Nigeria: Foreign Funds Illegal in U.S. Campaigns, Says Carrington
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This Day (Lagos)
27 August 2008
Posted to the web 27 August 2008
Paul Ohia
Lagos
Former United States' Abassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, has said finances from foreigners are not accepted by US candidates seeking electoral positions.
He said such funds are illegal and could jeopardise the chances of the candidate in the voting process.
According to him, the American campaign process became very expensive because a lot of money goes into adverts and sundry publicity.
Speaking yesterday at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos, he said: "Whenever funds are raised, the source of the fund has to be verified. It has to be made public how much is raised; you have to know who is donating what and the integrity of the donors and perhaps the party and the candidate owe a duty to explain how the money is spent."
The Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Prof. Ndidi Okereke-Onyiuke, had Wednesday, last week, been quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over her alleged role in raising funds for Mr. Barack Obama, the nominee of the Democratic Party in this year's US presidential election.
Under US election laws, foreigners and non-US residents are barred from contributing to the election expenses of candidates for election in the US.
Carrington, who is in Nigeria to deliver lectures on "US Electoral System and Domestic Politics" under the auspices of US Speaker and Specialist Programmes, sponsored by the US Department of State, said a legal revolution that started in 1964 resulted in Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, being nominated s presidential candidate.
He explained that a voting rights act passed in that year gave blacks the right to vote, urging Nigerian women and other minorities to borrow a leaf from this since Nigerian law bars nobody from contesting.
He recalled that unlike before, the equal opportunity legislation made it possible for four presidential candidates who were Catholics to be allowed to contest and one of them, John Kennedy, finally became president.
He also pointed out that Obama's nominee for vice-presidency, Joe Biden, is a Catholic.
The former envoy, who lent a helping hand to anti-dictatorship agitators during his stay in Nigeria in the early 90's, urged Nigerian women to put pressure on the men in order to get their rightful place in Nigerian politics.
"I think it is necessary for women to organise themselves and put pressure on the men. When they go out to campaign, they should not only dwell on issues that concern women but general issues," he said.
He also spoke on the lessons Nigeria could learn from the US democratic process which, according to him, is that a candidate must place his allegiance on the citizens even before he is elected and not on the political party that brought him to power.
"Once you are elected as a candidate, no matter your political party, you owe allegiance to the people, not your political party or a godfather. The party cannot dictate to you, but the people. The party cannot control the candidate once elected. It is the integrity of the candidate, what he wants for the Americans that is important," he said.
He emphasised that unless Nigerians opt to be fully involved and having the feeling that any elected government is theirs and not the government of the moneybags, things would remain the same.
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Carrington, just finish writing your book, make your money and go away. Who cares about raising any money for any candidate who refused to appeal on behalf of Nigeria when we sought to have our $36 Billion debt cancelled by the Paris Club - a full reprieve that was granted to all other highly indebted nations except Nigeria. Where were carrington and Obama at that time? Well, we paid our debt 10 times over from the backs of our poor - at least our children will not have a legacy of economic slavery hanging over their heads unless Yar turns… [Read Full Text]