I think Powell hit the hammer on the head. I was not surprised knowing that he and other Americans of his ilk do not suffer fools gladly. Tell., thank you for inviting him.

I worship the ground that Collin Powell Work on.I was upset how the Republican Party used him to convey a false aligation on Irag wapon of Mass destruction.I love him so much because he tells you like it is.I hope Nigerian Govt. Or PDP dominated Govt will learn something from him.Thank you sir for saying the truth and may god continue to bless you

Here we go again - Idol worshipping, ass-lickers. The same Powell that tagged "all nigerians are corrupt" thereby giving the western media the carte blanche to tar the entire nation of Nigeria, instead of naming the individual Nigerians that are corrupt. Up till now, a fellow "African" American (1st) US Attorney General is yet to release the names of Nigerian govt officials bribed-takers involved in the Halliburton scandal. It is one thing to label ALL NIGERIANS as corrupt, it is another to continue to protect those corrupt elements from been exposed so they can continue to steal and stash our scarce resources in Weestern banks. You two-faced liars.

"Jonathan stated that part of what the nation was celebrating was the successful transition of one civilian government to another… VP Good luck.

No Mr. VP Good luck what we are supposed to be Celebrating not what we are celebrating because the election that brought your administration to power was rigged and corrupted. It was a civilian coup instead of military.

Ghana has set the example of how African leaders could concede election defeat instead of win at all cost. Nigerians do not have respect for their leaders as observed my Gen. Powell because they are corrupt and stole the Will of the people using the Army and Police to perfect their machination. In a nutshell Sec. Powell is making it obvious why President Obama dumped Nigeria but would visit Ghana.

Geez! You keep repeating this paternalistic idea of comparing Ghana to Nigeria as if we are "primary school kids" that need role-models identified by the "headmaster." Even Mr. Obama mentioned it in his Egypt address yesterday that no country (US included) can dictate for other countries, who and how they are to be governed. Until Nigerians wake up to determine their own future, please stop insulting our intelligence any further with this unconscionable role-model gamut. No tin-god is going to come down & solve your problem for you. If democratic role-modeling is on Mr. Obama's agenda, why did he pick autocratic Egypt and Saudi Arabia - the 2 nationalities that perpetrated the 911 atrocities on America, instead of democratic Indonesia. Why did Bush invaded Iraq & Afghanistan, and not Saudi Arabia & Egypt? Nigerians' inferiority complex is galling, sometimes. If you are still a baby that needs spoon feeding, I urge you to please grow up, fast, to global real-politick, you ignoramus.

General Colin Powell is an esteemed personnel respected all over the world.

For TELL Communications to have invited him on such occasion was quite commendable. Speaks volumes of TELL's depth of thought. Nice indeed. But it would have been more informative for the Ex-US State Department Boss to be more forthcoming on how the US tinkers with Nigeria's political landscape for self-serviong goals. Good to know that Late General Sanni Abacha could remember through his clouded, puny mind to inform another General of his desire to drag Nigeria and her hundred and twenty million inhabitants back to the stone age. But Nigerians want to know more. What else does the US State Department know about Nigeria's troubled polity? Does it matter to Washington what happens to Nigerians so far the oil keeps flowing westward? What was Washington's role in Late MKO Abiola's death? There were allegations - just like it was with S.... and Ken Saro Wiwa's murder. Convenient. There were talks of Reparations to Africa/ The Black Race - Abiola had championed the makings of this campaign! And who again was that high ranking US Official who witnessed Abiola's convenient death? The Post Mortem? MKO's, i mean! Where is the full report? These are the disclosures that would start to heal Nigeria's open wounds - not the letter a cretin wrote of his warped intentions to singlehandedly destroy the most promising Nation in the Southern Hemisphere. Dr J.I OGUNYEMI/ RSA.

Do you realize that Nigeria has a first class LOBBY in washington DC? Would you like the CIA to give Nigeria public the Bank Accounts of ex-Pres. Obasanjo and all others with abundant deposits in foreign Banks? What do you think the current Nigerian President and other PDP stalwarts will do with the information. The Judiciary in Nigeria is not independent; that is why they don't deny bail to all the politicians who are arrested. If the FG of Nigeria is serious about corruption, Transparency International would have had a different opinion (All Africa.com, 23 May 2009). It is flippant for author kapara to state that US Att. General Holder has not given Nigeria the names of officials involved in the Halliburton bribery. How would you know if the AG of Nigeria has all the names. I recall it was publicised in Nigeria that thr AG of Nigeria was travelling to the US to obtain the names of the persons involved in the Halliburton bribery scandal. The name of the Nigerian official who was ordered out of Obasanjo's office is known. It is reported that members of the Nigerian Police has joined the ranks of Armed Robbers:this is why nobody goes to the police station to report robbery. Rebranding Nigeria will not cure the cancer. For propaganda to be effective, it must contain more truth than lies. We should pray for strength to tackle the corruption in Nigeia; it is insanity to proclaim the rule of law to the world without an independent judiciary.

What first class lobby in WDC are you talking about, Baba Rexmanyeto? Perhaps you mean “chop-chop" lobbyist if you are referring to Good-works International owned by 'Reverend" Andrew Young, who has gotten fat on Nigerian crude oil money, yet failed to deliver on Africa Project while CNN rubbished the aspirations of the hapless local Niger Deltans by portraying them as criminal thugs. As if former Senator Carol Mosley-Braun’s deceit (who became the mouthpiece for Abacha) is not enough, another one, former Congressman Jefferson also brought his greenbacks to bribe Atiku with peanuts in exchange for billions, if not millions down the line. If not for corrupt mind, how come Powell did not immediately disclose Abacha's letters until now? Supposing Abacha never died, we will probably never know what we know today. Perhaps Mr. Powell would have been in Abacha’s pocket too as his mouthpiece. With brothers and sisters like these, who needs enemies...?

Naija is a failed state masquerading as a demo-crazy. Our age-old values of wisdom and moral rectitude have been burnt at the altar of wanton, unbridled greed. Babies die of malnutrition and our elderly waste away while the politicians siphon our resources. We need a revolution of the mind and spirit. A complete Year Zero re-education to clear out the carcass of current mental processes and reasoning. All foreign assets owned by politicians should be seized, re-sold and money ploughed into schools, medicine, education....Yet, our people see the moral stasis on a daily basis, sigh deeply and carry on regardless as our country slips towards the sewer.

dear Kaparah..I am glad we can use Allafrica medium to share ideas..please stop calling others ass-lickers and don't demonise African Americans. All politicians have a price, Nigerians as well as African Americans.African American lobbists represents Nigeria 1000%. Andy Young can tell you where Obasanjo's loot are hidden - he is the conduit. Don't expect Colin Powell or any other US official to publicly give the name of a corrupt Nigerian official. Obasanjo will challenge anyone to proove that he has pocketed billions of Nigerian Oil money. Nigerian Govt. does not know how much oil is pumped out. The heads of NNPC are not accountable to anyone. Who has ever questioned the Permanent Secretaries about the unspent amount of budgeted allocation from one year to the other. The issue is that the FG of Nigeria is an arm of the PDP, and a continuation of Obasanjo's administration including the court system. Who will bell the cat. The conclusion is: if you can't beat them, you join them. You can bet your bottom niara that the average Nigerian is as smart as anyone in the world and will take the easy way out unless he is threatened with death.

Baba Rexmanyeto, I am not “demonizing African Americans" because, unlike someone to be mentioned later, I did not generalize, I named names of individuals – which I repeat; former Senator Carol Mosley-Braun (probably lost her Senate seat because of her “fundraising” relationship with Abacha when there was a US standing policy to isolate Abacha for murdering Ken Saro-Wiwa). I mentioned former Rep. Jefferson (he stashed his Atiku-bribe money in a freezer, according to FBI’s allegations), and Mr. Powell generalized, in essence that all Nigerians are corrupt. For the information of Mr. Powell, I am NIGERIAN by birth and I AM NOT CORRUPT. If you are, Mr. Rexmanyeto, please stand up and be a man about it rather than tarnish us all. Where I came from, those are fighting words, if our corrupt leaders are un-ashamed to equally declare their innocence and challenge anybody that accuse them of such an offensive words to prove their allegations. In the olden days, duels are fought and lives are lost for such defamation of personal character, including Hamilton who lost his life in a duel with US-VP Aaron Burr. Former President Obasanjo has said, repeatedly, that anybody that have proof of their baseless allegations to bring them forth. How many of the other Nigerian leaders (still living), from Gowon, Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abubakar, including this currently confused one, YarAdua has made such bold statement or volunteered to be probed as President Obasanjo has willingly done. It is you, sir, Mr. Rexmanyeto that is making baseless accusations by suggesting that “Andy Young knows where Obasanjo’s loot is hidden.” Perhaps you can prove this flippant allegation, which is tantamount to character assassination, of slander and libel in the court of law. As for my statement on the comment made by Ben/Maryland/USA when he said “I worship the ground...” Well, I stand corrected that a fully grown man that “worship” another fellow human being that wears his pants one foot at a time, pees, farts and…. just like me, especially if that person generalizes about me as been corrupt, is nothing but an ass-licker. I repeat, a man that “worships” another human is nothing but an ass-licker and I am sure you do not need a dictionary for that. The more reason we need the US Attorney General to publish the names of Nigerian bribe takers in the Halliburton case, rather than release the list to the Nigerian Attorney General who will bury the list, as they are famous for only to use the resulting innuendoes as instrument of character assassination of innocent people, if the word TRANSPARENCY is still relevant. I rest my case.

dear kaparah It is said that no arguement ever exhausts its cause. Are you in the payroll of the PDP or not. You are the only logical person who insists that Transparency International is mistaken that the Nigerian Government in the last ten years has not seriously attacked corruption. You are either part of the problem, but certainly not part of the solution. Denial does not enhance your patriotism; it has led Nigeria to the cliff.

Wow! Baba Rexmanyeto!!! If you could not respond to my last comments, I guess the next best thing for you to do is to change the subject, find other diversionary tactic to befuddle our “constructive discussion.” I will answer you one more time, sir. To start with, I believe you have to be a resident of Nigeria to belong to a Nigerian party - PDP, for that matter. FYI, I reside in the Washington DC metro (Fairfax County) and I made my first visit to Nigeria in 2005 since I left in 1981, shortly after Obasanjo passed the baton to Shagari. I have visited Nigeria 2ce since then and never stayed more than 2 weeks that my annual vacation allows. However, I am a proud and ardent supporter of former President Obasanjo for 4 reasons: 1) He is one of the founders of Transparency International which is unique given that OBJ is Nigerian (one of the most corrupt nation at that time - thanks to Powell for the notorierity) on top of being a former military head of state, who voluntarily handed power back to the civilian politicians. 2) He is in the vanguard for the eradication of corruption in not only Nigeria but also globally, Africa in particular. 3) He served both his country and Africa creditably for being a peacekeeping foot soldier in the Congos of the 1960s, and as a Military Officer during Nigeria's civil war that tried to "Keep Nigeria One." 4) During his 2 administrations (1976 thru 1979 - green revolution in agriculture to supplement Nigeria’s over dependence on oil, was his vision; and again between 1999 thru 2007 - economic reforms, national debt paid-off, beamed the light on and to fight Nigeria's endemic corruption were few of his accomplishments. These feats that I boiled down into four sentences are unparallel by any African leader, combined. We are all witnesses of the retrogression that has occurred since he passed on the baton, again. You all should have let him continue to at least laid the foundation of his Vision 20/20, allow his successor to adequately groomed to continue building the foundation, brick by brick. However, you want instant gratification - your dividend of democracy now - not realizing that it is easy (days) to destroy but takes generations to rebuild. In addition, you chose to listen to your foreign master-deceivers that continue to whisper into your inferior minds that you cannot govern yourselves unless power remains with the same slave drivers that have gotten us into the ditch we were and the same ditch to which we now return. Any more questions? Since I have responded to your brainless tantrum, would you back up your flippant allegation about "Andy Young and the loot...,” after all, you all belong in the same generation, perhaps you could enlighten us further? Please back up your allegations with facts, if you please. Thank you.