Diezani Allison Madueke: Much ado about nothing

By Joseph Edgar … .

Ok, we have finally caught her and I hear the sums are mind boggling. The sum of $13billion has been bandied and various real estate holdings in choice locations all over the world. I am not excited and do not share in the euphoria that has greeted this development.

The reason for my disdain is the fear that this investigation will not be as far reaching as should be. The moment the probe is getting close to some very powerful people you will see it scuttled at least the Nigerian Leg. What will play out would be the ex-minister thrown up as a scape goat, plea bargains will start flying, she will refund some of the money and given a suspended sentence and that will be that.

We will still be left to grapple with the daily grind that is our lot in Nigeria under the APC. The bombs, aahhhhhhh!!!!!!!! more people will lose jobs, the stock market will continue its bleeding, the political contraption that is ruling us will continue to unravel with its attendant distraction to both the ruled and the rulers.

I am not impressed with the ‘change’ so far. I have not seen concerted effort to face squarely the very threatening issue of our depleted economy and security. The government has very clearly a tripod of issues it needs to solve and very quickly too. Security, economy and corruption. The issue with corruption is more complex than the rest, because of its octopudial nature. Almost everybody has been compromised and because very powerful people have been stained you just may not achieve much except PR victory like the one we are seeing playing out in London.

So my thinking is that, you should shift attention to the economy and downgrade the corruption thing to the office of the vice President so that he has more meat on his table instead of going to church on our time and visiting hospitals like Princess Diana. Let his office, working with the anti-corruption agencies, pursue this fight so that the Presidency will face the more daunting issues of the collapsing economy.

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Have you seen the statistics recently, job losses, inflation is inching double digits, consumer price index is flagging, one sector recently lost 60,000 jobs and yet we are seeing a President wanting the Petroleum Ministry when the world is moving towards other sources of energy. We need the Presidency to face agriculture, subsidize it, repair transport, support entertainment and technology. These are huge resource markets that can dwarf the Petroleum sector in revenues if carefully tapped.

All we need do is to provide the enabling environment, provide a level playing field, boost purchasing power by reduction in taxes while increasing taxes on luxury and frivolous goods and services, subsidies manufacturing and supporting venture capitalists.

So you see my lame attitude towards this ‘victory’ in the corruption battle. It is a waste of time and will take years to prosecute without any real meaningful gains in terms of getting the monies back. She could not have done it alone, she could not have designed such an elaborate scam without the help of people who are playing very critical roles in this present government, and who will be waiting to help provide a soft landing for her once she agrees to keep her mouth shut.

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