Diezani walks free in London — what does this mean for Nigeria?

So yesterday a London court acquitted Diezani Alison-Madueke on all bribery charges. The former petroleum minister who served under President Goodluck Jonathan was facing five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. After 46 hours of deliberation, the jury said not guilty on everything.

British prosecutors alleged she received lavish benefits worth millions — over £2 million spent at Harrods alone, about £4.6 million on refurbishing London properties, a £2.8 million home in Marylebone. They said Nigerian businessmen like Kolawole Aluko funded her lifestyle through payment cards linked to his company Tenka Limited. But Diezani told the court she never asked for or took any bribe. She said the NNPC reimbursed expenses for official engagements and that a logistics company was set up in London because of the disorganised financial structure at NNPC at the time.

This is a major blow to UK authorities who spent over a decade investigating her. But let us not forget that Nigerian courts have already ordered forfeiture of assets worth billions of naira linked to her. She still faces multiple corruption cases back home that have stalled because she is in the UK. So the question remains — if she is innocent in London, what happens to those Nigerian cases? And what does this verdict say about how international corruption cases against Nigerian officials are prosecuted?