Worrying clouds hang over the World Economic Forum meeting that begins today in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Planned to celebrate the rapid growth and outstanding potential of Africa's economy, it has instead turned an unfortunate spotlight on the shortcomings of the host country and its government. On the eve of the WEF gathering, the leader of the Boko Haram Islamist militant group chose to release a video admitting that this men had kidnapped more than 200 school girls in the northeast of the country three weeks ago. He went on to boast that he was going to sell them. In this chilling statement, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, whose strange gestures in the recording suggested mental disorder or drug or alcohol abuse, demonstrated at a stroke the utter moral degeneracy of the criminal campaign he leads. But the real concern, both in Nigeria and among the country's friends and guests this week, is the response of president Goodluck Jonathan. Not only have security forces been unable in the last three weeks to find out anything about the location of the abducted girls, let alone bring about their rescue, but the president himself has taken all this time before making any official statement at all on the outrage. This has appalled the parents of these innocent children and brought about a rising storm of protest at the government's inability to deal with the issue. The three-day WEF meeting has only served to magnify this failure. Particularly embarrassing is the current inappropriateness of Jonathan's headline message to the forum, which focuses on the critical importance of education for Africa's relevance. Bitter parents are asking why if the president believes education is so important, he is not protecting schools and schoolchildren from being seized and sold into slavery? Nor do the government's embarrassing problems end here. The WEF meeting is stressing transparency and accountability as the key for the continent's economic success. Jonathan has long made much of his determination to clean up Nigeria's notoriously corrupt economy. Yet in the very week when his government will be seeking to repeat that message to the international delegates at the WEF, the central bank governor who unmasked and provided documentary evidence of massive oil sector corruption, has had his passport withdrawn and may not leave the country. Suspended central bank governor Lamido Sanusi, who alleged a $20 billion oil industry fraud, was on Monday prevented from taking an Umrah flight to the Kingdom. His travel documents were seized despite a court order that he be allowed to keep them. Indeed Sanusi's very suspension from the bank on the president's order, is seen as illegal, since no such executive powers exist. Moreover, had Sanusi still been in office, he would have been a respected participant at the WEF gathering, where his effective reorganization of the indebted and badly-run local banking system attracted considerable international admiration. It may be that his Umrah plan was designed to spare the government embarrassment during the Forum. If that is so, then his controversial travel ban is a far from isolated governmental own goal. With international oil companies reducing their commitment to an oil sector where up to 400,000 barrels a day are stolen and with other foreign businesses shying away from a burdensome and unpredictable investment regime, Nigeria could hardly have a worse message to give to its WEF guests this week.
