With the arrest of Diezani Alison Madueke in London on Friday, October 2 by the UK National Crime Agency and her international passport seized, there is widespread relief from various circles that this government might be the Moses of 21st century Nigeria.
Diezani Alison Madueke
There have been various interesting responses in the light of her arrest and subsequent release. And with Madueke expected back at the Charing Cross Police station on Monday, October 5 for more interrogations, the ambiance in Nigeria is lit up and expectant.
READ ALSO: Diezani Alison Madueke Released On Bail, To Be Questioned On Monday, October 5
Social media is buzzing with claims, counter claims and in some cases outright judgment passed on a woman who once served in Nigeria’s sensitive and very influential sector as petroleum minister.
The responses from all and sundry say a lot.
When you are born in a country as Nigeria you start to hear of corruption so early and so often it stops meaning any much to you before adulthood.
It becomes almost an ordinary phrase, clichéd and worn out, because the officials you hear of are so neck-deep in the act you stop and wonder what they need all the monies for. What strikes you again is how much a man is celebrated in society in spite of his questionable time in office. But nothing strikes you more than when a woman is running the show.
Diezani Alison Madueke is not the most corrupt official in the oil sector saga in Nigeria, but from all indications she is not far off. When you think of past officials who, in the past, have been nabbed in the UK you remember Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and James Ibori and you understand that she is not exactly on sight-seeing with the UK National Crime Agency.
In Nigerian parlance they say ‘what a man can do a woman can do better’. With Madueke’s control of the ministry and her ability to license several illegal, undocumented oil contracts in her tenure as petroleum minister, hardly anyone is in doubt of her supremacy.
Her associates are doing fine too, many of them living large from hundreds of millions of dollars off illegal and unsolicited oil contracts. It is no wonder the political killings and struggle for office remains stiff and unending, because public office in Nigeria is more about clearing the treasury than it is about serving.
READ ALSO: Shocking Details About Diezani’s Case, Three More Ex-Ministers Face Arrest
For those who don’t understand the depth of our nation’s mess at present let us quote a Daily Mail article of August 8, 2013 because it helps for further clarity.
Speaking of Nigeria’s level of corruption, Michael Burleigh of Daily Mail wrote: “Only countries as dysfunctional, derelict and downright dangerous as Haiti or the Congo are more corrupt. … Nigeria is sitting on crude oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels (enough to fuel the entire world for more than a year), not to mention 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. [She] also manages to pay [her] legislators the highest salaries in the world, with a basic wage of 122, 000 pounds, nearly double what British MPs earn and many hundreds of times that of the country’s ordinary citizens. No wonder the ruling elite can afford luxury homes in London or Paris, and top-end cars … Yet 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line of 1.29 pounds a day, struggling with a failing infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages because of a lack of petrol refining capacity, even though their country produces more crude oil than Texas. And that poverty is not for want of assistance from the wider world.”
It is disheartening, these revelations.
It is tragic not because corruption as in the aforementioned is new to anyone per se, but because only few of us have the real figures or understand the depth of our troubles. The nation’s resources have been so inconsiderately amassed the common man has almost nothing more to live for.
On the one hand, there are thinly-veiled speculations that she will walk free after all the noise and questioning given Nigeria’s past history with officials and anti graft campaigns.
On the other hand, we hear president Buhari is resolute and bent on ensuring past corruption cases are unearthed and perpetrators brought to book.
A publication from SaharaReporters on Thursday, July 23 substantiates this saying President Buhari has met with US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, in New York with a view to adopting an ideal approach to arresting and prosecuting the former petroleum minister for her involvements in multi billion dollar oil scams during her tenure. The meeting also covered strategies on fighting terrorism.
President Buhari is out to set right the fervent corruption state of Nigeria. In fact during same US meeting, he revealed that ministers under Goodluck Jonathan’s administration helped themselves to as much as one million barrels of crude oil daily, leaving the nation almost comatose.
It remains unclear how this ends or what further investigations yield.
But whatever the case, the arrest and questioning of Diezani Alison Madueke is true success to the nation. Actually, her arrest is so stimulating it is the highlight of our 55th Independence Anniversary. What will be icing on the our celebration cake is for her to be undressed – every single cent and gram of gold and precious stones she has and didn’t earn, which should amount into millions, she must be stripped of. As well as her other cronies.
The post Nigeria At 55: Alison Madueke’s Arrest Is The Actual Celebration This Year, Forget October 1 appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
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