By Oliver Ekwebelem
The proper address should be Mrs Alison-Madueke and for this reason, the titling above seems to fall short in required courtesy. But there is something about this woman, a tough girl quality underneath that fine designer face, which calls for wise recognition. Something beyond marriage tags and chieftaincy beads: an actualised soul carrying on with calm resolve through hectic official schedules, while around her heckling squads of political enemies growl and rant in vain.
Diezani… Whatever that means, Wikipedia says she studied architecture in England and then at Howard University in the United States. Graduating from Howard with a Bachelor’s degree in December 1992, Diezani returned to Nigeria and joined Shell Petroleum Development Corporation same year. In 2002, she attended Cambridge University for her MBA and in April 2006, rose to be the first Nigerian female executive director of that controversial oil company. I want to believe therefore, that glass ceiling are not for her kind of woman. Doubly pleasing to me is that there are many of her type in the Jonathan administration; achievers all-in and out of the federal executive council- holding high appointments of state, to the glory of Nigerian womanhood and the great honour of the president who has shown a canny gift for putting the right people in the right positions.
And so, from the boardroom of Shell Petroleum Nigeria, Diezani Alison-Madueke came into the public domain in July 2007 when the Yar’Adua appointed her to the office of transport minister. In December 2008, she was moved to the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development. A month after he became acting president in February 2010, Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the cabinet and appointed Alison-Madueke to the office of minister for petroleum resources.
Now, mention oil in Nigeria as Wole Soyinka grandly declares, and the hyenas begin to gather. So, no one in their right minds would suggest that the headship of the oil ministry is a steaming cup of tea or coffee. Yet, many things could have made this job such a thrill for Nigeria and for Diezani, but for the peculiar nature of Nigerian politics and the rabid mindset of not a few technocrats in the industry and also the political opposition.
Any western country, not to mention many of our African neighbours, would have held up the only female oil minister in the whole world as a jewel of inestimable national value, if only for the recognition and the respect it confers on the country as breeding ground for exemplary womanhood. Am I suggesting in any manner that Diezani should be treated as a saint? Not by a long shot, No.
But from day one as minister of petroleum, so the story goes, some high operatives of the NNPC could not countenance the idea of a woman minister of petroleum resources. Yes, the office has been graced by very notable Nigerians and the clout wielded by such oil ministers as Rilwan Lukman, Sheikh Yamani, Aminu Jubril and others is legendary. But this daughter of Nigeria is qualified too in her own right, progressive minds countered. The naysayers held on stubbornly to their point and as the story goes too, one top echelon of the national oil company put in his papers rather than take order from her.
It did not stop there. The press latched on to gossip stories about jewellery and stuff, kids living it up abroad like aristocrats. As if a former director of Shell Petroleum could not afford such ornaments or as if the children of Admiral Allison Madueke, a former military governor of Anambra and Imo States and one-time chief of naval staff were living any less differently than their peers from such affluent backgrounds.
The merit of these stories, notwithstanding, discerning minds could see the hyenas circling and salivating wickedly in anticipation of a grand feast. It has never mattered to them that, as minister of petroleum resources, she has pledged to transform Nigeria’s oil and gas industry for the benefit of all Nigerians. [eap_ad_1] The tenure of Diezani Alison Madueke as oil minister has seen a number of firsts also in the oil industry Nigeria. Not the least of these is the signing into law in April 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan of the Nigerian Content Act to increase the percentage of petroleum industry contracts that are awarded to indigenous Nigerian businesses. The increasing involvement of Nigerian engineers and entrepreneurs in the once exclusive preserve of foreign technocrats has had a salutary effect on our national psyche.
