Diezani K. Alison-Madueke (born 6 December 1960) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

politician and the first female

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. She was elected at the 166th OPEC Ordinary meeting in

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on 27 November 2014. She became Nigeria's minister of transportation on 26 July 2007. She was moved to Mines and Steel Development in 2008, and in April 2010 was appointed as the first woman Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria.

Early life and education

Diezani K. Agama was born in Port Harcourt,

Rivers State Rivers State, also known as Rivers, is a state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed in 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include: Imo to the north, Abia and Akwa Ib ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. Her father was Chief Frederick Abiye Agama. She had her early education in Shell camp and attended Hussey Model School after the

Nigerian civil war The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...

. In 1968, she enrolled in Township school, Port Harcourt and went on to Holy Rosary Government Girls Secondary School where she sat for her WASCE in 1975. She proceeded to Federal School of Arts and Sciences in

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Gongola State Gongola State is a former administrative division of Nigeria. It was created on 3 February 1976 from the Adamawa and Sardauna Provinces of North State, together with the Wukari Division of the then Benue-Plateau State; it existed until 27 August ...

(now

Adamawa State Adamawa state () is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Borno to the northwest, Gombe to the west, and Taraba to the southwest, while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon. It tak ...

) for her A’ Levels and then moved to the

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in 1977 to study Architecture. While in the UK, she commenced studying

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

in England but then moved to

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

in the United States. She graduated from Howard with a bachelor's degree on 8 December 1992. In 2002, she attended

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for her MBA degree. Diezani is a beneficiary of the

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scholarship.

Career

Shell Nigeria

She returned to

in 1992 and joined Shell Petroleum Development Corporation working in the estates area of operations in the Lagos office of Shell as well as acting as an architectural consultant. She rose to the position of Head of Civil Infrastructures and then became Head of Corporate Issues and Crisis Management Unit in 1997. Upon completion of her MBA program at Cambridge, she was made Lead Joint Ventures Representation Adviser in 2004. Alison-Madueke was appointed as an Executive Director of

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in 2006. She was the first woman ever to be appointed by Shell as an Executive Director in Nigeria.

In government

Alison-Madueke has held three significant positions in the

federal government. She was appointed Transportation Minister in July 2007. On 23 December 2008, she became the Minister of Mines and Steel Development. When Vice-President;

Goodluck Jonathan Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (born 20 November 1957)Lawson Heyford, ''The Source'' (Lagos), 11 December 2006. is a Nigerian politician who served as the President of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015. He lost the 2015 presidential election to fo ...

became acting President in February 2010, he dissolved the cabinet on 17 March 2010, and swore in a new cabinet on 6 April 2010 with Alison-Madueke as Minister for Petroleum Resources. Diezani left office on June 1, 2015, as part of the presidential transition to Jonathan's successor. She then went to work for the Commonwealth of Dominica as a Trade and Investment Commissioner.

Minister of Petroleum Resources

As Minister of Petroleum Resources, Alison-Madueke pledged to transform Nigeria's oil and gas industry so that all Nigerians benefit. In April 2010, President

signed the Nigerian Content Act, which aimed to increase the percentage of petroleum industry contracts awarded to indigenous Nigerian businesses – a reaction to the domination of the sector by foreign operators. One of the most controversial policies introduced under Alison-Madueke was the government's plan to remove state subsidies on fuel prices. Alison-Madueke supported the discontinuation of the subsidy "because it poses a huge financial burden on the government, disproportionately benefits the wealthy, ndencourages inefficiency, corruption and diversion of scarce public resources away from investment in critical infrastructure."

Allegations of corruption and financial misconduct

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segment quoted

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and

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officials saying that former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke might personally have organized a diversion of $28 billion from the Nigerian treasury. She has been charged with responsibility for $20 billion missing from the Petroleum agency. A former

Central Bank of Nigeria The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the central bank and apex monetary authority of Nigeria established by the CBN Act of 1958 and commenced operations on 1 July 1959. The major regulatory objectives of the bank as stated in the CBN Act are ...

(CBN) governor, Sanusi, made the comment again during a

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interview on 2 December 2015. Sanusi believes he was fired from the

because he went public with charges that $20 billion was missing from the

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC Limited is a for profit oil company in Nigeria. Formerly a government-owned corporation, it was transformed from a corporation to a limited liability company in July 2022. NNPC Limited is the only entity licensed to operate in the country' ...

(NNPC) under Alison-Madueke's management. Alison Madueke says Sanusi made the allegations to retaliate after she didn't help him to get appointed as the president of the

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies i ...

(AfDB) and dismissed his allegation. She's been accused of awarding multi-billion Naira contracts without recourse to due process and of recklessly spending government funds as well as wasting billions of

naira The naira (sign: ₦; code: NGN) is the currency of Nigeria. One naira is divided into 100 ''kobo''. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the sole issuer of legal tender money throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It controls the volume ...

inappropriately on private jets. In October 2009, the Senate of Nigeria indicted Diezani Alison-Madueke and recommended prosecution for the transfer of N1.2 billion naira into the private account of a toll company without due process and in breach of concession agreement. She has been officially charged to court by the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering. The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pre ...

of Nigeria for 'Money Laundering'. On 2 October 2015,

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reported that Alison-Madueke had been arrested by the UK's

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(NCA) in London, along with four other people on suspicion of bribery and corruption offences. However, a spokesperson for the police denied having any knowledge of the incident. Her family and the Nigerian Government confirmed that she had been arrested in London, although the NCA declined to comment on the case. Also in Nigeria, her home in Asokoro,

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

was raided and sealed by anti-corruption agents of the Nigerian

, a few hours after her alleged arrest in London. On 28 August 2017, a Nigerian federal court seized 7.6 billion naira ($21 million) from bank accounts linked to Alison-Madueke. In 2017, the

US Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

’s kleptocracy team seized $145 million worth of assets that had been purchased "for the benefit of" Ms. Alison-Madueke. Among the assets were a $50 million apartment in New York, properties in California, and an $80 million yacht; Galactica Star. As part of the

Pandora Papers The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 3 ...

leak in 2021, Alison-Madueke was accused of accepting $17 million in gifts and property from three Nigerian oil businessmen in exchange for favors as part of her role as Federal Minister of Petroleum Resources.

Firsts

Alison-Madueke was the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, and in October 2010 she became the first woman to head a country delegation at the semi-annual

conference. She was also the first female Minister of Transportation, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria. On 27 November 2014, she was elected as the first female President of OPEC. On working in male-dominated sectors, Alison-Madueke said she advised the young women she mentored while at Shell to "change their mode of thinking."

Personal life

Since 1999, she has been married to Admiral Allison Madueke (retired), one-time Chief of Naval Staff who was at various times governor of Imo and

Anambra State Anambra State is a Nigerian state, located in the southeastern region of the country. The state was created on August 27, 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi State ...

s. She is mother to six children; one biological son and five step children including Chimezie Madueke and Ogonna Madueke. In September 2011, Alison-Madueke was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree in Management Sciences by the

Nigerian Defence Academy The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) is a military university based in Kaduna, Nigeria that trains officer cadets for commissioning into one of the three services of the Nigerian Armed Forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The duration of t ...

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the ...

. She is the first woman to be so awarded. The event took place at the convocation ceremony for the 58th Regular Course Cadet. Alison-Madueke revealed that while in office, she had been undergoing treatments for breast cancer in the

. In September 2008, there was an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Alison-Madueke at her house in

with her son Chimezie Madueke.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alison-Madueke, Diezani Living people 1960 births Politicians from Port Harcourt Petroleum ministers of Nigeria Transport ministers of Nigeria Nigerian women architects Howard University alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge 21st-century Nigerian politicians 21st-century Nigerian women politicians Women government ministers of Nigeria Nigerian corporate directors Nigerian women business executives Women corporate directors