http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_re_af/nigeria_corruption

By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago

LAGOS, Nigeria - A human rights group said Wednesday its study of one of Nigeria's oil-producing states found that officials squandered or stole public money, some hospitals required patients to bring their own beds, and schools were running out of chalk.
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New York-based Human Rights Watch made the allegations after studying government finances in the state of Rivers — one of six oil-producing states in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer.

"Many state and local officials in Rivers have squandered or stolen public money that could have gone toward providing vital health and education services," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

The Rivers governor's office rejected allegations of wrongdoing, saying government audits had not turned up any problems.

Out of a 2006 budget of $1.3 billion, the governor's office handed out more than $90,000 a day in unspecified "contributions" and budgeted $10 million for the year for "entertainment and hospitality , gifts and souvenirs," the Human Rights Watch report said.

Also on the shopping list was a private jet to replace a helicopter purchased the previous year, the group said. Most Nigerians don't have access to clean water or electricity.

The office of Gov. Peter Odili also budgeted roughly $65,000 per day for travel. Human Rights Watch didn't say how many officials were in the state office.

Mila Ofobirika, a Rivers state official, called the report a "farce."

"The report does not reflect the reality on the ground" and government audits showed no theft, he said. "We have nothing to fear because we have put our house in order."

Under Nigeria's federal system, the central government disperses money to officials in the country's 36 states, who are responsible for providing basic services. Rivers is one of six states in the southern Niger Delta region where crude oil is pumped.

The report, by researcher Chris Albin-Lackey, said that politicians in Rivers have a record of "shocking and disastrous failure" in their delivery of basic services like primary health care and education.

Researchers found that Rivers health clinics often required patients to bring their own beds and medicines and only one of the 15 schools surveyed had textbooks. Most schools were running out of chalk, and wrote on bare cement walls.

"State and local budgets have expanded dramatically in recent years, but mismanagement and theft has left basic health and education services in a terrible state of decay," Takirambudde said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the report said that some local politicians were banking annual salaries of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Officials hid public documents and government officials in one local area required colleagues to swear secrecy oaths before "juju" — the popular name for black magic — shrines.

With a population of 140 million, oil-rich Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and, at least on paper, one of its richest. Local governments have had their budgets increased by up to fourfold in the last eight years by a windfall generated by high oil prices.

But most Nigerians say they've seen little improvement in their lives.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has promised to crack down on corruption and several top state officials have been investigated, but the opposition says those probes are politically motivated. General elections are scheduled for April and competition for the lucrative state government positions is heating up.

I was laughing my ass off when I read the news. The topic should be corrected though to reflect that this article is on Rivers State. Rivers state budget last year, is larger than the budgets of some West African countries.

Mariory

what state do you live in? do you consider yourself middle class? why is this funny? I don't even live in Nigeria and this makes angry. This is one HELLUVA mess that is going the have to be fixed when my peer group begans to take power both here in the diapora and the Continent.

It was funny because it's true. There isin't much else you can do when the useless heads of such states are protected by an even more useless immunity clause.

I am still trying to get a grasp on making politics work for the people. The question seems to come down to


1) "how do you empower everyday moral people with resources to solve their problems in a collective manner?"

and

2) "how do you hold leaders, trusted to act in the best interests of their constituants/the people, accountable when they sqaunder/outright steal the funds of the people?"

That seems to be the question facing Africans no matter where they are born or reside. . .

What is your take on the River state, bruh? Do you know of any folks who are fighting to make things better and at the sme time you feel that they will do change the old ways of corruption when they get in?

Do all our leaders just need to be rich so they have no desire for public funds when they are elected and/or appointed?

Or do we just need to start warming the tar, baggin the feathers and preparing the gallows?

Of late, the adage "that is the way of politics" is becoming a tired excuse. Truely it is gettin go the point where these gatekeepers as just as bad as the oppressors, if not worse! Action is what we need, but of what course? It seems as though that merely voting seems, to some, to be a free liscense for all types of foolishness.

Too deep? I guess i'll drift away then. . . .


. . .

That report is exactly what it is in Rivers State and all other states in the Niger Delta.Dont forget that politics in Nigeria is about personal empowerment.You own the resources of the state once ur selected to determine who owns what ,when and how

I wish MEND can read this report and DO THE RIGHT THING