Saturday, 17 September 2016

Re: Use oil wealth to better lot of Nigerians - US tells FG in Yenagoa

CONSUL-GENERAL LEADS US DELEGATION TO BAYELSA STATE

It is difficult to discern the exact nature of US interests in Nigeria at all times. Those interests may have some fixed and variable components such that, to copy the Iranian example pre-1979, the US administration, in pursuit of a strategic objective, may overtly support an incompetent and repressive Nigerian administration. The recent visit to Northern Nigeria by US Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry, has drawn a lot of flak from incensed Southerners and Christians alike. The question often asked has been, "Why exactly did Kerry come to Nigeria?" Nigerians have been at a loss over this matter. Kerry landed in Abuja and held consultations with a highly unpopular former military dictator who recently wormed his way into an elected presidency. As if to confirm the rabidly Islamic slant of the Buhari administration, Kerry proceeded to hold further consultations with Islamic religious leaders from only the north, headed by the Sultan of Sokoto.

Understandably the southern press and online social media have taken up this matter. And we are still not getting any answers, convincing or not. It is under this cloud of suspicion and distrust that a large retinue of US  consular officials, probably from the Lagos outpost, was dispatched to Bayelsa State to advise the governor and perhaps the natives to ensure that oil wealth is applied judiciously for the benefit of the people! To undertake such a perilous journey, in the midst of the ongoing Niger Delta insurgency, is supposed to be read as a show of true commitment to the affairs of Southern Nigeria, after the recent inexplicable slight by Kerry.

It is instructive to note that the US never took the trouble to advice our various profligate southern and Niger Delta state governments about the benefit of accountability and good governance when they were awash with oil funds that could be applied to such ends. Why now? Which oil wealth was the delegation referring to? Everybody knows that the Federal Government and the vassal states have long run out of money. If, as I suspect, the trip of the Americans is one in a series of fence mending operations, I doubt that many Nigerians in the south can be taken in by it.Then again, it is an established fact that
the US justice system, despite the advent of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has not been able to rein in the crooked US lawyers who exploit every conceivable legal loophole to aid the laundering of dirty money stolen by corrupt third world leaders. For the purpose of this discussion, Russia is included in the 3rd World.

It must be pointed out that the London financial hub, not to be outdone, is in keen competition with the US in this regard. The CBS Television Network recently addressed this problem in its 60 Minutes  programme. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anonymous-inc-60-minutes-steve-kroft-investigation/In the US Congress, overpopulated with lawyers, there is absolutely no sense of urgency to plug the loopholes that make these corrupt and unethical practices even possible. Just like in the case of the war on drugs, the US can and should help Nigeria, African and other vulnerable third world countries by making the US territory hostile to stolen funds. Brief diplomatic forays into the swamps of Yenagoa will not do.

A situation whereby the US completely subverts our own long term strategic interests that require democratic, inclusive governance, devoid of aspects of repression and genocide, because of it's own global imperatives, is unacceptable. Nigerians should make it clear to both the US and President Buhari that divide and rule will not augur well for our tottering national edifice.



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