Is Jonathan Playing For Ibori?

Sahara Reporters

21 Feb 2011

Is Jonathan Playing For Ibori? 

Last week, SaharaReporters – which has emerged as Africa’s Wikileaks – reported that Mr. Jonathan Goodluck was “seeking a deal with the UK and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to allow former Governor James Ibori of Delta State to return to Nigeria.”

My first reaction on reading that report was, “Jonathan, say it ain’t so!” The very thought of Nigeria negotiating with two countries – Britain, where Mr. Ibori is wanted to answer grave money laundering charges, and Dubai, where he fled when Nigerian authorities sought his arrest – struck me as absurd. But therein lay the rub. For, as an attorney friend of mine often reminds me, Nigeria has become an address where the absurd makes sense.