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Stop this corporate
irresponsibility
By Sun News Publishing
Monday, August 25, 2008
It is hardly surprising that the quaint interest which the
group called “Africans for Obama… 2008”
has taken in the Barack Obama campaign is causing some furore
in the polity. It is so because there is something untoward
and questionable about the claim the group is making in this
regard.
The group led by Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the Director General
of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), had organized a fund-raising
dinner ostensibly in support of the presidential bid of Obama,
the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in the
United States.
However, the Obama campaign organisation was quick to dissociate
itself from the fund-raising especially in the light of the
fact that it runs against the grain of the American Electoral
Law. In fact, the Foreign Election Campaign Act of 1974 expressly
forbids foreign nationals from donating funds to American
elections.
But even as the Obama campaign organization distanced itself
from the fund-raising, discerning Nigerians took interest
in the ethicality or otherwise of the fund-raising dinner
organized by Okereke-Onyiuke. Consequently, the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is beaming a searchlight
on the fund-raising dinner. It has invited Okereke-Onyiuke
for questioning with a view to knowing how much was raised
at the fund-raising and who the beneficiaries are.
In the face of all this, the group is claiming that it never
announced that it was raising funds or soliciting donations
for the Obama campaign. Instead, it said that the dinner/concert
was designed to sensitize and mobilize Africans worldwide
as well as eligible American citizens to register and vote.
It also explained that any excess fund realized after this
was to be utilized for advertisements to encourage Africans
that are of voting status and all other Americans to exercise
their franchise.
The involvement of Okereke-Onyiuke in this exercise simply
reminds us of her earlier association with an organization
which went by the name, “Corporate Nigeria” during
the administration Olusegun Obasanjo.
Then, the promoters of “Corporate Nigeria” came
under intense criticisms as they were accused of using their
corporate positions and platforms to promote the presidential
bid of Obasanjo.
As in the case of Corporate Nigeria”, there is everything
untidy about what “Africans for Obama… 2008”
is doing now, regardless of the denials and clarifications
by Okereke-Onyiuke, its chairman. The whole idea of the organization
putting together a dinner/concert for the purpose of the Obama
campaign is questionable.
The issue here is not whether people were coerced or cajoled
to donate money to the campaign fund. Rather, we are concerned
about why allowance was made at all for any form of donation,
whether it was meant for the campaign organisation or just
to “sensitize” and “mobilize” as the
group would have us believe. The latter-day clarification
the group is making looks like an after-thought. It does not
detract from the fact that the idea is repugnant.
For Okereke-Onyiuke, this is another wasteful engagement.
It was bad enough that she and others who belonged to “Corporate
Nigeria” compromised their professional integrity to
campaign for Obasanjo. It is worse that she has deepened her
participation in such questionable ventures by globalising
her partisan inclinations in matters where she ought to be
just an active observer.
As the Director General of the NSE, Okereke-Onyiuke should
not be seen to be overtly involved or interested in partisan
politics. She ran foul of this in the years of Obasanjo. Her
latest involvement in the Obama campaign shows that she has
not weaned herself of such obscene indulgences.
It is in fact, surprising that she can still find the time
for distractions such as this when she ought to be deeply
concerned about the declining fortunes of the Nigerian stock
market.
It is therefore gratifying that the EFCC has moved in to ascertain
what the group is really up to. The commission should do a
thorough job here. In the end, we would like to see an action
that will definitively discourage others who may want to get
involved in this corporate irresponsibility in future.
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