www.odili.net/news/source/2015/may/15/500.html

Missing $20bn: Alison-Madueke's real
crime
Our Reporter
Friday, May 15, 2015
BY TUNDE AKINTAN
In a shark-infested public space like Nigeria's,
character assassination is considered a legitimate
weapon of war. And the more vicious the attacks, the
better for the purveyors. So, when President Goodluck
Jonathan told ministers and aides serving under him to
brace up for hard times at a thanksgiving and farewell
service held in his honour at the Cathedral Church of
Advent, Gwarinpa, Life Camp Abuja, on Sunday, May
10, he knew what he was talking about. He knew that
the night of long knives is nigh.
In his characteristic bluntness, the president said the
decision, which he took to concede defeat to his rival in
the March 28 presidential election, General
Muhammadu Buhari, a decision, which has been
acclaimed globally as the apogee of statesmanship, may
well be used ungraciously as an instrument to witch
hunt not only himself but his close associates.
But he had to take the decision all the same because as
a leader, he was looking at the big picture - the good of
all Nigerians, rather than self.
"Some hard decisions have their own cost, no doubt
about that," Jonathan told the congregation. "That I
have run the country in this way, passing through
electoral system that has brought stability to this
country, it is very costly decision that I must be ready
to pay for it … and for the ministers and aides that
serve with me, I sympathize with them, because they
will be persecuted and they must be ready for that
persecution."
But in its characteristic hubris, the All Progressives
Congress (APC) derisively dismissed the president's
assertion, insinuating that Jonathan may have mistaken
prosecution for persecution. "That the President- elect
is a man of integrity is not an issue for debate, and he
has made it clear that he will not be bogged down by
endless probes," the party said, adding: "However, the
hands of the incoming government will not be tied by
those who have chosen to play the victim and exhibit a
persecution mentality. Whoever has any reason to be
afraid must lay bare such reason before Nigerians."
But is it possible that President Jonathan does not
know the difference between persecution and
prosecution? The answer is definitely no! He has said
for the umpteenth time that he has nothing to hide.
Nigerians gave him an opportunity to serve in the
highest reaches of government, an opportunity for
which he is eternally grateful. And the fact that he
meant well for the country and served with all his
heart has long been established. But the incoming
government and its henchmen look every inch like
people on vengeance. So, Jonathan actually knows what
he is talking about. While the guiltless should not be
afraid in normal climes, Nigeria is not. It is even more
so now that the President-elect and his political party
have suddenly realised that there is a world of
difference between being in opposition and being in
power. In trying to manage the crisis of expectation,
the APC is prepared to use the charge of corruption as
a subterfuge, a deceptive stratagem to fend off the huge
expectations, which they orchestrated in the polity.
Simply put, the APC is working from the answer to the
question. It is sheer red herring and that is why their
leading lights are hitching a ride on the anti-corruption
wagon no matter how rickety the vehicle has become.
For instance, on Tuesday, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna
State governor-elect, accused the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) of stealing money from the nation's
treasury and assured Nigerians that the incoming
administration will make sure that all the funds
allegedly stolen by the Goodluck Jonathan
administration would be returned to the public coffers.
"We will politely ask those who stole government
money to return the funds. This is because those in
government now are there to work for themselves, but
the APC government is made up of people who are
ready to work for the masses and betterment of the
country," el-Rufai told members of the National Union
of Textile Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria
(NUTGTWN), who paid him a courtesy call in Kaduna.
Recovery of the alleged looted funds, he said, had
become absolutely necessary due to the bad debt
situation the incoming administration would face.
So, as Jonathan noted, he has already been adjudged
guilty of fraud alongside his ministers and all who
worked with him, even before investigations are
carried out. And the Buhari government will be run
with the loot to be recovered from him and his aides. If
such characterisation of a government and profiling of
its officials even when there is no known indictment is
not persecution, then what is it?
And that is particularly the fate of the Minister of
Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who
APC chieftains are working very hard to present as the
poster lady of corruption.
The minister's problem started when the former
Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, now Emir of Kano,
Lamido Sanusi, wrote to President Jonathan alleging
that from January 2012 to July 2013, NNPC had lifted
$65 billion worth of crude oil on behalf of the Federal
Government but remitted only $15.2 billion into the
Federation Accounts, with $49.8 billion as outstanding.
Expectedly, there was huge outcry and even when
Sanusi unilaterally reduced the amount to $12 billion
and later $20 billion, becoming pitiably inconsistent in
his self-serving advocacy, the noise refused to quieten.
And to get to the root of the matter and to prove that it
had nothing to hide, the Federal Government, through
the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation,
engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited (PwC) to
investigate any and all crude oil revenues generated by
the NNPC that was withheld or unremitted to the
Federation Accounts between January 1, 2012 and July
31, 2013. The sole goal of the audit is to determine if a
whopping $20 billion of the country's patrimony had
been misappropriated. If yes, how, and by whom? But
the audit firm came up with the verdict that only $1.48
billion was actually unaccounted for and recommended
that NNPC should remit the money to the federation
account. In any other country, that should have ended
the matter since it has been established that no money
was stolen and the minister said arrangements had
been made for the money to be remitted.
But this is Nigeria. The allegation itself was an agenda
setting and that is why all manner of hideous
characters are baying for Alison-Madueke's blood. The
issue is far bigger than the purported quest for
transparency in governance. It is a web of conspiracy,
which sole purpose is to demonise not only the
minister but also the entire Jonathan administration.
That is why, all of a sudden, everyone seems to have
forgotten that the issue that led to the probe was
alleged missing $20 billion and that the report
categorically stated that no such money was missing.
Shouldn't that have been the end of the matter? No!
The agenda is far bigger than the allegation. The
allegation is only but a smokescreen to mask the real
intention of the purveyors of the falsehood. That is why
the whole issue is being handled as if the NNPC is a
creation of the Jonathan administration. If it is not
mere mischief, why is PWC's major recommendation
that "the NNPC model of operation must be urgently
reviewed and restructured, as the current model which
has been in operation since the creation of the
Corporation cannot be sustained" being downplayed?
When was the last time the accounts of NNPC audited?
El-Rufai was a key minister in the Olusegun Obasanjo
administration where the former president was also the
de facto Petroleum Minister for almost eight years. Why
did he not raise his voice then? He who comes to
equity must do so with clean hands. The extant audit
was to address the issue of missing $20 billion. If
Buhari wants to be taken seriously, he should audit the
accounts of NNPC right from inception. But if that will
not suffice, and I don't see why it shouldn't, he should
at least audit the accounts from May 29, 1999 when the
Fourth Republic came into being.
I can bet that if such an audit is done, Nigerians will
find out that President Goodluck Jonathan is really a
saint. And that Diezani's real crime is that she stepped
on big toes as she has acknowledged in her desire to
sanitise an industry that over the years has become the
bastion of slush funds for all manner of characters
masquerading as national leaders.
• Akintan wrote in from Abuja.

If we don't bitch over • Missing cocoa money in the west • Missing groundnut money in the North,
Please, don't bitch over missing oil money!!!

Op you are thinking like a child. because GEJ refused to probe his predecessor buhari should not? if it pains you go and huge the transformer for all I care. change has come it's not going to be business as usual.
buhari should go ahead and prob if anyone is found guilty he should b jail.