be that the President cannot have been oblivious of the activities of Dahiru Mangal and appointing him to political office cannot have been to have a leopard suddenly change his spots. He served a purpose and it cannot have been for the good by any stretch of the imagination.

As for the First Lady, it seems she had settled in well into her role and had begun to create a network of patronage borne from she position and was beginning to exploit it for her own ends.

Sources

[1] Viewing cable 08ABUJA320, S/NF) NIGERIA: KANO BUSINESSMAN ALLEGES YAR'ADUA

[2] Viewing cable 09ABUJA259, C) NIGERIA: SHELL BRIEFS AMBASSADOR ON OIL GAS ISSUES,

[3] Viewing cable 09ABUJA1907, C) SHELL MD DISCUSSES THE STATUS OF THE PROPOSED PETROLEUM

[4] Viewing cable 10ABUJA215, GOODLUCK JONATHAN REMAINS ACTING PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA

[5] Dahiru Mangal, The New Face of Crime - ModernGhana.com

The cable

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000320

SIPDIS

NOFORN

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INR/AA, INR/B

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2033

TAGS: PGOV PINR KCOR NI

SUBJECT: (S/NF) NIGERIA: KANO BUSINESSMAN ALLEGES YAR'ADUA

CORRUPTION

REF: 07 ABUJA 2627

Classified By: Political Counselor Walter Pflaumer for Reasons 1.4 (b,

c, & d).

¶1. (S//NF) SUMMARY: XXXXXXXXXXXX alleged a close association between President Yar,Adua and Katsina native and rumored smuggler Dahiru Mangal. XXXXXXXXXXXX claimed Mangal is the President's "Mr. Fix It," taking care of "anything filthy" Yar'Adua needs done in addition to smuggling items for several wealthy Nigerian businessmen through Niger into Kano. Another Kano business contact corroborated XXXXXXXXXXXX 's allegations, but observed that Mangal no longer deals openly in illicit activity since Yar'Adua named him a special advisor earlier this month. As well, XXXXXXXXXXXX maintained that he had been approached by a man claiming to represent First Lady Turai Yar'Adua and seeking an USD 2 million pay-off. While Post cannot independently authenticate these allegations of corruption by the President or First Lady, Post has heard rumors of an emergent "Katsina clique" in the Presidential Villa. END SUMMARY.

¶2. (S//NF) Kano real estate entrepreneur and longtime Mission contact XXXXXXXXXXXX told PolOff February 10 that Katsina native Dahiru Mangal, who XXXXXXXXXXXX contends deals in illicit smuggling of goods into Nigeria, is also known as President Yar'Adua's "Mr. Fix It." XXXXXXXXXXXX alleged a close association between the President and Mangal, dating to the former's tenure as governor of Katsina, and claimed the latter remains to this day Yar'Adua's "go-to man" to accomplish "anything filthy that Yar'Adua needs done." Mangal, XXXXXXXXXXXX said, is also the "go-to" for any wealthy Nigerian, who wants to import "just about anything" into Nigeria.

He declined to state whether Mangal smuggled weapons, drugs, or persons into Nigeria. (On February 17, PolOff queried another Kano business contact, who corroborated XXXXXXXXXXXX 's accusations, however claimed Mangal no longer goes by "Mr. Fix It" since Yar'Adua officially named him a special advisor earlier this month. Allegedly, Yar'Adua instructed Mangal to cease any illicit activity if Mangal wished to enjoy official recognition by the President. The contact implied this may connote, inter alia, that Yar'Adua desires to maintain at least the appearance of respect for rule of law, and thus, does not want any of his close advisors openly involved in suspect activity.)

¶3. (S//NF) XXXXXXXXXXXX told PolOff XXXXXXXXXXXX

several Nigerian businessmen who have employed Mangal's

services over the past several years. Reportedly, Mangal owns a warehouse across the Niger border (likely close to the Katsina border with Jibiyya and Maradi) in which he stores hundreds of 40-foot shipping containers. XXXXXXXXXXXX claimed Mangal is able to import goods from around the world, including China. In return, Mangal requests a flat fee of 2 million naira (USD 17,000), excluding the cost of goods. Approximately 100 containers per month are brought into Kano, and goods are then delivered to clients or sold in Kano's Kurmi market.

¶4. (S//NF) Mangal also operates several legitimate businesses, XXXXXXXXXXXX asserted, including Mangal Airlines. The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria contracted Kabo, Bellview, Meridian, and Mangal Airlines for the December 2007 hajj operations, which transported approximately 100,000 Nigerians to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage. (Note: Many Nigerian Muslims have criticized the GON's handling of the 2007 hajj claiming several thousand Nigerians were left stranded in Saudi Arabia and could not return to Nigeria, except without extraordinary hardship, and several others were never airlifted from Nigeria at all. End Note.)

¶5. (S//NF) Moreover, XXXXXXXXXXXX said XXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXX had been approached recently by a man claiming to speak on behalf of First Lady Turai Yar'Adua. The person, who arrived at the meeting with XXXXXXXXXXXX in a Peugeot with a "presidential" license plate, told XXXXXXXXXXXX the First Lady would "allow" them to construct the homes so long as she is given an advance payment of 250 million naira (USD 2 million). XXXXXXXXXXXX said he was willing to offer the First

ABUJA 00000320 002 OF 002

Lady twenty plots of land instead, to which the presumed emissary grimaced. The negotiations, XXXXXXXXXXXX told PolOff, continue.

¶6. (C//NF) NOTE: During a late January conversation with PolOff, XXXXXXXXXXXXX said XXXXXXXXXXXXX purchased an USD 10 million house in central London approximately 7 years ago, XXXXXXXXXXXXX. This house apparently was excluded from President Yar,Adua,s public declaration of assets in June 2007, which put his total wealth at approximately USD 7 million. END NOTE.

¶7. (S//NF) COMMENT: While XXXXXXXXXXXX is a trusted, longtime Mission contact who has provided veracious information in the past, we cannot independently confirm his statements regarding Mangal or the First Lady. Certainly, the man who approached XXXXXXXXXXXXX seeking a pay-off may simply have been attempting to exploit the First Lady's name for personal enrichment.

We have heard rumors of the emergence of a "Katsina clique" in the Villa -- a group of individuals from the President's home state of Katsina who reportedly constitute Yar'Adua's inner circle and increasingly, control access to him. The surfacing of this group may be a corrollary to Yar'Adua's lack of national exposure (and hence, his deficiently broad support base) and his inability thus far to stamp his authority on the ruling People's Democratic Party.

Rumors abound alleging that the First Lady, Special Advisor Tanimu Yakubu, and Minister of Agriculture Sayyadi Ruma are involved in corrupt practices. Reports of both the First Lady and Yakubu's taste for the high life and tendencies toward illicit enrichment surfaced during a December 2007 debrief by XXXXXXXXXXXXX outlined problems he saw in the Villa and cases XXXXXXXXXXXXX was closely watching (Ref A)

Several contacts from XXXXXXXXXXXXX, moreover, maintain that while the President "appeared incorruptible" during his tenure as governor, his wife siphoned off millions in public funds for private use. Post will closely monitor these accusations and report any new developments. END COMMENT. SANDERS

Imagine having blogged for 7 years

In gratitude

Imagine belongs to a day long ago that set the course that became a journey, it is my mind in the words that make up this blog.

Sometimes I read what I have written and how I have disembodied to sail in the waters of my blog to all the seven seas to beaches I dare not land as myself to wonder and to alarm but never in fear, even hostile coasts melted into welcome berths, the earth had become my dock.

More recently, it has been very personal; my story in chapters of pain, angst, recovery and hope, my succour and voice in therapy as I rose from the depths to climb with clambering hands to arms that were outstretched to help and relieve.

I can only give thanks to all those who have visited my blogs, inadvertently or as a routine, as readers who have become acquaintances and then become friends, you have drawn me out, lifted me up and created the profile that makes 7 years of blogging such great fun.

To you I commend the closing of http://akin.blog-city.com and the rise in its place of http://akinblog.nl my main vehicles of expression and a future as long as we could desire.

How wonderful you all have made it. Thank you very much.

Imagine!

Thought Picnic: WikiLeaks is the new porn

The landscape has changed

This is my first blog on the WikiLeaks and I doubt it would be the last. I am of the opinion that the backlash against the organ and the public face of the organ hardly begins to address the main issues that WikiLeaks present us.

For a while now, governments institutions, politicians and the elite who used to have exclusive access to information and data for use in our name for their own purposes and motives have begun to realise that they have been made powerless if the knowledge that separates them from us the people becomes common place.

WikiLeaks has changed the information landscape and much as some can moralise to the point of suggesting extra-legal measures to punish as it were illegal activities we in the process fail to uphold the great principles that millions had already sacrificed their lives for in the Twentieth Century.

Porn can be compelling viewing

The anger is felt and the international framework of the black hand of diplomacy is placing heretofore conglomerates of capitalist democracies under pressure to dissemble about the marketplace that allowed for them to take WikiLeaks’ business.

WikiLeaks has become the new hard-core porn; whilst you as adults would for all sorts of reasons have the right to entertain yourselves with such material, it cannot be done on office time, you should not be found viewing such as US Federal employees have now been told not to do because the material is classified even though it is all now in the public domain but more egregious of us is a directive that threatened students who showed even the tacit support for WikiLeaks with the inability to find employment.

What you decide to do with hard-core porn on your own time in the confines of your privacy should be your business and yours only. If the pants of guilt consume you such that you seek absolution from your pleasure which to some is a vice and to the fundamentalist is a sin depends on how impressionable you might feel about the things you decide to consume and the kind of moral agent you are.

Our dependency complex

Human-beings seem to exercise the greatest dependency in reaching maturity and whilst some grow into maturity others transfer the dependency complex from parental and patriarchal figures to other kinds of leaders be they political, religious, social, economic or some other sphere of influence.

The seeming benefactors instil enough fear, threat and terror to curtail adventurism on the part of the many who can be dictated to, to toe the line and follow orders with the premise of patriotism and justice, their indignation whipped up into the frenzy of the mob as they are relieved of their rights of observation and expression for the greater good of not requiring their governments hold themselves accountable.

The function of WikiLeaks

The security breaches that have fed WikiLeaks are in no way the fault of WikiLeaks, the function of WikiLeaks if we have failed to notice is to leak information that has come into their possession, the matter of how that information is processed before dissemination is hardly the responsibility of WikiLeaks.

Like with hard-core porn some might want to watch the plot and the making out that develops into the full-blown action, others might just want to jump to the activity but it is unlikely that the viewer would have acquired the material for the purpose of assessing the dramatic content of the film – however, people would be titillated in different ways having viewed the material.

Where the porn analogy might fall through is where within that material something illegal seems to have occurred like the abuse of minors or something worse – in that case, caveat emptor, the viewer is advised.

Information all round

As for the detail contained in the leaks, I seem to know where every nuclear plant in Iran is courtesy of leaks provided by defectors (traitors of Iran but friends of the West) and now I know where every strategic US asset is, call your guards out, if your diplomats cannot maintain discretion preventing embarrassment the cost mounts in ensuring the guards are motivated enough not to allow the unfortunate to happen on their watch.

If anyone thinks hounding Julian Assange or closing WikiLeaks will end the expansive domain of the whistle-blower they have not learnt the most basic lesson of this WikiLeaks saga; as long as there is a message, there will always be a messenger and world is a very listening and attentive audience.

Just because porn works across borders, cultures, traditions, morals or feigned ethics, we all have our needs, even the ones we deny ourselves.

Cote d'Ivoire: Gbagbo, your time is up

A rotten leader

Mr Laurent Gbagbo is the albatross around Cote d’Ivoire’s neck and I am beginning to lose the dominant effects of my humour gene in this theatre of the absolutely absurd.

Having refused to hold elections for years the people spoke leading to a runoff between Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara who if my memory serves me well was once declared a non-national of his country in a similar contest some time ago.

Having now seen that the Electoral Commission will not do its bidding as the ruling party of Nigeria got it all sewn up for Nigerians in 2007; the borders were closed in what is usually the sign of a military coup in Africa.

The Electoral Commissioner duly performed his duty and said the Ivoriens have chosen Alassane Ouattara to be their leader to the hearing of the world but we only had to wait and see Mr Gbagbo’s next act.

It doesn’t add up

It came soon enough, it has just been announced that the Constitutional Council which apparently validates results has nullified all results in the 7 regions of the North that gave Mr Quattara a mandata with 54% and now Mr Gbagbo is leader with 51%.

It should not take a mathematical mind to compute that if where Mr Quattra is popular gives him 54% and eliminating that gives him 49%, then Mr Quattara is rather more popular in the whole of Cote d’Ivoire even without his stronghold than Mr Gbagbo who hangs on to power with the might of his stronghold and scrapes 51%.

African leader generalisation

Why can’t African leaders differentiate between a presidency and monarchy? Why can they not just do their time and move on for other countrymen to do their best for the country too?

Mr Gbagbo, your time is up, this travesty should not stand, and really, it is just laughable when you look at the figures and do these people really think we are idiots and that it the biggest problem with African leaders, arrogance and hubris with the belief that their incumbency is eternal.

Let us see how this unravels.

Source

BBC News - Ivory Coast poll overturned: Gbagbo declared winner

Nigeria: Sanusi a worthy Nigerian

Speaking the truth to occasion

It was heartening to read that the Nigerian Senate attempt to bully the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria yesterday did not get far.

Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi whose almost eccentric dandy bowtie attire conceals a steely reserve is unready to buckle at the yelping of a cabal of loafers whose megalomania exceeds their ability to reflect on why they have been elected.

The governor at a lecture delivered at the 8^th convocation of Igbinedion University has said 25.4% of the nation’s overhead cost [1] was spent on the National Assembly.

To the psychotic headmaster’s office

For this statement the Senate called him in for a carpeting along with the technocrat Finance Minister who apparently is supposed to be his boss and what a boss he was.

The Finance Minister vacillated with mollifying sycophancy that the Senate committee found it more amenable to have the governor talk through the minister rather than have him speak directly to them.

There was no doubt that the truth was finally out about how exorbitant [2] our legislature is, a point I have made time and time again in many blogs and this left the Senate Select Committee chaired by a garrulous lout with the unfortunate prize of undeserved democratic leverage quite livid with rage.

In whatever way the Finance Minister tried to redefine the context of what was said by the governor the fact remained that the Nigerian legislature burns NGN 136.2 ($892 million) and the fact is there isn’t much to show for the hot-air, postulation, grandiloquence and politicking that goes on in there on behalf of Nigerians.

What we pay for - harassment

As at November 2010 a newspaper report suggested in the House of Representatives this term had 459 bills of which 319 were about to be abandoned leaving them with a work rate of just 30%, the Senate was at that time too disorganised to give an account of what work they had done but we know where the money is going now.

Having tried to browbeat the governor and even belittle him they resorted to ad hominem attacks which just speaks volumes of the flock of cretins we have wished upon ourselves through allowing for our democratic process to be usurped by criminals.

The fact of the matter was that the governor did not pluck the figures out of the air but was quoting figures he got from the Director General of the Budget Office.

Much as the Senate disputed the figures they had no alternative figures that could be independently corroborated as truth of what they cost the country which left Mr Sanusi quite within his rights not to feel apologetic, not by a smidgen for revealing that veritable fact.

I will honourably quit

For one senator to suggest that the governor might not have the character to stay in office was just below the belt but the governor displayed qualities that you rarely find of Nigerians in public office, that of character, of principle and the resolve not be cowed by power-brokers whose intelligence is questionable at best.

When asked if he still liked his job and there was every indication after that kind of heinous barracking to suddenly cultivate a dislike and willingness to walk away with your reputation intact, he delivered a line that I doubt any one politician with their snouts so deep in the trough would ever have to courage to say.

“My name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (my name is) not Central Bank Governor. I enjoy my job but if you want me to quit, I will honourably quit.”

At which point he drew applause from the crowd of spectators who would have been invited to see the governor ridiculed and humiliated but now had seen the Senate committee behave like a mob ready to rubbish and besmirch the good reputation of a very able and competent Nigerian.

Get incited now

Meanwhile, the Nigerian legislature are left with that little problem, Mr Sanusi’s statement which the committee chairman thought was made to deliberately incite Nigerians against the National Assembly might well just get Nigerians agitated first for their cost and now for their harassment.

Whoever thought Nigerian politicians do not like to be loved even under false pretences? Well, with all the comments that have followed the news stories, Nigerians can only wish for more Sanusi’s, less of that ilk of legislators and as for the Finance Minister; a career so glorified in Goldman Sachs seems to have lost both its glitter and its mystique, he has been subsumed into the quagmire of Nigerian skulduggery.

Sources

[1] Sanusi stands by comments on National Assembly spending | 234Next.com

[2] Akin: Nigeria: Our exorbitant government

No pluses for the weather

Cold it was

It must be the cold and I am not yet used to it, more so, I must avoid the dreadful effects of it as in pneumonia or influenza, I just cannot afford to submit my body to the ructions of those ravages.

In a week that was 3 nights in Berlin and another 3 in London, I basically spent the last 2 in bed trying hard not to succumb but beginning to vegetate as I do when I am beginning to feel ill.

A chesty cough that tugged violently at whatever held my lungs to their predefined locations, it was not looking good at all. I was slowing down in everything and could not bring myself to see food with any excitement at all.

Black tea with honey seemed to soothe my throat and began to work on the discomfort but I felt best just curled up in bed waiting for that time that I could return home.

Home is my fortress

I had to return home in any case, I had only taken pills for 7 nights and needed to get to hospital to give blood for tests in preparation for my quarterly medical consultation to see how I was doing.

I got to the airport quite early but the walk to gate 22 at London Heathrow was literally interminable they were making the last call when I finally got to the gate and then someone offered to give me a wheelchair ride to the plane.

This is after 3 carts had seen me trundle to the gate with the speed of a tortoise trying to imitate a slow snail; I could not be bothered anymore.

I finally got to my window seat as we were told our flight would be delayed an hour before take-off, I tried to relax and hope for sleep. Sleep suspends for a while the discomforts of illness whilst the body recuperates in some ways or deteriorates as I first noticed as I woke up to shingles lesions in June 2009.

Not delightful

Just as we approached Schiphol, I had such a violent coughing bout, I was literally sick over myself and could only get so much into a sick-bag, there was no time to feel embarrassed, I was just sick as a dog and unwell.

Thinking of warm custard I got home and just collapsed into bed with a spittoon nearby because things had really gotten that bad and for the whole day I have spent most of the time horizontal.

I wonder if it is a sign of recuperation that there are unfinished plates of food, a salad and some rice; none too appealing after a few spoons – the food is however necessary for my pills and the cough is subsiding as I got some daily use cough mixture at the airport chemist.

I still need to get to hospital braving the cold in the process but I believe I am on the up and should be very fine very soon.

Now, I need to get some serious Christmas sunshine, somewhere old or somewhere new?

World AIDS Day 2010

Where is the issue?

You sometimes wonder HIV/AIDS is a distant event, a big news story somewhere on some subcontinent where the issue of BigPharma and access to affordable drugs allows for celebrities to find causes.

People live with HIV and people live with AIDS and many have been brought back from the brink of death by reason of treatments that make medicine almost a miraculous act.

The many more who have been fortunate not be touched by this disease are indeed fortunate, I have seen friends go so suddenly when I thought they were doing fine.

Amazing drugs

The drugs do help and there are improvements to the drug regimes that help prevent recidivism the drugs are combined into single pills taken just once a day rather than 5 or more pills taken at different intervals of the day.

In the West there are lots of resources available for treatment, it is no more the death sentence it once was but it is a sentence nevertheless and some find it exotic enough to want to be infected – the logic escapes me.

It is all fine and well that World AIDS Day 2010 has the theme for protecting yourself and others from HIV and that is meaningful message to those who are not infected. Those who are infected have to deal with the issues, the situation and the prejudices that make for the decision to stand out and be counted.

Do you know someone living with HIV/AIDS and is it time for you to understand what they might be going through?