Oduagate: The fruits of ‘neighbour to neighbour’ Oduagate, the new lexicon in the ever-expanding Nigeria’s universe of corruption is coined after Ms Stella Oduah, the federal minister of aviation. The revelation initiated by the New York based Sahara Reporters which has since been collaborated by several official and independent whistle-blowers is that, contrary to the provisions of the Appropriations Act on which the national budget is based, as well as the due process policy of government, Ms Oduah, as the minister in charge of the aviation sector caused the Federal Aviation Authority, a key agency under her portfolio to buy for her two BMW luxury armoured personnel carriers (APCs) without any parliamentary approval at an inflated price that could only be described as criminally outrageous. The whole scandal has further revealed how irresponsible Nigerian public officers can be because in the futile effort to hide the sordid information about the transaction, which unfortunately has already gone viral online, we have been subjected to a whole lot of nonsense talks all with a view to deflecting focus from the huge mess. Incidentally, the minister concerned has somehow been adopted as the bright “face of the Jonathan administration” which incidentally is not bright. Little wonder why the scandal has taken the form of a Harmattan bush-fire blowing in all directions. In decent climes, heads would since be rolling and the minister herself would have long apologised to the nation and thrown in the towel. But anyone expecting such a decent approach to the scandal may not have lived in Nigeria long enough as those who fully understand the debilitating role of corruption in our process of public management already know that it would, at the end of the day, just be mere sound and fury signifying nothing. First, there was a flat denial that such a criminal purchase ever took place; then it was admitted that it took place but that the vehicles acquired through Coscharis Ltd were for visiting dignitaries who had to be shielded from bazooka throwing Nigerians; then it was that, truly, the vehicles were bought to protect the honourable minister from “imminent threats” to her as a result of the good works she was doing at the airport; in any case, the “vehicles were bought with the due authorisation of the National Assembly” whose appropriation Committee has since come out to tell Nigerians that they did not approve the purchase of armoured luxury vehicles for the ministry or any of its para-statals because the minister is not a war commander who needs APC vehicles to tour the war fronts. Someone even mentioned in a chain of lies trailing the BMW purchases that, after all, the vehicle have not been paid for; they were acquired on “hire- purchase” bases. Another said the said vehicles do not belong to the aviation authorities but to a car hire company. All these are merely cock and bull stuff meant for the gullible Nigerians. Of course, there is always the omnibus defence of being “persecuted” for doing what Napoleon could not do at the nation’s airport. Every carpeted public officer has that claim as a standard alibi: they are fighting me for denying them the opportunity to steal public money. The only snag in that standard refrain is that you don’t use corruption to fight corruption as everyone ought to answer for his or her own crime rather than blame third parties. Outraged by the scandal, Nigerians have been calling for the head of the minister who, some people had strangely described as “the star or rising star” of the Jonathan Goodluck regime. I am however not surprised. The other day I was at the airport and I noticed that right at the security point, there stood a full size picture of the honourable minister described therein as a “princess” starring down on all passengers passing through. Someone asked, “what is the picture of this woman doing here, is it her private airport in her kingdom? Which other airport in the whole wide world are the pictures of ministers mounted everywhere?” The lady behind me on the queue muttered that we shouldn’t “mind that picture o. That woman must now be a grandmother in real life. This picture must have been taken when she was still at college”. Someone else interjected that “she used to be a Mrs Ogiemwonyi, wife to a former minister; maybe she changed her name so that it wouldn’t look as if a wife is taking over from a husband as minister in the same administration in a country of more than 160 million citizens”. My view was that it doesn’t matter whether she changed her name due to a divorce or political strategy. What is important is her performance in office which I thought was okay even though so many things at the various revamped airports still look cheap and of very poor design. I think the airports are a lot better now than they were before. I remembered that airport encounter when the news broke that the ministry of aviation, contrary to the pictorial propaganda inundating us, is actually a cesspool of corruption, a development that has allegedly led to the untimely death of hundreds of Nigerians through avoidable plane crashes. From the discussion that ensued amongst several passengers until we boarded the Arik aircraft flying to Abuja that morning before the flight crew called us to attention for some “safety procedures”, it was clear to me that many people think of the lady as the primary force behind the Jonathan campaigns, a factor that transformed her from just being a member of the cabinet to one who must have the ears and eyes of the President 24/7. You don’t bite the fingers that feed you, we are often reminded. Today Goodluck Jonathan is the elected President (and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces only now at ceremonies) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but it has to be accepted that some people made that possible. That is not to say others, including the millions that actually voted for him at the polls, do not count. What is intended is that but for the extra efforts of a few individuals, it is doubtful if the man himself would even have summoned the courage to contest the election. The key driver of the last election campaign for President Jonathan was neither Jonathan himself nor the PDP directly. If the truth must be told, it is all well known that it was a rather faceless organisation going by the code name Nieghbour-2- Neighbour that carried the assignment on its head. It spent billions of Naira as if money has lost its value. Millions of newspaper advertisements and several hours of expensive campaign TV time were lavished for the Jonathan campaign. So confident were they about the power of money in Nigerian politics that they did not see the need for the candidate himself to personally campaign or debate his case before the Nigerian electorate. It was enough that the Neighbour-2-Nieghbour movement was in charge. They delivered on their mission as Dr. Jonathan won the election. But unknown to Nigerians, the whole Neighbour-2-Neighbour electoral machine was almost single-handedly funded by Ms Stella Odua. In a technical sense, she was able to achieve a “state capture” of the new government by that act alone as she became capable of setting personalised agenda for the administration that is so elected: she can decide on who serves in the government and what post one holds. But for the sheer shine and aggrandisement of government which she obviously craves, elsewhere, political financials of that calibre do not go into government directly but deploy their people into all the strategic places from where they can effectively be “pressing buttons”. For all intents and purposes, this government is hers. She is like a majority shareholders in a business who pumped her money into the making of the organisation and it is therefore inconceivable that there could be anything she wants from this government that she wouldn’t get. That is especially as it is still the case that “who pays the piper dictates the tunes”. We many indeed have other ministers; some may even consider themselves as “co-ordinating” or specially geopolitically related to the president, the fact remains that but for some people, this government would not have existed and it is only common sense that such individuals (special interests) are accorded special privileges that others can only dream of. That is why buying armoured cars at such outrageous prices in a country where poverty is stalking the streets for a minister as important as Ms Stella Odua should ordinarily not raise any eyebrow. For a woman who could spend billions of her cash through Neighbour-to-Neighbour , asking her to explain why she should use a mere N255 million of public money must sound as some insult. Have you not heard of others who did far less who are now rich enough to be bringing forth turn-key type private universities, the type the government is unable to provide for ASUU? From her little purse, pocket book as they call it in America, she can easily pay for those vehicles and there may be no “debt alert” due to its insignificance to the overall account balance. She is reputed to be a leader in the oil business – a fortune 500 qualified lady. If those who came only a few years ago into the fuel business were able to make billions from such few transactions as were revealed to a shocked nation during the last fuel subsidies probe, one can only imagine the armada of cash she would have amassed over the years being an early comer to that criminally lucrative business. She really does not need government money excepting that making money is said to be addictive to some people and that is why it sometimes happens that billionaires are tempted to steal from the poor all in the name of “business”. I am reminded that once a person accepts to serve in government he or she has equally accepted to act within the ethics of public administration in which accountability to the public becomes constitutionally and conventionally mandatory. In other words, irrespective of her personal wealth or her singular contribution to the campaigns of President Jonathan, she became morally and legally obligated to play by the rules which she subscribed to in her oath of office as prescribed under the constitution when she accepted the appointment. It has been said that aviation technocrats used the subterfuge of “operational vehicles” to camouflage the minister’s “armoured cars” which the appropriate budget committee of the National Assembly had earlier rejected as unacceptable. I can understand a military Brigade Commander at a war front asking for armoured personnel carriers but for a minister who has been accused by another former minister of spending more of her time on tending to the looks of her head-tie, such an acquisition loudly announces itself as being appropriate and downright corrupt. I hear that an administrative committee has been setup to “look into the matter”. Anti-graft agencies have also been mobilised and the multitude of NGOs and social critics are up in arms for a probe but I can bet that in view of what we have been talking about, especially the strategic roles the “princess” has played in the past and would still be expected to play in no distant time for the president, nothing will come out of these noises. She will not only be officially exonerated in the end, she would in all probability be promoted to higher office for the simple reason that you don’t “bite the find that feeds you”. After all, neighbour-don’t fight-neighbour. Isn’t it?
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 18:41:50 +0000
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