Education minister questioned over allegations he bribed parliamentarians

Nigeria’s education minister has been detained for questioning on suspicion he bribed parliamentarians to approve his annual budget, a senior official at the country’s anti-graft agency told IRIN on Monday. Education Minister Fabian Osuji was arrested on Thursday and questioned for three days before his release on Saturday by investigators of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. “The minister is likely to face charges in court soon,” the EFCC official added. According to reports in weekend newspapers, Osuji allegedly distributed bribes amounting to 50 million naira (US $373,134) to members of an education committee within the lower chamber of parliament. The minister was not immediately available for comment but Nigeria’s Senate President Adolphous Wabara, who has been cited as brokering the meeting between Osuji and the parliamentarians, denied any wrongdoing. In a weekend statement, the senate leader admitted to facilitating the encounter in December 2004 to help the minister win approval of his budget “in the interests of the education sector”, but shrugged off any notion of impropriety. “At no point at the meeting was any form of monetary demand made from the minister and at no point did the President of the Senate ask the minister to give money to anybody,” Wabara said. The two chambers of Nigeria’s legislative assembly have repeatedly been accused of bribery and corruption. Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, is regularly ranked one of the world’s most corrupt countries by the international anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International. Its 2004 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Nigeria third to bottom, just ahead of Bangladesh and Haiti. Although Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, 70 percent of the population live on less than one dollar a day, according to the United Nations Human Development Index. Since his election in 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo has fought to rid Nigeria of corruption while vowing to spare no one in his anti-corruption crusade. But critics point out that no top official has yet been convicted on corruption charges, despite signs that the problem is worsening.