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Nigeria is bedeviled with corruption and the consequences of this in disease prevalence, maternal mortality, deadly terror and other ramifications of State corruption. Africa’s largest nation and biggest economy has some of the world’s most poor with 100 million Nigerians living below the dollar-a-day poverty mark.
In a single fund raising dinner Saturday Nigeria’s billionaire barons coughed up a whopping sum of N21 billion, about $125 million dollars; already one-eighth the US record. Notably, the fund raising chief of the day, State-made billionaire Aliko Dangote was not in town and is yet announce his donation as Joseph Makoju, his representative stated. With Dangote and others’ donations coming in later, the total sum raised in the single event could reach half the US billion mark.
Billions of dollars have been reported stolen every year from State coffers according to global transparency organizations and the nation’s former central bank governor, now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Much of these funds are expected to be poured into campaigns. The President’s wife has reportedly stated to private associates that she has one billion dollars stashed dedicated for the 2015 February 14th elections.
Buying a Victory, Sponsoring Terror
Compared to the United States, Nigeria’s economy simply does not have the capacity for such an influx massive funds and as rapidly as they are being injected with less than 50 days to the Presidential elections. US donations typically fund media companies.
In Nigeria much of election funds is used to buy over electoral officials; bribe police, procure and process illegal voters cards and thumb printed votes; etc. Funds are also used to “buy people” by donating bags of food, “stomach infrastructure” as it is now notoriously called and the ruling party proudly refers to it. Ships of rice are being imported right now for this monumental task.
The political funds promote much of corruption in the society, but worse than this, there is an entire thuggery profession that thrives year after year on politics blood money. These thugs sponsored and armed for and by this corrupt political money are what resulted in Boko Haram terror group in the nation’s northeast and the MEND terrorist group in the South-south.
Boko Haram was formed as Ecomog by former Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and his then ANPP politician associate, Mala Othman, according to the former Interior Minister Abba Moro White-paper report and other official documents on Boko Haram.
The former Borno Governor, Modu Sheriff is known to believe so much in corrupt money campaign funding that he notoriously is noted to have said that the people of the State were too illiterate to be influenced by all the reports of his incompetence and looting because “most of them cannot read.” Noted to own Nigeria’s most expensive private jet, the only project the Governor allegedly developed for the State was a single boarding primary school that never made sense and was never used. On this backdrop, the purchase of an electoral victory in the State by the ex-Governor was by funding one of the worst terror organizations the world has ever known, the Boko Haram group responsible for over 100,000 deaths and the displacement of over a million Nigerians today.
MEND, a terror group the nation’s current President was known to be a patron of [STRATFOR], was likewise funded on this political money and the group has been responsible for the deaths of thousands via direct killing, pipe-line vandalism related oil spills and the resulting ecological and human poisoning and economic warfare against the State, leading to hardship and death.
Electoral Reforms: The Booby Trap Jonathan Avoided
As I reported in April of this year, Nigeria’s President rejected electoral reforms that will strictly monitor election donations; for the obvious reason—as he said—that “it will be a booby trap” for him.
Quoting my article of April 2014; “That’s a booby trap: President Jonathan says, rejecting needed campaign expenses regulation”:
“The Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonthan in Abuja Monday, rejected recommendations for the regulation of campaign expenses, submitted to him by the former Senate President Ken Nnamani headed National Stakeholders’ Forum on Electoral Reform. Goodluck challenged Nigerians to advocate a “realistic and practicable” law that would not be “a booby trap” for anyone. This according to a report today in DailyTrust.
“Section 91 of the Electoral Act 2010 stipulates that: “The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be N1 billion; governorship (N200million); Senate (N40million) and House of Representatives (N20million).”
The donation of N21 billion violated Nigeria’s electoral laws for candidate and individual and group donations. Though the donors attempted to dodge these laws by claiming their donations were made on behalf of groups, the Nigerian electoral law in Section 91 (2) and 91 (9) clearly stipulate that neither individual nor group/entity may donate over 1 million naira. The campaign cap too is set at N1 billion; though of course the crooks now facing public anger and requests for police investigation and seizure are expected to claim the N21 billion is for building a PDP sky-scraper or something.
Part of the critical changes Nigerians look forward to if and when the Buhari/Osinbajo government takes over in May of 2015, is sweeping and strict electoral reforms to cap and control election spending and possibly make all spending provided for equally by the government for all candidates to cancel the destruction party spending does to the nation and also to end Cabal purchase of governments.
The Billion Dollars May Buy The Victory Unless…
For now the Jonathan camp may well purchase their victory as Nigerians are hungry and desperate and though 90% of the social media populace strongly detest the corrupt corrupt leadership in open cahoots with a deadly, rogue Cabal; many of Nigeria’s voters are in rural areas and are unaware of the incompetence and corruption of the current administration; and unless Nigerian youth take it upon themselves to volunteer into all nooks and crannies to advise the people to take the money and food but vote for integrity; a re-election victory will be purchased for over a billion dollars on Valentines day.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah
http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something]
Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian