Diezani Factor In Legislative Oversight,By Wahab Adil

I have been observing the confrontational engagement of the Petroleum Minister Diezani Allison by the House of Representatives in recent times and I must say that the whole thing portrays the honorable members in very bad light. No one is denying the legislators their oversight functions as this is one of the fundamental roles for checking and balancing the powers and activities of the Executive in a genuine democratic setting. Neither can I make any pretence of presenting Minister Diezani as an angel. What bothers me is the rather juvenile exuberance displayed by the House of Representatives in pursuit of political objectives that should have been more purposeful if motivated by unalloyed national interest.
Minister Diezani’s travails stem from the legislators’ peculiar focus on the Petroleum Ministry and the NNPC from the pre-meditated perspective of discrediting the management of our oil resources by the Goodluck Jonathan Administration. I make bold to maintain this stand considering the background of coincidence and tacit collusion between the legislators’ “crusade” and the APC opposition’s propaganda agenda similarly skewed against the Presidency. There is no denying that the APC opposition has in recent times secured collaboration of the legislators in its partisan political mission of mounting an electioneering campaign for 2015.
The chain of events surrounding the deliberate leakage of the obviously confidential letter to President Jonathan from former president and self-declared godfather of APC, Olusegun Obasanjo cannot be divorced from the conspiratorial liaison between the House of Representatives and the APC caucus. Speaker Tambuwal fired the first salvo by indecorously spewing allegations of corruption against the President and this was rapidly reinforced with the timed leakage of the infamous Sanusi letter three months after it was written to the President and the OBJ marathon missive. These orchestrated events ushered in the scurrilous saga of “NNPC’s missing billions” with ex=CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as chief conductor and the National Assembly as theatre of choice. The anti-climax that punctured the veracity of this massively media-hyped “scam”, especially the ridiculous retractions by Sanusi, and the unceremonious closure of the matter with a “forensic” finality conclusively confirmed the malicious political mischief behind the campaign of calumny against The Presidency, the Petroleum Ministry, Minister Diezani and the NNPC.
It was disgracefully disappointing that honorable members on national assignment can be derailed by vested interests working against the national interest and in furtherance of a partisan political agenda for which the stability and credibility of the Federal Government is disposable. Casting criminal aspersions on the management of the nation’s oil resources at such a high level of governance has untold consequences on the international reputation of Nigeria apart from unjustifiably assassinating the character of innocent public officers. The prominence of 2015 politics in the motivation for the vendetta exposed the vulnerability of legislators to personal, political and pecuniary temptations inimical to statesmen of honour holding public trust.
One would have thought their disastrous outing as cheerleaders of a contrived scam in the management of the petroleum sector was lesson enough for the legislators to stop playing to the gallery of desperate politicians jostling for elective positions, but alas, the misadventure continued. The renewed political victimization of Minister Diezani this time for something as routine as the official use of chartered aircraft suggests that the legislators are too far gone in their derailment to realize the folly and futility of their witch hunt. It is telling that the purported anti-corruption agenda of the legislators has veered away from the tangible issue of proceeds of sales of crude oil to the mundane matter of expenditure on aircraft charter and the itinerary of the petroleum minister, further revealing the mercenary mission of the legislators and their sworn commitment to the propaganda objectives of the APC. Needless to say, the significance and relevance of whatever catches their preconceived perception of the air charter expenses is bound to be “forensic” and far-fetched in comparison to the magnitude of transactions in the petroleum sector of the national economy.
It is also a matter of serious concern to observe that the legislators have practically lost sight of the import of oversight functions as envisaged in the constitution by adopting an inquisitorial stance of witch hunters and partisan propagandist and working almost solely under the direction of APC opposition leaders and their cohorts in the National Assembly. The legislators’ oversight powers are meant to be exercised essentially across the entire spectrum of executive functions and inspired by a civic interest in enhancing good governance in partnership with the executive arm of government. Legislators oversight functions should be conducted with decorum and with a sense of responsibility that will engender the confidence and cooperation of public officers instead of providing legislative cover for political persecution of targeted top members of the Goodluck Jonathan Administration and relying on politically-motivated petitions to launch probes and hearings without screening out the malicious contents. Legislative oversight should be serious business conducted with sobriety and not reduced to a circus of recriminations.
As for the brazen targeting of Minister Diezani, it is a matter of regret that what she is needlessly undergoing while serving the nation will invariably deny Nigeria of the services of decent, responsible, respected and resourceful and experienced citizens in times and areas of need in governance. Her impressive CV convincingly confirms that the Minister is an accomplished technocrat at the highest levels of gainful management of her area of specialty in the petroleum industry. In fact most people of her class and calibre just cannot be attracted by the thankless and agonizing prospect of serving the nation in government. But Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke is made of sterner stuff and had the humility and patriotism to respond selflessly to the call to national duty, from her coveted position on the board of oil giant Shell. Her track record in the petroleum ministry eloquently testifies to her professional panache and national conscience, whether for PIB or local content development. Yet, the legislators busy themselves in vain efforts to disparage her and deny Nigeria of her services!
WAHAB ADIL wrote from Barnawa, Kaduna