Diezani walks free in London and nobody is surprised

So yesterday a UK court cleared Diezani Alison-Madueke of all bribery charges. Southwark Crown Court jury took 46 hours of deliberation and returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on all six counts. The woman who served as Petroleum Minister under Jonathan from 2010 to 2015 has been fighting these allegations for years and now she is completely free.

Prosecutors said she was living a life of luxury in London in exchange for influencing oil contract awards. But Diezani maintained throughout that she never accepted bribes and had no direct influence over government contracts. The jury believed her. Or at least the prosecution could not prove their case beyond reasonable doubt which is the standard in English law.

Now I am sitting here thinking about all the money that disappeared from our oil sector during those years. The missing billions. The refineries that never worked. The fuel queues that never ended. And the person at the centre of it all just walks away. The UK court says she is innocent. But what about Nigeria? What about our own justice system that could never even get her to answer questions here? The question I keep asking myself is this: does this verdict mean she was actually innocent or does it just mean the evidence was not strong enough for a UK jury? Because those are two completely different things and we all know it.