Chapter 153

The Beast carried us to Blair House where they were getting ready to start. Vice President Harrison was just giving the opening toast. I stood in the door and waited until he was finished before I took my place and offered another toast.

‘‘We lift our glasses to welcome our friend Emir Akram Bello to our great nation, to build a relationship that will last an eternity. A relationship built on trust, commerce between our two countries, enduring prosperity and good will and to work for mutual security.’’

The evening was a relaxed social event. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. I talked with the Emir over an hour. He wanted an early start because of the time change. I invited him to join me for an early breakfast.

The real work would start tomorrow. It was 2100 when the affair closed down for the night.

I went to my desk in the Oval Office; the girls and the boys had turned in as soon as we landed as the jet lag had proven just too much. My desk was neat and orderly with piles tagged with their importance. I took the most important pile and read for an hour, adding questions and thoughts in the margins. I crawled into bed with Jenny and Marcy. Lorrie had Sara in the bed with her tonight; she must have been fussy.

I was up at 0500 - the Emir was to be here at 0600 for the early breakfast.

The breakfast was a working breakfast. Over coffee I was filled in on the present day Nigeria’s problems and its problems with its neighbors. Then there was the growing problems with Boko-Haram. I had gained a lot of knowledge about the area.

I learned even more about the relationship with China and its foreign aid package to Nigeria. As usual with China, it was a leveraged package. China - with nearly slave rates for Chinese labor - but billed at western rates would do infrastructure improvements in exchange for raw materials.

As time went on the only infrastructure projects that were completed were those that benefited exporting the raw materials. The Logos marine terminal was updated to handle mining, mineral ore containing rare earth minerals and shipping container traffic.

A bridge on the main highway and highway repairs to the ore fields and oilfields were quickly completed. Other promised projects in the package were started but quickly stalled. Chinese workers disappeared, equipment was moved from the projects to the ore and oil fields and only returned after much pressure - or not at all.

The relationship soured with the Chinese officials, with excuses flowing like the oil and minerals to the docks. If that wasn’t bad enough, records stopped or came up short.

It is not rocket science to figure out how much oil and ore were loaded on tankers and freighters. Their capacity is public record with Lloyds of London and the International Shipping Agency. The ISA tracks ships on the ocean to be able to schedule port stops and ships that go missing in storm. Ships positions at sea are reported daily. It was easy work to get the numbers complied without Chinese help.

The contracts were expiring and Emir Bello was refusing to renew them even after pressure, promises and threats from China. It was the Chinese that had insisted on an initial short term contract and not an open ended one - for whatever reason no one knew - but it worked to Nigeria’s advantage.

At 0800 we met the rest of the Emir’s group in the lobby on our way to the Oval Office, but first I directed the group to the office that I had converted into the map room.

Today in it was an eight foot by ten foot table with a map of Nigeria with all the important places marked out. The projects that had been finished or started by the Chinese construction company were marked. The path of Boko-Haram was also mapped.

There was a box of map markers I had borrowed from the DOD; they were large thimbles with different colored flags on them. They could be placed on the map to indicate bridges and other projects Emir Bello wanted to talk about.

With a couple of breaks it was 1100 when we got down to the serious things. There were several small bridges and miles of roadway that were immediate concerns.

‘‘The day after the Chinese leave, the Army Corps of Engineers will be there to do site preparation and geological surveys necessary for sound construction and dependable roadbeds,’’ I said.

‘‘Equipment will start arriving immediately after and trainers to train your work force. We will provide the equipment, training, supervision and engineering,’’ I said.

‘‘As we agreed earlier, your men will supply the labor and your country will supply the materials. You and we get more of everything for the money that is being invested,’’ I added.

‘‘Also we will pay going market rates for any minerals or oil that are extracted - with correct accounting,’’ I said.