United States National Intelligence Director, Mr. John Negroponte, has said that the survival of democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by neglect and corruption.
Negroponte yesterday made the comment in assessing Nigeria’s ability to transfer power from President Olusegun Obasanjo to an elected successor based on the general elections set for April this year.
He testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee on potential threats the United States is facing internationally.
“The (Nigerian) government’s institutional foundations are hollow from decades of neglect and corruption and will continue to make the country susceptible to recurring crises in the coming years,” he said.
Negroponte pointed out that the Nigerian government has been unable to stem rising lawlessness and insecurity in the oil-producing region of Niger Delta.
He added that the Nigerian population is “increasingly demoralised from worsening living conditions” in the face of official data showing that the country’s economy is improving.
On the implication of a crisis in Nigeria for the continent of Africa, Negroponte said “major political unrest in Nigeria would threaten other countries in the region”.
The significance of the April presidential election, according to the US intelligence chief is because it would mark the first time an elected government has handed power to another since Nigeria became independent from Britain in 1960.
Only last weekend, Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, reaffirmed to the American community that national elections scheduled for April will “definitely hold as planned”.
Fani-Kayode who made the assertion at the weekend in Washington DC at an interactive session with members of the influential US-based Council for Foreign Relations (CFR) said that the Obasanjo administration is committed towards a successful, credible, free and fair elections in April, this year, so as to transit from one civilian government to another.
He addressed the CFR a few days after the estranged Vice President Atiku Abubakar also spoke at the same forum.
Fani-kayode told the CFR panelists that all the machinery and facilities needed to conduct the election were in place, saying “any insinuations that there will not be elections is a lie and lacks substance”.
“There will be election and we will not let the world down in our moves to fully consolidate democratic governance in Nigeria,” he assured the CFR.
“Also, we will put our detractors to shame, because they are saying there will be no elections, while on the contrast we are prepared for elections in all the elective offices in the country,” the envoy, who is also the minister of aviation, noted.
Jan162007