Trouble For Okereke-Onyiuke

On 14 August, Mr. Musa Al-Faki, the Director-General, SEC, fired a letter to Okereke-Onyiuke, expressing concern that her role could jeopardise the ethics and political neutrality of the NSE in Nigeria and oversees. Al-Faki wrote: “It has come to the notice of the commission that you are organising a fundraiser in support of one of the two candidates in the United States presidential race. You are no doubt aware that your status as the Chief Executive Officer of the NSE is both sensitive and not partisan.” SEC added that government was aware of the strategic position of NSE and would therefore view with concern activities that could compromise its political neutrality. Okereke-Onyiuke was, therefore, requested to clarify her role in the “Africa for Obama Campaign”.

The unexpected also came the way of Okereke-Onyiuke last week. In a letter to The Punch, the Staff Counsel for the Obama Campaign, Ms. Kendall C. Burman, wrote: “We want to inform you that Obama for America Inc., which is the principal campaign committee for Senator Barack Obama in his campaign for President of the United States, and the Democratic National Committee are in no way affiliated with this event or with this organisation.” That is, Okereke-Onyiuke’s weep-more-than-the-bereaved fund raising ceremony.

Burman was categorical in her rejection of Okereke-Onyiuke’s efforts, insisting that Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee will not accept any funds raised at the event or through the fundraising activities of this group. “We want to make it clear that the event (Okereke-Onyiuke’s fundraiser) and this organisation (Africa for Obama) are in no way associated with Obama for America of the Democratic National Committee should this organisation seek to place additional advertisement in your paper,” the Staff Counsel maintained.

The man who blew the whistle on the matter was Mr. Femi Falana, human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist. In a press statement, he said what Okereke-Onyiuke did was illegal and contrary to the electoral laws of the United States of America. “In view of the clear provisions of the United States law on external funding of political campaigns, the “Africa for Obama ’08″ should be restrained from raising funds for Mr. Barack Obama’s campaign. Otherwise, Mr. Obama is surely going to be scandalised by a powerful section of the U.S. media controlled by the Republican Party,” the statement read.

Falana was actually referring to The US Foreign Election Campaign Act, FECA, 1974 which states: The Federal Election Campaign Act, FECA, prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly. It is also unlawful to help foreign nationals violate that ban or to solicit, receive or accept contributions or donations from them. Persons who knowingly and wilfully engage in these activities may be subject to fines and/or imprisonment.

That Falana tailored his press statement for publication the same day Okereke-Onyiuke organised her illegal concert threw the woman off balance. Consequently, she has been letting off a whale of twisted logic, demonstrating crass mischief and letting out outright insults, fed by her ignorance of the current level of media practice in Nigeria, her professorship notwithstanding. Okereke-Onyiuke’s first response was that the concert was not aimed at raising funds for Obama, but to sensitise Africans living in America.

She explained: “At no time did we say we were raising money for Obama. What we are saying is that Obama is for the world and he has been getting support from Europeans, from Arabs and from all over and Nigerians should not be different. We are not collecting money for Obama. I lived in the US for 14 years; I am a Green Card holder and I know the law. We are just mobilising people who are eligible voters to go out and register and vote for him and I don‘t know why this should be an issue.” But it is an issue as far as the laws of the United States are concerned. Although Okereke-Onyiuke told Nigerians that her intention was not to give Obama or his campaign organisation the money directly–she explained that the mobilisation campaign would involve advertisements and online campaigns to encourage African-Americans to register and vote for Obama–but mobilise support for him, the relevant US law prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly.

Okereke-Onyiuke reasoned further that the event was a concert and people bought tickets on their own volition. “People have been saying I used my position as DG to compel corporate organisations to donate money. I am tired of all these. This is not true. No corporate organisation gave any cheques,” she claimed, adding that the guests came in their personal capacity, whether they work in a bank or anywhere. “Even the table I bought for my friends and relations was paid for out of my own pocket and the money was used for the food and to pay for the artistes. We ate and danced and enjoyed ourselves. Some people, including journalists, came in for free and what I said there was that if there is any surplus, after the accounts have been done, the money will be used for mobilisation.”

In Abati’s interpretation of this mobilisation, the Africans for Obama 2008 would use the money to sponsor some of their members to the Democratic Convention in Minnesota later this month. This, according to the columnist, would be illegal within the purview of the US law, moreso as these self-appointed ‘delegates’ intend to use the money to mobilise African support. “Mobilise?”Abati asked, adding: “do they intend to bribe voters? Or travel to the US with election monitors, ballot box snatchers, ghost voters or able-bodied men?”

At the event, the woman threw caution to the wind and went beserk, hitting, below the belt, journalists and critics whose views were published. She further railed that instead of people asking “what could be done to help sensitise, to mobilise, to make sure that Obama becomes the President of the world and America, they are there calculating how much. Is it their money? In business we always say you put your money where your mouth is. Why must they put their mouth where their money isn’t?”

If the woman thought she had the monopoly of bile, she had her match in Abati, whose column dripped with vitriol on the matter. In his words: “Well, what does it matter: they are already ‘eating’ the money themselves. N100 million at the rate of N117 to the dollar is about $854,900.85. They spared little expense in organising their dinner and concert. A total of five musicians, one compere and two stand-up comedians and newspaper and television adverts. This costs a lot of money. The dinner must also have cost a fortune, with the Obama campaigners guzzling wine and food ravenously. In Nigeria, oftentimes, money raised on behalf of a candidate may not even be handed over to him or to his campaign office, but the money can be spent on his behalf…”

Okereke-Onyiuke delved into her bag of insults: “I am saying this for the benefit of those people that have wretched old typewriters typing nonsense, that whatever surplus we have we are going to use the money to mobilise on the day of the election…”Certain pessimistic people are writing nonsense in the papers that what business do we have with American elections. What business do we have? Are we not citizens of the world? The President of America is the President of the world. Is it not so? Those who are pessimistic will never be intelligent.” What baffles watchers of this drama is that instead of her attacking Falana, who would give her the duel of her life, Okereke-Onyiuke directed her regurgitation at journalists. But this, to critics, also shows her ignorance about the progress made by the Nigerian media. “We no longer use manual typing machines but state-of-the-art information gizmos,” a Lagos-based journalist said.

He wondered how the woman could look down on the Nigerian media that produced such greats as Dele Olojede, a Pulitzer prize winner, Stanley Macebuh, Lade Bonuola, Bayo Onanuga, Ray Ekpu, Yemi Ogunbiyi and Onome Osifo-Whiskey and many others. For Okereke-Onyiuke, what she currently suffers are avoidable troubles.