Africa News Digest
Nigerian Parliament To Begin Halliburton Bribery Probe
The Nigerian House of Representatives' Committee on Public Petitions will open Oct. 20, with a three-day public hearing into an allegation of bribery against TSKJ consortiuma group including Halliburton's Kellogg Brown and Root unit, according to a statement signed by the clerk of the lower house of Parliament in Abuja, Umaru Sani, AFP reported Oct. 15. Illegal payments made to Nigerian officials when Dick Cheney ran Halliburton, helped TKSJ win a $12 billion contract to build a natural gas project at Bonny Island.
Those summoned to appear include: Dave Lesar, the chairman of Halliburton; Jeffrey Tesler, a London-based lawyer who funnelled at least $132 million in illegal payments from Halliburton to Nigerian officials; Mohammed Yusuf, former chairman of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company; and ex-oil ministers Don Etiebet and Dan Etete.
Strike in Nigeria: The Background
The first phase of a nationwide strike in Nigeriafor the rollback of fuel-price increaseswas executed successfully Oct. 11-14. The basis of the strike unfolded in September, when a judge ruled that the very existence of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) presidency is illegal. The NLC is the trade union umbrella organization. The judge also outlawed strikes not related to working conditions. Two days later, the government raised the price of gasoline 23%, and also increased the price of kerosene and diesel fuel. All 29 NLC member organizations then decided on the strike. NLC President Adams Oshiomhole called on Nigerians to "rise up to the occasion and stop this government from further pauperizing them.... [W]e're suffering and ... we can't have these injustices."
The Senate appealed to the government Oct. 7 to reverse the price increases, while imploring labor and human rights organizations not to strike.
The NLC and human rights organizations called Oct. 7 for President Obasanjo to resign. The rights leaders, who back the strike, bitterly attacked the government for following the prescriptions of the IMF and World Bank.
The fuel price-hike issue is indicative of the dialogue of the deaf between the federal government and mass-based organizations. All of Nigeria's own refineries have been shut down for want of repairs for quite some time, while the government is importing refined products at high prices. Obasanjo's reply is, "That's the free market." But the prices being received for Nigeria's exports of crude have, for some time, been above the baseline assumed when the government's budget was formulated. So the question is, why isn't this surplus being used to repair the refineries? The answer may be that the IMF ordered that they not be repaired, in favor of greater debt repayment. Obasanjo appointed an IMF robot as Finance Minister after his election in 2003.
Strike in Nigeria: Outcry Over Labor Leader's Arrest
Two days before the scheduled strike in Nigeria on Oct. 9, Nigerian Labor Congress President Adams Oshiomhole was held secretly for 10 hours by the State Security Service (SSS). He was released after a national outcry. Oshiomhole was dragged to a waiting car at Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, by 15 armed SSS men, according to eyewitness reports and a statement issued by the NLC.
Several senators, reached by the Sunday Champion Oct. 10, condemned the arrest. Sen. Mohammed Kanti Bello of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) described Oshiomhole's arrest as very unfortunate and dangerous.
The Secretary General of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Maxi Okwu, said that by arresting Oshiomhole, the government declared "total war" on the masses. The CNPP, a coalition of 18 lesser parties, is supporting the strike.
The Nigeria Bar Association, Abuja Branch, denounced the arrest as a violation of fundamental constitutional freedoms. The Nigeria Bar Association as a whole announced its participation in the strike Oct. 3, and will offer its services free to anyone arrested for protesting.
In addition to the All Nigeria People's Party (CNPP), the leading opposition party, for which Gen. Mohammadu Buhari was Presidential candidate in 2003, is supporting the strike, according to AP Oct. 11. The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), for which Gen. Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was presidential candidate, is also supporting it, This Day reported Oct. 10.
Strike in Nigeria: A Diary
Day One: Major cities in Nigeria come to a standstill, including Lagos, the commercial capital; Port Harcourt, the southeastern city from which oil production is managed; Ibadan in the Southwest; and Kano in the North. In Abuja, the capital, "the strike was only partially successful. Buses and taxis continued to ply the streets, while some offices and banks worked under heavy police guard," IRIN reported Oct. 11. "But in most of the country," according to IRIN, "government services were shut down and business activity was greatly reduced."
Day Two: Oshiomhole warns strike will be extended if killings and arrests by police continue. At a press conference in Abuja Oct. 12, Oshiomhole declared, "If we discover the police [are] still arresting and killing, we will elongate the strike." He continued, "Once they begin shooting, and once they begin to kill, the character of our struggle will change.... People have been arrested for flimsy excuses, such as 'breach of public peace' or 'unlawful gathering.'... We have a right to disturb the ears of our rulers."
The police killed two people over Oct. 11-12.
Police arrested nine trade union leaders Oct. 11 in Awka, the capital of Anambra state, as they attempted to stop taxi and minibus operators ignoring the strike call.
Armed gangs attacked NLC activists Oct. 12 in Lagos, while police stood by, NLC spokesman Owei Lakemfa charged. Police deny it. "Many people, including journalists and NLC officials, were injured," Lakemfa said, wrote AFP.
Day Three: Oil industry unions back the strike, high court rejects government suit to halt it. The two oil industry unions, Nupeng and Pengassan, threatened Oct. 13 to shut down the oil industry if the government continued to try to stop the strike, according to Femi Falana, a lawyer for the NLC. A high court rejected a government suit to stop the strike Oct. 13, according to Falana.
Day Four: Intermission declared. Oshiomhole announced that the strike would be suspended at midnight, Oct. 14, for a two-week period, as planned.
Some Leaders of Obasanjo's Government and Party Dissent
In reaction to Nigerian President Obasanjo's implementation of IMF policies, some leaders of his government and party are expressing disagreement, according to an editorial in Punch Oct. 12, during the strike. The two most significant cases:
The National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, recently said, "We have international agencies saying deregulate, and yet, as a political group, we are aware that if you surrender your country to the fierce forces of the market, you will crush many people to the dust. We are in a dilemma, what do we do?", as reported by The Comet Sept. 30.
Special Adviser to the President on Legal and Constitutional Matters, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, in a lecture Sept. 30, said, "unless strategic moves both within and outside the polity and economy are undertaken in the months ahead, the nation is at risk of slipping back around 2007 to a failing state or even a failed state.... In most failed states, government troops are kept perpetually busy by several armed revolts which they have been unable to decisively put down."
Former Ambassador to Washington Elected Somali President
A warlord, long at odds with warlord Mohammed Aideed, and a former Ambassador to the U.S. under Siad Barre, has been elected President of Somalia. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was elected by the new Parliament, from among 60 candidates for President (including Aideed's son), in a final round of voting between only two candidates, by a vote of 189 to 79. The Parliament assembled near Nairobi, Kenya, for safety's sake. The election was supervised by the U.S.-dominated Inter-Governmental Authority on (Non-)Development (IGAD).
The senior Aideed, however, has military control of the parts of the capital, Mogadishu, where the seat of government is to be. However, if the Aideed family had won the Presidency, it would have had control only of that much of the country, according to Afrol News Sept. 17. How much will Yusuf Ahmed control?
The Parliament was founded by Somali warlords in August after two years of negotiating. Somalia has had no government since 1991, when Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown. "Everything has been destroyed. They are starting from ground zero," Kenya's Ambassador to Somalia, Mohammed Affey, told Reuters Oct. 10.
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