The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Diezani:

  • Diezani: Three more ex-ministers risk arrest for graft, money laundering

    Diezani: Three more ex-ministers risk arrest for graft, money laundering

    •Disquiet in Jonathan’s camp
    •How Diezani’s collaborator surrendered to UK agency
    •Her business partners go underground

    Three more ministers of the Goodluck Jonathan era are facing possible arrest in the aftermath of Friday’s detention of ex- Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in London for alleged corruption.

    Although Alison-Madueke and the four other suspects arrested along with her were granted bail same day, tension has already gripped the  Jonathan camp following what sources described as   threat by the once powerful ex-minister   to open up on certain deals which she was directed to execute.

    She is said to be good at keeping records, including handwritten notes.

    A source in one of the anti-graft agencies said last night that Mrs. Alison-Madueke is  “just  one of the few cases of ex-ministers under investigation.”

    “We have at least about three issues at hand but I will not disclose their names,” the source said, adding, “do not forget that these three cases are outside the matter of ex-Minister Stella Oduah which is stuck in court. We have made our position known on this.

    “The depletion of the $1billion in Sovereign Wealth Fund by about $700million is one of the priority cases with anti-graft agencies. There are also the issues of reckless granting of tax waivers to oil firms.”

    The ex-ministers are believed to have been implicated by Permanent Secretaries.

    They are likely to be quizzed in connection with alleged reckless granting of waivers, depletion of the Sovereign Wealth Fund by $700m without the knowledge of the National Economic Council, and “questionable contracts.”

    The camp of the former president was in disarray yesterday following the arrest of the ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, investigation showed.

    Sources said London was thought to be a safe haven for after leaving office in May.

    Apart from being a Chevening Scholar, courtesy of the British High Commission, it was learnt that security agencies in the UK did not give her any inkling as she was shuttling between Nigeria and the UK.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Those in Jonathan’s camp felt the ex-president’s visit to President Muhammadu Buhari had created a window for mutual talks and negotiation on alleged graft findings by the new administration.

    “They did not know that Buhari really meant business to retrieve looted funds.

    “Actually, some ex-ministers, including Diezani, have already placed their counsel in Nigeria on standby in case of any invitation by anti-graft agencies. Their plan was that the matter would be settled in Nigerian court.

    “But the arrest of the ex-Minister in London has added a new dimension to the anti-corruption agenda of the Buhari administration.

    “Those in Jonathan’s camp were shocked by Diezani’s arrest. They have been desperately trying to get in touch with the ex-Minister since yesterday without success.

    “As at today (yesterday), they are worried that Diezani has cut off contact with everyone, creating fears that she might spill the beans.

    “The fear in Jonathan’s camp is that Diezani might be given the James Ibori treatment. They are suspecting that she might be tried and convicted in the UK.”

    A former presidential aide said: “None of us has been able to reach out to Diezani because all her lines are off. She has also not called to share her travails with anybody.”

     

    How she was nabbed

    It was gathered yesterday that the voluntary surrender to the National Crimes Agency (NCA) by a Nigerian oil baron laid the foundation for a comprehensive investigation, and arrest of Diezani.

    The said oil baron, according to sources, was allegedly fronting for the ex-Minister and may be holding some looted funds in trust for her.

    It was learnt that following surveillance and monitoring by security agencies, the oil baron confided in a former Head of State who encouraged him to open up to the NCA on all such slush accounts.

    “The oil magnate voluntarily surrendered to NCA because he knew the game was up. He was not having peace where he was staying in the UK. But the former Head of State assisted in cracking this financial crime.”

    Mrs. Alison-Madueke and her alleged accomplices are expected to be arraigned in a London court tomorrow.

    The suspects were questioned for several hours by security agents in London.

    This came four months after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged Britain’s support for president Muhammadu  Buhari’s war against corruption.

    Hours after the ex-minister’s arrest, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) sealed off her high brow Asokoro,Abuja residence for a search.

    Sources said the anti corruption agency had a court warrant to conduct the search.

     

     

  • Senate summons Okonjo-Iweala, Diezani as fuel price hits N200 per litre

    Senate summons Okonjo-Iweala, Diezani as fuel price hits N200 per litre

    The Senate Committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream) yesterday summoned the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her Petroleum counterpart, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to appear before it on Monday over the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.

    Also invited by the joint committee is the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Managing Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Authority (PPPRA), Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO).

    The Joint chairmen of the committees, Senators Emmanuel Paulker and Magnus Abe signed the invitation to all the stakeholders in the oil industry on a day fuel price hit N200 per litre in some filling stations in Lagos.

    Some other filling stations dispensed between N150 and N180 per litre.

    Most filling stations remained shut across the country, leaving thousands of commuters and motorists stranded.

    Long queues of vehicles at the few filling stations that had fuel in Lagos metropolis yesterday obstructed traffic on the Lagos/Otta/Abeokuta Expressway.

    The Senate committees on Downstream Petroleum sector and Petroleum Resources (Upstream) are expected to submit the report of their investigation on Tuesday, May 26, for deliberation.

    Reports from Abuja, Bayelsa, Ogun, Ondo, Rivers, Kano and Kwara states yesterday said most filling stations have closed shop for lack of the product.

    Many vehicles and motorcycles have been forced off the roads in Yenagoa.

    A Yenagoa taxi driver, who identified himself as Joseph, lamented that the situation has gone from bad to worse.

    In Minna,the Niger State capital, only about five filling stations sold at the official price.

    A taxi driver, Mojheed Akano, said he has been buying fuel from Gwada, some 30 kilometres from Minna at N120 per litre.

    “I have discovered that one gets fuel easily from the villages than in Minna,” Akano said.

    Commercial drivers and other motorists blamed the marketers for the scarcity in the state capital. They wondered why fuel are in the suburb villages and the state capital.

    However, transport fares remain stable across the state, unlike Ondo State where inter and intra-state vehicle operators have started charging exhorbitantly, thereby forcing commuters to groan.

    Transport fare from Ikare to Lagos has gone up to N3,000 from  N2,500, while Ikare to Akure is now N800 as against N500.

    The Iyalaje of Ikareland,Hajia Risikat Mohammed appealed to the federal government to find lasting solution to the present fuel scarcity.

    Commuters in Abuja are also being made to pay through their nose with an average fare now costing  N300 from N100.

    At the NNPC super mega station at Katampe, vehicles formed queues that stretched over five kilometres.

    Some independent petrol stations at Kuje, Kubwa, Byazhin Across sold petrol for between N130 to N140 per litre.

    Consequently, only a few commercial vehicles were seen on the roads.

    This situation has created room for a thriving black market.

    Some motorists go as far as Kaduna in search of fuel.

    In Kano, most filling stations across the city have no fuel to sell to motorists.

    Long queues of vehicles, motorbikes and tricycles dotted most of the filling stations in the metropolis, as they wait endlessly to buy fuel, forcing most of them to spend the night in various filling stations.

    In most of the filling stations visited by The Nation, the pump prices ranges between N125 to N140 per litre.

    Vehicles also formed endless queues at several petrol stations at Abule Egba and Meiran communities in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.

    Some of them sold petrol at N200 per litre and an additional N100 for those who bought with jerry cans.

    One sold fuel for about three hours and then shut its gate.

    The fuel scarcity in Rivers State worsened yesterday, with black market operators taking over.

    Almost all the filling stations, including the mega filling stations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), were under lock and key.

    Commercial drivers capitalised on the fuel scarcity and slightly increased their fares.

    The situation was not different in Ilorin, Kwara State, with many filing stations shut.

    This has affected commercial transportation as commuters now pay between N60 and N70 per drop as fare for cab as opposed to N50

    Commercial motorcyclists (Okada riders) currently have a field day. Okada riders charge between N70 and N100 per drop depending on the distance of the journey.

  • I’ve stepped on many toes – Alison-Madueke

    I’ve stepped on many toes – Alison-Madueke

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, on Wednesday maintained that she has stepped on many toes while giving her best to the nation.

    Speaking with State House correspondents, she also denied the reports that she was pleading with former Head of State, Abdusalami Abubakar, to talk with the incoming government in order to safe her name.

    She said: “I do believe that I have done the best for Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of time, I have stepped on many big foots particularly the fleets of the cabals that were in the industry when we came in.

    “Because I have said severally that we will open up the industry to all Nigerians and we have done that not to the pleasure of certain cabals.  And I have been continuously maligned because of this and we have taken millions and in fact billions of Dollars out of the hands of foreign multinationals and their subcontractors and put them in the hands of Nigerians through Nigerian Content.

    Continuing, she said: “Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms.

    “Quite frankly, I think as unprecedented as it is, it does not please everybody and that cannot be helped but let us remember the unprecedented reforms that have happened in the oil industry during our time, such as major gas reforms, the Petroleum Industry Bill, which has been completely revised, reformed and put into the hands of members of the National Assembly where it has languished for two years in the National Assembly.

    “In that bill are all the reforms needed to tear NNPC apart, make it a National Oil company, an equity share company through transparency, accountability and responsibility and reduce corruption in the industry. We did all theses and we put them in place to reduce corruption.”

    On the various corruption allegations against her, she said that her tenure witnessed the most open and well audited time in the history of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    She added: “So for me to be tagged with various tags of corruption, $10 million jet purchase, who buys jet for $10 million dollars for goodness sake? And $20 billion missing money for which PWC had done a report and the $1.48 billion which is not missing, which is actually money transferred by the NNPC to NPDC which is a subsidiary and NPDC has actually started making payments under my directives.

    “I have said during our time that there are gaps in the NNPC and I said that openly. But I can also say that there is no time in Nigerian history in the oil and gas has NNPC being as open and audited as it is today.”

    “So let me state it clearly for the records that Nigeria is my country and I am not going anywhere, I love my country and I do think that I have done the best for my country and I would also like to point these malicious, malevolence, vindictive libels coming out of places like Osun Defender and other faceless online and other entities need to stop.

    “We have done enough for this industry, we cannot please everybody. Yes, we have stepped on toes but we did that in the best interest of Nigeria and we have opened up the oil and gas industry to all Nigerians, thousands of Nigerians have benefited from our reforms in the system.”

    On the report that she was pleading with Abdulsalami, she said: “I believe that His Excellency has already answered that and called it unnecessary mischief and I will ask that the media do its research properly and deal with the facts. I have the privilege of meeting with many senior states men, during the course of my job in the federal executive council and I was surprised that he should be singled out in any such form. The short answer is no.”

    “I have not sought such assistance because I am not aware that I have been indicted of any crime that I will need a soft landing. Over the last four years, I have been severally and unfortunately accused and labeled in so many malicious and vindictive ways. I have explained these things and pushed back robustly on these accusations and I have even gone to court on many of them. Yet they keep being regurgitated. And I think it is unfortunate, particularly when we are moving into a transition period and looking forward to an incoming government which is coming to take over from where we have ended.

    “For everything that has a beginning there is an end and that is not a surprise. What is the surprise is the sort of malevolence bothering on personal malicious libel to my person during this period of time,” she said

    The Minister disclosed that the National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) has started refund of $1.48 billion to the Federation Account in line with the recommendations of the Price Water House Cooper forensic audit

    She said: “The Price Water House Cooper forensic audit that was done few weeks ago in its recommendation mentioned that $1.48B was owed by NPDC for a block that had hitherto been assigned from the NNPC to NPDC which is its subsidiary and they felt that the right process would be that NPDC will refund that money to the Federation Account.

    “NPDC has apparently started those refunds and it is also in discussion with NNPC and DPR on same. So the refund has actually began,” she said

    According to her, scarcity of fuel being witnessed in Abuja and other parts of the country are caused by hoarding.

    “This is very unfortunate and you know that product supply and distribution have been one of the high points of this administration when we came in. We have kept queues to the nearest minimum. We have moved away from the challenges of the past and ensured through our various flexible product arrangement that we kept Nigeria wet with fuel supply.

    “Unfortunately, as we are coming to a transition, whenever certain things are happening, intruders will hijack the process and certain amount of hoarding taking place for various reasons, this is what we are experiencing and there is no reason for this because our reserves are enough to keep the country wet with products throughout this period.

    “PMS is available, marketers should make it available to Nigerians, we have worked so hard to build the system and we don’t want it distracted in these latter days,” Diezani stated

  • Congratulations President Diezani

    Congratulations President Diezani

    Not to be accused of anything, let me join the numerous contractors, Nigerian oil sector jobbers, gawkers and worshippers of mammon to felicitate with the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Her Excellency, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, upon her appointment as the ‘first ever female’ President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC. The media have been inundated with messages of this great triumph. And gee, Nigeria is now blessed with two president!

    Without seeking to spoil their fun however, I am quick to admonish that they are celebrating a whited sepulcher that has little or no significance in global scheme of things. OPEC today, is no better than a whale stranded by the shore gasping for breath; it is only but a short time before the behemoth passes out. Smart countries as busy hedging against the turbulence ahead and acquiring capacity for gas and alternative fuels while laggards are hankering after the presidency and scribe of a moribund OPEC bureaucracy. P is for PETROLEUM and petrol is passé, stupid.

    What with the US pumping about 8 billion barrels of crude oil per day into the market? What with an overabundance of gas and shale oil in the US? What with Saudi Arabia no longer interested in cutting production to help shore up oil prices (for the sake of wayward countries who have mismanaged their oil wealth)?Have you wondered why the 166th Meeting of OPEC held in Vienna last week couldn’t be bordered about cutting production?

    While we felicitate with President Diezani, we need to remind her that having failed to build even simple modular refineries; having supervised Nigeria’s crude export, massive importation of petroleum products and a dubious ‘subsidy’ regime, she had better braced for the catastrophe ahead. As crude price falls radically and our currency crashes dramatically; soon enough the pump price of petrol will push up to about N150 to N200 per litre because we can no longer afford the current products importation binge. What explanation would she give Nigerians?

    Jude: When a great soul takes flight

    It still seems surreal that Jude Isiguzo is no more. A member of The Nation family, his sudden demise last Saturday still leaves many of us in shock. Death comes to us all but some people are so alive you assume they have transcended death. So Jude could die, some of us still wonder. If Jude could die…yet some more still wonder. He was young, vibrant, master of his news beat and chairman of our chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). Adieu smiling comrade; beke oji ochi eme oji, gaa nke oma o!

  • ‘Why Diezani, NNPC are evading probe’

    ‘Why Diezani, NNPC are evading probe’

    The House of Representatives yesterday  explained why Minister of Petroleum Resources  Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and the NIgerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) have refused to honour invitations to them to appear before the House.

    The House, in a notice of preliminary objection it filed in a suit by the Minister and NNPC, alleged that the plaintiffs were avoiding being asked to account to the people.

    It argued that the suit was merely intended to shield the applicants from public scrutiny by bodies constitutionally empowered to scrutinise public officials and ensure that they are accountable to the public.

    The House accused Alison-Madueke and the NNPC of working to frustrate its planned probe of the N10 billion chartered jet scandal in which the Minister featured prominently, and a $1.5 suspicious loan involving the NNPC.

    “The minor material leading to the suit is to prevent the investigation by the committee of the 2nd defendant (House of Representatives) into the alleged $1.5 billion loan.

    “It was also filed to stop the 2nd defendant from investigating the charter of private aircraft for alleged non-official use by the plaintiffs.

    “The major fact leading to the suit is that the plaintiff, who are in the executive branch do not want to be accountable to the people through their representatives in the National Assembly.

    “The plaintiffs are seeking to cut off the investigatory powers of the National Assembly,” the House said in its written address filed with the objection by its lawyer, Aminu Sadauki.

    The House asked the court to dismiss the suit by the two plaintiffs, on the grounds that it amounted to an abuse of court process.

    It also argued that the suit was premature and non-justiciable, adding that the plaintiffs had similar suit “between the same parties and on substantially the same ground”, pending before Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

    The House in a supporting affidavit, argued that the invitations sent to the plaintiffs, which they failed to honour, were in furtherance of the legitimate responsibilities House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream).

    At the proceedings yesterday before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja Sadauki (representing the House) informed the court that his client has filed objection and served the defendants.

    The judge adjourned to the case to January 26 next year for mention, before which the plaintiffs and 2nd defendant (the Senate) to respond to the objection by the House.

  • What Jonathan Forbes told Diezani…

    It is an outright dubious award. It is so dubious it stank even to Jonathan Forbes as he served the odious dish. You should have seen the grimace on his face and his body language as he presented the worthless token to our Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. He knew he was suckering her but why not, let the Niggers pay. Even the dainty lady and her coterie of aides and favour-chasers knew they were being had big time but all is fair that transpires in the Big Apple.

    It would have been nice to publish the citation that earned our oil minister the Forbes Best of Africa Award in Leadership. However, her apologists have been assaulting Nigerians with what they consider her legacy achievements. They tell us she was the first female Nigerian director in Shell Petroleum but they failed to say it was a sideshow in Shell’s Staff Cooperative or that anybody whose parents were Shellite could easily join the firm and rise to any level. Neither did they mention the minority quota.

    They said she was the first female transportation minister and oil minister and Hardball asks: to what end? Just any folk could be so opportune. They said she introduced local content and I say the legislation was ready before she got to office. Besides, Hardball thinks that stuff is tokenistic nonsense. They need to find out what the Brazilians, Venezuelans and even Algerians are doing on their oilfields.

    They say she ushered the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and I say what does that mean? Whatever it may be, she cannot push it through parliament in three years notwithstanding the huge war chest at her disposal. They said she has built oil and gas pipelines and I say why did she bother, she could simply have sold the crude in jerry cans.

    The cheek of it all: they said she has ensured there has been no petroleum scarcity and I broke down and wept for our much raped motherland. At what cost is this if nearly all the fuels consumed in this huge country are imported and largely from countries that have no crude oil deposit. By the admission of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigeria’s four refineries have been operating at 10 per cent capacity for sometime now.

    In 2012, after the fuel subsidy protests, Diezani told Nigerians that four Greenfield refineries would be built in two years. No earth has been turned anywhere for this purpose. The cost of importing just petrol into Nigeria in one year will build all the refineries we ever needed.

    If Diezani is truly a great African leader as Forbes wants us to believe, and if she was a Shell hot shot as her people have written, how come she cannot figure out that it is utterly stupid for Nigeria to be importing  all its fuels in the last quarter century? Does she not know that Nigeria is the only major oil-producing nation still importing its fuels? Does she not know that there are about 6,000 opportunities Nigeria is failing to tap in every barrel of crude oil it exports?

    If she was such a great leader, how come she could not see the strategic madness of exporting 6,000 products and buying back each of them at a premium? A thousand and one questions Hardball has for Diezani but what is the point, she will answer to history.

    But what did Jonathan Forbes say to Diezani as he handed her the odious trophy. Hardball was embedded and he can exclusively report that Jonathan said to Diezani: ah, mugu don fall!

  • Chartered Jets: Alison- Madueke, NNPC, FAAN others get Reps’ letter

    Chartered Jets: Alison- Madueke, NNPC, FAAN others get Reps’ letter

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke, Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, VistaJet International, Evergreen Aviation Terminal, operators of private Jets and the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN have been written by the House of Representatives Committee in Public Accounts.

    The letters dated March 26th and signed by Hon. Samuel Olamilekan Adeola, Chairman of the committee signifies the heightened preparations for the probe of the chartered private Jets which is said to be costing the country billions of Naira.

    The Minister is expected to tender a written submission within one week of “all she knows about the transactions, and if as a Minister she is entitled to such chartered private jets for private use, and whether or not she has not breach public service rules, as well as who is responsible for the bills”

    Other necessary information that would aid the Committee in the investigation is also to be forwarded by the Minister.

    On its part, the GMD NNPC is to forward in written form to the lawmakers “all information relating to the deal from 2011 till date, the level of involvement of the Corporation, the contractual agreement between the Corporation and the operators of the private jets and its  financial commitment to it since 2011 till date among others,” a source close to the committee said.

    The Committee is requesting from the private jets operators “the contracts agreements between them and the NNPC  from 2011 till date, all the flight schedules, the passengers’ manifests from the 2011 till date and the amount of money paid to them during the period under review,” the source added.

    The probe into the controversial operation of chartered private jets for private use for local and foreign trips by Mrs Diezeani Alison-Madueke was sequel to a motion brought before the House on the matter by a member, Hon. Samuel Adejare ( APC, Lagos).

    One of the aspects that the Reps Committee is interested in getting answers to is why there was no valid contract agreement between the NNPC/Petroluem Resources Ministry and the Private Jets operators for the lease of the 850 challenger Aircraft which was extensively used by the Minister.

    The tendering of memoranda by stakeholders would be followed by the adoption of a date for the public hearing on the matter, in line with the resolution of the House,  it was learnt Wednesday.

    Several new flight schedules operated on foreign trips by the Minister between 2012 and 2013 has also been uncovered by the Public Accounts committee.

    The new discovery, involving Global Express XRS with tail number S5-GMG and tail number OE-LGX,OE-LSS and OE-INA allegedly cost $300,000 (about N50m) per trip, way above an estimated cost of N7.5million for the same trip.

    A December 21st, 2012 trip from the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja to the United Kingdom with the Global Express XRS with the tail number: OE-LGX gulped N57.5million as against an estimated N6million it was also alleged.

  • Diezani here, Diezani there

    Diezani here, Diezani there

    Wetin dis Diezani do?

    I have been following the unwarranted virulent attacks on the person of our dear petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, especially since the fuel subsidy protests of January 2012, with keen interest, or, if you like, with rapt attention. By the way, what has happened to these twin expressions, ‘rapt attention’ and ‘keen interest’, that used to adorn the pages of our newspapers years ago? Newspaper readers will remember that back then, no newspaper was complete without them. Somebody of substance must be doing something while others looked on with keen interest; or saying something to which they listened with rapt attention.

    But this is not my worry today. My concern today has to do with why we can’t stomach beautiful things in this country. It was the House of Representatives that started this nonsense when it took on our amiable director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh. There has been no love lost between her and the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives, since 2012, over investigations into the remote and immediate causes of the collapse of the capital market between 2008 and that year. The House recommended her removal even as it refused to allocate funds to the commission last year. The rest is history.

    But for President Goodluck Jonathan who has eyes for good things and appreciated the fact of the extra time that God spent ‘crafting’ Oteh, and therefore insisted that she must remain the boss at our SEC, Ms Oteh would have been rendered jobless by our representatives. Even when the House thought it had done its worst, by denying her oxygen, President Jonathan graciously opened his oxygen bank from which the beautiful lady and the commission have been drawing happily ever since.

    Now, having lost the struggle to remove Oteh, the unrelenting critics moved over to Stella Oduah, our former aviation minister. The bile was that she approved for her use two bullet-proof cars for N255million (they say N255million is whopping; whopping must have lost its meaning!). The president refused to be moved by the clamour to kick Ms Oduah out for months, until his courage failed him and he let go. With the score at 1-1, the critics are not done yet; they want to increase their tally at the president’s expense. They have shifted the battlefield to the petroleum ministry, the president’s (or is it the country’s) jugular.

    They say the ministry stinks. As if even ministries that don’t have oil are not stinking. They have been at this since the fuel subsidy protest in 2012. Now, our first female petroleum minister is being investigated by the federal lawmakers over allegation that she squandered(?) about N10billion to charter and maintain private jets for her personal use. What is baffling is that our federal lawmakers who should know are the leading orchestra investigating these obviously petty expenses. According to reports, a return trip on one of the chartered jets, Global Express XRS, costs tax payers 600,000 Euros (over N136 million). In 2011, the minister reportedly flew in this jet on just two occasions (costing 1,200,000 Euros/over N270 million), among other allegations.

    The fascinating thing about Alison-Madueke is that, even as they keep pillorying her, she refused to say a word. Rather, she focused on her mandate, and for the better part of the period since the 2012 protests, we hardly had fuel scarcity; importation was going commendably. The effect of our attacks on her is now being felt; fuel supply, like electricity supply, has also become epileptic. We have either intentionally or inadvertently put our fingers into Alison-Madueke’s mouth and she has bitten us. A woman that had all the while said petrol price would not go up has abandoned the masses on whose behalf she has been enjoying herself, and joined those clamouring for subsidy removal. That is how far we have succeeded in annoying our lamb that ordinarily could not hurt a fly.

    Unfortunately, what many of the critics do not know is that everything deposited in the petroleum minister deserves special attention. From her hair, to her captivating eyes, her lips (if you like, you can say they are inviting; may you not be invited to trouble in Jesus’ name); her nose, her mouth, her all. I had to summarise the rest under the ‘her all’ heading lest I fall into temptation like one prominent Nigerian who, when describing the wife of a former Nigerian president some years back, used words such as ‘beautiful’, (which was okay), ‘intelligent’ (which was also not bad); but when he launched into things like ‘succulent’, many of us thought he was taking a rude joke too far. Succulent? Whatever the context, how did he know? In countries where the security agents truly know their job, they should have arrested the man and made him to explain all he knew about the word he used to describe the country’s First Lady.

    The truth is, nothing about Alison-Madueke could have come cheap. For example, it is doubtful if any hair stylist in the country is competent to do jerry curl for her. Not even our former Number Three citizen of the Etekete fame who was an acknowledged hair dresser before she landed the plum number three job is competent to handle the oil minister’s hair. The minister must engage in all kinds of tourisms to keep fit – hair tourism, medical tourism, manicure tourism, pedicure tourism, etc. All these things, as Shina Peters said, na ego dey talk!

    Since the minister has to embark on all kinds of tourism, she must, of necessity, travel to fix her hair, tend her tender nails and address other minor details concerning her fragile body. Now, are we saying splashing a mere 600,000 Euros (N136million) per trip is too much for our oil minister? Come on! Those who feel so should check what the real oil sheikhs do with petro-dollars. Or, do we want her colleagues in other countries to start having the feeling that, like the rest of us, our oil minister too is under some resource curse? I hope we are not suggesting that our petroleum minister should travel in any of those flying coffins in the air all in the name of prudence and accountability?

    I commend President Jonathan for his abiding faith in Alison-Madueke and the other paragons of beauty in his government. But honestly, we should be serious, at least for once. If we want beautiful women in and around the corridors of power, to illuminate the government’s path, we have to understand that they don’t come cheap. The stakes are higher when they are not only beautiful but are also light complexioned. I thought I knew so much about some of these things until a comrade-in-the-struggle made me know I was a nincompoop (yes, nincompoop) when he told me that women are the lubricants of the struggle. Such a thing never occurred to me until I was taught.

    Again, we have to understand that the president could not have taken his eyes to the market while shopping for these pretty women for government, only to turn round to fire them just because some arm-chair critics say they are not good. Before you start insinuating, President Jonathan stopped the struggle many years ago. Someone who can buy as many pairs of the best of Italian shoes today cannot remember anything called struggle again; so he has nothing to do with lubricant! Moreover, like many of his predecessors, we have been told that he too means well for the country. Even Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, that he suspended attested to that.

    Therefore, if the President has found these powerful women indispensable (I didn’t say irresistible, mind you), he alone knows what he went through convincing them to join his government. We do not even know the terms. But the president should not be disturbed by these criticisms. Indeed, he should be ready for more queries, like some people trying to sniff for what’s gwan, in other words, why is the president ever ready to make his shoulders available for women in government who have cause to lean on them? The president should reply them that nothing is gwan, just deference to the Beijing Declaration, no more, no less.

    Finally, there should not be any issue in this matter; the thing is, we only do not understand ourselves. And that is not new; after all, one man’s poison is another man’s meat!

  • Diezani squandering

    Diezani squandering

    Nigeria cannot sustain this minister’s taste 

    DiezanI Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources’ flamboyance has become burdensome on the nation’s till. At a time the government she serves wants Nigerians to believe, erroneously, that fuel subsidy cannot be sustained, she was caught engaging in lifestyle that is tantamount to financial philandering by the House of Representatives.

    Representative Samuel Babatunde Adejare gave legislative seal to what has for months been a speculation in public domain through a motion titled: “Urgent need to investigate the waste of resources on the arbitrary charter and maintenance of a Challenger 850 aircraft for non-official use.” The legislator puts it succinctly: “In these days of scarce national resources where public finance is shrinking in the face of ever-increasing national needs…, an official of government could waste public funds on such luxury as chartering a Challenger 850 aircraft for extra official use … Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has been committing 500,000 Euros (N130 million) monthly to maintain the aircraft, thus in two (2) years, the Minister had committed at least N3.120 billion in maintaining the private jet, which is used solely for her personal needs and those of her immediate family, which is an appalling act.”

    Surprisingly, while investigations into the wasteful spending was on-going, another jet, a Global Express XRS jet, ostensibly chartered and deployed specifically for Diezani’s additional private and official trips overseas, was uncovered. More alarming is that the return trip on this XRS jet is conservatively put at €600,000. This particular jet reportedly gulped N10billion in the last two years to fly the minister. She reportedly flew in the Global Express XRS twice in 2011 and also twice in 2013 on a return trip bill of €600,000(over N136 million) per trip. In two years, the woman had spent, just on two occasions for 2011 alone, not less than 1,200,000 Euros/over N270 million.

    Yet, the proclivity of the petroleum minister for flying in chartered jets seems insatiable because nobody seems officially bothered about her penchant for wasting public funds. A chronicle of such unnecessary travels include: travelling in a private jet at the cost of $300,000 while on a recent trip to South Africa with President Goodluck Jonathan: During the last Easter break, she reportedly flew a private jet to Dubai with members of her family at $300,000: She reportedly abhors attending meetings outside the country in commercial or presidential jets in the last two years and she has purportedly spent over N2billion on maintaining aircraft within the same period. She seems to derive pleasure in being the only minister of the Federal Republic that attends events with the President in private jets.

    The improvidence on mostly trips that were of no benefit to the country by the minister is abhorrent in a country where graduates routinely die in pursuit of elusive employment. Yet, scarce money was paid as allowances to foreign crews for the minister’s trips, this is aside payments for hangar parking and rents, among others. The profligate Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied chartering private jets for the minister’s personal use or that of her family, claiming that it had done so for official purposes for her and other officials on official assignments. The House of Representatives has to dig deep into this matter. It should be noted all the same that the world would have known of NNPC’s involvement in most of these shady transactions if only the corporation had not been keeping its books to its chest. The corporation reportedly spends $500,000 monthly in maintaining the Challenger 850 Visa Jet for her.

    President Jonathan owes Nigerians a duty to put a halt to Alison-Madueke’s financial transgressions. It has become pertinent for the president to let her, in unmistakably terms, understand that she is not above the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and other laws that demand economic discipline from Nigeria’s public officers. Her continuing unchecked proclivity for wasteful spending of public funds smacks of avoidable culture of impunity that certainly portends peril to the nation’s economic wellbeing. In better managed climes where public ethos is treated with sanctity, such a minister in such vital ministry would have become history.

    We expect nothing less from the president at this point in time because Alison-Madueke has amplified disdainful contempt for Nigerians whose oil she is paid to administer. She does not, till the present moment, deem it necessary to publicly answer to some of the grievous allegations against her. No doubt, she has failed woefully in effectively and transparently doing this job and she should not stay a day longer in office. What she has successfully displayed in her days in office was her haughty profile as a powerful minister that is harboured by an indecisive president.

    The president should, for once, display true firmness by wielding the big stick against his minister that has thrown decorum to the winds in her deployment of public funds. What is undeniable is that the allegations around her are too messy and have become a serious embarrassment to the nation as an oil producing country. Diezani must go.

  • Okonjo-Iweala, Sanusi, Diezani: What essence?

    Okonjo-Iweala, Sanusi, Diezani: What essence?

    ‘History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.’
    ————Martin Luther King, Jr.

    In today’s Nigeria, the spirits of our ancestors are being troubled by agents of neo-colonialism that have espoused and inflicted painful policies on the people in the name of governance. Their jobs are being made easier because of the inept leadership that is epitomised by President Goodluck Jonathan. In the on-going dispensation, the most visible agents of neo-colonialism in the Nigerian system are Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Mrs. Diezani Allison-Maduekwe. They are collaborators of disingenuous governance championed by President Jonathan through the Finance Ministry, Central Bank of Nigeria and the lucrative Ministry of Petroleum Resources respectively.

    Of recent, the conducts and utterances of the trio have insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians and even further damned the credibility of the current administration for lacking good sense of political economy. Sanusi Lamido, obviously the most loquacious among the world’s apex bank governors set the tone of malice against the struggling people of this country when he called for the sack of 50 per cent of civil servants in the federal civil service. In a contradictory argument quite unbefitting of a CBN governor, he averred in favour of fuel subsidy removal but in a bemused move canvassed for sanctioning of those indicted for stealing what he termed ‘subsidy’.

    While he received severe flaks for such impolitic statements, forcing him to swallow his verbatim reported words, denying them by saying that he was quoted out of contest, his misguided fellow and coordinating minister of the economy came out in public to fester the sore of Sanusi’s mischief by supporting this unnecessary and infamous policy vitriolic.

    At a recently press conference in Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala was reportedly quoted to have said: “We had this hue and cry about misquoting of Lamido and people almost called for his head, but you have to understand that when you talk about reducing cost of governance, you are ultimately talking about human beings.” She further added: “The same public that is crying about cost of governance will remind you that one civil servant is catering for five other Nigerians when you really want to reduce the cost of governance….Let me tell you, the targets of this fiscal tightening are human beings; they are the ones that must be eliminated to prune down the costs. The cost of personnel in the budget is 32 per cent and that is huge.”

    On the periphery, Okonjo-Iweala might seem to be making sense but upon rigorous scrutiny, it is discovered that what she has done, like her cohorts in the CBN and the Petroleum ministry, was to rationalize their clique’s greed and policy tyranny by saying that Sanusi’s call was made for the good of the nation. But we all know that nothing is more despicable than actions that appear on the surface to be respectable and praiseworthy but were in actual fact underlined by greed and other ulterior motives. Perhaps, the likes of Okonjo-Iweala and her friends in the corridors of power must realise that what is called governance is the judicious exercise of power and decision-making for a nation and that the well-being of the country depends on the choices made by the people granted this authority. If the policies of the Ministry of Finance, Petroleum Ministry and the CBN under the trio are not ones that can benefit the mass of the Nigerian people, then, what is their essence in the government of the country? It is opportune to remind the trio what they already know but are trying to hide, that Nigeria’s trillions and $44billion public debts have been shared by just 17,500 top public officers and political parasites. A better analysis on this claim will be done in this space by yours sincerely in the ensuing weeks ahead.

    This is why the trio with their satanic official views must be told in unequivocal terms that people like them in public office whether directly or indirectly undermine among others, Nigeria’s national security, overall safety and Nigerians confidence and trust in their government. It is an open secret that virtually those that are in the corridors of power engage in money laundering, official extortion, embezzlement, collection of kickbacks and bribes. They utilise public office for private advantage.

    The focus on these three public figures in this column today is informed by the observation of Martin Luther King, Jr. where he said: ‘History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.’ It will be bad for yours sincerely to contribute to the evolving leadership and entrapped policy tragedies under President Jonathan by maintaining an undignified silence with some too trusting, or better put compromised citizens of this country. After all, a philosopher once said; we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

    That is why one is saying through this medium that whatever successes might have been recorded by Okonjo-Iweala, Lamido Sanusi and Diezani in the private sector have been rubbished by their complicity in the looting of the nation’s till under this current dispensation. Were the trio still to be in the World Bank, First Bank or Chevron International respectively, would the looting under the guise of fuel subsidy going on in the country, under their supervision, have been condoned? Could they say in all honesty that they have positively impacted on the Nigerian nation with their oppressively drab and provokingly stagnant managerial styles? Will the World Bank have condoned a budget situation where the recurrent will be higher than capital expenditures that Iweala sits atop? Will their subordinates in former places of work be proud of their double standards and policy affronts on Nigerians? Could the trio in all conscience be bold to affirm that more jobs have been created under this regime to necessitate their calls for sack of public workers?

    Thomas Paine once said that: “It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”The demand to make at this juncture is to ask genuine patriots and groups to come out and demand for the sack of Okonjo-Iweala, Sanusi Lamido and Diezani from this administration for failing to be good ambassadors of good governance. Indeed, the trio are advocates of governance by mischief and deceit. For their boss, Jonathan’s sack, let us all wait till 2015 when we should all refuse to cast our votes for him.