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Nigeria Appoints First Female Oil Minister

   Chinedu Offor | Washington DC 07 April 2010

   Nigeriaâs  acting  president,  Goodluck  Jonathan,  has  sworn  in the
   countryâs first female oil minister.

   Diezani  Allison-Madueke  is a former executive of the oil giant Royal
   Dutch Shell.  She will be responsible for reforming Nigeriaâs corrupt
   oil sector, which accounts for most of the nationâs foreign earnings.

   Critics  say  she  does not have the experience needed to succeed, but
   supporters say she is the right person for the job.

   The  new  minister  faces a lot of challenges, says Innocent Chukwuma,
   executive  director  of  the  CLEEN  Foundation, a pro-democracy group
   based in Lagos.

   âThe  appointment  is  a welcome one  if you look at it with a gender
   lens,  but  beyond  that  there are a number of issues which are quite
   troubling,  especially  at  this  time,  when  Nigeria  was  trying to
   extricate itself from the strangle hold of the oil industry.â

   Supporters  of  Allison-Madueke  say  she earned the job on merit, but
   Chukwuma  says  Mr.  Jonathan  was  trying  to  make  a bold political
   statement with the appointment.

   âIt  is indeed a political appointment or a political statement from a
   different   angle.  Yes, the north has over the years felt that the
   [oil]  ministry  should  continually  be controlled by people from the
   north.

   But if you look at how the thing works in practice, it is actually who
   controls the NNPC that [actually] runs the oil sector.â

   The  small  number  of  President Umaru YarâAduaâs appointees who were
   chosen  for  the  new  cabinet  suggests  that  Mr. Jonathan has taken
   control of the government, says Chukwuma.

   âThere is a serious power struggle within the presidency -- nobody can
   deny  that.   And  the  gladiators  are  every day trying to undo one
   another.â

   The  visit of Christian and Muslim leaders to the ailing president was
   orchestrated  by  loyalists,  he says, to show their reservation about
   Mr.  Jonathanâs  dissolution  of the Federal Executive Council and the
   appointment of a new set of people.

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