Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I note that the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, is a student of WikiLeaks. Therefore, he will be interested to hear that one of the most interesting ones on Nigeria is a statement by Shell to the effect that "We have people in all the relevant Nigerian ministries." Given that the candidate for the Presidency that has been chosen by the lead party is in favour of the privatisation of the oil industry and that there have been discussions on its future, the embassies told Washington that they expect matters to be quiet until the elections started. Would the Minister of State agree that it is a matter for concern that the welfare of the Nigerian people might not be the automatic outcome of the election?

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