Revealed: How Then Governor Goodluck
Jonathan Gave Obaigbena $1 Million From
Bayelsa’s Poverty Alleviation Funds For Beyonce
And Jay Z's Visit To Nigeria


Beyonce and Jayzee in Nigeria in October 2006
By SaharaReporters, New York
SaharaReporters has uncovered a document
indicating that a million dollars of Bayelsa
State’s poverty alleviation fund was spent by
then Governor Goodluck Jonathan on
bringing American entertainers Beyonce and
Jay Z to Nigeria in 2006.
In a letter stamped and signed by Bayelsa
officials, N150 million (approximately a
million dollars in 2006) was released from
the state’s poverty alleviation fund for the
first ThisDay Music Festival in Lagos.
The document came to light after a
controversy was ignited over how much
money American “reality TV” star Kim
Kardashian was paid for a brief visit to
Nigeria.
Ms. Kardashian, star of a US TV show about
her idle rich family and who shot to
international fame after a sex tape featuring
her and her rapper boyfriend went viral, was
reportedly paid half a million dollars for the
24-hour-visit last week.
The sources who provided the 2006
document for Beyonce and Jay Z’s visit told
Saharareporters that there was a shady
financial link between the producers of
some high profile entertainment events and
the governors and other officials who
control budgets at the state and federal
levels. Mr. Obaigbena’s newspaper, ThisDay,
is a major sponsor of entertainment events
that brings US music stars as well as top
public figures for flying visits to Nigeria in
exchange for gargantuan paychecks.
“Mr. Obaigbena often lines up financial
bonanzas from numerous governors,
ministers and other top government officials
to finance his jamborees,” said one of the
sources who is based in the UK and is
knowledgeable about such deals.
SaharaReporters obtained a letter from Mr.
Obaigbena to the Bayelsa State government
soliciting funds from the oil-producing state
ahead of Nigeria’s 46th independence
celebrations in 2006. The publisher wrote,
“We invite you to partner with us as co-hosts
of the festival.” The letter added: “With a
total budget of $10 million, the co-host is
expected to contribute a minimum of $2.5
million (two million five hundred thousand
USD).”
At the bottom of the letter, minuted by hand
and signed by then Governor Jonathan’s
aides as well as the Bayelsa State accountant
general are the words, “Release
N150,000,000.00 (One hundred and fifty
million naira) only to be drawn from the
poverty alleviation subhead.”
One source told SaharaReporters that Mr.
Obaigbena sent similar letters to other south-
south states.
SaharaReporters could not ascertain how
much of the released funds was paid directly
to performers at the festival. There is no
indication that Beyonce, one of the few
entertainment stars internationally famous
enough to only need one name, was aware
that her performance was being subsidized
by the poor people of Bayelsa.
But during Beyonce’s celebrated rendition of
the Nigerian national anthem, pictures of
Bayelsa State were projected onto the wall of
the Lagos concert venue.
According to the Nigerian Bureau of
Statistics, 47% of Bayelsans live in poverty.
The World Bank says that per capita gross
domestic product in the Niger Delta is
significantly below the country’s average.
According to the state’s own 2005
development strategy, 80% of rural
communities have no access to safe drinking
water, a key indicator in judging poverty. In
Yenagoa, the state capital and Bayelsa’s
largest urban area, an estimated two out of
every five residents do not have access to
safe drinking water.
In 2005, as part of its UN-approved strategy
to combat poverty, the state promised to
make a fund of N100 million available as soft
loans and micro-credit to Bayelsans. The
allocated fund was N50 million less than Mr.
Jonathan approved for Mr. Obaigbena’s
music festival. That promise was made in the
Bayelsa State Economic Empowerment and
Development Strategy, published by the
United Nations Development Program and
signed by then Governor Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha. A civil rights activist in
Yenogoa told SaharaReporters that the state
“has been a woeful failure in its poverty
reduction program.”
The letter from Mr. Obaigbena to then-
governor Goodluck Jonathan said the
concert was necessary to show that the news
from Nigeria was “not just…HIV/AIDS,
conflicts, poverty, kidnapping, strife and
riots.”
The publisher added: “This is the longest
ever period of democracy in Nigeria, over
seven years and counting! And a stable
democracy means more investment and
economic prosperity for all.”
The publisher went on to give reasons why
the state government should contribute to
the concert.
The stars’ performances would “tell the
world, through music, that Nigeria’s time has
come,” Mr. Obaigbena wrote. The letter
added, “And once the good news catches on
with the young and upwardly mobile, music
loving new generation it will catch on with
the world of investments and bountiful
opportunities.”
In 2006, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan had just
become governor of Bayelsa after his boss,
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, was impeached
and convicted on corruption charges. Mr.
Jonathan was then elevated to Vice
President to then President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Mr. Yar’Adua's death in 2010 enabled Mr.
Jonathan, a zoologist whose PhD focused on
tropical fish, to assume the presidency.
Since 2006, Mr. Obaigbena’s parent
company, Leaders & Company, has produced
a number of high-profile events that have
seen such American stars as Rihanna, R
Kelly, and Usher perform for Nigerians. The
ticket prices for these concerts are usually
out of reach of the “average” Nigerian. The
events feature tickets that cost many tens of
thousands of naira, usually reserved for “VIP
access.” ThisDay has also hosted political
luminaries like former US President Bill
Clinton and former economic adviser to the
Obama presidency, Lawrence Summers. At
an Africa Rising concert in London, former
US Secretary of State Colin Powell came on
stage and danced to the popular Naija jam
“Yahooze” by Olu Maintain.

"Jonathan, a zoologist whose PhD focused on
tropical fish, to assume the presidency"

"ThisDay has also hosted political
luminaries like former US President Bill
Clinton and former economic adviser to the
Obama presidency, Lawrence Summers. At
an Africa Rising concert in London, former
US Secretary of State Colin Powell came on
stage and danced to the popular Naija jam
“Yahooze” "