Abuja — Former American Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter C. Carrington, has said Senators Barack Obama and John McCain could not have emerged as presidential candidates in Nigeria .

Carrington said this at a public lecture with the theme 'US electoral process and democratic politics' organized by the United States Embassy in collaboration with the Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development.

He spoke against the background of the role played by political godfathers in third World countries, especially Nigeria .

However, an attempt by Senator Jubril Aminu to disagree with him attracted jeers from the audience. Senator Aminu had in his reaction to Carrington's presentation disagreed with him, saying most Nigerian leaders were people who rose through the ranks to become what they became.

Carrington said "Many African parties perform like our big city machines used in places like Boston , Chicago and New York . The days of corrupt machines are mostly gone."

Carrington said:"There is no way a party can sanction you once you win their primaries. That leads us back to Senator Lieberman who ran with Democrat's Al-Gore in 2000 and now might be the running mate of the Republican candidate John McCain."