Weathering The Storm Of Public Office

Ever since the present executive was inaugurated by President GoodLuck Jonathan , the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Madueke appears to be the most vilified, most controversial and most hated by a section of the country. The reasons are  obvious. First, she and the president come from the same   region, the Niger-Delta and, secondly, she is sitting on top of a sector that is the major cash-cow of the Nigerian economy and therefore poses a threat to an entrenched cabal whose interest in primitive enrichment through the sector will be checkmated.There is also the fear that her closeness to the president is too close for comfort and therefore every engagement should be employed to remove her.

The macabre dance started as soon as than she was nominated as a cabinet member designate when some people went to court to obtain a court injunction restraining her confirmation by the National Assembly, alleging that she was not qualified to take up such position having failed to honour a mandatory one year service of her fatherland after graduation.

Next was the allegation about as reported by an Alison Madueke’s buying of 20 million Euro worth of mansion at Vienna , capital of Austria Austria-based newspaper, Heute in November 2011. The spread of the allegation was fuel by on line net work.

The newspaper’s Headline titled, “Female Minister from a country of hunger”alleged that the Minister bought a villa in Vienna worth 20 Million Euro – even though a major part of the population in her home country is living below the poverty line and children are dying daily of starvation. The report revealed that the exact location of her luxury lodging is secret, but Allison-Madueke is enthusiastic about the big garden and the estate referring to it in the internet as “architectonic masterpiece”.

Trust Nigerians. As soon as the news became a public issue, Nigerians went haywire calling for the immediate prosecution of the Minister. A citizen of Nigeria resident in Vienna,  Austria , Mr Uzoma Ahamfule called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest and prosecute her immediately. He wondered how she got the money to buy the mansion in this global economic hardship.

How did the minister get this huge amount of money to buy such a mansion? When did she buy the “Villa”? Could it be before she became a minister or after? Could this be her only mansion outside Nigeria? Is she the only minister or government official involved in this wickedness? If this money should be in Nigeria it will definitely help our economy. With this money, factories could be comfortably opened and jobless graduates roaming around the streets gainfully employed and crime reduced. How did this get exposed you might ask? Nigerians are very curious and furious. It was even rumoured that the luxury mansion was close to that of the former Oil Minister, Rilwanu Lukman. What it could mean is that the former ex-oil minister’s house cannot be anything less than Allison Madueke’s mansion in terms of value and luxury, if not more. Critics equally called for the probe of Rilwanu Lukman.

During the fuel subsidy removal crisis, Allison Madueke was the whipping child among Jonathan’s ministers. She was accused by members of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and civil liberty organizations to have generated the idea of fuel subsidy removal so that she and her colleagues would have more money to steal and stash away in overseas countries.While critics were busy lambasting Allison Madueke, while asking for her flesh, she kept her cool probably out of shock. It was the late Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), Dr. Levi Ajuonuma who came to her rescue by refuting the allegation in some online news media. In a chat with journalists in Abuja, the late NNPC spokesman noted that no right thinking news medium would fall for such cheap and unsubstantiated rumour peddling.

“As professionals, we know that comment is free but facts are sacred. Now if you are saying in this age and time that somebody bought a 20m euro mansion in a very conservative city like Vienna , then you must be able to produce the picture of the so called mansion, the transfer wire number for the said purchase, as well as other details of the transaction. 20m euro is no small money anywhere in the world,’’ Ajuonuma stated.He recalled that a similar unsubstantiated story was culled from the Jakarta Post and spread by the online news media in September 2011 accusing the NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources of planning to invest in a multibillion-naira refinery project in Indonesia .

“Interestingly when the Jakarta Post retracted their phantom story and apologised on front page to the NNPC for the fake story, the online media never bothered to publish same because they are usually not interested in facts,” he said. He implored newspaper editors and gate-keepers to cross check news stories from foreign tabloids and online media in good time for publication.

“With the aid of forensic accounting, it doesn’t take rocket science to track any financial transaction. You cannot conduct a 20million euro deal anywhere in the world, without attracting red flag from relevant international agencies,’’ he said.

Ajuonuma assured that the Minister of Petroleum Resources is not perturbed by such publications, noting that the focus now is on ensuring the full activation of President   Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda in the oil and gas industry.

Being a law abiding citizen with clear conscience and following the principles of he that goes to equity must go with clean hands, Allison Madueke approached the Vienna based Regional Court for Criminal Matters to seek redress on the abuse of her fundamental human rights. On hearing the application, the Vienna based Regional Court for Criminal Matters slammed Heute newspaper of Vienna over the phantom story.

In a ruling made in pursuant of an application brought before the court by Mrs. Alison-Madueke, the Judge ordered AHVV Verlags GmbH, owners of the Heute Newspaper, to do a `public revocation’ by publishing a counter-statement in the newspaper within five working days from the announcement of the verdict.

In line with the ruling, the Heute newspaper has since published the retraction cum counter-statement whose German to English translation read thus:” This statement of facts is false. The Honourable Minister, Mrs. Diezani -Alison-Madueke did not buy any real estate in Austria , in particular no house or villa in Vienna for several million Euros. Further more, the Hon Minister, Allison -Madueke did not purchase the large garden and the architectural masterpiece on the internet as alleged”.

As a matter of fact, the Petroleum Minister has taken the right step by seeking redress in court instead of running away from justice. How many government officals accused of corruption will ever do what Alison-Madueke did by going to court. They would rather run way from justice by fleeing from the country to prosecution. We have seen a former governor who escaped from United Kingdom in order to escape money laundry charges. We have also heard of a former govenror who fought his extradition case from Dubai to United Kingdom to face money laundry charges.

For Allison-Madueke to have gone to Austria to challenge the allegation showed that Nigeria still have leaders that are above board. She deserves praise for taking the bull by the horns. It is argued that Nigerian politicians are too corrupt, because a country naturally blessed like Nigeria is not supposed to lack fundamental needs like water, electricity, good roads, quality schools and standard hospitals, etc. That is right.

However, the media must be honest with their reports because you can neither fight evil with evil nor can you tackle corruption through corrupt means.

Ifeanyi Nwabugu