Alison-Madueke and the OPEC presidency

One thing the opposition politicians in Nigeria are not willing to concede is any positive mention for President Goodluck Jonathan and his government in the international media.  Just because of the general election down the line early next year, the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have thrown all objectivity and patriotism overboard.  They seem to be under this morbid fear that if President Jonathan and, for that matter, the Federal Government are singled out for praises as a result of the achievements they have recorded, then their own chances of victory in the 2015 elections might just be dead on arrival.  That was the reason APC and its leaders worked assiduously to change the narrative of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) success by seeking to deny President Jonathan and the Federal Government the international accolades that poured in as a result of the unbelievable feat of defeating the virus in record time in our country.
But like a bolt out of the blues, news broke on November 27 (last week) that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has elected the Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke as its new president.  She was elected at the 166th meeting of the OPEC Conference in Vienna, Austria, and will assume office from January 2015 to succeed Libyan Vice Prime Minister for Corporations,  Abdourhman Atahar Al-Ahirish. Mrs. Alison-Madueke before her election as the new president of the organization began the year as the alternate president of OPEC.
True, Alison-Madueke is not the first Nigerian petroleum minister to be elected OPEC President. Indeed the late Rilwanu Lukeman, Professor Jibril Aminu and King Edmund  Daukoru all have been elected to the position before.  However, the election of the Nigerian current petroleum minister as the new head of OPEC holds greater significance in many respects. For Nigeria as a country, the ascendancy of her minister of petroleum resources as the leader of OPEC, in no small measures, defines not only the greater visibility of our country as a major global player but also more importantly, her emerging leadership role in the strategic global oil politics, especially in an era of falling global oil prices.  Alison-Madueke hinted that much after her election when she stated that: “the strategy the Federal Government of Nigeria intends to deploy to cushion the effects of the fall is to develop the country’s gas infrastructure for domestic use.”

It is equally important to note that the emergence of Alison-Madueke as the head of OPEC now lends weight to the credibility of the Federal Cabinet under President Jonathan at a time opposition politicians are using every trick in the book to rubbish the achievements of the PDP government.   It is not only an irony but also a soul-searching thing for us as a people that the international community, as represented by the member nations of OPEC, is recognising the nation’s petroleum minister by giving her higher responsibilities at a time that some of our politicians, goaded on by the opposition, are barracking and antagonising her at home.
Recall that Alison-Madueke has been facing tough times at home from the opposition elements who have become very uncomfortable with the bold reforms she is pursuing in the petroleum industry, which are aimed at ensuring that the greater number of our people benefit from the exploitation of the oil deposits in our land.  Those who, for many decades, have been benefitting from the irregularities, fraud and the poor administration of the oil sector would have none of these people-oriented reforms and have sworn to frustrate all the efforts of the minister.  This, perhaps, explains why Allison-Madueke has been summoned time and again to the National Assembly over frivolous matters and baseless allegations just to intimidate and get her to back down from seeing those laudable reforms to their logical conclusion.
Alison-Madueke’s Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that has been gathering dusts at the National Assembly is perhaps the easy casualty of her frosty relationship with the legislature, especially from the opposition elements, especially the APC, who have been vehemently opposed to her revolutionary changes in the oil sector.
Moreover, the newly-elected OPEC president ranks, arguably, as the most impactful and visionary petroleum minister in the country.  Apart from the ambitious PIB, Alison-Madueke, more than any of her predecessors, has been strong-willed in promoting local content in the industry and thereby growing local capital and the economy.  She has also more than any previous minister pursued the policy of eradicating gas flaring with the seriousness of purpose that the matter deserves in the interest of the Nigerian economy.
However at the personal level, Alison-Madueke with her new position is scoring another first as the first woman to be elected President of the oil cartel.  Before her rise at the Cartel, Alison-Madueke holds the record as the first Nigerian female minister of petroleum resources.  She was appointed for the first time by the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua to the transport ministry in July 2007.  She became Minister of Mines and Steel Development on December 23, 2008 and after the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan became acting President in February 2010, Alison-Madueke was appointed Minister of Petroleum Resources.
It is pertinent to add that the newly-elected OPEC president holds the record so far as the longest serving minister in President Jonathan’s cabinet and that is not down to sheer luck alone.  With the way she has admirably managed the sector on which the nation’s economy is footed, it is not any surprise that this delectable Amazon has been duly recognized globally to  lead a critical international organisation like OPEC.  The surprise though is that our petty politics and personal vendetta perhaps blinded us from recognising the diamond right in our own hands!