By Beks Dagogo-Jack
Over the past couple of years, particularly since her appointment as Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has been under the constant gaze of different interests, each having different interpretations and indeed expectations of how she should do her job relative to their own well-defined interests. To be clear, Mrs. Alison-Madueke is not the first Minister of Petroleum to face this level of acute tackling by vested interests across Nigeria’s socio-economic and political landscape. And she certainly would not be the last.
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke
Considering Nigeria’s near total dependence on oil, the industry has been the most critical and viable sector of the economy for decades now. Yet being largely public sector-run, with significant political influence, the industry is today seen by both new and veteran private sector players as the surest path to acquiring mind-boggling wealth.
In addition, the ministry and its agencies have been designed, from inception, to deal with various allocations and licences capable of creating overnight millionaires and the likes. Does it, therefore, surprise anyone that the chief executive of this ministry would always be subjected to far more public and private pressures than any other, and indeed in some cases even more than the president? In this respect, the Nigerian people ought, ordinarily, to be moved more to appreciate the enormity of the multifarious daily challenges she must deal with, than being victims of manipulated propaganda antics of those struggling to substitute her with their cronies.
My personal opinion is that Lady Diezani came on board with better appreciation of the intricacies of the job than some of her predecessors did. While this fact alone cannot and should not fully immunise her against the well-entrenched activities of decades-old vested capitalist forces in the oil and gas sector, yet evidence abound that her preparedness has helped to tide her, thus far, without caving in under the armada of attacks which had been the lot of several oil ministers before her.
The current campaign and attempts to stampede the minister out of office, with apparent undercurrents of organised attacks, mostly centred on her use of private jets, etc is, in my opinion, quite trivial; and a case of leaving substance in pursuit of shadows. While no credible democratic government should stand idly by in the face of any impropriety or misuse of public funds, I am of the strong opinion that we must strive to build effective and efficient institutions which should diligently handle such cases dispassionately and totally in our national interest. This would discourage this very harmful culture of over-sensationalised trial of public office-holders in the media, with mostly speculative and unfounded allegations.
Indeed, often, while the gullible public is treated to the high drama of sensationalised media campaign against public officials, with the sole goal of instigating their sack from office, we often lose sight of the fact that most of such campaigns are engineered and promoted by capitalist interests, which, in most cases, are founded and fuelled by personal vendetta anchored on business and political interests. I repeat: a robust institutional framework for dealing with all cases of abuse of public trust remains our best hope for exposing and punishing genuine cases of violation of public trust, while seeking prevention and deterrence for new violations.
Without any doubt in my mind, Diezani’s tenure has come with its own unique risks, challenges, quirks and opportunities which she and her team have tackled with visible zeal and tangible results to show for their efforts. The multiplicity of demands on her ministerial duties and responsibilities, in view of the strategic position of oil and gas in our economy, is not comparable to any other ministerial portfolio. Over these years, even her harshest critics would readily admit that she has learnt quite a bit on the job and is headed for the point of measurable confidence in the handling of the intricacies of this hugely peculiar duty post. While the experience she has gathered in the last couple of years now stands ready to benefit the government and the Nigerian people, those who have personal and political axes to grind seem hell-bent on a totally different mission.
It is indeed ironical that on the one hand, Nigerians expect public office-holders to demonstrate required expertise and experience in the discharge of their duties, and yet we so readily yield to our baser instincts. We pressurise government at the slightest opportunity to change ministers at such short intervals that they hardly ever settle in and tackle the job requirements before we begin to demand for them to be rolled off, invariably sending the wrong signal that acquisitive interests, rather than best practices on the job, is the over-riding factor in making such critical appointments. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that, over the years, the performance level of public office-holders across the sectors has continued to decline to the overall disadvantage of our national economy.
It is obviously a rewarding testament to her good training that in the face of these seemingly unceasing torrents of mudslinging against her, with yet no case proven against her, she has continued to comport herself with dignity and calm. Let us not forget, because we are in a hurry to undo her, that she is also human and so not perfect. Enough of this fixation of stampeding Diezani out of office. Let common sense reign!
Dagogo-Jack is Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Power.
