Obama storms Ghana today
…Nigeria's opposition writes him on corruption
President Barack Obama of the United States would today visit Ghana.
Already the Ghanaians who are in a celebrative mood are set to roll out the red carpet to welcome the leader of the free world.
Obama who says his visit to Ghana is to strengthen the strides the country has recorded as a democratic model is expected to visit places of interest and deliver motivating addresses that would resonate across the world and across the African continent.
Many expect that the Ghanaian visit would enable Obama unfold his plan for Africa, essentially in tackling poverty, debt related issues and HIV/AIDS.
Ever since Ghana was chosen as the destination of the American President, the visit has sparked off great controversies in Nigeria, Kenya and other African countries where Washington enjoys traditional ties of friendship.
Wole Soyinka apparently unimpressed with Nigeria's democratic track record said he would have been shocked if Obama had decided to come to Nigeria.
Soyinka who cited corruption and other vices appears to have support now.
The opposition parties in the country under the auspices of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) have written to the US president informing him that corruption is fast eating up the country.
It also said democracy in the country was in a tragic state.
In an eight-paragraph letter entitled “Corruption undermines democracy in Nigeria: Electoral reform and Halliburton case study,” signed by its national chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, the CNPP stated that “the tragedy in Nigeria is that both our oil industry and our electoral process are highly corrupted.”
It told the US President that Nigerians were outraged that between 1994 and 2004, Halliburton officials, in an unholy alliance with top government officials, funnelled millions of dollars to top Nigerian government officials in what turned out to be monumental corruption, in return for multibillion dollar contracts to build Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Bonny.
The group said it was regrettable to note that as Nigeria moved towards the 2011 general election, the high hopes raised by President Umaru Yar'Adua during his inauguration to embark on genuine electoral reform were fading.
