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.
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
· Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense