Fighting corruption the wrong way

The last has not been heard of the chain effect of the fuel price increase of January 1^st 2012. The astronomical amount the governments claims it spends on subsidy has been found to be false. Revelations from the Faruk Lawan lead committee has been nothing but revealing. Ministries and parastatals headed by so called ‘technocrats’ have been found milking the nation.

The KPMG report ought to have been used to clear all the mess but a lot of big-wigs will lose their position. It was quite shameful when the minister for petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke (DAM) claimed she hasn’t read the report on official capacity. Does she need presidential approval before reading it? Yet, she could set up different committees with duplicate responsibilities of other parastatals.

It is important to note that such committees which were made up of former opposition will run at extra cost which wasn’t provided for in the 2012 budget. A typical example is NEITI which had been in existence to do what exactly what one of the committee is expected to do.

All the committees set up by Diezani Allison Madueke is just a move to throw the KPMGs report into the bin. Obviously she has a case to answer concerning the reckless withdrawal of money from the treasury to pay for unjustified subsidy. There have been clamours for her to step down in order to have a thorough investigation of her ministry which she has been trying desperately to ignore.

Diezani Alison-Madueke can never be a judge, plaintiff, defendant and even witness in her own case. For anyone to think the appointment of Nuhu Ribadu will clean up the system is mistaken. He is answerable to DAM and the success of his assignment may be restricted to favour her.