By Morenike Taire

It would have been the perfect case, particularly given the crime scene, as it were. The French had a poor (or no) history of giving up their indicted. Creative America was still smarting from the Roman Polanski, the hugely talented French-Polish movie director, producer and actor who was arrested in 1977 for the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl and pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawful sex with a minor. To avoid sentencing, Polanski had fled to his home in London, and then moved on to France.

Beyond that, it could have been the day of the Underdog. Here was this poor black African woman who, regardless of her qualifications, had found herself scrubbing bathrooms in far away America where she had taken refuge from homeland tragedy. She would be standing against a sexually obnoxious European who had the ready reputation of being the feminist nemesis. He had money, fame, power; she was just minding her business, trying to make a quid or two to keep body and soul together and probably send something back home to the village, thereby making Western Union even richer.

It was not to be. The balloon of women freedom fighters everywhere was pricked in no distant time when issues began to come up about the credibility of the complainant.

Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid & accuser and Dominique Strauss-Kahn accused

It turned out she had lied on the case and had alliances that were less than holy, including probably with political enemies who might be trying to do in the defendant. Almost literally within the twinkling of an eye, what looked like  a watertight criminal case and a triumph for all women who ever had advantage taken of them by a powerful man, ended with Dominic Strauss Khan walking away a free man with his longsuffering wife by his side; and Naffissatou Diallo walking back home to Africa.

There is no doubt that both have lost a lot, and learnt invaluable lessons. It has taken the loss of a high powered job and a political career for Monsieur Strauss Khan to learn what most boys know by their 21st birthday: When a woman says “no”, she probably really means no! Madame Diallo, on the other hand, now knows what most little girls know by their 5th birthday: You can’t ever get away with lying, ever.

The message of the whole ill fated, short-lived trial is clear: the Conspiracy Theory theory has had more impact on the case’s outcome than the actual reason the world had always assumed laws were made: to deter citizens from committing crime.

Timeline …

May 14
Sofitel New York Hotel  maid Nafissatou Diallo, 32, made an allegation against Strauss-Khan of  sexual assault and attempted rape

May 18
Strauss-Kahn resigned from his position as head of the IMF. In his letter of resignation he denied “with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations”. He said he wanted to protect the IMF and devote all his energies to proving his innocence.

May 19
Strauss-Kahn was indicted by a grand jury on seven criminal counts after posting $1 million bail and pleading not guilty. He was then placed under house arrest.

May 21
A week after the arrest Strauss-Kahn’s wife Anne Sinclair, who was in Paris when he was arrested, said: “I don’t believe for a single second the accusations of sexual assault by my husband.” The two have been married for 20 years.

June 30
District attorney sent a letter to Strauss-Kahn’s defense team disclosing information about the housekeeper. Prosecutors    `met with Strauss-Kahn’s defense team the same day and that evening The New York Times reported the case as being on the verge of collapse and quoted law-enforcement officials as saying investigators had uncovered major holes in the housekeeper’s credibility. She admitted she lied about the events immediately following her encounter with Strauss-Kahn

July 1
Prosecutors told the judge that they had reassessed the strength of their case in the light of housekeeper’s diminished credibility,

August 8
Diallo filed a civil action against Strauss-Kahn in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx. Her lead attorney, Kenneth Thompson, attacked DA Vance, claiming that Vance’s office had been abusive to their client, had leaked false information. Thompson called for the DA to be replaced with a special prosecutor, and asked the judge stay in the case until this motion had been decided.

August 23
Judge formally dismissed all charges based on the prosecutors’ assertions, including that the maid’s “pattern of lies” had “made it impossible to trust her.

Okonjo Iwealla  makes Forbes 100

Two time Finance minister and the woman being touted in mischievous quarters as the new Nigerian Prime Minister Ngozi Okonjo Iwealla has joined the prestigious list of the 100 most powerful women in the world along with old timers such as Hilary Clinton, Angela Merkel and Michelle Obama.

Okonjo Iwealla, whose second coming has stirred an ongoing controversy about her abilities and ratings from the last time, is one of three African women who made the enviable list.

Okonjo-Iweala

According to her Forbes profile, “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made headlines when she left the World Bank in July, where she was a managing director and the second-in-command, to become the finance minister of Nigeria. While it shocked some supporters who saw her as a contender for the Bank’s top job, it also brought a sense of deja-vu”. It says her major achievement was to secure the 18billion dollar debt write-off from Nigeria’s creditors.

Other Africans on the list are Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita from South Africa in number 97 and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President, Liberia at number 62.

Terrorism Is in Nigeria, but Is it Sustainable?

It might be some comfort to remember that kidnapping, which begun in the Niger Delta as a means by which militants killed with one stone the two birds of registering their protests against the system and making some good cash; has virtually died down in most parts of the country. The activities of terrorist gangs such as Boko Haram, is the new kidnapping- a directionless fruit of the bizarre imagination of some deep pocketed fellow.

There are many senses in which the two phenomena cannot be associated. Still, the one thing that strongly associates them is the fact that the first major one in the string of bombings that have taken place in the last 18 months or so, has been attributed to a Niger Delta militant group, whose erstwhile leadership has also taken credit.

UN house blast suspects, Babagana Kwaljima and Babagana Mali

The link suggests, also, that the two phenomena are being funded by similar sources and that the funders will soon find cheaper, safer means to achieve whatever sick objective they hope to achieve. The reason the kidnappings stopped was that it became too dangerous for the kidnappers.

ExxonMobil,  CEDPA Celebrate 26 African Women Leaders

On Wednesday, August 24 dignitaries from Africa and the U.S. along with 26 women leaders, officials and staff of ExxonMobil, and staff of the US- and Nigerian-based NGO Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) will gather at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja for a reception. A number of dignitaries and women leaders are scheduled to make speeches about the importance of advancing the economic leadership of women. The 26 women, from seven African countries, are participants of CEDPA’s Global Women in Management Workshop sponsored by ExxonMobil.

The month-long workshop provides the participants with leadership, entrepreneurial and management skills. The workshop culminated in the evening with the reception celebrating the women’s accomplishments.

The honorees are from Angola, Cameroun, Equitorial Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. The women, who shared their success stories, are mid- to senior-level NGO leaders working to improve women’s economic participation in their various communities.

Speakers included Princess Oladunni Odu, LL.D and Barrister at Law, Chief Imo Isemin, Akwa Ibom State, founder, Uforo Small Business Owners Association, Mark R. Ward, Chairman and Managing Director, ExxonMobil Companies Nigeria, Carol Peasley, President, CEDPA, Washington DC and Gloria Essien-Danner, Director for External Affairs, Mobil Producing Nigeria