Nigeria President Yar'Adua budget signature 'forged'

Allies

of Nigeria's ailing president forged his signature on the country's supplementary budget last month, opposition politicians ha

ve

alleged.

They have written to the police asking them to investigate the forgery claims.

The government said President Umaru

Yar'Adua signed the budget despite being treated for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Yar'A

dua has been away for six weeks, fuelling fears of a power vacuum in Africa's most

populous nation.

Doctors say he is suffering from acute pericarditis - inflammation of the lining of the heart. He also has a long-standing

kidney complaint.

In a bid to dispel fevered speculation over Mr Yar'Adua's health, ministers have insisted the president is recovering from treatment.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili said the president had spoken to his colleagues over the telephone on Tuesday.

Several court cases have been launched demanding that power be officially handed to the vice-president.

And one group of activists has even suggested the president should be declared a missing person, and a search party should be sent out.

Nigeria and its hijackers

Nigeria is in danger of entering an unprecedented stage as a hijacked entity. In fact, the polity is in the throes of what ought to be called its proper name, a coup-in-progress. A small but desperate cabal is surreptitiously consolidating its illegitimate power grab. Nigeria has been reduced to Umaru Yar’Adua’s private toy, a plaything reserved for the sole pleasure of the man and his cronies.
As I write, Mr. Yar’Adua (whose self-appellation as servant-leader has become the cruel joke it was designed to be) has been away from Nigeria for more than forty days. Apart from his wife, and a tiny circle of associates, few Nigerians can swear that they know for certain where Yar’Adua is. All we know for sure is that he’s not in Aso Rock, the official residence of the Nigerian president. Most Nigerians imagine, of course, that the man is in a hospital in Saudi Arabia – not because it’s proven fact, but it’s simply the official line. It’s impossible to vouch for any information that comes from a government that’s raised duplicity and deception to the level of art.Forget, for a moment, that Yar’Adua’s “presidency” still reeks – despite the shameful verdict of the Supreme Court – of illegality. Worse, before our very eyes, a cabal hitched to Yar’Adua is usurping the sovereign will of Nigerians. That group is acting in the name of an enfeebled man who (at this writing) has absconded from his post.Michael Aondoakaa, Yar’Adua’s Attorney General, may not be at the center of this usurpation, but he strikes me as chief coordinator of this orchestrated conquest of Nigeria. Yar’Adua’s wife, Turai – who’s perhaps the most ambitious “presidential” spouse in Nigeria’s history – appears to be the chief engineer.It no longer startles Nigerians to hear it said that Aondoakaa is the worst attorney general in his country’s history. Nigeria has had some pretty unimpressive attorney generals, but Aondoakaa stands in a class all his own for mediocrity and crassness. Now he’s adding something even more dangerous and troubling to his resume: a facility for defending the degradation of the Nigerian constitution.

Death Of Innocence

The world, nay Nigerians got a rude re-awakening when the news of the failed attempt to bomb the Delta flight over Detroit filtered through. I remember sitting bolt upright from my bed on that Christmas day. I was savoring a quite Christmas somewhere in Delaware flickering through just the comedy channels and skipping the hard news channels. It was Christmas and I did not want to be bothered. The world can go to hell for all I care. But I was mistaken. The scream from my wife downstairs that I should switch to CNN immediately rattled me. She was not the CNN type.
She was more the Tyra Banks, Oprah and Discovery health type. I knew immediately it had to be big news. Sure it was. A Nigerian youth had just failed in an attempt to blow up a Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. 23 year-old Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who boarded the KLM flight from Lagos Nigeria, has just been arrested after his suicidal attempt to blow up the Delta plane with over 200 passengers failed and resulted in fire gutting his thighs and the seat area where he sat. Thanks to the sharp reflexes of some of the passengers, mother luck and above all God's intervention what I had thought was a beautiful white Christmas would have turned out to be a black Christmas and perhaps one of the worst Christmas days ever recorded.But that was not to be. I spent the entire day glued to the TV. I switched from one channel to another. Grabbed my laptop to monitor developments around the story. I wanted to gulp in as much information as possible. At first, I prayed there was a mistake somewhere and the said chap was not a Nigerian.Infact, I tried to find an explanation for the incident by trying to justify the fire as arising from the attempt of a cigarette addict or knuckle head attempting to have a quick smoke in flight.
However, five hours after the news broke and more information became available, reality dawned on me. With that reality came sadness and an apprehension never experienced before for Nigerians and Nigeria. I was in the USA, working at the Voice of America when September 11, 2001 happened. My office was less than 5 miles away from Pentagon, so it came close home. I covered the aftermath then and continuously for almost 8 years reported on the US led war on terror. From Pakistan, to Iraq, to Afghanistan the terrorists roamed. On the streets of London and other European capitals they planned, plotted and struck. The USA never rested. It worked with other countries to curtail and destroy the terrorists. It became an engaging war and Nigeria was not left out in supporting the USA and the international community in confronting terror.

Declare ‘president’ Yar’adua missing

Worried by the prolonged absence from his presidential functions in Nigeria due to ill-health and the total ignorance by the Nigerian citizens of the whereabouts of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, a call has gone to the National Assembly legislators billed to resume today, to declare the president missing and order a search team to locate precise whereabouts of our president and report back to Nigerians with verifiable video evidence.
Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) a pro-democracy and development focused civil society organization which made the plea to the National Assembly legislators in a statement authorized by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko averred that the search team to be made up of top government officials, National Assembly leaders and some leaders of the organized civil society including Nigerian Medical Association and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) should ensure that when located, the ailing president should respect section 145 of the 1999 constitution by transmitting Presidential power temporarily pending his full recuperation to vice president Goodluck Jonathan to fill the leadership vacuum currently existing in Nigeria occasioned by President Yar’adua’s absence.

Three Malians to Soon Stand Trial in US Courts for Alleged Narco-Terrorism

Three citizens of the West African country of Mali will soon go on trial here in the United States on charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure, and Idriss Abelrahman were arrested on December 16 in Ghana after they allegedly agreed to transport cocaine through West and North Africa to Europe for al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Islamic Magreb and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known as FARC.

The three organizations have been designated by the U.S. State Department as foreign terrorist groups. Lou Milione, supervisory special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said the arrests were made after a series of undercover meetings. “In the complaint, it lays out that there were series of undercover meetings where there were audio and video recordings, And during those negotiations, our undercovers, one of them presented himself as a member of the FARC. And the other undercover presented themselves as a Lebanese sympathizer or Islamic sympathizer and also anti-American,” he said.

This Decay Can Inflict Poetic Justice, Alhaji (Dr.) Mutallab

The New York Times described him as “a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official”. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula boastfully called his son; their “Nigerian brother” who successfully outwitted airport security systems even though his determined efforts to wreck the havoc he was deployed for was marred by a ‘technical fault’.
Since Christmas Day when fate foiled 23-year old Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s attempt to bring down a jetliner over Detroit one has watched in dismay as his father, Alhaji (Dr.) Umaru AbdulMutallab and the rest of his family embarked on a subtle PR ploy to cast themselves as unfortunate victims of their son’s indiscretion. Some, particularly in the popular press seem to have bought into their ploy: In a side bar, The New York Times proclaimed: “Parents of Suspect Offer Help”. From his London base, one Eddie Iroh in comments made in Nigeria’s Next newspaper was quick to praise Mutallab, the father for alerting Nigerian authorities and the US Embassy in Nigeria that his son had gone AWOL. My reading and assessment of Alhaji (Dr.) Mutallab’s alert is that he simply dialed 911 to for help that could bring his son back to him. The family statement confirmed as much: “We were hopeful that they would find and return him home”, it reads in part. The US Embassy cared less and rightly so, to use their system to help a man who pays neither tax nor tight to sustain it to look for his son and bring him home. That US authorities simply inserted the lad’s name into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, the extensive collection of data on more than 500,000 people, instead of the “far smaller no-fly list, which has only 4,000 names, or the so-called selectee list of 14,000 names of people who are subjected to more thorough searches at checkpoints” underscores the validity of my assessment even further. As for the Nigerian authorities, it’s premature at this point to even bother to infer why they wouldn’t bate an eyelid in response to Mutallab’s distress call. That fact will unfold clearly a little later in this piece.

Nigerians Fear Backlash Over Attempted US Bombing

Many Nigerians think his action harmed the image of their country; the government plans to fight any attempt to stigmatize its citizens in the incident.

The botched Christmas Day bomb attack on a U.S. airliner involving a suspect from Nigeria has prompted concerns for Nigerians traveling abroad. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan warned the incident could trigger more scrutiny and "harassment" of Nigerians. The Nigerian government says it will fight any attempt to stigmatize its citizens in the wake of the alleged attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger jet by a Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The suspect has said he was trained by al Qaida in Yemen. Many Nigerians think his action harmed the image of the West African nation. But the government says the alleged attack was an "isolated incident" and cannot be an excuse to discriminate against Nigerians living or traveling abroad. House of Representatives member Abika Dabiri, who chairs the House Committee on the Diaspora, says Nigerians living abroad are very worried. "We've heard many complaints and worries from Nigerians in the diaspora as to how they are being treated, all of a sudden because of this," Dabiri said. "So we are worried about that, but we want to stress that the act of this Nigerian, this alleged act of terrorism, it doesn't represent the face and conscience of Nigerians so it should not be an opportunity or a reason to treat Nigerians all over the world shabbily." Nigerians have often complained about being targeted at international airports for stricter screening," Ekhomu said. "In Lagos, security consultant Ona Ekhomu says even more stringent security measures await Nigerians at foreign airports. "To all Nigerians, when you are flying abroad please have a great attitude. Do not go there and do our normal Nigerian thing. We are brash, we are very self-assured, we know our rights and stuff … you will end up in jail." The West African nation is without a leader at the moment, as President Umaru Yar'Adua is still receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for a heart condition. Image-conscious Nigeria also faces unrest in its oil-producing region as well as endemic corruption, a high crime rate, poor infrastructure and other problems.

How Babangida killed Maryam

Only God knows how painful Maryam Babangida's death has been to her husband of 40 years, Ibrahim. From all indications, it must have been very painful. They had never been separated for four decades, living together through the good, tough and bad times. When Babangida annulled a free and fair election in 1993 and was given the boot, he found comfort in his wife. She was never known to have failed to render him unconditional love and support. Even when Babangida character as a ruthless dictator was in play, Maryam never spoke badly about anything her husband did. Contrarily, she used her husband's position to her greatest benefit.
How bad it must have been for Ibrahim to have spent the last few months like an ordinary human being attending to a sick wife in the United States? One of Nigeria's richest and most crowding-drawing leaders must have been humbled, going back and forth in an American hospital to care for a sick wife. Babangida was not ordinary. He had lots of money. He could have bought the hospital where his wife died and all the medical staff, if he wished, and shipped them to Minna. What went wrong? This did not happen, did it? Nigerian leaders know when they leave the shores of Africa, they lose the air of importance accorded at home. Quite often, they drive their own cars and are treated with courtesy but with none of the 'rankadede' accompaniments in Nigeria. When they eat their snacks, they have to throw the wrap in the bin like everyone else. When they go to the post office, they have to wait in line as everyone else. When they get to the airport, they must obey the rules. It must have been very humbling for Ibrahim Babangida to have gone through the 'disrespect' of the American life while at the same time tendering to a seriously ill wife.

Fresh Boko Haram crisis; Eight die in Bauchi

Eight persons including two soldiers were feared dead today in renewed sectarian strife in Bauchi State. Members of a religious group, Kalakato, were said to have gone on the rampage in a bid to avenge the killings of some members of the Boko Haram sect about six months ago.
Two members of the group and four children aged between two and six are among the casualties. The children were burnt in a house they sought refuge.The Federal Low Cost Housing neighbourhood at Zango in the Bauchi metropolis was a no go area as armed soldiers and riot policemen battled the fundamentalists.The area was the scene of a similar skirmish last February 18.Soldiers and policemen are patrolling the street to restore normalcy.

Why is the Nigerian Army Promoting Senior Military Officers

VP Goodluck Jonathan at logger-heads with Turai Yar’adua but still plays his card cool, Coup rumours and secret meetings; why is the Nigerian Army announcing the promotion of officers in the cadre of General? To bribe and stop them from organising a coup?

Eight officers were elevated to the rank of Major General, while 49 others were moved to the rank of Brigadier General.
Nigerian sick President, Umaru Yar’adua still on AWOL in Jeddah Saudi Arabia, high-wire intrigues and intense power struggle goes on inside Aso Rock, Nigerian caught in US airline terrorist attack, more pipelines explode in the Niger Delta, Banks in melt-dwon, Economy in doldrums, Anambra political crisis nears a powder keg, Maryam Babangida is dead, letter bombs explode in Lagos, Concerned Nigerians wonder what will happen on January 1st 2010, when there won’t be a Chief Justice of the Federation of Nigerian to swear in Jonathan Goodluck even if the powers that be agree to declare Yar’Adua incapacitated by then. Pointblanknews.com reports that some notable politicians said to be close to the ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may have approached some top military personnel with a whooping N10 Billion to take over power and subsequently hand over to them after six months.
Saharareporters say the first lady, Turai, Yar’adua’s wife insists that the military be allowed to take over power after a vacuum would have been created by January 1st 2010, when there won’t be a Chief Justice of the Federation of Nigerian to swear in Jonathan even if they agree to declare Yar’Adua incapacitated. The military, under the plan, would intervene to “prevent chaos and unconstitutionality from derailing Nigeria’s unity and corporate existence”.

Chinese ship crew 'rescued' from Somali pirates

China says it has rescued the 25 crew members of a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in October.
No mention of ransom payment was made, despite reports that $4m (£2.5m) was delivered on Sunday.
The De Xin Hai bulk carrier is under Chinese naval escort after the rescue operation, the foreign ministry said.
The hijack was the first of a Chinese ship since China posted three warships to join the international anti-piracy force in the Gulf of Aden.

Bomb suspect came from elite family, best schools

As a member of an uppercrust Nigerian family, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab received the best schooling, from the elite British International School in West Africa to the vaunted University College London.
But the education he wanted was of a different sort: Nigerian officials say his interest in extremist Islam prompted his father to warn U.S. authorities. As Abdulmutallab was being escorted in handcuffs off the Detroit-bound airliner he attempted to blow up on Christmas Day, he told U.S. officials that he had sought an extremist education at an Islamist hotbed in Yemen.
A portrait emerged Sunday of a serious young man who led a privileged life as the son of a prominent banker, but became estranged from his family as an adult. Devoutly religious, he was nicknamed "The Pope" for his saintly aura and gave few clues in his youth that he would turn radical, friends and family said.
"In all the time I taught him we never had cross words," said Michael Rimmer, a Briton who taught history at the British International School in Lome, Togo. "Somewhere along the line he must have met some sort of fanatics, and they must have turned his mind."
Abdulmutallab has been charged with trying to destroy a Northwest flight on Christmas Day with 278 passengers and 11 crew members on board. The detonator on his explosive apparently malfunctioned and he was subdued by other passengers.

Through an official, Abdulmutallab's father "expressed deep shock and regret over his son's actions."
His family home sits in the city of Funtua, in the heart of Nigeria's Islamic culture. Religion figured into the family's life: His father, Alhaji Umar Mutallab, who had a successful career in commercial banking, also joined the board of an Islamic bank — one that avoids the kind of interest payments banned by the Quran.
The large house, surrounded by a wall and a metal fence just off the main road running through the city, stood empty, a common occurrence for a jet-set family that sought an education abroad for Abdulmutallab. Family members told The Associated Press they could not comment but expected the family to issue a statement.

Beyond the tears for Mrs. Maryam Babangida

While sympathizing with General Ibrahim Babangida over the death of his darling wife, Maryam, I am compelled to recall a portion of my address at the at the public presentation of THE GATEKEEPERS on December 16, 2009 at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos when I observed inter alia:
“The Pius Okigbo Panel revealed that the Ibrahim Babangida junta diverted the huge sum of $12.2 Billion from the Dedicated Accounts in the Central Bank from 1998-1992. If a little part of the stolen wealth had been channeled towards the improvement of the health sector Nigerians would have had access to affordable and qualitative health care delivery system. But since that was not done the former military president himself had to be flown to Paris , France where he underwent surgery for radiculopathy when he was in power. Right now, his wife, Mrs. Maryam Babangida is receiving treatment for cancer in a foreign hospital.

Even though Nigeria made more petrol dollar during the Olusegun Obasanjo years than any other period in her history the Federal Government neglected the health sector. It was so bad that government officials and other privileged citizens had to travel abroad to treat all manners of ailment. The President’s wife, Mr. Stella Obasanjo lost her precious life in the hands of quack doctors in Spain . The leader of the team of doctors has since been convicted and ordered to pay compensation of $120,000.00 to the son of the deceased.

During the presidential campaign in 2007 Governor Umaru Yaradua was rushed to a German hospital to treat catarrh! When it was rumoured that he had died President Obasanjo called him on phone. As soon as Alhaji Yaradua denied the ugly rumour President Obasanjo who was then at a campaign rally at Abeokuta, Ogun State sang a song taken from Psalm 35 which goes thus: “Awon to nniwa lara Baba, niwon lara ” (O God, take up our case with them that subject us to harassment). Regrettably, the press did not take up the challenge of finding out why President Obasanjo was imposing an ailing successor on the nation.

Obama orders air security review after jet bomb attempt

US President Barack Obama has ordered a review of air security measures after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jet on Christmas Day.
Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president wanted to know how a man carrying dangerous substance PETN had managed to board a flight in Amsterdam.
He said the system of watch-lists would also be examined after it emerged the man was listed and known to officials.
A US record for 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was created last month.
Mr Gibbs told ABC News that the review would examine, firstly, the system of watch-lists used by government agencies, which includes three lists which become progressively shorter as risk increases.
'Dangerous substance'
The lists include a watch-list, with some 550,000 names on it, a "selectee" list with 18,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with 4,000 names of people who are not permitted to board planes.

Mr Abdulmutallab was placed on the lowest-risk list by US authorities in November 2009, after his father alerted authorities about the behaviour of his son.
Mr Gibbs said the number of people on the watch-list was "a huge number".
"The president has asked that a review be undertaken to ensure that any information gets to where it needs to go, to the people making the decisions. The president wants to review some of these procedures and see if they need to be updated," he said.
On 24 December Mr Abdulmutallab travelled from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then on to Detroit with an explosive device attached to his body, US officials say.
Shortly before the flight was due to land in the US, he allegedly attempted to detonate the device beneath a blanket but he was overpowered by passengers and crew.
Mr Abdulmutallab, the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, has been charged by US authorities with trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight as it was coming in to land.
US airlines especially have tightened security after the attempt, increasing screenings and body searches and, in some cases, confining passengers to their seats without pillows or blankets for the last hour of their flight.

Ibori’s Pyrrhic Victory in Asaba is Without Prejudice to the Case against Him and His Associates in London

The report of the infamous judgement of Justice Marcel Awokulehin (dismissing the 170-count indictment of James Ibori purportedly for lack of evidence) by the Associated Press on Thursday December 17, 2009 rightly condemned the complicity of the Nigerian government in high level corruption. According to the report, which was carried by many international news media, “Ibori represented an opportunity for Nigeria to hold to account government officials long criticized for lining their own pockets instead of helping the poor, especially in the restive Niger Delta. As an associate of Yar'Adua, he also stood as a test of the president's vow to crack down on corruption”.
“That widespread corruption led U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to lump Nigeria with Cuba this week as governments ‘able but unwilling to make the changes their citizens deserve’”, it concludes. Therefore, come 2010, which will be the 50th anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence from Britain, long suffering Nigerians, failed by their own government, will be looking up to the old colonial master for justice in this matter when the trials of Ibori’s wife Theresa Ibori, his mistress Udoamaka Okoronkwo, his sister Christine Ibori-Ibie, his former personal assistant Adebimpe Pogoson and his London-based solicitor Bhadresh Gohil for conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering restart at the Southwark Crown Court. Ibori’s conviction in Asaba would not have harmed the Crown’s case against his associates in London, which perhaps explains why the first set of trials was adjourned twice to allow the dithering Justice Awokulehin to deliver his judgment, but such a conviction is not required to prove the case against him and his associates. In his ruling in 2008 on the preparatory hearing on the admissibility of the evidence provided to the prosecution by the EFCC during Ribadu’s tenure, Judge Rivlin QC summarised the money laundering charges as follows:

Averting a grave constitutional crisis: An open letter to the FEC

President Umaru Yar'Adua has been a patient in a foreign hospital since 23 November 2009. The day before he left, a public statement by the Presidency announced the President would travel to Saudi Arabia for a medical review.
48 hours later, the President was rumored dead. In response to the rumor, the President’s personal physician informed Nigerians he was being treated for “acute Pericarditis”. This is how Nigerians learnt that the President had, in fact, been evacuated for medical attention abroad.
No one has yet credibly confirmed to Nigerians the diagnosis that detains our President overseas. His prognosis is undisclosed. No one is sure when or how he will return.

Since the President was medically evacuated, the public officials that he left behind have served him and Nigerians disreputably. Some of them have claimed that they are in regular contact with him in hospital. Others have claimed knowledge of when he will return.
These claims are false. It is now reasonably clear that no one except the attending medical professionals and the President's closest family members have had access to him since his medical evacuation. Their relationship with him is confidential.
The prolonged absence of the President from the country and the mismanagement of public communication on his health by the federal government undermine the principles of constitutional and accountable governance.

Turai Yar'Adua our modern day Imelda Marcos and Hillary Clinton Lesson

Imelda Marcos is known in world history as the schemer of Philippines but also the “jointe presidento” of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos became the 10th President of the Philippines, he took the oath of office to defend the constitution of Philippines but in practical terms gave the “right to rule” to his amiable, strong wife, the “rose of Tacloban” and “iron butterfly” Imelda Marcos.
Today Nigeria is presenting to the world her own Imelda Marcos in the person of “Her Excellency” Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, wife of the bedridden President of the Federal republic of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Turai like Winnie and Hilary also finds herself in the throes of very sad historical circumstances. For her right now, there is the need to rise up from the ruins of a heart that should be shattered by the fate of her terminally ill husband who is also the president of a country in turmoil and stand on the side of her country. Turai must choose between the privileges of being the wife of a president and the rights of a country in need of a president; a president at work. She also needs to choose between the needs of a helpless man who must be challenged by the fact he is indeed dying and her need to enjoy the splendour, influence and ostentation that attend the life of a president's wife in Nigeria. Inspire of the despicable things we do to each other in a bid to survive and be influential, we are a nation of people with the African spirit; we share deep fraternal ties and true love for one another. Inspire of the fact that Stella and her husband abused the faith of Nigerians, we sympathised with him and her family. We are quick to empathise with our neighbour in distress and do whatsoever we can to ease the pain. That is why it is painfully embarrassing to see that we have been denied the privilege to empathise with the Yar'adua family over the predicament of their son and Turai must take the bulk of the responsibility for that because of the obvious choices she has made. She must be held accountable for the fact that rather than cushion her husband's pains, she is fuelling the outrage that compounds his situation by insisting that he hangs unto power at the expense of Nigeria and his life. How much could a man possibly hold unto at a time like this? It's amazing to see how she has evolved from the rustic woman who suddenly found herself in Aso rock to this sophisticated trendy woman with an insatiable appetite for power and the accessories that make it addictive. Turai leaves no one in doubt about her aspirations and she seems to be acting a well thought out plot that should culminate in her enthronement.

El-Rufai challenges Nigeria corruption arrest warrant

A high-profile former Nigerian minister has gone to court to challenge moves to arrest him over corruption allegations.

As a close ally of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Abuja Minister Nasir el-Rufai used to be one of Nigeria's most powerful people.

His lawyer has described the international arrest warrant issued last week as part of a "witch-hunt".

Mr el-Rufai is currently in the US but has promised to return to Nigeria before the end of the year.

He is wanted over the alleged disappearance of some $246m of government funds.

The warrant was issued after the authorities said he had missed several invitations to answer the allegations against him.

He denies any wrong-doing and his lawyer says the charges are politically motivated.

Last week, his lawyer Robert Amsterdam suggested that the warrant had only been issued because President Umaru Yar'Adua is sick in hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Mr el-Rufai was one of more than 50 prominent Nigerians who signed a letter calling on President Yar'Adua to step down because of his health problems.

The calculated controversy

South Africa's ruling African National Congress is desperately trying to bridge the widening cracks in its partnership with the South African Communist Party (SACP) after its youth wing leader Julius Malema was booed and heckled at the SACP's national conference recently.

As a close ally of President Jacob Zuma, Mr Malema, 27, is one of the most influential people in the country.

He is also one of its most divisive.

The communist delegates booed Mr Malema after he had called SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin a "white messiah" in a row over proposals to nationalise the country's mines.

After being heckled, Mr Malema stormed out, saying that he would report the matter to the president.

Following the row, the ANC distanced itself from his statements - not for the first time - but no disciplinary action has ever been taken against Mr Malema.

His own man?

The ANC youth league leader garnered a lot of support for Mr Zuma in the run-up to the April elections, so some argue that the president is in some way indebted to him.

It has been suggested that his outrageous utterances may be coming from higher up in the ANC.

During Mr Zuma's long legal troubles, which his allies blame on a plot by then President Thabo Mbeki, Mr Malema infamously said: "We are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma".

His statement drew widespread condemnation from politicians and South Africans - opposition parties questioned why President Zuma, who was also present at the rally, had not publicly reprimanded Mr Malema.

But whether from his own thoughts or taking a cue from his seniors, what Mr Malema has said has sometimes come to pass.

He was among the first to announce that Mr Mbeki would be sacked as president.

Oil Spill ravages Mobil Host community at Qua Iboe field

Ibeno community, near Eket in Akwa Ibom at the weekend reported another major oil spill at the Qua Iboe oil field operated by Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN). Director in charge of oil spills at National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Mr. Musa Idris confirmed the oil spill. Musa said that NOSDRA was in receipt of the oil spill report and had commenced investigation to disclose the volume of oil discharged into the environment. “The oil spill has been reported, the pipeline was tampered with as a result of construction activities, at the oil field, a team from Department of Petroleum Resources, NOSDRA and Akwa Ibom ministry of environment would visit the oil fields tomorrow”, Musa claimed Fishermen who operate along the Ibeno shoreline sighted crude oil discharge from the Idoho Oil Platform within the Qua Iboe Iboe field on Sunday. "Clean up" activities had commenced as about 10 vessels were seen deployed for the clean up exercise on Monday. The Spill had contaminated fresh water within one kilometer radius from the Idoho oil well as the vessels laden with dispersants were see on Monday trying to contain the oil spill.