Daniel Idonor and Lawani Mikairu
12 August 2009
Abuja — As expected, the twin evils of corruption and bad leadership dominated bilateral talks between President Umaru Yar'Adua and the visiting US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton who arrived Abuja Tuesday evening on a two-day trip to Nigeria.
Mrs Hillary Clinton was said to have hit hard on corruption, urging the Federal government to tackle it and be more transparent as the preparation for 2011 election gets under way.
President Umaru Yar'Adua, right and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on her arrival for bilateral talks between the Federal Government and American officials in Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida.
She, however, said to have commended the way Nigeria has handled the Niger Delta crisis and the recent religious uprising in some parts of the North.
This is coming on the heels of Nigeria saying on Wednesday that it expected peace to return to its oil-producing region by year end even as Mrs Clinton offered US help in a bid to strengthen ties with Africa's largest nation.
At the end of the meeting, the Federal Government listed the efforts so far put in place to make the business of corruption and bad leadership less attractive to Nigerians and non- Nigerians in the country and its determination to continue to fight the evils.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents, after the visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Ojo Maduekwe, Minister of Foreign Affairs said YarÃÂdua maintained the same position with President Barack Obama on the issue of corruption and bad leadership.
According to Maduekwe "the president's position about good governance, the need to fight corruption and the issue of the rule of law, it was clear to the secretary of state that both President Yar'Adua and President Obama are on the same page on these issues."
"It was a great conversation- electoral reforms and commitment to the rule of law, the fight against corruption. The president acknowledged that we have serious challenges there. The President made it clear that the whole thing goes even more than the rule of law. It's about attitude and this affects the integrity of the electoral process."
The meeting between Clinton and the president, he said, was "very productive, the way you will expect it to be among friends. Honest, candid, encouraging, mutually inspiring, mutually re-enforcing and ultimately strategic."
Speaking on other issues discussed, he said: "It's about strengthening the capacity of the partnership for the two countries. One of the most powerful indications of that partnership is that the Secretary of State has pledged the commitment of the Obama administration to evolve a special relationship with Nigeria that will warehouse in what could be known as US/Nigeria Bi-National Commission."
President Umaru Musa Yar'adua (middle), Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and Visiting United State Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton at the Presidential Villa, Abuja Today Wednesday. Photos--state House.
The minister added that "nothing could be stronger than that in terms of how two countries can work together on a daily basis to strengthen understanding, goodwill, capacity and of course, in the case of Nigeria, to mobilise our tremendous resources, human and natural, to create prosperity.
"And the regional leadership we have been providing, the Secretary of State was very appreciative and she again pledged the commitment of her administration to continue to assist Nigeria to play that regional leadership."
Shortly after the meeting, Clinton, who was accompanied by Robin Sanders, US ambassador to Nigeria and other top embassy officials, walked straight to the waiting vehicle and drove off without a word to the waiting journalists at the presidential foyer.
Why we are fighting,by MEND
Meanwhile, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the region's main armed group, says it is fighting for a larger share of oil revenue for the region's impoverished local communities. Some members of the movement have already accepted the amnesty offered by the Federal Government. Under the amnesty running from August 6 to October 4, militants can register for reintegration programmes in nine oil-producing states.
Clinton said the United States would only play a supporting role in implementing the amnesty programme, stressing: "We know that this is up to the Nigerian people and government to resolve."
Nigeria's endemic corruption and political system also featured in her discussion with Nigeria officials. She said the United States government"-- strongly supports and encourages the government of Nigeria's efforts to increase transparency, reduce corruption and provide support for democratic processes in preparation for the 2011 elections."
This is against the backdrop of the 2007 election that poll monitors said was riddled with problems. Nonetheless, some observers saw it as at least a small step forward in a regional giant that has only experienced few peaceful transitions of power.
Nigeria Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe reacted by saying "Nigeria welcomed friendly US criticism but said corruption should be seen not as a sign of lack of will but "largely within the context of building state capacity. "We'll definitely make all the difficulties and problems become history as Nigeria marches to its manifest destiny," he said.
Clinton was scheduled later to hold an open forum with civil society leaders on corruption and a roundtable with religious leaders, the latest effort by President Barack Obama's administration to bridge the divide with the Islamic world.
Clinton refuses to discuss Boko Haram
Nigerian security forces late last month crushed an uprising by a Boko Haram Islamic sect in several northern states, leaving more than 800 people dead, the majority of them sect members. Clinton declined to discuss the operation and said it was up to Nigeria to determine if the so-called Boko Haram movement was home-grown or supported by Al_Qaeda.
But she saluted Nigeria's efforts to preserve a delicate peace between Muslims and Christians, calling it a "very important priority."
Mrs Clinton is expected to leave Nigeria later to Liberia and Cape Verde in continuation of her seven -nation Africa tour.
TI says FG not serious in fighting corruption
Meanwhile, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, the Northern Coordinator of Transparency International (TI), yesterday in Abuja said "the Federal Government is not serious in its fight against corruption."
Nwagwu, who made the remark in an interview, said: "There is no fight against corruption but mere talk. You still find that almost every agency of government is on trial. Corruption is rife and the fight against it is weak.
"With collective efforts, with the issue coming to the front burner, there is no reason why we can't tackle it, but the truth is that corruption is still pervasive.
"If corruption cases have been taken to court, we expect the judiciary to be alive to their duties and make sure that such cases are treated with dispatch.
Nwagwu noted that Nigeria ranked 26 on the Corruption Perception Index in 2007/2008 and remained the 33rd most corrupt country out of a total of 158 countries.
He said Transparency International was not about ranking countries and producing perception indexes, but about building capacity of institutions and individuals to tackle corruption.
"The most recent workshop we had was on the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Act or the NEITI Act, which is aimed at checking corruption in extractive industries such as petroleum and coal mining.
"If we are able to track corruption in such areas, it will solve 50 per cent of corruption problems in Nigeria," he said.
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Its is a shame on PDP, and most disappointingly the so call Senate president who knows the whole truth about Nigeria, but pretends that all is well with Nigerians. Nigerians are living in abyss poverty, bad roads, poor electricity, no Jobs thereby giving the Lebanese the opportunity to exploit Nigerian graduates at chip salary. with our rich natural resources being shared among the few corrupt politicians, ( David Mark & Co)
Hilary Clinton said the truth about Nigeria, our leaders in PDP have failed Nigeria for years, and one ex military man who knows nothing in the political world is criticizing the truth told.
we can see why Nigeria will still be trailing behind because our politicians are all corrupt and hate the truth.
Finally, i want to use this opportunity to thank former first Lady, Hilary Clinton for saying the truth. God bless you and your family.
God bless Nigeria!!!!!!!!!!!!
We need to do something to our so-called Leaders, seriously. There should be punitive measures for all their bastardly acts of curruptions and stupidity. Why would people in such high places decide not to see the ills of our society? Why? It is because they are not Leaders in the first place, but a bunch of psychos! Hilary Clinton said a little about the enourmous Nigerian problems. We are being taking for a ride because it is widely believed Nigerians cannot unite for a showdown viz: revolution. But time will tell because when you sample opinions of the public, it is the same; revolution. And just like the Niger-Delta crisis, the entire country may one day be engulfed in a bloody cleansing. My advise is for the Yar'adua administration to live up to expectations of all well-meaning Nigerians.
The truth is bitter. Nigeria leaders are always afraid to hear the truth and say the truth that is why what Hillary Clinton said did not go down well with the Senate President and PDP leaders. Can you imagine the reaction to an independent opinion about Nigeria? There is an adage in my native language that says 'no one can see the back of his own head its only another person that can see it and tell you how it looks like'. PDP should not forget that Hillary Clinton does not benefit directly or indirectly from what she said. The benefit will only accrue to Nigerians if we listen and make corrections. But Nigerian leaders are interested in their self-satisfaction and that is why they will never say the truth. It is only in Nigeria that individual is paramount and at any cost to the Nation. President Yar'adua should be very attentive and use his inner eye to see all those in his administration that are mis-guiding him.
The so called the Peoples Democratic Party[PDP]and the Senate President need to tell the Nigerian people where the the U.S. Secretary of states is wrong about corruption in Nigeria.If he can not disprove what the United States Secretary of States said regarding Government backed corruption in Nigeria and so on,let him and the party clean up their mess or zip it up and stop making empty political noise that created this problem of which the senate president and the party are known for as Nigerian people have come to understand.Remember,government that does not honestly serve its people never survives. You and your party need to learn to change for better and stop attacking people who mention your corrupt system.
I DON,T KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH NIGERIAN POLITICIANS .. INFACT I THINK SENATE PRESIDENT DAVID IS STILL BLIND THAT HE CAN NOT SEE . HILLARY CLINTON IS 100 % CORRECT IN ALL HER SPEACH. I THINK IS TIME WE TELL OLD CARGOS POLITICIANS ESPECIALLY P . D . P TO GO HOME AND SLEEP . NIGERIANS HAVE SURFERED ENOUGH AND ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
If our Yara Slow were to deliver a talk in the US, Iam sure he will be careful of the choice of words. In this case, Hilary was so blunt and even sagacious. She forgot that Nigerian - the pillar and pride of the black race is also entitle to respect and diplomacy. Afterwards, it is the same black nation that oiled the will of progress in developed countries. But truly I don't blame her. The crop of visionless, selfish, evil and uncivilized individuals that have ruled Nigeria and in indeed Africa over the decade was capable of bringing that kind of contempt. We have technocrats, visionary and selfless Leaders but the electoral process will not allow them closer to the corridor of power talk less of seating on power. Instead of the 1001-Point Agenda, Nigerians need: steady power generation, transparent electoral process, committed effort to wipe out corruption and True Federalism void of ethnicity and inequitable distribution of resources.
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