BEN Widdicombe, a journalist withTown&Country magazine, in a November 2019 article described Imelda Marcos as the “icon of 80s excess”. Ben, straight from the start of the article made it clear that the flamboyant former Philippines first lady was obviously “more than just the shoes.” Imelda’s more than 3,000 pairs of shoes and sundry innumerable fashion accessories are perhaps the only thing many people still remember about her after she crashed out of power with her husband in February 1986. The Philippines people’s revolution of that year ended the stern reign of Ferdinand Marcos and his glitzy Imelda. The dictator and his wife had the Philippines under their firm control for over two decades until the people rose against their autocracy.
The “Steel Butterfly” was Imelda’s famous sobriquet, and it tallies because she is indeed a beautiful woman. As a former beauty queen, she had presented as an otherwise harmless pretty woman so much that two politicians in her region had to slug it out for her hand in marriage, going by one account of her life. Another school of thought however contends that she wasn’t nicknamed the ‘Steel Butterfly’ simply because of her physical beauty. This school says her fashion sense and a steely political strength – the type that triggers the thought: “I fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee” of the legendary Muhammad Ali – are the real factors. But she remains that steel prop of the Marcos political dynasty.
As recently as 2016, her son Bong Bong Marcos contested the country’s presidential election.
Going by what can be recalled, the life of Imelda eclipsed that of her husband.
Most of the things available for consumption on the life of the Marcoses as rulers of their country are about the celebrity First Lady Imelda. The preponderance of the property the world talks about in the case of these Philippines legends are jewels. The Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG) that probed the illegal wealth of the Marcoses narrowed everything about them to three collections of jewels which some refer to as “the Marcos Jewels”. The Marcos jewels are categorized according to where they were found: “Hawaii collections”, the “Malacanang collections” and the “Roumeliotes collections.” The Hawaii collections alone took the United States customs officials about one month to sort and document. When they were done, the value of the Hawaii collection of jewelry was placed at about $10million.
That is the kind of impression the Nigerian government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been labouring so furiously to create of Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources and the first female chairman of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke. Since the advent of the Buhari
administration, Nigeria has been swamped with the equivalent of the “Marcos Jewels” in “Deziani collections” but the flow has been far from smooth and has hardly been worth the time of discerning people. Something is just not right with Nigeria in this dispensation and in the anti-corruption fight. Since the reign of Ibrahim Magu at the EFCC, the obsession seems to be ‘try to recreate the Imelda Marcos scenario of Deziani’. And this has always fallen short when placed on the scale of common sense.
Just like in the Philippines’ case of Imelda and her husband, we hardly hear anything about Admiral Allison Madueke in the Deziani scenario in Nigeria. The issues are wrapped around those trivial and high-sounding accusations that would attract easy social media discussion – and thus take attention away from the real issues. Deziani’s husband is Admiral Allison Madueke, a distinguished naval officer and a gentleman, and an Admiral of the Nigerian Navy. He was a former Chief of Naval Staff, served as military governor of Anambra and Imo states and enjoyed an illustrious military career. It is taken that Admiral Madueke has carefully steered his life off the political blitzkrieg deliberately directed at his wife by the crop of politicians currently in charge of the country. He has faced his life and businesses while, most believe, he is, like many other Nigerians, watching where all the current political shenanigans involving his wife would lead both the country and its current handlers.
Long before the inglorious fall of Magu from the EFCC chair, we have had this ugly regurgitation of the Deziani malady nearly every time but especially each election cycle in our country. It is also noteworthy that Magu and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) had exposed their dirty underbellies on the Deziani matter. In July last year, both Magu and Malami traded accusations on why it has been so difficult and confusing to extradite Deziani and try her in Nigeria. Malami listed the inability of Magu to bring Deziani to Nigeria as one of the many sins that warranted the dethronement of the EFCC czar. But Magu had fired back in July 2020 as he responded to charges as he faced the Justice Ayo Salami panel trying him. He held that it was actually Malami who bungled the matter and so on and so forth… As we speak, Deziani has not been arraigned, not even for once! Marcos had her day in court.
To make the issue even more disgusting, many have wondered why it has remained so difficult for Nigeria to truly bring her to justice either here in Nigeria or in the UK where she is. James Ibori was convicted in the UK for crimes committed in Nigeria.
He was found guilty and jailed. If Deziani is so corrupt as we claim and we are cock sure of our allegations, why can’t she be given the Ibori treatment? Why has England not found her guilty? Why has she not been extradited to face charges? Magu once posited that Deziani stole $2.5billion, where has all the media trial led Nigeria? If Malami was indeed fighting for justice, where is Magu himself after all the accusations? Magu has gone underground and we are now in the era of Abdulrasheed Bawa. He took the baton and among the first was to announce the millions of dollars that had been recovered from Deziani and the number of properties his agency had recovered from her. He took it a notch higher recently when the news of the final forfeiture of ‘Deziani collections’ made the headlines. Nigeria is now ringing the bells to attract buyers of Deziani’s bras, belts and braziers. While the EFCC is up and about hawking second hand clothes, jewelry and personal effects, the agency should know that many Nigerians, especially the womenfolk are not fooled. They are not happy either that we have all collectively been reduced to this abyss by a once loved government.
The Ghanaian say: “When power fills the belly of an unwise man, it empties his head of wisdom.”
and then