A corruption investigation in Washington has roiled Nigeria, leaving the top two leaders publicly trading allegations.
Nigeria’s president says his estranged vice president is implicated in the bribery case against a U.S. legislator, and the vice president has responded with damaging allegations against the president.
The very public feuding in a country where politics often erupts into violence is particularly disturbing for Nigerians because presidential elections in which the vice president is expected to run are just around the corner, in April 2007.
Nigeria is Africa’s leading oil producer and the world’s eighth-biggest exporter, with exports of 2.3 million barrels daily. But it’s a country hobbled by a history of official corruption and bloody coups.
With the president and vice president locked in a political duel, preparations are not being made for the crucial vote, said Clement Nwankwo, lawyer and founder of leading rights group, Constitutional Rights Project.
“What we see now is that there are no clear, defined possibilities about where Nigeria is headed,” he said.
President Olusegun Obasanjo last month forwarded to the National Assembly a report of investigations conducted by the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The report includes allegations that Vice President Atiku Abubakar diverted millions of dollars of public funds that ended up as loans to friends and business interests, including iGate Inc., a Louisville, Ky., telecommunications firm that tried to start business in Nigeria in 2004 and that has been caught up in the case of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D., La.).
Jefferson has been under investigation since March 2005 for allegedly using his position to help iGate – which sought contracts with Nigeria and other African nations – and seeking bribes in return.
The FBI said it found $90,000 stashed in a freezer in his home.
Jefferson has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing, but was stripped of his seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
Jefferson’s spokeswoman would not comment; his attorney did not return calls for comment. Representatives of iGate could not be reached.
In Nigeria, Abubakar has countered the investigation agency’s report with damaging allegations of his own.
He said he and Obasanjo together controlled a bank account said by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigators to have been a conduit for illegal payments.
General elections in April could be the first successful transition from one elected civilian to another in the country’s 46-year history as an independent nation.
Military strongmen – including Obasanjo, who ruled briefly as an army general in 1970s – held sway for 29 years.
Whoever controls presidential power usually determines who gets the oil wealth in a country of more than 130 million people with more that 250 distinct ethnic groups, split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. For that reason, elections are often fought like wars.
Obasanjo, a southwestern Christian, is prevented by the constitution from seeking a third term. He has not indicated his choice to succeed him, but it’s clear he does not want Abubakar, who has said he will run.
Two former military rulers are among more than 20 prominent politicians who have declared interest in running for the presidency.
Many political leaders from the Muslim north have been clamoring for a return of the presidency to their region, which had held power longest in the past.
A campaign to amend the constitution and extend Obasanjo’s stay was defeated in the assembly in May, with Abubakar and fellow Muslim northerners stoutly opposing the move.
Abubakar alleges his current woes stem from his “principled stand” against Obasanjo’s continued stay in power.
Obasanjo’s office denies the charge.
“What we see now are two former allies now trying to get rid of each other, making it messy,” said Ike Onyekwere, a Nigerian political commentator.