What Diezani bought at Harrods is where Nigeria's infrastructure budget went

At Southwark Crown Court in London this week, prosecutors submitted more evidence in the bribery trial of Nigeria's former petroleum minister.

The details are worth sitting with for a moment.

Prosecutors say Kolawole Aluko's company, Tenka Limited, paid $2.5 million for Alison-Madueke's shopping at Harrods. One shopping trip, $190,000 on furniture and art. Aluko rose from obscurity to petroleum magnate during her tenure. One of his companies was created the day before it received a multimillion-dollar licensing deal from the ministry she ran.

She's charged with five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. She says she was a "rubber stamp" for decisions she had no real influence over. Her lawyers say payments were made on her behalf because Nigerian ministers aren't allowed to hold foreign accounts.

Here's what this trial is, underneath all the courtroom procedure.

Nigeria earned trillions of naira in oil revenue between 2010 and 2015. The petroleum minister oversaw how that money moved and who got access to it. The same ministry whose revenue flows are now the subject of an executive order requiring they actually reach the Federation Account. The same offshore structures that moved money away from public view then are what international prosecutors are now unwinding.

EFCC operatives testified virtually from Abuja to confirm documents recovered in raids. That's Nigeria's anti-corruption body providing evidence to a British court to prosecute a Nigerian minister for what she did to Nigerian public money.

That sentence contains the whole story of accountability in this country.