Dieziani
Allison Madueke is Nigeria’s oil minister under the presidency of Goodluck
Jonathan. This woman has become the second most controversial woman in the
history of Nigeria, second to Mrs Turai Yar’adua, wife of the late president
Umaru Yar’adua. Hajia Yaradua took over the apparatus of governance while her
husband was hospitalized in Saudi Hospital and through the use of a cabal,
wrestled the acting capacity of the Goodluck Jonathan until human rights
activists, Save Nigeria Group and others helped returned the constitutional
mandate back to him.
Dieziani
Madueke, a former Director in Shell Multinational Corporation was appointed a
minister under the presidency of late Yar’adua. She was among the two lists
from then Vice President Jonathan whom Yaradua brought in as ministers.
Therefore, the relationship between the duo preceded his presidency.
During her
tenure as Minister of Works, there was no evidence that she left the deplorable
roads in Nigeria better than she met it. When Jonathan ascended the throne of
Nigeria where food bill is N1 billion naira annually, she was transferred to
the ever lucrative Petroleum Ministry. Yet there is no evidence that she has
turned around the rot in the industry. Therefore, it is proper to assume that
she is a bundle of stagnancy in the discharge of official functions.
Despite
the above, this woman who had maintained her attractive figure and superlative
dress sense, is known to have the ears of Nigeria’s president Goodluck
Jonathan. A lot of close watchers in Aso Villa knows that Dieziani has lots of
favors with Jonathan. All the efforts by those nicknamed ‘agents of darkness’
to cause Jonathan to remove her or assign her a less lucrative portfolio has
fallen on deaf ears. While the activists, professionals and bureaucrats are
calling her incompetent and corrupt, Jonathan sees her as efficient. Therefore
it would not be out of place to refer to her as Sweet Dieziani.
How
efficient is Sweet Dieziani. That story is for another day, however, even the
First Lady has been forced to realize that respect and tolerance for Sweet
Dieziani is the beginning of Wisdom. Thus her initial venomous attitude and
“garagara” towards the oil minister has died naturally. Therefore, it could be
conveniently said that this woman controls the sweet crude of Nigeria because a
sweeter Goodluck is behind her. All these things are quite irritating to me
because governance is to be run with utmost selflessness and patriotism devoid
of sentiments but since we are still mortals, sentiments sometimes come in.
However,
it seems that this controversial woman gave her children some sort of home
training and soberness in the midst of opulence. I remarked that during the
fuel subsidy riots, pictures of her son Ugonna with some friends, half naked
women and bundles of thousands of dollars, in reveling display at a private jet
and a stretch limo, was circulated on the internet. This picture further
infuriated the protesters and raised national angst. Shortly afterwards, this
pleasure loving son apologized to the Nigerian people, saying that the pictures
was not meant to destroy the already battered psyche. This action from this man
caught my fancy. According to the Ugonna “I sincerely apologise to my family
and the Nigerian public for any hurt, anger or embarrassment that might have
been caused by these pictures, which were taken completely out of context. I
will endeavor to ensure that all my actions in future will be sensitive to the
plight of all”. This is the first time that a son or daughter of the embezzlers
of Nigerian common wealth apologized to a traumatized public. Children of
looters of Nigerian funds will naturally scorn at those criticizing their
profligacy describing them as ‘Homo Sapiens whose impoverished ancestors kept
in their sorry state’.
Sweet
Dieziani should expand this sober act of her son or step son, towards her
relationship with the president and display sensitivity to the plight of
Nigerians. It is time for Sweet Dieziani to convince the president that the
process earlier started by late president Umaru Yaradua which led to the
revocation of some illegally acquired oil blocks be resumed so that a few
people do not control Nigeria, with excess funds to sponsor terrorism. Can
Sweet Dieziani convince the president that importation of petroleum products
from outside is not beneficial to Nigerian economy, despite the fact that some
powerful persons in government are benefiting from it.
Can Sweet
Dieziani convince the President to support institutionalized transparency in
the oil industry so that all these billions of dollars lost to oil theft
annually can be blocked? Can Sweet Dieziani convince the president that a
situation whereby all our oil savings is shared between the three tiers of
government without reserve is another brand of voodoo revenue allocation,
capable of putting the nation in trouble if there is sustained fall in oil
price? Can Sweet Dieziani convince the president to dedicate more funds to
poverty alleviation and job creation and reduce amount spent on frivolities,
fighting opposition governors, and related matters, and leave a lasting legacy
for the Jonathan presidency.
It is
obvious that a lot of sycophants, boot lickers and liars whose selfish
interests are suffocating have held the president hostage and the man needs
fresh air himself. It is discernible that the way Jonathan’s friends and inner
cabinet are handling opposing opinions and actions, there might be no Nigeria
by the time he finishes his tenure in 2015, 2017 or 2019, whichever one
providence allows. Therefore, Sweet Dieziani could bridge the gap and let the
President know that he must behave as father to all Nigerians, shun
partisanship and take firm action when national cohesion is threatened.
I believe
that Sweet Dieziani can do all these if she rises beyond mundane attachments,
rids herself of praise singers, shuns corrupt entrapment and uses the same
spirit she used to caution her step son who was partying while the nation was
burning. In the Ministry of Petroleum resources, the fear of Dieziani is the
beginning of wisdom. All the oil hawkers who hitherto turned the ministry into
an annex of Arewa House have all scampered back to their villages effectively
ending the tenure of few northern cabals in the place. Can she use the same
influence to reduce corruption in the Petroleum Industry and save the future of
hopeless Nigerians who depend on oil revenue for survival?
Queen
Esther in the Bible used her influence to stop the first planned genocide on
Jews in the history of the world. Everyone must give account of how he used his
or her position to God ,Dieziani inclusive. Nigerians are facing economic
genocide due to the fact that government has abandoned the art of providing for
its citizenry and wasted billions of dollars on politics. The EFCC, ICPC,
National Assembly and all organs assigned the constitutional duties of
checkmating profligacy and corruption in the system, are themselves partners in
the corrupt chess pool.
Therefore,
the hopeless Nigerians has nobody to enforce their rights to dignified
existence through equitable allocation of resources. Based on the foregoing I
have no option than to hope that this most powerful woman in Nigeria at the
moment can heed the clarion call, use her position and favor with President
Jonathan, whichever way it came about, to advance Nigeria in the right
direction and stop further economic genocide on unfortunate citizenry. It is
not her duty to influence all these but I believe that Sweet Diezani can
mobilize other women in that place including Okonjo Iwuala, Stella-Oduah, Joy
Emordi to quietly pressurize for a radical change from Sweet Goodluck towards
the realization of the promised transformational agenda.
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