PRESIDENT Umaru Yar'Adua's absence at the United Nations summits, including two scheduled encounters with the US President, Barack Obama, in New York last week is a cause of concern for the US government raising suspicions in international and diplomatic circles about the seriousness of President Yar'Adua's health conditions.
A Senior White House Adviser, Dr. Samantha Power, in an exclusive chat with The Guardian during the week, said that President Obama had been looking forward to meeting the US President in New York. Power had earlier briefed reporters on Wednesday afternoon in New York after Obama had met with presidents of UN Troop contributing nations, the second opportunity that YarAdua should have had to discuss mutual issues and concerns with the US President.
US government reportedly issued out invitations to the African leaders luncheon with Obama early the previous week to commencement of the UN summit, but the absence of President Yar'Adua is being attributed to what a top US source described as his health condition.
It is, indeed, the view in UN diplomatic circles that President YarAdua's trip to Saudi Arabia was more of a medical trip than a working visit as has been claimed by the Nigerian government. A US official wondered and asked The Guardian Correspondent in New York after the second luncheon where Yar'Adua was expected to make presentation: "Is the president that sick?
But the official excuse from the Nigerian government for the president's absence was not about his health.
Speaking with reporters after the Obama meeting with 25 African heads of states and governments, on Tuesday afternoon in New York, White House Senior Director and Special Assistant to the US President on Africa, Michelle Gavin, confirmed that President Yar'Adua was invited to the luncheon "but we were made to believe in the end that his scheduling did not permit him to attend."
According to Gavin, who is also the US Senior Director for African Affairs at the US National Security Council, the US government "would have been happy to hear the tremendously important voice of Nigeria, speaking on these issues," that is, issues raised at the Obama-African leaders luncheon on Tuesday in New York.
Besides, there was also the United Nations summit on Climate Change convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nation Ban Ki-moon, and the anticipated presidential address slotted for Nigeria last Thursday-for which Nigeria's president was both absent. Regarding the address, Nigeria has now lost the presidential slot and as at Friday afternoon, a new slot for Nigeria to speak has not yet been publicly announced since all the heads of states and government attending would have to speak first before ministers are permitted to speak at the UN General Assembly summit.
Yar'Adua is being represented at the UN by Nigeria's Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe, who himself had to travel out of New York later in the week expected to return later to give the Nigerian speech sometimes in the new week.
US President Obama met with 25 African heads of states and about 8 heads of states and government of top Troop Contributing countries of the United Nations.
At both meetings held as luncheons with Obama, on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon respectively in New York's prestigious Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Nigeria's president was not only invited but was expected considering Nigeria's leadership role in Africa and as a top Troop Contributor to the UN.
While Nigeria was completely absent at the Obama luncheon with African heads of state, the Foreign Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, was welcomed at the US President's luncheon for top UN Troop Contributing countries. But only in observer-mode. He was not permitted to speak.
Many at the UN lamented that Nigeria, which is the 4th UN member-state in troop contribution did not have a voice at the unprecedented meeting of the US President with top UN Troop contributors. The US picks up almost a quarter of the peacekeeping budget of the United Nations, the highest individual nation contribution to the budget.
However the view in UN diplomatic circles last week was that the responsibility for Nigeria not having a voice at such a meeting must be rested squarely on the absence of the Nigerian President, since the luncheon was clearly labeled for heads of states.
While speaking to reporters after the lunchen Obama's Special Assistant on Multilateral Affairs Dr. Samantha Power said Nigeria's name did not even come up in the discussion, while Obama poured encomium on Rwanda and other Troop Contributing nations of the UN.
Just recently the United Nations decided to replace Nigeria's occupation of the post of Force Commander of the UN peacekeepers in Darfur with a Rwandan General, sidelining a Nigerian military officer. That position was held until last month by former Nigerian Army Chief General Martin Agwai.
According to Power, when asked by The Guardian about what said about Nigeria at the Obama meeting with presidents of top UN Troop contributing countries, said "Nigeria in particular did not come up."
At the luncheon on Wednesday with leaders of top UN Troop Contributing Nations, while the Nigerian Foreign Minister sat silently in observer mode, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame was said to have stolen the limelight updating Obama about the challenges facing UN troops especially those in Africa. In fact Obama was reported to have described Rwanda as the backbone of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Nigeria however has more troops altogether in US peacekeeping missions than Rwanda. Only three countries at the UN, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have more soldiers committed to international peacekeeping around the world than Nigeria.
Anxiety Abroad About Sanusi's Reform, Yar'Adua's Cabinet
From Martins Oloja
Who Was in Washington D.C,
Miami Florida
THE African wing of the international community wondered last week why the leader of one of the most influential African countries, Nigeria, was absent at the United Nations forum on Security Council reform and Climate Change, which ended in New York.
At the same period, one report that reached the diplomatic community from Nigeria indicated that President Yar'Adua had been bracing up to re-jig his government at the highest level generally believed to parade some corrosive elements.
The UN crucial agenda ended without the presence any of Nigeria's three principal actors, namely the president, the vice president and the environment minister.
Apart from the president's inexplicable absence without delegating the vice president, no officer from the federal ministry of environment was in New York to participate in the session on Climate Change where many crucial issues were thrashed out.
Only two officers from NEPAD office located in the SGF's office were at the UN conference where one of the most important challenges the world is facing now, "Climate Change" was exhaustively discussed leading to a framework to amend the Kyoto Protocol.
However, while Nigerians in the Diaspora and part of the diplomatic community in Washington DC believe that the ongoing reform in the banking sector in Nigeria, desirable as it is, might have been mismanaged by the loquacious nature of the CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Some Nigerians in the Diaspora pinned down The Guardian on this issue in Miami, Florida, at the venue of an international event (AFRICANDO 2009 Workshop on Smart, and Appropriate and Resource Efficient Technologies for Rural Communities) and later in Washington DC.
They complained about the banking reform and what they called "the public relations tragedy of the CBN management."
One of the concerned Nigerians, who has background in International Business (who would not want to be named) said:
"Do the government and the people know really that the key message that the CBN governor has sent to the international community and indeed the investing world is that all the banks in Nigeria are unsafe?
"My God, are they aware that the way they have handled the reform by arresting, detaining and threatening bad and good borrowers have further darkened the prospects of getting foreign investors for Nigeria?"
A former Nigerian diplomat, who joined the debate in Washington DC, urged thus: "Mr. Guardian, please tell them that Central Bank governors anywhere in the world do not talk the way Nigeria's CBN governor has been talking.
"Let them know that Central Bank(ing) is a global phenomenon and it is a very conservative institution. The chiefs there always carry themselves very well and graciously..."
The retired diplomat continued: "They are usually taciturn. This is largely due to the fact that they wield very enormous powers. They are independent and very influential, yes, very influential because the whole economy is in their hand.
"That is why they cannot talk anyhow. Their words carry a lot of weight and have implications and immediate effect on the economy.
"Really, the noise in the sector is made in the Parliament or Congress where they discussed stimulus package very exhaustively the other day in the United States. What the hell is anyone saying that the National Assembly has no place in the debate to reform the sector?"
The diplomat said the way the CBN governor had been talking every day and demonising the bank chiefs had been very outrageous.
According to him: "They do this reform everywhere. They did in here in the United States. Even banks collapsed here. But recall that it was not the regulatory authorities that were talking.
"The Secretary of the Treasury and the administration officials and other experts within the sector set the tone for the debate. No, not the Federal Reserve Chairman; he can't talk loosely.
"They did it in the United Kingdom. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer there gives political covering to the sector because it is the government of the day that will get the political backlash after all."
ANOTHER angry Nigerian in Miami had engaged The Guardian in a ride around town on the way to the international airport. He had noted, as he drove: "Why do you demonise the best in Nigeria where they said as a paradox of development that they are re-branding. What a contrast!
"Why did the CBN governor refuse or fail to confront the bank chiefs with content of the audit report as we read in the papers? Did the CBN ever ask the bank boards to recapitalise and they couldn't? Why the haste and the noise o my God?"
He told the reporter that: "I invited the firm where I work in Miami to this 'Workshop and Expo on Smart, Appropriate and Resource Efficient Technologies for Rural Communities'.
"But they refused, citing instability in Nigeria where I had told them there are unlimited opportunities for rural development. The advisers to the firm cited the confusion in the banking sector.
"They said, 'there (Nigeria), we cannot borrow money to do business where in the middle of a signed agreement, they arrest you to pay up... That is a serious development in international business...'
"The signals they (CBN) have sent to the rest of the world was a message badly encoded and has been so badly decoded here in the United States.
"Why was the CBN governor, who assumed duty barely four months ago, speaking in tongues about selling the banks he said are still sound? Why is he in haste without following due process and engagement with the investors in the banks?
"In all these, where are Nigeria's ministers of finance and information, who are in a better position to do some damage control in terms of public and civic education?"
Yet, another Nigerian just descended on the media's role on the issue: "Why do you people in the media become what the late Fela described as Zombie? How were you just hailing the CBN governor?
"We discovered that one particular paper in Nigeria has been acting as a consultant to the CBN and only very few could barely analyse the situation well.
"Why have you people become lap-dogs instead of watch-dogs? Why do you people cover up the lack of due process and the distortion in the system when the CBN governor was becoming too loquacious instead of covering the development. Yes, you cover up instead of covering the news."
It would be recalled that at a quiet parley with top executives in Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on the CBN's hammer on five banks, the CBN governor was cautioned on the implications of talking too much and granting too many interviews on the operation.
Specifically, it was Mr. Paul Nwabiukwu, former member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian and Special Assistant to former Nigeria's Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who warned the CBN governor on the issue of talking verbosely on the operation he was carrying out.
Mallam Sanusi, who addressed the media and civil society top operatives including Comrade Isa Aremu at the closed briefing to deepen understanding of the operation, had said the briefing was not for publication and broadcasting.
He warmly received Nwabiukwu's observation on the power of taciturnity.
But a few days after the parley, the same CBN governor called finance and economy correspondents in Abuja to a meeting of the CBN Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) where he told them everything he said should not be published.
What the same CBN governor could not tell the FICAN members/correspondents in Abuja, he took to another noisy Road-show in London where he denied that he was planning to sell the banks to foreigners as he was earlier quoted as saying at a meeting in the DRC (Congo).
The Guardian had thereafter debunked the claim, as it revealed in an exclusive report that three foreign firms had been briefed in July to take over some of the five banks.
MEANWHILE, the diplomatic community in Washington DC is said to be aware that President Yar'Adua, who will be absent in New York this week, is planning a major overhaul of his government.
Sources disclosed at the weekend that Yar'Adua, who returned from Saudi Arabia on Friday, may have concluded plan to restructure his government including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and his cabinet.
There have been unclear reports of rift between the Office of the SGF and the Office of the President resulting in reported bypassing the SGF's office in recent key decisions and appointments by the Presidency in recent times.
The SFG's office is the clearing House in the Presidency, while the SGF is the Secretary to the Federal Executive Council.
The SGF supervises the Cabinet Secretariat headed by a Permanent Secretary in his office that control about eight permanent secretaries.
The SGF is also the Secretary to the Security and Defence Council. The powerful office handles appointments and remuneration of all the President's men (Special Advisers, Assistants, etc) supervises the Permanent Secretary in charge of Security Matters called Special Services Office (SSO).
But there have been reported irreconcilable differences between the Office of the President and the SGF's, although there had been no clear details about what had gone wrong.
What has been clear at home and now abroad is that the President's men have hinted that Nigeria's taciturn leader is quite ready to tinker with the SGF's office and some ministers, who are not adding value to the administration.
Surprisingly, the diplomatic and intelligence sources revealed that there are two women that might be removed from the president's cabinet just as three other men that have attracted scandalous reports to government may be dropped any moment from now.
"The office of one of the targets is created by the Constitution but he has been linked to so much indiscretion and many scandals in recent times leading to calls for his removal..."
But as one of the diplomatic sources put it at the weekend, "the trouble with your President, who is said to be ready to remove even his Principal Secretary that is in the eye of a scandalous storm, is undue procrastination."
"You don't allow impurities to bring down your government like that. As you discover bad eggs in your government, you remove them quickly before people start suggesting.
"But your President is legendary in his procrastination spirit... Anyway, we have been told that he is ready to remove some top officials that can stand in his many ways in 2011.
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