Time For Diezani To Defend Herself

Sam Nda-Isaiah
February 10, 2014
The temperature in the country is at an all-time high as a result of the revelation of how the nations resources were
being appropriated. The CBN governor, who is a trustee of the resources of the country, insists that more than $20
billion is still missing. This is about N3.5 trillion. Though the NNPC cheapened the whole discussion when its officials
declared that the CBN governor was ignorant, Nigerians largely trust Sanusi Lamido Sanusi much more than they
do the NNPC. And there are grounds for that, even though the government wants to sell the twaddle that the
governor is mistake-prone.
Another problem the spokespersons of the NNPC have in this matter is that people think the entire management of
the NNPC, starting from the GMD, is too small to be part of a scam as stupendous as N3.5 trillion. It is only the
minister or even the president that should be speaking on the matter and not the pawns. Unfortunately, or rather very
annoyingly, the petroleum minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, does not think it is worth her while to be speaking to
Nigerians. She has left that chore to lesser mortals, even though those mortals know next to nothing about what must
have happened to the missing N3.5 trillion, precisely because they are too small to know.
Different people have their own postulations about why Diezani is not talking to Nigerians on such a very serious
matter. The most predominant view is that she feels it would be infradig for her to speak to Nigerians. It would be
totally beneath her. Who the hell are they? those who hold this view think she is likely to say. Theres the second
group who say that the petroleum minister, whom the president is ready to defend with the life and existence of his
government, cannot open her mouth to speak on the matter because she would be committing perjury if she dared
that. And if she committed perjury, especially on an issue as serious as this, she would definitely get away with it
under Jonathan but could spend a very long time in prison the moment Jonathan leaves office.
I do not know which of these two opinions to believe, but I think the answer must lie in-between. Diezani may not
necessarily be guilty and I am withholding judgement on that but her conduct leaves Nigerians with no choice but
to think that shes hiding something by not speaking. She is the only one that can clear the air on the issue, not the
NNPC GMD, not the GEDs and not the spokespersons.
The NNPC has no first-line charge on the nations revenues and cannot spend N3.5 trillion of the nations revenues
without clearance from the National Assembly. If the NNPC people had that power on their own to spend N3 trillion,
then, they must be much more powerful than the president, because even the president cannot spend that amount
without approval from the National Assembly. And the satisfactory explanation the NNPC gave about spending
about 80 per cent of the amount to pay subsidy on kerosone is the greatest scam that there is. Is the petroleum
minister not aware that there is a subsisting presidential directive since June 2009 stopping the payment of subsidy
on kerosene? And if she paid for the subsidy on kerosene to maintain it at N50 per litre, why is it that nobody gets it at
that price anyway?
For telling us that she paid such a large amount illegally since there was a presidential directive against what she did,
she should not only be fired immediately but tried by a competent court. Running a nation is too serious a business to
be treated with such disdain and levity.
In a sense, the president is also on trial on this matter. He needs to take this very seriously. Does Diezani and her
boss, President Jonathan, know what N3.5 trillion could do for the Niger Delta for instance, if that kind of money was

genuinely invested in that area? The entire budget that President Jonathan is proposing to spend this year for the
whole of Nigeria is about N4.5 trillion, a figure not terribly higher than the N3.5 trillion that has most probably been
stolen. That must explain why the minister is one of the most disliked people in the Niger Delta today.
Diezani must defend herself now that she still can. If she doesnt, she should not hold anyone responsible for what
Nigerians could think of her person.

EARSHOT
What Game Is Okonjo-Iweala Playing?
I have found Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealas changing positions on the national economy quite curious. Whenever she is
abroad, or the audience is foreign, she raises the alarm about how the economy is in danger of collapse from
corruption of which she famously said we are not helpless, meaning the government she serves can and must do
something urgently about corruption that threatens to destroy us. But if the audience is Nigerian, she would speak as
if the Nigerian economy under Jonathan is one of the best things that has happened to Nigeria.
Okonjo-Iweala remains one of the most respected Nigerians of this generation, but she is just about to lose that
status. She cannot walk on both sides of the road at the same time.