We never really get to hear about these kind of stories because they are never exposed.

I wonder how many of such deals go on daily in Nigeria

http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,,1990523,00.html

This single organisation using bribe tactics which leads to maassacres in poor nations is one the single largest employers of labour in UK. However, no one ever realises that it's the killings and massacres of the 3rd world countries that energise many western nations.

Does anyone know of any such deals in other African nations, especially Nigeria?

In Chile too,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,13755,1570335,00.html

In Saudi Arabia too the PM agreed to the discontinuation of the probe
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9063-2536223,00.html

remember Easyy, Foreigners are making huge amount of money in Nigeria (you know how), while Nigerians are reluctant to come back to take these huge opportunities

We are very proud of the muddy FDI, leave those inconsequential Diasporas to blab on about little little things like corruption

How does a deal to sell radar facilities to Tanzania amount to an example of Western biz exploiting Africa?Tanzania has barely adequate radar facilities and they needed it to be able to improve their air safety record.

Radar is not a weapon.

The underlying problem with the deal was the inflation of contract by the Tanzanian Govt in other to facilitate bribes to Govt officials.That is not BAE's fault.

Let's put it this way.If BAE did not give the bribe the Govt would take their contract somewhereelse.

That does not excuse BAE's behavior but it puts things perspective.The problem of African Govts inflating contracts is not the fault of Western bizs like BAE but the fault of African politicians

Besides,most weapons fueling conflicts in Africa do not come from the Western world.Most of the weapons come from the China and Eastern and Central Europe.

Instead of engaging in another round Western bashing we should concentrate on the real source of the problems-China and Eastern Europe.

Remember recently that the OBJ asked the Bush adminstration for weapons to deal with the Niger-Delta problem.When this was rejected he turned to China

Chinese coys have an apalling record in offering bribes.They do not have the US equivalent of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which prohibits coys from offering bribes in foreign nations

Have u ever asked yourself why as an English speaking nation,Nigeria has few US and British coys entering into contracts with the Nigerian Govt

4 Play:

How does a deal to sell radar facilities to Tanzania amount to an example of Western biz exploiting Africa?Tanzania has barely adequate radar facilities and they needed it to be able to improve their air safety record.

Radar is not a weapon.

The underlying problem with the deal was the inflation of contract by the Tanzanian Govt in other to facilitate bribes to Govt officials.That is not BAE's fault.

Let's put it this way.If BAE did not give the bribe the Govt would take their contract somewhereelse.

That does not excuse BAE's behavior but it puts things perspective.The problem of African Govts inflating contracts is not the fault of Western bizs like BAE but the fault of African politicians

Besides,most weapons fueling conflicts in Africa do not come from the Western world.Most of the weapons come from the China and Eastern and Central Europe.

Instead of engaging in another round Western bashing we should concentrate on the real source of the problems-China and Eastern Europe.

Remember recently that the OBJ asked the Bush adminstration for weapons to deal with the Niger-Delta problem.When this was rejected he turned to China

Chinese coys have an apalling record in offering bribes.They do not have the US equivalent of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which prohibits coys from offering bribes in foreign nations

Have u ever asked yourself why as an English speaking nation,Nigeria has few US and British coys entering into contracts with the Nigerian Govt

Why do you think it was considered a controversial Military radar ?

The emboldened part above says much about the ethics of western nations and their arrogance in telling other nations whenver they do wrong.

So the real source of problems is now China and Eastern Europe !!!

my gawd 

Who no sabi say oyinbo people get devil for heart

4 Play:

The underlying problem with the deal was the inflation of contract by the Tanzanian Govt in other to facilitate bribes to Govt officials.That is not BAE's fault.

Gbam!!! It is anyone's fault but BAE, interesting.

4 Play:

Let's put it this way.If BAE did not give the bribe the Govt would take their contract somewhereelse.

That does not excuse BAE's behavior but it puts things perspective.The problem of African Govts inflating contracts is not the fault of Western bizs like BAE but the fault of African politicians

Besides,most weapons fueling conflicts in Africa do not come from the Western world.Most of the weapons come from the China and Eastern and Central Europe.

So, bribe offering is ok as long as it gets the contract?

4 Play:

Instead of engaging in another round Western bashing we should concentrate on the real source of the problems-China and Eastern Europe.

Real source of the problem? Ok, let us leave Western bashing and concentrate on China and Eastern Europe bashing.

4 Play:

Remember recently that the OBJ asked the Bush adminstration for weapons to deal with the Niger-Delta problem.When this was rejected he turned to China

Weapons to deal with the ND problem? Please enlighten us.

4 Play:

Chinese coys have an apalling record in offering bribes.They do not have the US equivalent of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which prohibits coys from offering bribes in foreign nations

Harliburton is an American company and it is heavily involved in this. Both Exxonmobil and Shell have records of bribe offering.

4 Play:

Have u ever asked yourself why as an English speaking nation,Nigeria has few US and British coys entering into contracts with the Nigerian Govt

Because Nigeria is interested in those that can do the job and not just a matter of patronage. Railways, telecoms, solar systems, medicines etc are areas that Asian countries/companies can do very well compared to the US or British companies.

To a few vocal people, it's always anyone's fault except USA and UK

Massive tax avoidance
More than $150bn a year is looted from Africa through tax avoidance by giant corporations and capital flight using 'a pinstripe infrastructure' of western banks, lawyers and accountants, according to the African Union.
This £75bn equivalent shortfall easily eclipses pledges made by leaders of the world's richest nations to increase aid and write off debt at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005.

Such is the level of capital flight, revealed in studies by the African Union, that the poverty-stricken continent is now a net creditor to the rest of the world. It is estimated that about 30 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa's annual GDP has been moved to secretive tax havens, many under the jurisdiction of the British government.


As production of copper, gold, nickel and platinum soars, research from Christian Aid will show that the Tanzanian government's revenue from gold fell by nearly a third once the rise in prices has been factored in. Zambia saw revenues from copper halve. Pressure from the IMF to privatise industries on advantageous terms to mining firms is responsible for the shortfall, say campaigners: 'The myth that tax rates have to be slashed to attract overseas investment needs to be challenged,' said Anna Thomas, Christian Aid's policy manager.

Meanwhile, compelling evidence from Ghana and Nigeria is emerging that pressure on these countries from the IMF and World Bank to reduce corporate taxes has forced many African countries to levy VAT on fuel, which is increasing desertification and global warming by forcing millions of people in poverty to abandon gas stoves and chop down forests for wood burning.

[url]http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1994976,00.html[/url]

Will Africans ever wake up and start realising that nothing good comes from an oafish followership of white-controlled western nations?

They sell their ideas to you so that you can buy into them and they can then use such to imprison your minds and hold you captive.

Wake up my brothers and sisters

The posts on this thread illustrate one thing,we as Africans love to engage in an orgy of self pity.We are at our best
chronicling instances of exploitation by our favorite villain,the West.This makes us lighten the sense of failure we feel when we look around our undeveloped continent.

The impression is given that if not for the West,we would have attained economic development,that does not explain how come there was little such development hundreds of years ago when sub-Saharan Africa had little or no contact with the Western world.

I left Nigeria a few months ago,if u take something as little how your University's Student Union is run,with members seeking solely to enrich themselves,the local politicians who have no discernible acheivement to refer to,u will realise that our problems are far deeper than just chronicling instances of exploitation by Western bizs from leftist newspapers like the Guardian.

I wonder how we propose to acheive economic development without Western help,a lot is said about the South East Asian Tigers like Singapore,Taiwan,South Korea e.t.c,little is mentioned of the fact that these were all staunch Western allies .Even China remained a backward country until the economic reforms inspired Deng Xiaoping allowed greater foreign investment.A lot of the growth in China today is driven by investments by Western bizs,who use China as an export mecca bocos of its cheap and abundant labor (the same Western Bizs we villify).

Yes businesses are self interested,but at the end of the day we cannot acheive anything without them

Are you side tracking the point here?

There is no disputing the fact that we should look inward at ourselevs and see that we really have problems within us and need to change for the better.

However, to try and state that these westerners milking us are not drawing us back is to be ignorantly or intentionally drawing us away from a wholesome solution and focussing only a part solution to our problems.

4 Play:

The posts on this thread illustrate one thing,we as Africans love to engage in an orgy of self pity.We are at our best
chronicling instances of exploitation by our favorite villain,the West.This makes us lighten the sense of failure we feel when we look around our undeveloped continent.

Highlighting where foreign interests are harmful to national interests is not self pity

Easyy:

Are you side tracking the point here?

Thanks for pointing that out, I was wondering why he is trying to shift focus after being presented with overwhelming statements to oppose his wrong position.

Maybe the guy don born again

@Eassy

I would not think that it is a diversion from the issue to point out that Western bizs are not neccessarily the irredemable evil contributors to this thread have made them out to be

Africa suffers from a chronic lack of investment from the outside world and needs even more Western bizs than we have at the moment.

Those instances of Western exploitation are far too few and insignificant to be hyperventillating about.

Westerners are not milking us as u suggest.Using Nigeria as a case study,can u explain to me how Westerners are milking Nigeria

4 Play:

@Eassy

Those instances of Western exploitation are far too few and insignificant to be hyperventillating about.

Westerners are not milking us as u suggest.Using Nigeria as a case study,can u explain to me how Westerners are milking Nigeria

The main source of revenue in Nigeria is oil.

Tell me what's been happening with Nigerian oil and the politics thereof. Do you know what Shell is doing in the oil rich regions of Nigeria?

Easyy:

The main source of revenue in Nigeria is oil.

Tell me what's been happening with Nigerian oil and the politics thereof. Do you know what Shell is doing in the oil rich regions of Nigeria?

U see this is what I refered to earlier in respect of which u acussed me of diversion .The responsibility for any misuse of Nigerian oil lies squarely with the Nigerian Govt and not with Shell or other oil coys.

Their is a simple way of explaining what happens in the Niger-Delta,Nigeria does not have the expertise or resources to exploit oil,hence we contract that out to the likes of Shell,who invest in this and in return they get a cut of the revenue from oil sales.

How Nigeria choses to spend its oil revenues is not Shell's responsibility.The problem is that Nigeria has historically chosen to spend the revenue from oil across the country,instead of concentrating on where the oil came from in the first place.What this has to do with Shell I have no idea.

If this is what u call milking of Nigeria,then it is completely baseless.Unless u can device a way we Nigerians can extract oil without outside help so that we can keep all the revenue to ourselves.

This is the standard way oil coys operate even in the Western world.They extract the oil,paying the Govt its share and keeping the rest,how a Govt chooses to spend its oil proceeds is not the oil coys perogative.

I agree that the onus lies on the Nigerian government to stop any illegal activities of the foreign oil companies.

However, Nigeria has the expertise to explore and exploit oil, it is the same lies and deceit that these companies sell to gullible government officials that allow them do what they do.

I am personally aware of an offshore platform that a Nigeria sent for a helicopter and sent all the foreigners out of the platform and since then the platform never recorded any problems even when they were using that platform to make money via man made problems that oil servicing companies will rectify at astronomical costs.

But for that single bold decision that platform would have remained another conduit to steal money endlessly.

Blaming the oil companies for even criminal activities (Agip will pay to kill) does not absolve the Nigerian government of any blames for letting these things happen in the first place and it can stop them if it wanted to.

Well how can u argue with someone who thinks that Nigeria has the expertise to explore and exploit oil resources.

Not even Russia can operate its petroleum industry without Western help.

Presuming that the platform story is true,I wonder who designed and fabricated the platform in the first place,who made all the technical equipment used on the platform.Am sure it was not Nigerians.

The fact of the matter is that we cannot exploit our resources ourselves.

Reference to unsubstantiated criminal activities is pointless,if we expelled all the foreigners from Nigeria,our oil industry will close down.If u think that Nigeria's problem is the likes of Shell, well kudos.

We can see how NNPC is[b] fantastically[/b] managing our refineries.

4 Play:

Well how can u argue with someone who thinks that Nigeria has the expertise to explore and exploit oil resources.

Not even Russia can operate its petroleum industry without Western help.

This is the zenith of ignorance.

Tools are used to explore and exploit crude oil.

The comment on Russia shows how empty the writer is on this issue, sorry.

Well, this forum can never be a substitute for sound understanding of what it takes to explore and exploit crude oil.

You can't help but marvel at the sheer ignorance being espoused here.Nigeria does not have the ability to exploit oil by itself.

i wonder what stops any of the innumerable oil coys being run by Nigerians,especially ex-Govt officials,from carrying out oil exploitation all by themselves without the use of foreign technical partners.

I hope any of the Nigerians who work in the oil industry will contribute to this thread,to end this exhibit of ignorance.

Do not use your level of understanding on any issue as a standard because your standard may be too low especially when you do not have any clue about what you are saying.

I also await Nigerians working in the oil and gas to contribute, maybe their comments will teach you a thing or two.