Nigeria: graft games

The High Court in Abuja will consider on Thursday an objection to a corruption hearing involving Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The senator, who was released on bail last week, surrendered to authorities after spending several weeks in hiding.  Obasanjo-Bello chairs the Senate health committee, and in April was charged along with two former health ministers and several other officials of embezzling 470 million naira (3.5 million dollars) of public health funds.  She is accused of receiving a 10 million naira bribe.  Setting the conditions for her bail, the judge ordered Obasanjo-Bello to surrender her passport and to report monthly to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Marking its first year in office, the administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua has launched numerous inquiries into the affairs of the Obasanjo administration, and has tried to focus on the rule of law as the crux of its reform efforts.  The health committee scandal is the first to implicate directly a member of Obasanjo’s family, and suggests that the EFCC remains an effective anti-corruption agency -- if a controversial one after its much politicised role in the run up to the 2007 elections. 

However, the EFCC itself is under a subtle attack.  Its vigorous former chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, was sidelined in January, when he was sent on a year-long police training course.  The EFCC had in December targeted an influential former state governor, James Ibori, fuelling speculation that it was being hobbled to protect the administration’s interests.  These fears were downplayed when Ribadu’s deputy, Ibrahim Abdullahi Lamorde, was left in charge, as he appeared ready to continue the process Ribadu had begun.

It now appears that the EFCC may have overstepped itself with the case against Obasanjo’s daughter: earlier this month Yar’Adua nominated a new chair for the commission, Farida Waziri.  Vetted by the Senate this week, the new chairwoman appears more pliable than either of her predecessors, suggesting that the EFCC may become less active, denting Yar’Adua’s reform credentials.