By Hector Igbikiowubo
WHILE the new media represented by the advent of the internet may have revolutionized access to information flow globally, perhaps nothing underscores this as much as the unfolding Wikileaks phenomenon.

Since it began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain, Wikileaks no doubt has given people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities and behind the scene dealings of counterpart governments.

In Nigeria in particular where governance has been blighted by corruption in the last 50 odd years of independence, the Wikileaks phenomenon may inspire some locals to follow suit. Already, Saharareporters a newswire service, among several others operated from the United States of America has established a reputation for accessing supposedly secret government communications and exposing alleged corrupt practice.

Indications are that in the wake of the Wikileaks exposures, some groups may become emboldened to follow suit and give added fillip to the anti-corruption crusade, thus enabling the enthronement of a more open and accessible government.

Before Wikileaks started publishing its leaks, it was easy for Western governments to hold third world countries to certain levels of openness, probity and accountability. But since the leaks started, the world has witnessed a level of unease hitherto unseen from the West, especially the United States, Britain, France, Sweden, etc.

We have seen pressure lead to big businesses such as PayPal, MasterCard and Visa which handled donations to Wikileaks and Amazon which provided web hosting services dump it in response to American outrage. We have also witnessed mysterious charges of sexual assault leveled by the Swedish authorities against Mr. Jules Assange, founder of Wikileaks, while the American authorities scour their statutes in search of an offence to charge Assange. Obviously, the American authorities appear rather sensitive about certain revelations and may have to come up with new standards of openness, probity and accountability in government.

Rather than diminish the activities of Wikileaks, the actions of PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Amazon and PostFinance, a Swiss bank which discontinued banking services to Wikileaks has seen hundreds of other servers around the world start mirroring copies of the site. Indeed, reports from the ‘Economist’ revealed that fans of Wikileaks launched boycotts, with an activists group known as ‘Anonymous’ disrupting the sites of ‘PayPal’, ‘PostFinance’, Visa, MasterCard in what it called payback, even though briefly. Perhaps the world is on the verge of cyber warfare of hitherto unseen proportions.

A lot has been said and written about Julian Assange, co-founder of Wikileaks. Some have dubbed him a freedom fighter, a naive libertarian or a zealot with a messiah complex, but those who know and have worked with him seem unable to agree. However, with each passing day and subsequent leak, the idea of more openness is starting to catch on.

The US, UK and Canadian governments appear to have embraced the idea of open and free data, even though their commitment noticeably stops short where the release of names is involved. Accountability stops at the front door of the respective ministries, and doesn’t tunnel into the individual offices. But Wikileaks, and a new generation of “leaks” sites, would rather go further.

Earlier in the month, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Assange’s erstwhile number two man at Wikileaks announced the creation of OpenLeaks, noting that the site will act only as the receptacle for leaked documents – the leaker will be able to designate which media organisations can publish the details.

Although the US government appears peeved at current leaks which leave it at the receiving end, the US government has established a pedigree for coming back from the brink of obscurity and ignominy to reckoning. The Wikileaks phenomenon holds a lot of promise for societies such as that of Nigeria which has been in the vice grip of corruption for decades. Such leaks could finally prove the tipping point to achieve acceptable levels of accountability, openness and rectitude in governance.

Nigeria & Wikileaks: Pfizer – In leaks released earlier, Wikileaks revealed the circumstances surrounding delay in out of court settlement between Pfizer and the Kano state government, as wells as the duplicitous role of Michael Aondoakaa, former attorney general and minister of justice of the federation. Wikileaks also disclosed how hired investigators uncovered corruption links to Mr. Aondoakaa and how same information was being leaked to the media to pressure him to drop the federal case.

Further leaks revealed how Aondoakaa’s cronies had to pressure him to drop the suit for fear of more damaging revelations. In societies where things are done properly, such a development should spark a review of the selection processes for sensitive portfolios such as that of the attorney general of the federation. Obviously, Nigeria is not yet a country where things are done properly.

Shady oil lifting – We have also been regaled with leaks where Ann Pickard, former vice president in charge of Shell exploration and production, Africa was quoted telling the American ambassador to Nigeria that “very interesting” people were lifting oil (People, she said that were not even in the industry). As an example she said that oil buyers would pay the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Abubakar Yar’Adua, Chief Economic Advisor Tanimu Yakubu and the First Lady Turai Yar’Adua large bribes, millions of dollars per tanker, to lift oil.

Pickard also said a former associate of hers had told her he had been present when Attorney General Aondoakaa had told a visitor that he would sign a document only if the  visitor paid $2 million immediately and another $18 million the next day. In other climes where proper cum civilized conduct is the order of the day, the revelations contained in this leak would have elicited outrage and an enquiry from the government of the day.

Teleguided presidency – Leaks on exchanges between then acting President Goodluck Jonathan and the American Ambassador to Nigeria underscored in eloquent terms the degree of instability that characterised governance in Africa’s most populous country in the wake of former President Yar’Adua’s ailment and eventual demise. It also revealed the quality of leadership provided by the dramatis personae, especially President Jonathan who had to be teleguided by the Americans after admitting his lack of administrative capacity nay political sagacity.

The leaks which began on Sunday November 28th, 2010 with cables dating from 1966 up until the end of February this year this year has sparked all kind of reactions from different people across the globe, but in locally, we must not lose sight of the opportunity it affords us to review the actions of those entrusted with leadership.

While the leaks so far released and the inevitability of those to come, underscores the futility of delay in the passage of the ‘Freedom of Information Bill’, the Nigerian government and leadership must take radical steps to check the perfidy that pervades the system. Wikileaks is an unfolding phenomenon that has impacted and would continue to impact our well being into the new-year and beyond.