By Sonala
Olumhense
His name: Muhammadu Buhari , Nigeria ’s
President-Elect. The man who, in one week, would take control of the Africa ’s most bewildering country. He was a
much-feared man, with a certain reputation for character, a man who had fought
for the presidency for years claiming he would rid Nigeria of corruption.
*Diezani Alison-Madueke |
He was swiftly checked in, accompanied by just
one person. He took First Class Seat 3K.
And then British Airways
received another surprise VIP to the same flight: Diezani Alison-Madueke , Nigeria ’s
powerful Minister of Petroleum Resources, accompanied by two aides also in
First Class. She sat behind the President-Elect.
Reports said the Minister,
her tenure down to seven days, had booked her flight only after discovering Mr.
Buhari would be on it. Widely-alleged to be the most corrupt Minister in
a government of great corruption, she hoped to soften him up in conversation
during the flight, commentators suggested.
The omens were not good for
the outgoing Minister. After taking office, Buhari on almost a daily
basis promised hell on earth for every corrupt former official.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke had
reason to be afraid. As Buhari prepared to take office, there were
further pressures. As it turned out, on that late May 2015 trip to the
United Kingdom, Buhari was received at 10 Downing Street by Prime Minister
David Cameron, who pledged “technical assistance” to the Buhari administration
to combat terrorism and corruption.
And then there was the United States ,
also offering help,and President Barack Obama reportedly giving him details of
extensive corruption within the Goodluck Jonathan government, including of a
certain Minister who had looted up to $6billion.
That Minister was
widely-speculated to be Alison-Madueke. On the local front throughout her
tenure, there had been incessant and detailed media investigations which
painted images of a freewheeling, out-of-control Minister who was trading in
influence and disbursing favours and contracts. Some of the more exhaustive
reports, notably by The Punch and the defunct 234NEXT newspapers, suggested she
held accountability in contempt.
Which is partly why many
people thought it was only a matter of days before Alison-Madueke was consumed
in the fire Buhari was bringing.
That was two years ago.
Despite loud sabre-rattling, the Nigerian government has not questioned
the former Minister, let alone indicted her.
On the contrary, it was
Alison-Madueke who called the government out. In an interview with OVATION
Publisher Dele Momodu in November 2015, she denied every insinuation
and allegation against her. She said she never stole from Nigeria and had
done no dubious deals as Minister.
She said the rumours about
her came from the imagination and wickedness of people who were merely envious
of her success and power. She did not have billions of dollars anywhere,
she affirmed.
And contrary to the
rumours, one of which was alluded to by Mr. Momodu, she did not own choice real
estate abroad. “I live with my husband in the same house we’ve lived
since we married in 1999,”
she declared. “Our [only] house in Abuja
was bought in 2007…Anyone who tells you I have houses anywhere should feel free
to publish them…”
Last week, the United States
called that bluff when it filed an assets forfeiture case. But it is
essential to point out that the US
was not principally after Alison-Madueke. The country has stringent
money-laundering laws, and the story has emerged from the effort to recover
several properties belonging to the former Minister’s close associates and
beneficiaries whose activities have benefited her.
The law also frowns on the
bribing of a foreign government official, in this case Alison-Madueke. Two of
those associates of hers, who are widely-known in Nigeria , are Kola Aluko and Jide
Omokore, men who blossomed in the oil sector under her watch. There are
three other co-conspirators, identified only by numbers, presumably because
they have a significant role to play in the forthcoming criminal processes.
Thanks to ‘Madam D,’ their companies received over $1.5 billion in revenues
selling Nigerian crude oil.
Awash with cash, in March
2012 and January 2015, Aluko purchased over $87 million dollars’ worth of
real estate in New York and California for himself, as well as a luxury
yacht for $82 million.
Which brings us to
Alison-Madueke’s bluff. In painstaking detail, US lawyers allege that the
Minister made Aluko and Omokore wealthy, and how in return the men and others
purchased for the Minister and her family a new luxury lifestyle, particularly
in England .
“Anyone who tells you I
have houses anywhere should feel free to publish them…?” Well then, how about
these:
* 96 Camp Road , Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire , SL9 7PB (“the Falls,” purchased in
January 2011 for £3,250,000);
* 39 Chester
Close North, London
NW1 4JE, purchased in March 2011 for £1,730,000;
* 58 Harley House, Marylebone Road , London
NW1 5HL, purchased in March 2011 for £2,800,000;
* Flat 5 Park View, 83-86 Prince Albert Road , London NW8 7RU ,
purchased in March 2011 for £3,750,000.
It is important to note that following each
purchase, Alison-Madueke led the extensive re-modeling and decoration efforts.
And then,by her own account she acquired a lot of equally expensive Houston furniture: four
million dollars’ worth.
“At least one of the items
purchased in Omokore’s name, and paid for by Co-Conspirator #1, has been
matched by vendor number, item number, and store-issued control number to
furniture discovered in Alison-Madueke’s residence in Abuja, Nigeria,” US
documentation shows.
Speaking of greed, there is
more: Between August 2011 and January 2014, these men paid rents of £537,922
for two additional central London residences at 22 St . Edmunds Terrace,
London NW8 7QQ. Flat 19 was occupied by Alison-Madueke and Flat 6 by her
mother. She must have been one proud mother.
In her Momodu interview,
Alison-Madueke had claimed she was being treated for breast cancer, a report
that was received with derision among Nigerians. There were good grounds
for the skepticism: her education in the US ,
her age, her NYSC service, her work record in Nigeria and her two Ministerial
chairs had all been riddled with credibility questions. In 2014, at the height
of her powers, the story also emerged that she squandered N10 billion to
charter a luxury jet for her use.
At the 2015 interview, and
for someone said to be undergoing chemotherapy, she went to great trouble to
meet her interviewer in various places in London ,
none –as it turns out – being any of at least six places she owns. While she
looked sick in the pictures, there was really nothing a make-up artiste could
not achieve. But even if she were sick, that would not detract from the
issues that surround her.
Since then, however,
details have leaked of a bribery ring she ran in Nigeria to try to guarantee Mr.
Jonathan’s re-election in 2015. And just days ago, a court in Lagos ordered the confiscation of a massive $37.5m Banana Island
property she bought in 2013.
In the end, this story is
not really about Alison-Madueke, but about the poverty of Buhari’s
anti-corruption rhetoric.
* sonala.olumhense@gmail.com
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