Name: admin
Posts by :
Robert Reich: The 7 Biggest Economic Lies (video)
January 27th, 2012H/T 3quarksdaily
History of corruption in Nigerian leadership
January 15th, 2012WHEN BABANGIDA SEIZED POWER ON AUGUST 27, 1985, the country owed $12 billion. The squandering regime raised the national debt to $33 billion in only about six years. When he hijacked power, only N11.8 billion naira was in circulation in Nigeria. At the termination of his misrule, General Babangida, Osoba argues, had injected ‘an intolerably high level of cumulative devaluation and inflation in the national currency and economy’ by increasing the money in circulation through the printing of currency to N100.5 billion.
Even if the answer to the economic crisis surpassed him, Babangida found an answer to the lack of sufficient naira to fund his self-perpetuating project. His regime resorted to what Dr. Osoba described as ‘the sheer orgy of printing of currency notes.’
In a cover story in April 1992, which provoked the Babangida regime to shut down all the media empire, the Concord Press, owned by his friend, Bashorun MKO Abiola, Dapo Olorunyomi, who later became the Chief of Staff to Nuhu Ribadu, noted that Hannibal, who Babangida described as one his two key heroes – the other being Chaka, the Zulu – was ‘brilliant, witty, multilingual and deeply resilient’. However, Olorunyomi added that, Hannibal ‘was capable of the most recondite passion of kindness, but could also show transcendental acts of cruelty, treachery, and avarice.’
However, corruption, and its accompanying vices, non-transparency and non- accountability, survived the Babangida regime.
Even though he instituted a War Against Indiscipline and Corruption (WAIC) in an attempt to reclaim the anti-graft stance of the Buhari-Idiagbon regime, Babangida’s successor, General Sani Abacha surpassed the former in graft.
In what would count as one of the many ironies in Nigeria’s history, Abacha set up the Pius Okigbo Panel of Inquiry into the operations of the Central Bank accounts under Babangida. The Okigbo Panel report reportedly implicated Babangida in the disappearance of the $12. 4 billion that accrued to Nigeria from the 1990 Gulf War oil windfall – the matter for which Keeling was deported. However, the report was never publicly released. Abacha must have held it as a weapon to hold his endlessly scheming and dangerously mischievous retired comrade-in-arms on leash.
The Abacha regime also instituted the Failed Banks Tribunal which tried bank executives who had taken liberty with depositors’ and shareholders’ monies. In spite of Abacha’s apparent ‘anti-graft’ measures, his regime was one which a news magazine described as ‘Plundering and Looting Unlimited’. The infantry general, his close officials, family members and cronies ‘turned state power into a weapon for stealing the nation blind’. By the time he gave up the ghost on the laps of Indian prostitutes – as the rumour mills have it – more than US$4.3 billion were traced to 130 banks around the world to Abacha and his family members. Ismaila Gwarzo, Abacha’s National Security Adviser, alone reportedly siphoned US$2.1 billion into coded accounts in foreign countries.
Apart from condemning and acting against corruption and deception under generals Babangida and Abacha, Obasanjo, as president, also pursued with messianic zeal the recovery of Abacha’s loot.
Perhaps it is a cruel irony. But when Chief Sunday Afolabi, President Obasanjo’ssenior in high school and later his minister of internal affairs, in a moment of indiscretion, said his colleague in the cabinet and political rival, Chief Bola Ige, had been called to ‘come and eat’ in the Obasanjo government, he was imposing an epithet on the Obasanjo administration that was similar in its devastating implications to what was imposed on the Babangida regime by Obasanjo – eight years earlier.
For the now late Afolabi, public office in Nigeria was an eatery to which a select people were invited to ‘come and eat’.
R. Wraith and E. Simpkins argue that this culture of ‘come and eat’ has existed in Nigeria – like in the rest of the West coast of Africa – since independence. They contended further that this culture ‘flourishes as luxuriantly as the bush and weeds which it so much resembles, taking the goodness from the soil and suffocating the growth of plants which have been carefully, and expensively bred and tended.’
Alhaji Bashir Tofa, the presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), who was unofficially defeated by Bashorun Moshood Abiola, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the June 12, 1993 election – eventually annulled by Babangida – said in early 2009 that ‘no Nigerian can fight corruption.’ Tofa argues that corruption ‘will continue as long as the masses depend on corrupt officials to earn their livelihood’. Corruption in Nigeria, said the politician, has gone beyond the ‘issue of greed, it is now a disease. People who steal have no sense of proportion because there is corruption everywhere.’
The perceptive anti-graft musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, had used the metaphor of the intersection at Ojuelegba, on the Lagos Mainland, where there was neither traffic lights, nor a traffic warden, to illustrate the confusion that arises when there are neither rules nor rule-enforcers.
Sings Fela: ‘With this confusion wey e dey, police dey inside well, army dey inside well. Who go come solve dis confusion? …Confusion e breaki bone, nko?’ [‘In the present confusion, the police are implicated, the Army is implicated. Who will then solve the problem? ....Confusion breaks bones, doesn’t it?] In the song, ‘Confusion Break Bone’, Fela concludes with the parable of a corpse which is involved in an automobile accident. His musical verdict was that this translates to ‘double wahala for deadi bodi and the owner of deadi body.’ [‘double trouble for the dead and the relations of the dead.’]
It is a metaphor for his country.
From Wale Adebanwi’s A Paradise for Maggots. 2010. Pp 118 and 119.
Book Launch
January 12th, 2012 If you are in London:Date: Thursday 19th January, 6-8pm
Venue: Brunei Suite, SOAS
Book launch with author Michael Gould and Kaye Whiteman (journalist), Frederick Forsyth (author), Dipo Salimonu (political commentator & CEO at Ateriba) responding.
Chair: Professor Dennis Judge
In the summer of 1968, reports of starvation in the West African secessionist Republic of Biafra transformed the Nigerian Civil War into an international media event. Using recently discovered archival records and the personal recollections of the key players, Michael Gould challenges many of the views and perceptions held of the conflict at the time. Little has been written about the war during the last forty years and as Anthony Kirk-Greene (Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford) states this book stands as the best analysis yet published.
About the author
Michael Gould has lived and worked in Nigeria over the last fifty years. He first met Ojukwu and Gowon when they were young army officers and he was still a student. In the mid eighties he set up an NGO in Eastern Nigeria. He is an honorary chief of the Igbo people. He had limited knowledge of the country’s civil war until he wrote a short dissertation on the subject in 2000. He subsequently read for a PhD in African History at SOAS, focusing on the Biafran War. This book is the result of his research into the conflict.
In praise of a second passport
January 6th, 2012 In the current edition of The Economist:In some countries it [citizenship] is, in effect, on sale. In others, such as America, it may be an accident of birth, with no conscious choice involved. Rather than making a fetish out of passports, a better approach would be to use residence (especially tax residence) as the main criterion for an individual’s rights and responsibilities. That encourages cohesion and commitment, because it stems from a conscious decision to live in a country and abide by its rules. The world is gradually moving in this direction. But many states (mostly poor and ill-run) resist the trend and some rich democracies like the Netherlands and Germany are trying to curb it (see article), offering a variety of excuses.
Here.
Happy 2012!!
January 2nd, 2012I guess it is 2012 everywhere on earth now, so fellow earthlings, happy 2012!
Bankers are the dictators of the West
December 11th, 2011 Robert Frisk writes in The Independent:The banks and the rating agencies have become the dictators of the West. Like the Mubaraks and Ben Alis, the banks believed – and still believe – they are owners of their countries. The elections which give them power have – through the gutlessness and collusion of governments – become as false as the polls to which the Arabs were forced to troop decade after decade to anoint their own national property owners. Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of Scotland became the Mubaraks and Ben Alis of the US and the UK, each gobbling up the people’s wealth in bogus rewards and bonuses for their vicious bosses on a scale infinitely more rapacious than their greedy Arab dictator-brothers could imagine.
I didn’t need Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job on BBC2 this week – though it helped – to teach me that the ratings agencies and the US banks are interchangeable, that their personnel move seamlessly between agency, bank and US government. The ratings lads (almost always lads, of course) who AAA-rated sub-prime loans and derivatives in America are now – via their poisonous influence on the markets – clawing down the people of Europe by threatening to lower or withdraw the very same ratings from European nations which they lavished upon criminals before the financial crash in the US. I believe that understatement tends to win arguments. But, forgive me, who are these creatures whose ratings agencies now put more fear into the French than Rommel did in 1940?
Here. H/T Keith Hart on FB.
Call for applications: Cultural Diplomacy
December 8th, 2011 I just got this in the mail. If you have any questions, write to the email addresses in the body of the Call.“Call for Applications”
(ICD Conferences, January – March 2012)
Dear Sir/ Madam,
On behalf of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, I am writing to bring to your attention the following major programs (outlined below) hosted by us in partnership with other leading organizations. The Programs will bring together governmental and diplomatic officials, civil society practitioners, private sector representatives, journalists, young professionals, students and scholars, and other interested stakeholders from across the world for a program of lectures, workshops, panel and group discussions and social and cultural activities featuring leading figures from the fields of politics, academia, civil society, media, and business.
The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy is currently accepting applications for the events outlined below, all of which will take place from January 2012 – March 2012. .
******
The European African Alliance Conference 2012
Development Initiatives, Trade Relations and Interregional Cultural Exchange in the European African Alliance (Berlin, January 10th – 13th, 2012)
www.experience-africa.org
The “European African Alliance Conference 2012” is the first of several conferences relating to Africa. This conference will focus on the relationship between Europe and Africa in the context of development, trade, security and cultural exchange with the view to explore and evaluate Africa’s and Europe’s role in the field of Cultural Diplomacy.
Africa’s relationship with Europe and European Institutions has developed significantly over the last decade making the European African Alliance an interesting and relevant topic for discussion today. The program will consist of lectures, seminars, debates and panel discussions that will feature leading figures from international politics & diplomacy, academia, civil society, and the private sector.
This conference will focus on and analyze economic issues such as migration and employment, political issues such as the use and affect of institutions, democracy and international relations and security and trade issues.
To Apply please visit:
http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/experienceafrica/index.php?en_eaac-2012_application-form
******
Cultural Diplomacy in Africa: A Forum for Young Leaders
Development Initiatives, Trade Relations and Interregional Cultural Exchange in the European African Alliance (Weeklong Seminar, Berlin, January 9th – 15th, 2012)
www.icd-africa.org
**Participants of the forthcoming CDA weeklong seminar will take part in the International Conference “The European African Alliance Conference 2012 (Berlin, January 10th – 13th, 2012)
******
The International Conference on the African Union & Cultural Diplomacy
Cultural Diplomacy as a Vehicle of Global Governance: The Role of Cultural Diplomacy and Soft Power in the Future of the African Union (London, February 7th-10th, 2012)
The African Union and Cultural Diplomacy Conference is the second of a series of our international conferences dedicated to enhancing awareness and understanding of governing institutions. The conference is organized by the ICD and other leading organizations.
Since the Cold War, the global power axis has shifted significantly, from a bipolar world order into multiple of poles of influence, rapid market liberalization and a considerable synergy of global interdependence. This shift in power relations has not been unproblematic, especially for those countries that have been sidelined from the international decision-making process. The African Union is therefore a prominent example of the necessity of collaboration in order to protect and promote individual interests in the current international setting.
This conference will emphasize how cultural diplomacy can be used as an increasingly useful tool for building cooperation both regionally and globally, and explores avenues through which this new form of diplomacy can be used as a driving force to foster good governance, development and the promotion of human rights though the AU.
To apply please visit:
http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/experienceafrica/index.php?en_aucdc-2011_application-form
******
The Power of Africa
Africa as a Stronger Actor on the International Stage (Paris, March 13th-16th, 2012)
http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/experienceafrica/index.php?the-power-of-africa
The Power of Africa is the third Africa related conference that is being hosted in the beginning of 2012. It will focus on the possibilities and barriers that the African countries are facing in terms of economic and political bargaining power as well as the prospect of speaking with one voice on the international stage.
The conference will in particular address the expectations and opinions that the outside world holds of African development and how this often diverges with what might be more realistic and customized solutions on the ground. One aim of the conference is thus to debate whether alternative forms of institutional rule and economic models can be deemed more effective in Africa than the established forms of Western governance. The conference will look at global as well as local perceptions of African leadership and development, and the bilateral trade relationships that Africa has with China and India. Furthermore we will explore the role of the African Union as well as civil societies in enhancing interregional relations within Africa and what prospects this holds for its future international image and bargaining power.
******
The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy is an international, not-for-profit, non-governmental organization with headquarters in Berlin, Germany. The goal of the ICD is to promote global peace and stability by strengthening and supporting intercultural relations at all levels. Over the past decade the ICD has grown to become one of Europe’s largest independent cultural exchange organizations, hosting programs that facilitate interaction among individuals of all cultural, academic, and professional backgrounds, from across the world.
Previous Events
Previous events held by the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy include the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin, May 11th-15th 2011 – www.icd-internationalsymposium.org), which hosted The Hon. Lucinda Creighton – Minister of European Affairs of Ireland; The Hon. Michael Chertoff – Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security; The Hon. Rexhep Meidani – Former President of Albania; The Hon. Senator Tim Hutchinson – Former United States Senator from Arkansas; The Hon. Judge Theodor Meron - Former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; The Hon. Yasar Yakis – Former Foreign Minister of Turkey
In March 2011 the ICD hosted the Berlin International Economics Congress 2011 (Berlin, March 9th – 12th 2011 – www.biec.de ), which hosted The Hon. Nahas Angula – Prime minister of Namibia; The Hon. Jean-Paul Adam – Foreign Minister of the Republic of Seychelles; The Hon. Alberto Jose Guevara Obregon – Minister of Finance of Nicaragua; The Hon. Al Imam Al Sadig Al Mahdi - Former Prime minister of Sudan; The Hon. Akua Sena Dansua – Minister for Tourism of Ghana; and The Hon. Edmund Bartlett – Minister of Tourism of Jamaica.
Please address any additional queries to info@culturaldiplomacy.org or toubbe@culturaldiplomacy.org
We look forward to hear from you soon
With warmest regards
On foreign-directed PR by African leaders
November 24th, 2011 By Julie Owono in a very nice piece for Al Jazeera:On November 11, 2011 the French newspaper Le Monde published two pages advertising what it described as the “free and fair” Cameroonian presidential election of October 9, 2011, which resulted in the election, for the sixth time, of Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982. Frederic Meixner, International Advertising Director at Le Monde Publicite, confirmed by telephone that these two pages were paid at the rate publicly available. This would have cost 468,832 euros ($628,000) including taxes, and this price doesn’t include the possible cost of negotiations to make this publication possible.
Some French journalists, such as Pierre Haski, found the advertisement disconcerting: On October 9, 2011, Le Monde published an article denouncing the “cacophony” reigning on the day of the presidential ballot, in total contradiction with the advertisement run on November 11. Meixner explained that this was an advertisement, and thus had not been written by Le Monde‘s editorial staff. Meixner refused to reveal the name of the possible author of the advertisement, but research found the name of Stratline Communication, an agency owned by Yasmine Bahri Domon. The PR campaign of President Paul Biya during the latest election cost 5m euros and was the work of PB Com International, another French agency well known by Gulf of Guinea heads of state, and owned by Patricia Balme.
Few know that the architect of Paul Biya’s web campaign is François de La Brosse, the director of the French company ZNZ Group, and who is also Nicolas Sarkozy’s communication advisor in charge of French President’s Internet strategy. This is what Patricia Balme herself confirms in this video.
This leads us to question the relations between those whom French journalist Vincent Hugueux names the “White Sorcerers”, and the syndicate of presidents of France’s former colonial empire. Those men and women mix politics, communication agencies and journalists in the frame of the well-known “Francafrique” network (France’s sphere of influence in Africa): Justifying themselves with their deep interest in the development of Africa, they organise campaigns to ensure the international legitimacy of the continent’s presidents. This is done at the expense of real investigative journalism, and leaves small place in the political and media landscape to local activists and bloggers, who try with significantly less financial means to show the reality of the Gulf of Guinea.
The article is here.
Friday links
November 18th, 2011 1.Immigrant networks are a rare bright spark in the world economy. Rich countries should welcome them – The Economist2. What’s your flavour? Italian or Spanish? – BBC Business Editor
3. Black France - Africa is a country
4. The dangerous cocktail of global money and local politics – Moisés Naím
5. On Nigeria’s Petroleum Industries Bill – Mallam Nasir El-rufai
Werner Herzog talks to Jian Ghomeshi of Studio Q
November 17th, 2011Werner Herzog, whose movie Nosferatu the Vampyre I saw over a long train ride a couple of weeks ago, talks at length about film-making, his new movie Into the Abyss, his hatred of capital punishment (one of the reasons he doesn’t want to apply for American citizenship), and how movies don’t change anything (he says that his movies tell stories, not make arguments; and ideologies and arguments belong in the political space, media, etc., not in movies).
It is hard not to be amused and even impressed by his idiosyncracies – he once ate his shoes after losing a bet, and he claims that the first thing he does when he walks into a room is to size everybody up and assess who of them could milk a cow. According to him, he could tell that Woody Allen couldn’t handle udders.
Well, check out the video above. Worth all the 25 minutes it takes to watch it.
H/T Open Culture
Recent Comments