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.
Source Sahara Reporters
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