While I encourage the FG to go after and recover all looted assets in a transparent manner, I find the listing of Diezani’s underwear not only petty and ridiculous, but a mockery of the entire loot recovery drive.
For the benefit of those who may not know, before becoming the Minister of Petroleum, she had been working in Shell since 1992. Alison-Madueke was appointed as an Executive Director of Shell in 2006. She was the first woman ever to be appointed by Shell as an Executive Director in Nigeria. She was also married to an Admiral in the Navy.
This clearly shows that based on profession and marriage, she was living a wealthy life even by global standards. I was shocked when I read somewhere that she had never done anything before she became a minister. Many of us are too lazy to research truth.
Are we saying that someone who was an Executive Director in Shell with an annual salary of over a N100million excluding bonuses and other allowances cannot afford to buy underwear? As I speak, there are a lot of jobless people in Nigeria who luxuriate in stupendous wealth and comfort, for the simple fact that they have contact in government.
Here, we are talking about a woman who rose to the pinnacle of her career in one of the most profitable oil companies in the country and globally. Did she need to loot government money before she buys underwear? Are we saying that as ED of Shell, she wasn’t able to afford bra and waist trainer?
Finally, we have heard reports of persons who were living under very penurious conditions and suddenly became billionaires as soon as this government came to power. They have no record of ever working anywhere or running a company. But today, they swim in billions. How do we explain their sudden wealth?
This underwear episode is another stain in the supposed anti-corruption fight. Government must be seen to be serious and not pander to ridiculous pettiness in executing important assignments.
