The Goodluck Jonathan administration, despite its tilt towards corruption and impunity will always be remembered as one that had some of the most powerful ministers in Nigeria’s history. The super ministers who were mostly women held power in Aso Rock despite their notoriety and dictated much of the economic and national security policies of the government.
Just recently, news from the United States that Diezani Alison Madueke’s asset is being seized in the US made us wonder where some of the super Ministers are and what they are currently up to.
Here is what they are up to;
Diezani Alison-Madueke
Alison-Madueke came on board as the Minister for Petroleum Resources on 6 April 2010, immediately after Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan became acting president in February 2010. During her stay in office, she oversaw the controversial removal of fuel price subsidy and the increase of the pump price of fuel from N65 per litre to N97 per litre. On November 2014, she was elected as the first female president of OPEC.
Since she left office with the Jonathan administration in 2015 however, things have not been so rosy for the former Minister. First, she was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy. Almost concurrently, she was faced with series of corruption charges, ranging from diversion of $6 billion (N 1.2 trillion) from Nigeria treasury to the purchase of real estate in Banana Island, using government funds. Al-Jazeera even reported that property belonging to her in Abuja worth $18million and jewellery worth $2million were seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Messrs Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko where also alleged to have bribed her with real estate in the United Kingdom. A few days ago, a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the interim forfeiture of an estate in Banana Island area of the state linked to former Minister of Petroleum.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
In 2011, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as Minister of Finance in Nigeria with the expanded portfolio of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy by President Goodluck Jonathan. She had earlier served in the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, first as Finance Minister between 2003-2006 when she was redeployed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Her tenure in office was noted for strengthening Nigeria’s public financial systems, stimulating the housing sector with the establishment of the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC). She also initiated the Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria programme (GWIN); a gender responsive budgeting system and the Youth Enterprise with Innovation programme (YouWIN), which was said to have supported entrepreneurs as well as created thousands of jobs. As with Madueke, she served out her full tenure until the expiry of the Jonathan administration.
After serving her tenure, she joined Lazard as a Senior Advisor in September 2015 and in January 2016 she was appointed Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). She is also co-chair of the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate and also chairs several boards ranging from the Board of the African Union’s African Risk Capacity.
Akinwumi Adesina
Mr Akinwunmi Adesina was Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, from 2010 to 2015. As part of his commitment to advancing agricultural development in the country, he introduced more transparency into the fertiliser supply chain. He also made an attempt to give away mobile phones to farmers but this proved too difficult.
He was appointed the eighth president of the African Development Bank (ADB) on September 1, 2015. Adesina was also appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve as member of the Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. In 2017, he was awarded 2017 World Food Prize, which has the prestige of a Noble prize in the agricutlural sector.
Stella Oduah
Stella Oduah-Ogiemwonyi was Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation during the Goodluck Jonathan administration between July 4 2011 to 12 February 2014 when she was relieved of her duties due to an alleged corruption scandal. Despite this, she was active in the political campaign of former President Goodluck Johnathan where she served as his campaign’s Director of Administration and Finance.
It was recently gathered from a report by Punch News Paper that her four companies accounts frozen over alleged indebtedness of $16,412,819.06 and N100,493,225.59 by the Federal High Court in Lagos. The four companies are Sea Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, Sea Shipping Agency Limited, Rotary Engineering Services Limited, and Tour Afrique Company Limited with 21 bank accounts. In 2015 she was one of 109 senators elected to the 8th National Assembly.
Barrister Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN
He came in as the Minister of Justice on 6 April 2010, when Acting President Goodluck Johnathan announced his new cabinet.
His appointment as Minister of Justice and Attorney General on 6 April 2010 was seen as an attempt by Jonathan to introduce a fresh approach in pushing through electoral reforms. He ceased to be attorney general on 29th May 2015, as the Jonathan administration left office, and then went into exile.
Since then, he has kept a low profile. However, the ever-explosive Malabu scandal has dragged him back into the spotlight as he was accused along with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan over the $1.1 billion Malabu scandal.
His house was raided by the EFCC in April this year and his brother’s in the following way. He is currently being charged by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on his involvement in the Malabu $1.1 billion scam but has filed an UN human rights complaint against the FG and EFCC
Musiliu Olatunde Obanikoro
He served as the Minister of State for Defence during 2014 and was re-appointed as Minister of state, Foreign Affairs in 2015. His tenure oversaw the most violent period in the Boko Haram era with several bombings and thousands of Nigerians dead.
Instead of dealing with that, Obanikoro was alleged in a report by Sahara Reporters to be involved in rigging the 2014 Ekiti governorship election that installed another controversial politician, Ayodele Fayose, as the Ekiti State Governor, ousting Kayode Fayemi. The evidence was contained in a leaked audio recording of a meeting between certain parties before the election.
In what can be called a recurrent theme in the post-public office life of Jonathan’s ministers, Obanikoro has also faced corruption charges and accusations from the EFCC. He was grilled last year by the EFCC but has not been dragged to court on any charges. One of Obanikoro’s children as well as his wife were also quizzed hy the EFCC. In a recent report, he was said to have taken steps toward dumping the People Democratic Party (PDP), which he joined while in the senate more than 10 years ago to join the now-reigning All Progressives Congress (APC).