But General Abacha, who ruled the country from 1993 to 1998, did not
escape money-laundering charges in a foreign country by donning a dress
and a wig and quietly slipping away, as Alamieyeseigha, the Governor of
a small oil-producing state in the Niger Delta, did from Britain last
month. For their sheer audacity, Alamieyeseigha's antics are likely to
earn him a prominent place among the leaders who in the past four
decades are believed to have stolen or misspent $US400 billion in
government money, most of it the profits from Nigeria's vast oil
reserves.
"It is a new low," said Gani Fawehinmi, one of Nigeria's leading lawyers
and a longtime campaigner for good governance. "And in Nigeria that is
saying something."
Alamieyeseigha is suspected of siphoning millions of dollars in cash and
buying an oil refinery in Ecuador, along with several houses in London,
California and South Africa. He has denied stealing money from the
state. Long associated with rampant corruption and kleptocratic
governments, Nigeria for years has been given one of the worst scores in
Transparency International's world corruption perception index, although
this year its rating improved slightly.
Corruption touches almost every aspect of life, from the millions of
sham email messages sent each year by people claiming to be Nigerian
officials seeking help with transferring large sums of money out of the
country, to the police officers who routinely set up roadblocks to
extract a bribe of 20 naira (about $A0.20) from drivers.
In the past year, President Olusegun Obasanjo has ratcheted up the fight
against corruption, and several high officials have been ensnared in
criminal investigations.
The president of the Senate was forced from office after he was accused
of taking a bribe from the education minister to pass an inflated
budget. The inspector-general of the national police was charged with
stealing $US140 million ($188 million), pleaded guilty to obstruction of
justice and was sentenced recently to six months in jail. But the
Alamieyeseigha scandal has almost eclipsed those gains and led many to
wonder whether democracy will ever make government here more
accountable. "Looting from the people is not a new thing," said Kayode
Fayemi of the Centre for Democracy and Development, an advocacy group.
"We are used to that. But for people who claim to be representatives of
their own people to commit this barefaced robbery is shameful. Where is
the rule of law?"
Alamieyeseigha was arrested in London on September 15 and charged by
British authorities with three counts of money laundering. He was
released on bail but had to surrender his passport. His next court
appearance was scheduled for December 8, but he mysteriously
materialised in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, at the end of
last month, telling a crowd of supporters who assembled outside the
governor's mansion: "I cannot tell you how I was brought here. It is
a mystery. All the glory goes to God." The scandal of
Alamieyeseigha's arrest and flight from London has gripped the
nation. At the Ekiti Motor Park bus stop in Yenagoa, men gathered
around a news stand to read breathless newspaper stories printed
under banner headlines.
"This is what happens when you have leaders who are interested only
in themselves," said Bishop Anslem, who is 29, has a university
degree in industrial electronics but has never had a steady job.
"They take the money and we see none of it."
Alamieyeseigha is one of Nigeria's 36 governors, a class of men who
enjoy immunity from prosecution because of a clause in the
constitution.
His state of Bayelsa produces 30 per cent of the country's oil, and
with recent sky-high oil prices, the state budget this year
ballooned to $560 million, compared with about $300 million in
2003. But the money has not brought relief to the locals. It has
mostly paid for white elephants such as mansions for the governor
and his deputy. The 2005 budget sets aside $US8.5 million to build
those two houses, along with more than $US2 million for
furnishings. And that is just this year. Since 2002 the state has
spent more than $25 million on the governor's mansion, according to
budgets on file in Yenagoa's tiny public library.
A glossy, mostly wordless booklet issued by Alamieyeseigha's press
office, A Legacy of Selfless Service, includes drawings of
the houses, depicting fantasies of waterfalls, fountains and
artificial lakes. Meanwhile, the Poverty Eradication Committee,
whose purpose is not explained, has a budget of about $A31,000,
according to the 2005 budget. That is a little more than half of
what is budgeted for toiletries for state officials. Alamieyeseigha
was arrested in London on September 15 and charged by British
authorities with three counts of money laundering. He was released
on bail but had to surrender his passport.
His next court appearance was scheduled for December 8, but he
mysteriously materialised in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State,
at the end of last month, telling a crowd of supporters who
assembled outside the governor's mansion: "I cannot tell you how I
was brought here. It is a mystery. All the glory goes to God." The
scandal of Alamieyeseigha's arrest and flight from London has
gripped the nation. At the Ekiti Motor Park bus stop in Yenagoa, men
gathered around a news stand to read breathless newspaper stories
printed under banner headlines.
"This is what happens when you have leaders who are interested only
in themselves," said Bishop Anslem, who is 29, has a university
degree in industrial electronics but has never had a steady job.
"They take the money and we see none of it."
Alamieyeseigha is one of Nigeria's 36 governors, a class of men who
enjoy immunity from prosecution because of a clause in the
constitution. His state of Bayelsa produces 30 per cent of the
country's oil, and with recent sky-high oil prices, the state budget
this year ballooned to $560 million, compared with about $300
million in 2003.
But the money has not brought relief to the locals. It has mostly
paid for white elephants such as mansions for the governor and his
deputy. The 2005 budget sets aside $US8.5 million to build those two
houses, along with more than $US2 million for furnishings.
And that is just this year. Since 2002 the state has spent more than
$25 million on the governor's mansion, according to budgets on file
in Yenagoa's tiny public library.
A glossy, mostly wordless booklet issued by Alamieyeseigha's press
office, A Legacy of Selfless Service, includes drawings of
the houses, depicting fantasies of waterfalls, fountains and
artificial lakes. Meanwhile, the Poverty Eradication Committee,
whose purpose is not explained, has a budget of about $A31,000,
according to the 2005 budget. That is a little more than half of
what is budgeted for toiletries for state officials.
Culled from The New York Times