NIGERIAN OFFICIAL 'FAINTS' DURING CORRUPTION PROBE

How far might one go to dodge accountability?

In 2020, Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, then acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), caused a social media storm after he appeared to faint while members of the Nigerian House of Representatives questioned him over alleged corruption. Live television had captured the moment.

While only medical professionals can determine the authenticity of the occurrence, Nigerians were not so convinced. Many on social media saw it as Pondei’s attempt to avoid consequences after being caught dipping his fingers in the public’s cookie jar. Pondei appears only to have served during 2020.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo formed the NDDC in 2000 to address the hostilities of several delta-inhabiting ethnic groups toward the London-based Shell oil company. Nigeria’s Supreme Court ruled in January in favour of hearing Shell’s appeal to overturn a 2022 ruling. That ruling required Shell to clean $12 billion in environmental degradation caused by oil spills before divesting—or selling—$2.4 billion in Nigeria-based oil assets. Stakeholders have lodged multiple cases against Shell in the courts of Nigeria, England and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Houston-based ExxonMobil and Rome-based Eni are other major extractors in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil exporter.

Let us know in the comments if you believe Pondei fainted and what you think about Nigerian resources being in foreign hands.