Vol 53 No 20 | NIGERIA Financial faultlines 5th October 2012 Rising oil theft, the insurgency in the North and fuel subsidy fraud make it hard for the government to survive unless it agrees to hard-hitting reforms So far, those blocking reform are winning hands down in the running battles with reformers in the government. Yet their victory could prove to be a hollow one if they bankrupt the ...
Vol 53 No 14 | NIGERIA Dazzling statistics 6th July 2012 The government’s financing gap is opening up and the reformers are being blocked but the investors keep on coming Which are the more stunning figures? The billions of dollars of investment sluicing into Nigeria despite its deepening security crisis? Or the billions of dollars of oil and gas re...
Vol 53 No 14 | NIGERIA Turning security upside down 6th July 2012 A new political strategy would be more use in the fight against Boko Haram than sacking officials The latest wave of attacks on churches, police stations and even building workers across northern Nigeria seems to be the insurgents’ response to President Goodluck Jonathan’s sack...
Vol 53 No 13 | NIGERIAUNITED STATES Fine gesture 22nd June 2012 The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is giving ‘appropriate consideration’ to a request that it share with the victims the financial penalties (‘disgorgement’) it l...
Vol 53 No 11 | NIGERIA Fuel fraud fans public anger 25th May 2012 Jonathan has to choose between penalising his friends and the final collapse of his government’s credibility over the fuel subsidy racket The belated announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan on 22 May that he wants the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to act on the US$6.8 billion fuel subsidy fraud has fai...
Vol 53 No 9 | NIGERIA Star-struck James Ibori 27th April 2012 Delta State’s most famous son is now in prison, while accomplices and other governors walk free Ex-Governor of Delta State James Ibori could be back in Nigeria as early as late 2016. He was sentenced to 13 years in gaol for $50 million worth of money-laundering and fraud on 1...
Vol 53 No 9 | NIGERIA Half-truths on subsidies 27th April 2012 The report on the US$6.8 billion fuel subsidy fraud by the Chairman of the National Assembly Ad Hoc Committee, Farouk Lawan, was tabled on 24 April. The 210-page opus concentrate...
Vol 53 No 7 | NIGERIA The President tightens up 30th March 2012 Jonathan is getting a grip on his party and perhaps preparing to run again, despite his northern rivals On the eve of the national convention of the governing People’s Democratic Party on 24 March, former President Olusegun Obasanjo deplored the lack of discipline in the PDP. Loyalis...
Vol 53 No 7 | NIGERIA The people who run the PDP show 30th March 2012 • Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, Chief of Staff to the President: as Edo State Deputy Governor, he made friends with his opposite number in Bayelsa, Goodluck Jonathan. He is powerful and r...
Vol 53 No 7 | NIGERIABRITAIN Ibori goes to Southwark 30th March 2012 Having pleaded guilty to ten money-laundering charges and obtaining a money transfer by deception and fraud, James Onanefe Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State, will be sent...