Editor’s note: As the world watches the United Kingdom handle Diezani Alison-Madueke’s case in court, the Naij.com contributor Obule Ocheyenor writes on what lessons Nigeria must learn from the decisive International Corruption Unit of the UK’s National Crimes Agency.
Former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke
When it rains, it pours. That is the situation “the untouchable” former petroleum minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has found herself in in the United Kingdom after the country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested her last Friday.
Diezani was one of the most powerful ministers under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Her arrest, whether in Nigeria or elsewhere, was eagerly anticipated by Nigerians after the defeat of the Jonathan government on 28 March this year by the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, in the presidential election. She had been accused of gross mismanagement of petroleum revenue generated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), derisively referred to as the “shrine of corruption” in Nigeria. Many wanted her probed by Jonathan who infamously told Nigerians stealing was not corruption. But Jonathan brushed aside such calls. He even sacked the then-Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, when Sanusi blew the whistle over missing billions of dollars from crude oil sales.
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The United Kingdom that could
After May 29, when Jonathan left office, attention shifted to Buhari so as to see what he would do to Diezani with his anti-corruption war cry. The assurances Buhari got from world leaders, especially in Europe and America, that they would help Nigeria recover looted funds stashed in foreign bank accounts may have started yielding fruits with the arrest of Diezani last Friday in the UK.
It is interesting that security agencies in the UK had placed Diezani under watch since 2013 on suspicion of alleged bribery and money laundering before moving in for the kill by arresting her and four other accomplices, yet to be identified. Reports say the investigation began in 2013 under the Proceeds of Corruption Unit, and transferred to the NCA earlier this year. The NCA must have had iron cast evidence before going after Diezani and her accomplices.
Build your cases before acting on them
The lesson our braggadocio anti-corruption agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) should learn from this is that they must thoroughly carry out discreet investigations before going to town to announce names of people they want to arrest and prosecute.
In the past, both the EFCC and the ICPC had badly bitten their fingers in court in corruption matters involving high-profile individuals when such cases were bungled due to insufficient evidence to prosecute or jail the supposed culprits. And billions of public funds went down the drain while prosecuting such shoddy or woolly cases.
Again, what Nigeria’s security agencies and courts could not do is what the British security agencies and courts are about to do for Nigeria with this case involving Diezani. We had a similar case in the past when Nigeria’s courts could not jail the former governor of Delta state, Onanefe James Ibori. He ended up serving time in UK for money laundering. In April 2012, Ibori received a 13-year jail sentence after admitting fraud of nearly £50m, described by the judge as probably “ludicrously low”.
Before he was sentenced, Ibori had pleaded guilty in February 2012 to 10 offences relating to conspiracy to launder funds from the state, substantive counts of money laundering and one count of obtaining money transfer by deception and fraud. Judge Anthony Pitts told Southwark crown court in London rather mockingly: “In the light of other matters, perhaps that is a ludicrously low figure and the figure may be in excess of £200m, it is difficult to tell. The confiscation proceedings may shed some further light on the enormity of the sums involved.” The Metropolitan police estimated that Ibori embezzled $250m (£157m) of Nigerian public funds.
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On the day Ibori was sentenced, Andrew Mitchell, the UK international development secretary, made a very poignant statement. Mitchell said: “James Ibori’s sentence sends a strong and important message to those who seek to use Britain as a refuge for their crimes. Corruption is a cancer in developing countries and the [UK] coalition government has a zero-tolerance approach to it. We are committed to rooting out corruption wherever it is undermining development, and will help bring its perpetrators like Ibori to justice and return stolen funds to help the world’s poorest.”
Diezani’s era
Ibori’s case may be a child’s play compared to what was alleged to have been stolen under Deziani’s watch from the coffers of the NNPC. With the wake-up call by the NCA, Nigeria’s EFCC is said to have made attempts to nab Jide Omokore, Diezani’s alleged business partner. The operatives of the agency raided Omokore’s homes in Abuja and Lagos after Diezani’s arrest but drew blank. His company, Atlantic Energy, is alleged to be involved in the multi-billion dollar oil deals being investigated. The NICON Estate, Lekki home of the company secretary for SPOG, Omokore’s second oil company, was also raided by the EFCC who quizzed the company’s secretary who also doubles as Omokore’s personal assistant.
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A turning point
For too long, Nigerian public officials have smiled away with their loot from the public till. At best, those who were convicted received a slap in the wrist known in legal parlance as plea bargain, an arrangement whereupon they parted with a small percentage of their loot in the government’s favour and kept the rest after they were convicted. This has encouraged kleptocracy in our country.
With the determination of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to kill corruption so that corruption would not kill all of us, I see a situation where public offices don’t hold much attraction for those who go there not to serve but to steal. In the weeks, and perhaps months, to come, it won’t be surprising to see prominent officials of the Jonathan administration facing the music or possibly going to jail for participating in the sleaze that characterised that administration.
For now, the fate of Diezani, who was appointed petroleum minister in 2010 and held the post till May 2015, hangs in the balance until after her trial which could end in her acquittal or jail term.
Mr Ocheyenor wrote from Lagos.
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