A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, may have earned herself a new nickname: ‘#Hushmummy’ after incurring the wrath of some Nigerians for preaching to young people on the right role models to follow in a society where monuments of reverence are fast eroding.
Speaking at a virtual event organized by the Ijaw National Development Group, Diezani stated the importance of good mentorship to the Ijaw youths.
She also spoke on the importance of fatherhood and asked the Ijaw women to speak up more on their plights.
The former Minister described Yahoo boys being role models for young people as a “travesty of an unfolding tragedy.”
In the video posted on the social media, Diezani said: “The ones that have swag, the Yahoo Yahoo boys, as my son would say; these, in short, are the role models they are looking at. These are the ones that reinforce negative societal norms and values.
“This is a travesty of an unfolding tragedy for us. Why have I spent time talking about fatherless homes and the impact they have on our children? The truth of the matter is that an irresponsible boy tends to become an irresponsible man and it is therefore a vicious cycle. If you plant yam, you cannot harvest plantain.”
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Of course, she rightly spoke, only that her comments have sparked rage on the social media as many continue to question her antecedents in public service, trending the conversation with #Hushmummy.
Also, commentators portrayed her as an unworthy speaker to elucidate on such subject the way she did with audacity and pomp.
It is on records that the former Minister is still being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for money laundering charges.
Diezani who fled the country in 2015 following the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll has made global news headlines in the last five years for the wrong reasons, bordering majorly on a flurry of allegations of corruption while she superintends over the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, a ministry that’s on its own the heart of the Nigerian economy.
Before his suspension as EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu had been on Diezani’s trail insisting that she must be extradited back to country. According to Magu, she stole a whopping sum of $2.5 billion from Nigeria’s coffers.
Only recently, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja ordered Diezani to repatriate herself back to the country and appear before it on October 28 to answer to the money laundering charge filed against her by the EFCC.
The EFCC had accused the former minister of fleeing the country for the United Kingdom in order to escape justice.
According to an EFCC prosecutor, Mr. Faruk Abdallah in a document filed along with an ex-parte motion, at the Justice Ojukwu’s court, the EFCC had sought to question Alison-Madueke on many allegations against her, including her role as the Minister of Petroleum Resources and her role in the award of Strategic Alliance Agreement to Septa Energy Limited, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited and Atlantic Energy Brass Development by NNPC.
Recall several of her properties have been seized by the court, for being proceeds of corruption.
One of her forfeited properties — six flats of three bedrooms and a boys’ quarter — was handed over by the EFCC to the Lagos State government to be used as an isolation centre for Covid-19 patients.
However, Diezani, who remains a fugitive at the moment, has claimed innocence on the litany of allegations she has been charged with, as her prosecution continues to stall in the Nigerian courts.
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