Mrs.
Alison-Madueke has stayed away from Nigeria since President Buhari was
sworn-in. She was first appointed into the federal cabinet in 2007. A
former director at Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, she was
appointed Minister of Transport by late President Umaru Yar’adua. In December
2008, she was redeployed to the Mines and Steel Development ministry.
After former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan became acting
president, Alison-Madueke was appointed Nigeria’s first female petroleum
minister in February 2010, a position she held till May 29, 2015 when Mr.
Jonathan left office. Alison-Madueke’s tenure as petroleum minister turned
out one of Nigeria’s most controversial, amid unending allegations of
corruption.
Under her watch, dubious oil marketers stole trillions of naira
of oil subsidy money. She retained her position after the House of
Representatives investigated the scandal and indicted the minister. Probes
by independent audit firms, including the KPMG and Pricewaterahousecoopers,
confirmed billions of dollars of oil money were missing, the most notable being
$20 billion in 2014.
Other corruption allegations
Long before her stint in the oil and gas sector, Alison-Madueke
was investigated by the Nigerian Senate on allegation she paid N30.9 billion to
contractors while she held office as transport minister. In 2009, the
Senate also indicted Mrs. Alison-Madueke and recommended her for prosecution
for allegedly transferring N1.2 billion into a private account of a toll
company without due process. The former minister consistently denied any
wrongdoing.
In June, after leaving office, she rejected all allegations of
embezzlement, saying she never stole from Nigeria. In March 2014, the
House of Representatives mandated its Committee on Public Accounts to
investigate the alleged squandering of N10 billion over a two-year period on
the arbitrary charter and maintenance of a Challenger 850 aircraft for
unofficial use by Alison-Madueke.
Such act was said to contravene the “Fiscal Responsibility Act
and all other laws on fiscal discipline” Acting on what it termed reliable
evidence, the House said it learnt that Alison-Madueke had allegedly sunk at
least N3.120 billion into the maintenance of a private jet dedicated to the
service of herself and her family.
A breakdown of the money, showed that the sum of 500,000 Euros
(N130 million) was spent every month on the maintenance of the airplane, which
amounted to N3.120 billion for the two years in question. By Clara Nwachukwu
