WHAT - ME WORRY?
Posted on 10/05/2006 4:34:18 PM PDT by Libloather
Friction rises in Nigerian government
Jefferson case contributing to the tension
Thursday, October 05, 2006
By Bruce Alpert
WASHINGTON -- Imagine that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were accusing each other of improprieties so bad that they called for impeachment proceedings.
That bizarre scenario is akin to what is playing out in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, as President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar engage in a monumental political battle that got its impetus, at least in part, from the lengthy U.S. Justice Department probe of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans.
There is concern within Nigeria that the conflict could end with both president and vice president impeached, igniting a possible return to the brutal military dictatorships that controlled the nation for much of the post-independence era between 1960 and 1999.
"Democracy in Nigeria remains very fragile," said Michael Schatzberg, an Africa expert at the University of Wisconsin, "so there's always concern when you have two constitutionally elected officials have this kind of fallout." No one can predict with certainty what will happen, he said, but the Nigerian public's disdain for military governments may make that option less viable.
**SNIP**
The U.S. Justice Department added fuel to the fire when it asked the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to look into Jefferson's connections to the vice president, as well as other Nigerian political and business leaders. The commission last month reported its findings, which included little about the Jefferson case but lots of allegations that the vice president illegally diverted Nigerian petroleum funds to businesses controlled by his friends.
That led President Obasanjo to ask the Nigerian Senate to investigate. It also prompted Vice President Abubakar to say that the commission was just smearing him as a favor to the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I think I got an e-mail from this guy.....
Are you 16 years old?
LOL! scam-o-rama!
(At this point, you really should hire a lawyer prior to the book...)
I was going to say...I have a feeling Jefferson is going to wind up over there running 419s before this is done.
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