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The Nigerian Bar
Association yesterday said that it was a shame that, one year after a
panel was constituted to investigate the $180m Halliburton bribe
scandal, no report had been submitted nor any prosecutions made. They
added that the investigation into the case has been ignored by the
relevant authorities.

The President of
the NBA, Rotimi Akeredolu, said this at the 5th Business Law conference
organised by the Section on Business Law of the NBA, in Abuja.

“Last year about
the time of this conference, the Halliburton scandal broke open and at
that time the NBA remarked that it was one scandal too many and it
should not be swept under the carpet,” he said. “All other countries
that are in one way or another connected with the scandal having put
machinery in place to bring the culprits to justice but in Nigeria as
the case often a few attempts at playing to the gallery were made and
thereafter the matter has effectively been swept under the carpet. This
attitude has come to characterise our insincerity to deal with the
issue of corruption which stands firmly between us and development.”
Specifically, he said the manner in which the Halliburton scandal was
handled showed that the country was not sincere in the fight against
corruption.

Show of shame

He further said
that there was nothing wrong with the constitution but that those who
operated it had refused to be decent, adding that the association would
not shy away from speaking the truth to those in power.

He noted that the
disgrace which Nigeria was subjected to before Goodluck Jonathan became
the acting president would have been avoided if only President Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua had followed a path of honour by writing to the
leadership of the National Assembly.

“If honour attended every action following our President’s illness,
we would have been spared the show of shame and object of ridicule that
we have become.”