Petroleum minister Alison Madueke : I don't need soft landing. am not running from my country

petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who has been rumoured to be seeking asylum abroad following the defeat of her kinsman, President Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential election, says she has not committed any crime and has no reason to flee the shores of Nigeria.

“Let me state it clearly for the records that
Nigeria is my country and I am not going
anywhere. I love my country and I do think that I have done the best for my country and I would also like to point that these malicious, malevolence, vindictive libels need to stop,” Alison-Madueke said.

Unarguably, one of Nigeria’s most powerful and influential petroleum ministers in history, Alison-Madueke also took a swipe at critics who accused her of seeking a “soft landing” in the incoming government of General Muhammadu Buhari, following her meetings with General Abdulsami Abubakar, a former military ruler and Chairman of the Abuja Peace Accord.

“I have not sought such assistance
because I am not aware that I have been
indicted of any crime that I will need a soft landing. Over the last four years, I have been severally and unfortunately accused and labelled in so many malicious and vindictive ways. I think it is unfortunate, particularly when we are moving into a transition period and looking forward to an incoming government which is coming to take over where we have ended. For everything that has a beginning there is an end and that is not a surprise. What is the surprise is the sort of malevolence bothering on personal malicious libel to my person during this period of time, the Minister said during a chat with journalists in Abuja.

She blamed the reforms carried out in the
oil and gas sector for the attacks saying
she stepped on many “big toes of the cabals” operating in the sector.

“I do believe that I have done the best for
Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of time, I have stepped on many big toes, particularly the toes of the cabals that were in the industry when we came in.

“I have said severally that we will open up
the industry to all Nigerians, and we have,
but that is not to the pleasure of certain
cabals. And I have been continuously
maligned because of this. We have taken
millions and in fact billions of dollars out
of the hands of multinationals and their
subcontractors and put them in the hands
of Nigerians through the Nigerian Content.

Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms.

“Quite frankly, I think as unprecedented
as it is, it does not please everybody and
that cannot be helped but let us remember the unprecedented reforms that have happened in the oil industry during our time, such as major gas reforms, the Petroleum Industry Bill, which has been completely revised, reformed and put into the hands of members of the National Assembly where it has languished for two years.”

While dismissing allegations of wasteful
spending and corruption on her path and
in the NNPC, she said the Petroleum
Industry Bill (PIB), which is yet to be
passed by the National Assembly will help
improve transparency in the corporation.

“In that bill are all the reforms needed to
tear NNPC apart, make it a National Oil
company, an equity share company
through transparency, accountability and
responsibility and reduce corruption in
the industry. We did all theses and we put
them in place to reduce corruption, so for
me to be tagged with various tags of
corruption, $10 million jet purchases, who
buys jet for $10 million dollars for
goodness sake? And $20 billion missing
money for which PWC had done a report
and the $1.48 billion which is not missing,
which is actually money transferred by
the NNPC to NPDC which is a subsidiary
and NPDC has actually started making
payments under my directives. I have said
during our time that there are gaps in the
NNPC and I said that openly.

“But I can also say that at no time in
Nigerian history in the oil and gas has the
NNPC been as open and audited as it is
today. It has been positioned to go
forward in the industry. It is true that the
revenue profile is not sustainable. But we
have done our best and the Nigerian oil
and gas sector is today in a better shape
than it has ever been in terms of
achievements that we have recorded.

“We have done enough for this industry, we cannot please everybody. Yes, we have stepped on toes but we did that in the best interest of Nigeria and we have opened up the oil and gas industry to all Nigerians, thousands of Nigerians have benefitted from our reforms in the system.”