Nigeria: “A Day of Reckoning”, Jail Diezani to send strong signal – Emir Sanusi

Controversial ex CBN Governor and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, says that sentencing former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke to a jail term will send a strong signal. He made the remarks in a PBS NewsHour featured interview titled “How a cancer of Corruption steals Nigerian Oil, Weapons and Lives”. According to Emir Sanusi “If she (Diezani) goes to court and if she’s jailed, for example, it sends a signal, I think, that there is a day of reckoning.” Describing his account of the nature of corruption in the country’s oil sector, he added: “Basically, all it does is allows a group of people who themselves don’t have any kind of operating background just to pay $50 million, OK, for access to the crude oil in blocks valued at over $2 billion. And they just take the crude, ship it out, and don’t return the money. And there is no trace of where the money has gone.”

Someone gets a contract to lift crude from the terminals to the refineries, and, in between, that crude is stolen. It’s stolen on the high seas.” Emir of Kano also discussed the power of vested interests, a notable reference to his famous Tedx talk and also defined corruption as such; “Nigerian corruption is worse in many parts of the world, because it’s the worst type of corruption. It’s stealing.”