Opinion: Oiling Diezani's prison wagon

Oiling the wheels of hedonism

I had previously passed commentary on Twitter about the case of the erstwhile Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.

In a statement released by the US Department of Justice last week, they are after the recovery and forfeiture of $144 million in assets that are proceeds of corruption and money laundering conducted within the jurisdiction of the United States of America. [DOJ]

Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore, both of whose Wikipedia pages are urgently in need of an update because the colourful profiles therein are anything but, they apparently conspired with others to bribe Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke with gifts including property and furniture to win lucrative oil contracts in Nigeria.

Oiling global scrutiny

Kola Aluko for instance, owns the luxury super-yacht, Galactica Star, it is the world´s largest fast displacement yacht [Wikipedia]. It is valued at about $65 million and it gained a rather high social profile when it was hired by Jay-Z and Beyoncé for her 32^nd birthday. [Business Insider]

Basically, Aluko and Omokore seem to have gotten their hands on lots of money from their nefarious activities and have not been reticent about living high profile lives of acquisitive hedonistic eye-watering ostentation.

In any case, let’s look at an aspect of this matter that does not seem to be dawning on Nigerians of power and influence yet. The fact that no one has the resources to completely control the narrative anymore. The power you wield in Nigeria that could be overwhelming in that locality is paltry in global terms, Nigerian smarts do not essentially suggest you are smart about things, you might well be stupid when taken out of that setting.

Oiling the sheen of stupidity

It brings me to a few trivial, yet interesting conclusions about Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke who we deign to call Diezani.

Diezani, has been both stupid and smart, smart in her involvement with her co-conspirators in crime to have recorded conversations of their wanton thievery and yet stupid enough to allow those recordings to become key evidence for indictment, because she somehow failed to sequester the material far from reach, it’s like being caught in the act, red-handed.

Smart to express a sense of proportion in admonishing the men about their hedonism whilst stupid enough in her cant to exhibit the same characteristic in accepting $4 million worth of furniture for her many properties. [Premium Times]

Smart to find ready patrons lacking in integrity and character to probably insulate her from the corrupt enterprise she presided over, but that itself was stupid because whilst she apparently got away with it in Nigeria, she could not in the UK and the US. [Newsweek]

Oiling the arm of the law

Carrying on the previous thought, smart to have absconded Nigeria since 2015 where she has escaped the hounding of ineffectual law enforcement and prosecution, but stupid enough to think they could not only provide influence but add value to the investigations and indictments instigated abroad.

To reiterate an earlier thought, invariably, what we stupidly assume as smart in the Nigerian context could very well be exposed as stupid in the global scheme of things. Everyone forgets that in our global village, that nothing of note in a secret local grotto is entirely isolated from the global klieg lights.

Looking for smart cookies

Foolish me smartens up

I have been foolish and I have been smart, I would prefer that when I am foolish I realise that in private and lick my wounds in private, learn my lessons and move on. I have learnt not to condemn myself in the things I have allowed.

One is however, not averse to earning praise and accolades for being smart, either in private or in the public eye one learns to receive with humility and give with generosity.

When Albert Einstein died, his brain was removed and studied in 1955 by Dr. Thomas Harvey who then said there was nothing so different about the distinguished mass of gray matter; however, one can understand the interest in trying to find out why Einstein was so smart, a genius. Later studies did however, find out some unique if not distinguishing factors with his brain but that is beside the point.

A specialist neurosurgeon who was recently in the news being a public figure by reason of some high profile positions his wife once held, would have been a perfect candidate to study the brain of Albert Einstein and as a result, produce useful scientific fact about what made the Nobel Laureate a genius.

In what has been become a contrasting of extremes, the Big Brother episode which I wrote about in my last two blogs, the principal there might have been very foolish, if not stupid being illiterate and pig-ignorant but considering what she has made for herself, she has been smart.

Without prejudice, the neurosurgeon that happens to have a doctorate in neurosurgery – what he does not know about brains is probably not worth knowing – is learned, erudite, respected and knowledgeable, but definitely has not been smart, having allowed himself, if true, to be blackmailed many times for making his marital vows a bit trivial.

It begs the question, what does it take to be smart, and when you have been foolish how do you smartly keep that out of view?

Need a good joke to bury - give it to John Kerry

Education or possible cremation

Sometimes the truth is too bitter a pill to swallow. As the electioneering for the US Congress hots up and gets deep down dirty.

Senator John Kerry, the failed presidential candidate in 2004 was out campaigning and happened to be in a school where he deftly mangled what would have been a perfect criticism of the President by saying – “You know, education -- if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Well, that does cut both ways depending on the sword and who you allow to take advantage of that weapon.

Ouch! Swing it the other way

For now, the cut which was supposed to cut down the President as being stuck in Iraq because of his inane policies is looking like the blunter edge, whilst that which portends to show soldiers being stuck in Iraq as cannon fodder because they have not been smart and well educated seems to deliver a mortal blow.

So, it has gotten downright emotive as John Kerry is getting disparaged for denigrating the service and patriotism of people serving America in an unholy war that they are not winning that has generated over 2,000 body bags and much more of the native Iraqis.

We are on the verge of trying to pull out but without the graceful means of extricating ourselves from the quagmire we willingly and consciously offered to wallow in.

Smart soldiers? Give me a break. Just a few of these smart soldiers have done well to secure the reputation and safety of our men in Iraq with Abu Ghraib and many other human rights abuses that cannot be tried by independent international courts.

The albatross of Vietnam

Well, it would appear John Kerry is not going to run into a corner and hide; he has come out firing all guns and ‘Vietnamised’ the retort.

Having expressed disgust about “Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country” [Meow!!!], now, Kerry who has served his country in uniform, with distinction and honours, he goes on to say, it is Bush and Cheney the draft ‘dodger’ who “owe our troops an apology having misled America into war”.

It is going to get awful, and it appears the first cut would probably not be the deepest, at all.

References

Bush on Kerry remark: U.S. troops are 'plenty smart'

U.S. is recruiting misfits for army / Felons, racists, gang members fill in the ranks