Questions trail government’s stance on Halliburton

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa’ s revelation on Wednesday that $150 million out of the $180 million allegedly offered as bribe to some former Nigerian leaders was trapped in a Swiss bank, has raised more questions than answers.

On Thursday, his aide, Taiye Akinyemi, could not answer questions on the name of the bank’ where the money is lodged and how the money was discovered.

“What kind of question is that?” Mr. Akinyemi asked when NEXT placed a phone. call to him. “The minister has told the world what he discovered and you are asking this question. In what context? Let us situate the question, please. What else do you want from him?”

Pressed further to reveal how the discovery was made, Akinyemi simply said, “I don’t know.”

He was also completly unable to answer a question on who exactly Mr. Aondoakaa met in the United States, at the Department of Justice. “I don’t know,” was Mr. Akinyemi’s response. But, he later added: “He’s talking to his colleagues there, but I don’t know the names of those people.”

In the wake of official fogginess, leading Nigerian political figures are speaking loudly on the conduct of the Attorney General on the Halliburton saga, saying how unimpressed they are.

“The Attorney General’s position is full of contradictions and diversionary,” said Shehu Sanni, human rights activist in Kaduna. “He is more or less chasing shadows and avoiding the real object. He should be made to understand that Nigeria’s interest and image can be best protected by prosecuting those who perpetrated the crime and not legal gymnastics meant to deceive and divert the attention of Nigerians from the real criminals and perpetrators.”

Mr. Sanni’s comments come on the heels of remarks from the spokesman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Owei Lakemfa who characterized the Attorney General’s remarks as “sadly expected” and said that nothing of value will happen in governance until “we have been able to curb corruption in the country.”

Mr.Lakemfa challenged the logic of the official response on Nigeria, asking why the Nigerian government could not move ahead to do its work with the information currently available to it, rather than waiting for a complete information which, according to him, always comes incrementally in the course of all investigations.

The NLC spokesman is unimpressed on the chosen strategy of Mr. Aondoakaa to deal with the scandal. “I don’t see the bases for the suit they want to bring up. I don’t know. Don’t forget that this Halliburton thing has been on for long. Halliburton is also known as an international bribe-giver. I don’t know why the Attorney General wants to sue them, because if you are talking of the image of the country, I’m not sure anybody will want to listen to that.”

He described the strategy as “a piece of rubbish” and said there ought to be better ways of restoring national integrity. “If we are talking about the integrity of this country, we were all around when the scandal on the Petroleum Development Fund broke out, when the then president and the then vice- president accused each other of looting the place and nothing happened. So I don’t know what integrity the Attorney General is trying to protect, Mr. Lakemfa added.

Mr. Sanni agrees with Mr. Lakemfa. He added that the Halliburton saga showed the level of rot in our country’s economy “under our former leaders and it demonstrates the high level of criminal activities which occurred in public offices in Nigeria.”

“There can be no re branding of this country without a thorough investigation of these elements. I remain skeptical that such will happen because of party solidarity and the credibility of the present administration.”

Sola Akinyede, chairman, Senate committee on Anti-corruption, however, declined to comment on the Halliburton saga. “You know the Senate set up an ad-hoc committee comprising three committees, Judiciary and Legal Matters, Gas and Anti-Corruption which I’m chairman, so I won’t be able to comment on that matter now,” Mr. Akinyede said.

When pressed further he said “it will be prejudicial for me to comment on it when we are still working. You can understand my point.”