Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Alamieyeseigha, the complexity of Nigerian politics& UK media disinterest

I am still angered at reports that Alamieyeseigha, the money-laundering, tummy tucking Governor of Nigeria's Bayelsa State skipped bail in the UK over the weekend and has reappeared in pomp in his impoverished state capital of Yenagoa in the oil-rich Niger Delta......In his speeches, he talks about how "God saved him from his predicament" and how he intends to rededicate his life to the service of God and the people of his state....More like dedicating himself to refilling his pockets with ill-gotten loot from his government's coffers, considering that he has just forfeited 500 000 pounds in bail money, in addition to the over 1 million pounds in CASH seized from his posh London flat when it was raided by the Metropolitan Police......

Thankfully, today there are reports that there are moves to impeach him by the state assembly, which ordinarily would be reason for rejoicing......except that there are also reports that the legislators are being blackmailed to do this by the anti-corruption tribunal set up by the President Olusegun Obasanjo, who it is becoming increasingly clear appears to be planning to change the constitution to give himself a third term in office..... Alamieyeseigha has long argued that he is only being picked on because of his resistance to this self perpetuation bid and while that is no excuse, it perhaps explains why the people of Yenagoa are less than enthused by the President's anti-corruption fight which many have long argued is a selective fight, targetting his "enemies"....

Meanwhile there is a deafening silence from the UK media on the Alamieyeseigha escape from London- one would have thought that it had all the elements of an interesting news story- corruption, the oil rich Niger Delta, the UK's porous borders (long trumpeted by the tabloids as a security concern , the cloak-and-dagger Bonnie-Prince-Charlie- like escape across the Channel dressed as a woman, the efforts of the Nigerian government to bring a corrupt official to justice etc Apart from a few cursory brief pieces on the BBC website, and the Times and Telegraph, no one else seems to have picked it up. Which only fuels rumours in Nigeria that the British government may have been covertly complicit in Alams's escape......

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They were talking (Sally Tosvig) about the Alamieyeseigha incident on LBC97.3 http://www.lbc.co.uk this afternoon, In light of how porous the borders are or how incompetent the immigration is sometimes are.