NIGERIA’S UNPROVEN THIEVING EX-MINISTER Femi Ojo

Picture courtesy of ekekeee.com

The cyber world went viral last week on a Nigerian, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former petroleum minister in President Jonathan’s administration. The cyber noise on madam Diezani was neither because she did something patriotic nor because she won any international award for herself.  The nature of the news on the former minister was something debauched…Diezani was arrested in the United Kingdom for suspicion of bribery and money laundering by National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom. 

Previously she had been accused of large scale sleaze in the management of the country’s multi-billion-dollar oil wealth but severally she denied any wrong- doing. Her strong affinity with the  former President Jonathan was not something in obscurity  and not even the indictment of the then House of Representatives against her or the probe by independent audit firms of KPMG and PWC that confirmed billions of oil money missed under her watch would make the then President to show her the way out!  Hers is a long history of alleged perching on mountains of corruption, as the then minister of transport; she was alleged of fraudulently paying some contractors to the tune of N30.9 billion. In the year 2009, she was indicted by the Senate and recommended for prosecution for allegedly transferring N1.2 billion into a private account of a toll company without due process yet the immediate former President went ahead to appoint her to a strategic ministry of petroleum resources. Everywhere she was minister at various times, it was a case of one indictment or the other, it was the same woman who was alleged of squandering over N10 billion over a two-year period on the arbitrary charter and maintenance of a Challenger 850 aircraft for unofficial use yet she was too powerful to be shown the way out or prosecuted by Mr. Jonathan.

The former petroleum minister’s tenure as petroleum minister was one of the most controversial and was amid unending allegations of corruption.  Like many others in the Jonathan’s administration, the former petroleum minister’s head is wrapped with so many allegations of financial corruption and it is a pity that it was the United Kingdom that would be the first institution to unwrap what our Nigeria’s anti-corruption institutions failed to do under the immediate former President Jonathan. Like James Ibori’s case that started from allegations to prosecution and later ended in Jail, if the former petroleum minister is found guilty, I am afraid she may be the first casualty of President Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign that may cool her head in prison abroad.

I am not saying the former petroleum minister is guilty of these offences yet, but one must support the present administration on fighting corruption across boards. Corruption by few has killed almost every aspect of our national life. When a minister steals money that belongs to our nation, such a fellow kills millions of Nigerians through such immoral act. When our roads are in deplorable state because of corruption, many Nigerians are sent to untimely death while few lucky ones live in pain and agony thereafter. When our hospitals lack basic facilities and human capital due to corruption, lives are put in dangers and hopes are frustrated. When the masses of our people do not have food on their tables and cannot provide for their households, homes are destroyed and this affects the society. Indeed corruption is the number one enemy of our development and those who have perpetrated it or alleged in any way must be brought to book for posterity’s sake. 

Still on Ms Diezini Alison-Madueke, it amazes me that some Nigerians especially some of our youths took to the cyber and other social media platforms and were supporting Ms Alison, praising and giving unsolicited excuses on her behalf. It is indeed shameful to read that some Nigerians youth would not support the action of our international partner on fighting corruption. I was surprised to read and listen to debates by some Nigerians that the cash the British investigators found in her  United Kingdom home was a mere paltry sum of money.  No, I do not believe 27,000 pounds sterling is a paltry sum of money in Nigeria where millions wallow in poverty.   Well, whether the amount found in her apartment was paltry or not is not the issue, the focus should be, was the said money part of the alleged money laundered? Was the money actually acquired from her honest enterprise or otherwise? Our focal point should be on how to stop corruption. There is something that brings fear for the future of our country here, if our youths in their millions could be supporting blindly someone whose head has been allegedly buried in various allegations bordering around corruption. Then that is worrisome! It is high time Nigerians ditched away tribalism, religion, political & party affiliations and other divisive tendencies and fight for a common cause to eradicate corruption of the few among us. This should be the change we yearn for and this should be the new national culture and value every youth should pursue without sentimental attachment.