20101211
Leadership

Reports published on the international website, Wikileaks, have detailed how the nation's former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the federation, Mr. Michael Kaase Aondoakaa compromised his office in the controversial "Trovan" case in Kano where scores of children died.

The federal government had instituted a case in court against Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, over the Kano incident, but the federal government on the instructions of Aondoakaa had withdrawn the case and opted for out of court settlement.

Pfizer had paid the Kano state government the sum of $75 million as settlement for the Trovan incident.

Contrary to the impression created then, Wikileaks revealed that Aondoakaa actually advised the federal government to withdraw the case from the court to stop the pharmaceutical company from publishing damning reports on him.

Wikileaks reports that Pfizer had hired investigators "to uncover corruption links to the federal Attorney-General Michael Aondoakaa, to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer's investigators were passing this information to local media. A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa's alleged corruption ties were published in February and March.

"Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and Aondoakaa's cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles".

Enrico Liggeri, Pfizer's Country Manager according to the report had devised the approach as the $75 million figure for settlement was reasonable and the company spent $15 million annually as legal fees to its lawyers.

Wikileaks further reports that Liggeri had commented that the law suits were wholly political in nature because the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Doctors Without Borders administered the drug Trovan to other children during the 1996 meningitis epidemic and the Nigerian government did not take any action.

According to the report, Pfizer was very concerned because "the suit had a chilling effect on international pharmaceutical companies because companies are no longer willing to conduct clinical testing in Nigeria".

Another cable in the Wikileaks said that the US is considering opening a Consulate in Kano, noting that the US rates Nigeria as the most important country in Africa.

Wikileaks quotes the US Assistant Secretary of state, Mr. Carson who visited the country in February this year as saying that Washington is interested in Nigeria due to: the size of its population; presence of hydro-carbons; peace-keeping role in ECOWAS, especially in Sierra-Leone and Liberia etc.

More importantly, Carson said that Nigeria is the seventh largest Muslim country in the world with an Islamic population that will eclipse Egypt by 2015.

"Having no United States presence in Northern Nigeria is akin to having no presence in Egypt and is why the United States is considering opening a Consulate in Kano".