Nigerian police seize $630,000 in "Obama funds"

LAGOS, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Nigerian anti-graft police have seized some $630,000 raised at a gala dinner in support of Barack Obama's U.S. presidential campaign, authorities said on Sunday.
While the fund-raising was not illegal in Nigeria, it is illegal under U.S. law for foreign campaign groups to donate funds to political parties. Obama's campaign said it was in no way affiliated with "Africans for Obama" and would not accept funds from the group.
Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, chairwoman of the "Africans for Obama" campaign group and head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, organised the fundraiser in Lagos on Aug. 11. A "platinum" ticket for a table of eight cost 2.5 million naira ($21,226). The huge amount raised from the dinner sparked widespread public outrage in Africa's top oil producer, where the majority live on less than $2 a day, prompting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to launch an investigation.
"(The EFCC) has taken custody of the funds realised from the controversial Africa for Obama dinner/concert and will soon work out modalities on how to share the money among those who paid to participate in the event," the agency said in a statement. It said it had seized 74 million naira ($629,834) raised at the dinner and cautioned Okereke-Onyiuke to "steer clear" of such activities in the future.
"The outcome of investigations however, revealed that the sale of tickets at the event does not constitute any known offence for her prosecution under the Nigerian law," it said. Okereke-Onyiuke said in a full-page statement in Nigeria's The Guardian newspaper on Aug. 21 that the dinner had never been intended to raise funds or solicit donations for Obama, but to sensitise and mobilise Africans worldwide. The idea of a man with an African father attaining the world's most powerful political office has fuelled "Obama-mania" across Africa over the past year and Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation, is no exception. Buses and cars in the crowded streets of Lagos carry "Obama '08" bumper stickers, while militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have even called on the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate to mediate in their conflict. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mary Gabriel)


Africa urged to take lead in managing aid inflows

ACCRA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Africa should "take the driver's seat" to ensure it reaps full benefit of aid flows from the rich world, including increasing funds from powerful economic players like China, a World Bank vice-president said on Monday. Speaking ahead of an international conference on aid effectiveness in Ghana, the bank's Vice-President for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili, said countries that receive aid must improve their capacity to use it efficiently and transparently. The Sept. 2-4 conference in Accra, which will bring together more than 100 donor and recipient states, aims to achieve more effective use of the more than $100 billion in development aid that is channeled to countries every year. More than $30 billion of this goes to Africa, the poorest continent." It is not the amount of money that matters, it is the impact ... output and outcome have become central," Ezekwesili said in an Africa-wide video news conference broadcast from the Ghanaian capital She said African governments should take responsibility for maintaining control over, and making the best use of, aid and investment flows pouring in from more developed partners, which now included fast-growing economies like China and India.
"(Recipient) countries should be in the driver's seat to set the agenda, deal with the kind of support they want," she said. The World Bank official said African states could use to their advantage China's aggressive trade and aid offensive on the continent, which has seen Beijing pump billions of dollars into projects from infrastructure to oil.
While many African leaders praise China's "no strings" approach to aid and investment, critics say it undercuts Western attempts to fight corruption and improve accountability and transparency in aid and development projects. Ezekwesili said it was up to the international community, through institutions like the World Bank, to help African states improve their negotiating capacity and safeguards to obtain the best possible benefits from aid, wherever it came from.
"Africa is the best player to determine in a lot of ways the nature of the engagement that it wants with the providers of finance," she said.
CORRUPTION RISK Three years ago in Paris, a previous international meeting of aid donors and recipients agreed on the principle that developing countries should have more control over the kind and use of the aid that they received. This week's Accra meeting aims to strengthen this principle, but British aid charity Oxfam accused some major donors, such as the United States and Japan, of "dragging their feet".
"This isn't just a food fight between bureaucrats. Until you solve the political question of who should shape development, you cannot solve the problems of poverty and inequality," Oxfam delegation head Robert Fox said. At the same time, anti-corruption campaigners like Berlin-based Transparency International said there was still a lack of sufficient local oversight and accountability in recipient countries to prevent theft or waste of aid funds.
"We see this as a major corruption risk and a serious threat to the global fight against poverty," Transparency International managing director Cobus de Swardt said.
"We need to see greater local ownership of aid programmes, a clear voice for civil society in the process and an end to purely donor-driven aid policies," he added.
While most donors and recipients agree that progress has been made since the 2005 Paris meeting to improve aid use, they say more must be done to better harmonise programmes, ensure the participation of receiving governments and guarantee that funds go to those who really need them. Experts say this improvement in aid effectivess can help make up lost ground in United Nations-backed Millennium Development Goals aiming to halve global poverty by 2015. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Additional reporting and writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Alistair Thomson and Robert Hart)