Nigerian Corruption Crackdown
From the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

LAGOS, 5 Dec 2003 (IRIN) - President Olusegun Obasanjo has fired his Labour Minister, Hussaini Akwanga, over allegations that he took bribes to approve the award of a major government contract to a French electronics group....The French electronics company SAGEM won a US $214 million contract two years ago to produce national identity cards for Nigeria. Akwanga was the top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time. He and several other officials are alleged to have taken large bribes to approve the deal....

The Commonwealth Business Forum was part of preliminary activities to the opening of the Commonwealth Head of Government’s Meeting in the capital Abuja this weekend. The summit, attended by Britain's Queen Elizabeth, opened on Friday with 54 leaders from Britain and its former colonies in attendance.

"I find it an unusual coincidence that Obasanjo chose a time when Nigeria was in the spotlight, with so many international visitors around, to fire the minister," said Banji Akerele, a banker and financial analyst. "Certainly there was an intention to give maximum advertisement to this public chastising of a minister over corruption."