NIGERIA

Reports on Ethnic Relations  /  Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is consisted of part, full or summaries of articles from diverses sources (newspapers, newsletters, etc...).
La section suivante est constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles provenant d'origines diverses (journaux,bulletins, etc..).

12 / 30 / 2003 

IRIN

"Three former ministers charged with corruption"

Three former ministers in President Olusegun Obasanjo's government were among five top officials charged in court in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Tuesday with bribery and corruption related to a multi-million dollar contract awarded to a French firm.

Former internal affairs minister Sunday Afolabi, his immediate successor, Mahmud Shata, and Husseini Akwanga until recently minister of labour were slammed with 16 counts each of bribery and corrupt enrichment.

Also charged were Okwesilieze Nwodo, former national secretary of the ruling People's Democratic Party, and Turrie Akerele, a former permanent secretary in the ministry of internal affairs.

The accused were alleged to have collected hefty bribes running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars from an agent of French company SAGEM S.A. to facilitate the US $214 million contract given the firm in 2001 to execute a national identity card project. The accused persons face between five and seven years in jail for each of the counts against them, if convicted.

All the accused pleaded not guilty. The judge granted them bail after they agreed to surrender their passports to the court.

The case, which is set to resume on January 23 2004, is the first since Obasanjo launched an anti-corruption crusade in 1999 with the setting up of an anti-graft body. It is widely seen as a key test of his resolve to deal with the national malaise.

Until now, no one has been tried under the anti-corruption law despite signs that corruption had not abated in oil-rich Nigeria and has been a major hindrance to development.

Afolabi had served as internal affairs minister from 1999 until late 2002 when he resigned to head Obasanjo's re-election campaign in their southwest home region. He was replaced by Shata.

Akwanga had been permanent secretary in the ministry at the time the controversial contract was awarded. He was appointed minister of labour after Obasanjo's election but was fired from the cabinet early in December over his alleged involvement in the corruption scandal.

12 / 17 / 2003 

IRIN

"Money and oil at root of delta violence, rights group says"

Ethnic loathing may have been the spur to the ferocious violence between rival ethnic militias in Nigeria s Niger Delta this year, but the object was control of government resources and money from stolen crude oil, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.

Although the violence has both ethnic and political dimensions, it is essentially a fight over the oil money, both government revenue and the profits of stolen crude, said Bronwen Manby, deputy director of HRW s Africa Division and the author of the 29-page report entitled The Warri Crisis: Fuelling Violence.

The report details fighting around the southern oil town of Warri involving rival militias of the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic groups. It said the conflict, which began in 1997, had killed hundreds of people this year and left thousands displaced.

Both Ijaws and Urhobos allege their Itsekiri rivals are favoured by government in the distribution of election constituency boundaries and oil benefits.

The international human rights group urged the Nigerian federal government to provide more honest and accountable administration in Delta State of which Warri is the capital. It also called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to crack down on the theft of oil from pipelines, saying the massive profits from this illegal trade had been used to flood the region with guns.

Efforts to halt the violence and end the civilian suffering that has accompanied it must...include steps both to improve government accountability and to end the theft of oil, Manby said.

HRW specifically called for a re-run of this year's general elections in Delta State, saying the levels of fraud and violence which accompanied voting meant minimum international standards for an acceptable election were not met.

The group also recommended that Nigeria adopt a system of certifying legally obtained crude oil by using chemical processes to identify cargoes of stolen crude in the international market.

Several oil company executives have said this would discourage the powerful gangs which siphon off up to 10 percent of Nigeria's oil production and ship it out by barge to tankers waiting offshore in an illegal trade known as "bunkering."

HRW recalled that some of the worst fighting in the delta occurred during the general elections in April and May this year. The conflict drew in government troops and forced oil companies operating in the area to temporarily close 40 percent of Nigeria s oil production of about two million barrels per day.

According to the rights group, being in government in Nigeria affords individuals unhindered control over state resources. With Delta State, the centre of the violence, accounting for 40 percent of Nigeria's oil production and being constitutionally entitled to 13 percent of the oil revenue, the elections were fought with violence and fraud with eyes on these funds, it said.

HRW believes some of the estimated US$ 750 million to $US one billion profits from bunkering are channelled into the procurement of weapons used in the delta violence.

It said many local politicians were closely involved with the gangs that control the bunkering. It also accused them of engaging the ethnic militias to ensure they were elected and to defend their illegal operations.

Dan Iremiju, leader of the militant Itsekiri National Youth Council, agreed with the report that most of the fighting in the delta this year had centred on the activities of oil thieves. He alleged that elements in the Nigerian navy had been providing protection to Ijaw gangs tapping oil from the pipelines for years.

Much of the fighting was between two business partners, the naval unit in Warri and the illegal oil dealers, he told IRIN. I don't know what went sour in the relationship.

But militant Ijaw leader, Dan Ekpebide, disputed claims that any of the fighting was
over money from illicit oil deals.

Ijaw people here are saying they've been kept out of the political system and denied access to the resources in their area, Ekpebide said. What they're fighting for is political freedom, justice, equity and fair play.

Ekpebide said he believed the Niger Delta was awash with guns because of government militarisation of the oil region.

The soldiers and police are trading off arms for small amounts of money...People have easy access to military weapons because of the military presence, he said.

Government officials were not available for comments on the HRW report.

12 / 10 / 2003 

IRIN

"Local elections set for 27 March 2004"

Long-delayed local council elections in Nigeria have been scheduled for 27 March 2004 throughout the country s 36 states, officials said.

James Omo-Agege, a retired high court judge, who is chairman of the Forum of States Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria, told reporters on Tuesday they were yielding to "mounting pressure from various stakeholders" including political parties and civil society groups.

The tenure of Nigeria's 774 local government councils elected in 1999 ended in May 2002, but new elections could not take place because the voter register had not been revised by then. The National Assembly as well tried to extend its stay in office by one year through a new electoral law but this was nullified by the Supreme Court, which ruled it unconstitutional.

After two initial postponements, the council polls were deferred indefinitely in August 2002. In their place, state governments across the country appointed "caretaker committees" to take charge of the business of local councils.

However, opposition parties have accused ruling parties in the various states of appointing loyalists into council positions and holding on to councils they probably would not have won in free elections.

Omo-Agege urged the state governments to provide adequate funds to their electoral bodies to enable a successful conduct of the vote.

12 / 09 / 2003 

IRIN

"Tension mounts in Warri over fresh militia attack"

Fears are mounting of renewed fighting between rival ethnic militias in Nigeria s southern oil town of Warri following reports that one of the groups had broken a two-month-old truce, residents said on Tuesday.

Residents of the town, which serves as a base for oil transnationals operating in the oil-rich Niger Delta, said a militia of the Itsekiri ethnic group had attacked six rival ethnic Ijaw riverside settlements last week, killing at least 10 people.

"Based on a now familiar pattern we expect the Ijaws to retaliate on the Itsekiris, most of whom have settled inside the town since these past few years of continuous fighting," Benjamin Oghere, a resident, told IRIN.

He said people had started moving out of known trouble spots, while troops stationed in the town by President Olusegun Obasanjo to end the perennial violence there, had been on high alert.

Adding to the tension has been a statement on Monday by a group which identified itself as the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), vowing to retaliate against the attack and asking foreigners working in the oilfields around Warri to leave the area for their safety.

"The IYC has resolved that henceforth every attack on our villages by the Itsekiris will be matched with equal actions," the group said.

More than 200 people have been killed this year in fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris around Warri. Much of the fighting have been over claims of ownership of oil bearing land, which the poor communities in the region believe will attract to them amenities and other benefits that flow from oil production.

Following fighting in October in which more than 100 people had died, the Nigerian government had sent in a military taskforce to pacify the region and it has since imposed a fragile truce between the warring sides.

Maj-Gen Elias Zamani, commander of the taskforce, confirmed to reporters at the weekend there was an attack on some Ijaw communities but could not give any casualty figures. He said patrols had been stepped up to prevent any further escalation of the violence.

12 / 05 / 2003 

IRIN

"Labour Minister sacked in corruption scandal"

President Olusegun Obasanjo has fired his Labour Minister, Hussaini Akwanga, over allegations that he took bribes to approve the award of a major government contract to a French electronics group. He is the first cabinet casualty in Obasanjo's four-year-old anti-corruption drive.

The federal government said in a statement on Thursday that Akwanga had been relieved of his post "in line with this administration s commitment to transparency and to protect the integrity" of the government.

The French electronics company SAGEM won a US $214 million contract two years ago to produce national identity cards for Nigeria. Akwanga was the top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time. He and several other officials are alleged to have taken large bribes to approve the deal.

As Akwanga was sacked, Nigeria's Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) announced that it had launched a probe into the SAGEM contract in which the role of Akwanga, former interior minister Sunday Afolabi, his then deputy Mahmud Shatta and a number of other leading figures in the ruling People s Democratic Party would be investigated.

This is the first major investigation conducted by the ICPC, which was set up by Obasanjo shortly after his election to the presidency in 1999.

The former army general has pledged to rid Nigeria of widespread graft, which is seen as a major obstacle hindering the development in Africa s leading oil producer and most populous country.

Obasanjo was re-elected for another four years in May this year, but the constitution bars him from standing for a third term.

Critics of the president have often described his anti-corruption stance as a charade, pointing out that not a single conviction has been secured since the establishment of the ICPC, despite clear signs that corruption continues unabated in Nigeria.

Announcing the SAGEM investigation, ICPC chairman Mustapha Akanbi told a Commonwealth Business Forum on Thursday that government officials had "collected colossal sums of money in local and foreign currencies" as kick-backs on the contract.

The retired judge said his commission had enough evidence to secure the conviction of the suspects who would be charged in court soon.

At least three people have been arrested in connection with the investigation, including Niyi Adelagun, the man who is believed to have distributed the bribes on behalf of SAGEM.

The Commonwealth Business Forum was part of preliminary activities to the opening of the Commonwealth Head of Government s Meeting in the capital Abuja this weekend. The summit, attended by Britain's Queen Elizabeth, opened on Friday with 54 leaders from Britain and its former colonies in attendance.

"I find it an unusual coincidence that Obasanjo chose a time when Nigeria was in the spotlight, with so many international visitors around, to fire the minister," said Banji Akerele, a banker and financial analyst. "Certainly there was an intention to give maximum advertisement to this public chastising of a minister over corruption."

He said Obasanjo s anti-corruption crusade was losing credibility after failing to secure a single conviction in more than four years, and was in dire need of dramatic action to revive it.

"I think this clampdown on corruption inside the government will provide a new impetus to the crusade," said Akerele. "It remains to be seen if it will be sustained or if the situation will return to business-as-usual once the spotlight goes away."

12 / 02 / 2003 

IRIN

"Commonwealth leaders arrive, rights groups criticize Obasanjo"

Commonwealth leaders began arriving in Nigeria on Tuesday for the bi-ennial heads of states meeting amid allegations by critics of growing misrule from President Olusegun Obasanjo s government by critics.

Heads of government from Botswana, Canada, Mozambique, Namibia, Trinidad, Sierra Leone and Zambia were already in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, for the five-day summit from which Zimbabwe s Robert Mugabe has been excluded.

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, the head of the informal club of former British colonies, was scheduled to begin a state visit to Nigeria on 3 December, during when she would formally open the summit on Friday.

However on the eve of the meeting, international and local human rights groups and opposition parties accused Obasanjo s government of misrule and intolerance.

They said it was surprising that Obasanjo was being embraced by the international community at a time Mugabe was being ostracised for similar reasons.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a 40-page report published ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, accused Obasanjo s government of killing, torturing and harassing its critics in the past two years.

It said most of the abuses were perpetrated by the police and the security intelligence outfit known as State Security Services (SSS).

Presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo however denied the allegations by HRW, dismissing them as "jaundiced and ill-conceived".

She accused the group of publishing the report on the eve of the Commonwealth summit in order "to precipitate discord within the august gathering and cast undeserved aspersions on the integrity of the Nigerian government and people".

Obasanjo s administration, she added, had brought Nigerians unprecedented freedom.

According to HRW, some 12-20 people were shot dead by the police in the country s biggest city of Lagos, the capital Abuja and the southern oil industry centre of Port Harcourt during July protests against a hike in fuel prices.

The HRW report detailed testimonies alleging torture from 30 people arrested and detained for two weeks for staging a peaceful protest at the US embassy against the visit of President George Bush in July. The testimonies were among over 50 cases of abuses.

"Commonwealth leaders meeting in Abuja should not give Nigeria a free pass on human rights," said Peter Takirambudde of the Africa Division of HRW.

"Even though military rule has ended, Nigerians still cannot express themselves freely without fear of grave consequences," he added.

HRW also alleged harassment of opposition parties since elections in April and May which were won by Obasanjo s party. It said the vote was marred by widespread violence and ballot-rigging, especially in southern Nigeria.

"Foreign governments remained virtually silent about election violence in Nigeria, yet abuses during the Zimbabwe elections provoked widespread condemnation," Takirambudde said.

Commonwealth leaders, he added, would face accusations of double standards if abuses were not condemned wherever they occurred, even "in the very country where they are meeting".

Tension have also mounted in Nigeria after a coalition of opposition and pro-democracy groups known as United Action for Democracy (UAD) threatened to carry out protests against the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria.

UAD spokesman, Bamidele Aturu, told reporters that leaders of the group have received threatening phone calls from security agents and have also been invited for interrogation by the SSS.

"We wish to state that no weight of threat of clampdown or arrest can deter UAD from holding the mass rally," Aturu said.

On Monday a discussion forum in Lagos planned by a group describing itself as the Commonwealth Civil Society was aborted after its coordinator, Osita Ike, was arrested by armed men believed to be state security police agents. No security agency had owned up to the arrest of Ike.

The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, grouping several opposition parties that lost the general elections early this year, said in a statement on Tuesday it was drawing the attention of Commonwealth leaders to the "appalling situation" in Nigeria under Obasanjo.

According to the group the majority of Nigerians were today suffering "in excruciating" poverty while Obasanjo and his cronies were wallowing in "stupendous wealth, arrogance and immoral behaviour".

Every two years leaders of Britain and its 53 former colonies meet to at the Commonwealth conference to discuss initiatives to promote democracy, racial equality, resolve conflicts and manage their cultural diversity.

In the past two years the group has been sorely tested by the situation in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe is accused of clamping down on the opposition and remaining in power after rigging an election. Mugabe's supporters however hail his land reform programme which aims at redistributing land held by white farmers to black people.

In the Commonwealth, positions on Zimbabwe have often created cleavages, with African leaders seemingly sympathetic to Mugabe while Western leaders have been harshly critical.

"Though Mugabe is excluded from this summit, the Zimbabwe question will no doubt still loom large," Ike Onyekwere, a political analyst, told IRIN.

"With HRW raising the issue of double standards in the treatment of Zimbabwe and Nigeria, I think the Commonwealth, for the sake of its credibility, will be challenged to find a uniform measure of democracy and good government among member states," he added.

12 / 03 / 2003 

IRIN

"Police break up march by human rights protesters"

Human rights activists and their supporters marched through Lagos on Wednesday to protest against President Olusegun Obasanjo s government and Nigeria's hosting of a Commonwealth summit, but they were dispersed by riot police.

More than 1,000 activists belonging to the United Action for Democracy (UAD), a coalition of rights and pro-democracy groups, marched through the centre of Nigeria's biggest city. They carried placards denouncing Obasanjo s government and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which is due to start in the capital Abuja on Friday.

The demonstrators were soon joined by thousands of street traders near the popular Yaba market.

Bamidele Aturu, a UAD leader, told the crowd that Obasanjo was squandering the country s wealth on jamborees. He said the president had imported bullet-proof cars worth US $400 million while the majority of Nigerians suffered poverty.

Obasanjo believes the support of foreign governments will make him survive, but the Nigerian people will disgrace him before his masters, Aturu said.

Riot police baton-charged the protesters, firing tear gas as people fled.

Several people received minor injuries, while others, including Aturu and a television crew from Minaj Broadcasting International, were arrested. Two reporters from another television station, Galaxy, said they were beaten by the police.

A police officer told IRIN the march was illegal as the protesters did not obtain a police permit.

Britain s Queen Elizabeth, who heads the Commonwealth, an informal grouping of former British colonies, was due to arrive in Nigeria on Wednesday ahead of Friday s formal opening of the four-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Several of the 53 leaders from around the world invited to the summit have already arrived in Nigeria.

The New York based rights group Human Rights Watch issued a report on Nigeria ahead of the meeting in which it accused Obasanjo's government of killing, torturing and harassing its critics as well as rigging its re-election earlier in the year.

The government rejected the allegations and dismissed the report as jaundiced and misconceived .

But UAD protesters backed up the Human Rights Watch allegations. The regime is standing on a weak foundation of a rigged and contested election, it declared in pamphlets distributed at the protest march. Instead of resigning, it has resorted to the ways of anti-people dictators.

12 / 01 / 2003 

IRIN

"Ethnic militants free kidnapped oil workers"

Armed ethnic Ijaw militants have freed seven foreign oil workers who were kidnapped last week in Nigeria s volatile Niger Delta, their employer said on Monday.

The militants initially demanded a US $36,000 ransom for the seven men, who were employed by the Scotland-based pipeline coating company, Bredero Shaw.

But the company said that in the end no money was paid to secure the release of its employees, who were seized on Thursday while testing a platform evacuation boat near the oil town of Warri.

Bredero Shaw said one Briton, one Australian, one Russian, two Colombians and two Dutchmen had been taken hostage and subsequently released. "We are delighted for the families who have been through a stressful ordeal, the company said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Nigerian Navy confirmed the release of the hostages, which he said was negotiated by Ijaw community leaders. We re glad it ended peacefully, he said. The navy spokesman also noted that no ransom had been paid.

The first of the kidnapped oil workers was freed on Friday with a ransom note demanding five million naira (US $36,000). Another was released on Saturday and Bredero Shaw said the remaining five were freed on Sunday.

The seizure of oil workers for ransom and to demand the settlement of local grievances has become commonplace in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Despite the wealth generated by the two million barrels of oil pumped out everyday by multinational oil companies in the region, its inhabitants remain poor. There is widespread resentment against the Nigerian government and the oil companies, who are accused by local people of polluting their land and leaving them in poverty.

The situation is complicated by rivalry between different ethnic groups within the Niger delta, which often leads to fighting between them.

This latest kidnapping incident is the fourth in the past two weeks involving oil workers.

Three of them ended peacefully with the release of all the hostages. But the navy last week stormed two offshore oil platforms in the Atlantic Ocean operated by ChevronTexaco to free 18 hostages seized by another set of Ijaw militants. One Ijaw militant was killed and one hostage was wounded in that operation.

Apart from money, the militants frequently demand jobs for their communities and the provision of local amenities such as schools, hospitals and roads.