Tuesday 4th November 2008

 Gunmen kidnap Lebanese engineer
 Ex-governors to face corruption trial in Nigeria
 Nigeria-Ghana gas pipeline to start next month
 Nigeria wants emergency talks on DR Congo crisis
 Yar’Adua saves $238m

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Gunmen kidnap Lebanese engineer

 
Unidentified gunmen on Monday kidnapped a Lebanese engineer in Port Harcourt, police said.

 
The man was abducted in late morning, Rivers state police spokeswoman said, adding that police were investigating the incident. Lt. Col. Sagir Musa of the military task force said the worker was snatched from the road project he was working on outside the city. Musa had no further details. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction. The 30 year old man is employed by Homan – a major construction firm in the area. Security sources tell us that a ransom demand has already been made although we are not disclosing the figure.

 
Background: In the past three years, Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings both of local and foreign oil workers and of relatives of prominent politicians, often by criminal gangs seeking a ransom, but sometimes also for political ends. Since the beginning of 2006, militant attacks have cut Nigeria’s oil output by more than one quarter. Production currently stands at between 1.8 and two million barrels a day against 2.6 million barrels a day two years ago.

Ex-governors to face corruption trial in Nigeria

 
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said today it is ready to put 10 ex-governors on trial accused of corruption, money laundering and abuse of office.

 
“We have completed investigations on 10 former governors and their trial will start soon,” Femi Babafemi, spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

 
He did not disclose the names of the affected governors, but added that the trial of 11 other former governors was ongoing in different courts in the country.

 
Comment: Several former government officials, including ex-governors and ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, have been the subject of probes into misuse of public funds between 1999 and 2007, since President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua came to power on May 29 last year.

Nigeria Ghana gas pipeline to start next month

 
A pipeline connecting Nigeria’s natural gas supplies to Ghana is expected to begin operation in December, a senior official with the Nigerian Gas Company said on Monday, nearly a year behind schedule. The $620 million West African gas pipeline, operated by Chevron is considered key in easing chronic power shortages around West Africa.

“We should complete the clean up of the pipelines by the end of the month and begin to provide 30 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) of gas to Ghana from December,” Sam Ndukwe, the pipeline’s budget coordinator for the NGC said. Ndukwe estimated natural gas shipments through the pipeline will increase to 130 mcfd by December 2009.

 
Comment: Nigeria, with the world’s seventh-largest gas reserves, will export from the Itoki terminal in the southeast to the western Ghanaian port city of Takoradi. It will also provide gas to Benin and Togo.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, Shell, Ghana’s Takoradi Power Co., Societe Togolaise de Gas and Societe Beninoise de Gaz are shareholders with Chevron in the project.

 
OOL Factoid: The pipeline had originally been scheduled to start operating last December, but was delayed after leaks were detected in supply pipelines in Nigeria which needed cleaning and repair. Some industry officials also attributed the delays to political pressure to keep more of Nigeria’s gas for its domestic market.

 
Background: President Umaru Yar’Adua has faced growing criticism that he has not done enough in the last year to solve the country’s power crisis, considered one of the main brakes on economic growth in the country.

Nigeria wants emergency talks on DR Congo crisis

 
Nigeria has called on the African Union to hold emergency talks on the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a local daily said yesterday. ThisDay cited Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe as proposing an urgent AU meeting as “the deteriorating character of the conflict in the Congo has become a major threat to continental peace and security”.

 
Tanzania, which currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the AU, on Sunday said preparations were underway for a summit to be held next week in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

 
New clashes broke out August 28 between government troops and fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, who has wrested control of several strategic towns in eastern DRC. Nkunda wants direct talks with the administration in Kinshasa, but government has rejected his demands. The rebel leader has threatened to launch a campaign to overthrow the government if his offer for talks is turned down.

 
Last week the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebels declared a ceasefire after surrounding Goma.

 
Western governments have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster in the vast central African nation. Nigeria is among the largest contributors to African and UN peacekeeping missions on the continent.

Yar’Adua saves $238m

 
A presidential dissent saved Nigeria $238m as the country back pedalled on an earlier resolve and confirmed its willingness to host the FIFA Under-17 tourney next year. The country would now host the tournament for $76m after the Local Organising Committee drastically reviewed the earlier costing.

 
President YRD had announced a government decision to renounce its earlier commitment regarding hosting of the junior tournament because of the high cost. The Local Organising Committee for the tournament had presented a bill of N35.5b or $314million, causing the government to do a double take.

 
YRD’s dissent and the consequence is a powerful but quiet statement in support of his fight against corruption. Chat rooms in the country are abuzz with discussions on how the LOC would now manage with a fourth of the money it had earlier claimed it needed for hosting the tournament.

 
Nigeria’s threatened withdrawal, formally communicated to world football body, FIFA, caused a rumpus locally and internationally. Nigerians feared the consequences of a FIFA sanction on the country, and even more the effects on morale and the country’s football teams.

 
Background: Nigeria in 1996 boycotted the African Nations Cup in South Africa, when its strong national team was set to defend the trophy it had won in 1994. The national team felt the consequence of that decision for many years after wards.

 
Comment: Many pundits asseverated on the dangers of reneging on the country’s commitment. Nigeria’s Under-17 national team would not have taken part in the tournament and thus be unable to defend its trophy were the competition to go elsewhere. The team failed to sail through the African qualifiers and can now participate only on the back of the country’s hosting.

 
Analysts also screamed at the high cost. Mr. Mike Itemuagbor, a member of the Nigeria Football Federation, in particular, punched holes in the LOC estimate. He said the figure was exceptionally high and pointed out that FIFA normally bears some of the cost for visiting teams during its tournaments.