Nigeria's No 3 'took bribes'
2005-03-23 13:47
Abuja - President Olusegun Obasanjo fired his education minister, accusing him of bribing lawmakers including the Senate leader who is the third most powerful person in Nigeria's government.
Obasanjo made the allegations in a televised address on Tuesday evening following newspaper reports that Education Minister Fabian Osuji had been arrested last week for bribing legislators to increase the amount of his budget.
Obasanjo accused Senate leader Adolphus Wabara and a string of other named senators of taking bribes totalling 55 million naira ($398&nbap;550) from the education minister, whom he alleged worked through six top education ministry officials.
"It is a disheartening event that the No 3 man in the government hierarchy in the country is involved in this sordid matter," said Obasanjo. "It is an action that violates all known norms of good governance."
Obasanjo gave details of an intelligence report naming Wabara and seven other lawmakers, including Senator John Azuta Mbata, head of the Senate Appropriation Committee, which is a key body advising on budgetary issues.
Obasanjo said the bribe money was recovered at his insistence and would "be kept and used as an exhibit."
The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission - which Obasanjo set up in 1999 - would follow up the case against Osuji, he said, without giving details.
He said the six ministry officials involved would be disciplined by a civil service commission, while the Senate and House of Representatives would discuss the report on the offending legislators.
Since his 1999 election ended 15 years of military rule, Obasanjo has made the fight against corruption and a series of free-market reforms key planks of his agenda. Six years on, however, Nigeria is still rated the second most corrupt country in the world behind Bangladesh in a survey by Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International.
Although others have been dismissed, no high-ranking public official has been jailed for corruption in Nigeria since 1999. Corruption reports often are dropped or kept confidential, making many Nigerians sceptical of the government's sincerity.
Obasanjo was re-elected to office amid claims of vote-rigging in 2003. Some analysts see 2005 as a make-or-break year for his reforms, before power tussles dominate the political scene ahead of the next round of presidential elections in 2007.
Lawmakers have been at loggerheads with Obasanjo over his reform measures, blocking the passage of bills aimed at reining in and bringing greater transparency to public expenditure.
Earlier this month, Obasanjo refused to sign a bill on privatisation, handing it back to lawmakers and saying it risked "undermining or making a mockery of the whole privatisation process."
- AP