Oduah should not resign By Kaanayo Nwachukwu, (kaanayo@kaanayo) It’s been one heck of a month for Aviation Minister Stella Oduah. No sooner had the plane ferrying the corpse of former Ondo Governor Olusegun Agagu crashed on October 3, than some people started calling for her resignation. Before the dust generated by the air mishap could settle, there came a revelation that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, purchased two amoured BMW cars for the minister, using the public’s N255 million. The Ministry of Aviation officials’ statement that the cars were necessitated by a threat to the life of the minister did not help matters at all. Rather, it turned Nigerians into instant political pundits and analysts, on and off social media platforms. With one side calling for Oduah’s immediate resignation or sack by President Goodluck Jonathan, the other failed to see anything she had done wrong and, therefore, swore to back her every step of the way.As the controversy raged on like an Australian wildfire, the Federal Government poured fuel into it when it announced through Capt. FolaAkinkoutu, Director-General of the NCAA, that it had begun a manhunt for the whistleblower who leaked information pertaining to the purchase of the cars to the media. In an ill-timed and insensitive statement a few days after the story broke, a visibly frightened Akinkuotu said whoever leaked the supposedly confidential information to the public committed a criminal offence and must be brought to justice. “I am shell shocked that government information and particularly information from the Civil Aviation Authority has gotten into public purview in an illegal manner,” Akinkoutu said during a press conference at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Aviation in Abuja.“It is criminal. However, what has been done has been done, but I think when such information is gotten, you should have come to the agency to ask. We are not shy to take your questions.” Nigerians are still very mad about the shady deals going on in one of their key ministries, and rightfully so. As they continue to dissect the situation, the Aviation Minister continues to receive numerous name callings, objections and somewhat exaggerated gender-biased portrayals in both mainstream and social media. Maybe she deserves all what she’s getting. Perhaps not! However one looks at it, it’s a good thing that Nigerians are using the opportunity afforded by this whole mess to further vent their frustrations and anger over the culture of authority-stealing entrenched in their political system. It is good for the Nigerian democracy that people can passionately argue for and against national issues that matter to them. What’s not good, though, is that it almost seems like a section of the media, especially the ones online with a history of fabricating and not fact-checking stories, is witch-hunting the minister purely because of her ethnic background and wants her to resign on account of that. Rather than playing petty tribal politics with Oduah and the ministry she heads, Nigerians and the media should see this as a chance to ask important questions, with a view to curbing corruption in high and low places in the country. Since Akinkoutu has asked Nigerians with questions as to why and how the parastatal he supervises bought the two BMW cars for the minister, Nigerians should take him up on that offer and then crank things up a notch further by demanding real answers from those he and the minister are answerable to. Firing Oduah from her job will bring an instant closure to this matter. That’s not what Nigerians need at this point in time. Instead, there should be clamour for nothing but a thorough investigation into the culture of impunity that’s pervaded the aviation sector. Nigerians would like to know why the said threat to the life of the aviation minister was not reported to the appropriate security and law enforcement agencies, since no record shows otherwise. Is it possible a parastatal under the Ministry of Aviation could use hundreds of millions of naira to customize cars for the minister without a nod from the minister? What mechanism of checks and balances exist in the ministry? Who authorized the release of the expenditure? Did the money exceed the approval limit of NCAA officials or was it within it? Was the said sum of N255 million appropriated by the National Assembly? Why does the government want to prosecute the whistleblower? Most importantly, did each of the two BMW cars really cost much more than Barack Obama’s “beast” and the popemobile? Answers to these questions would provide a clearer picture of the rot in every facet of the Nigerian political arrangement. Armed with these answers, the people can begin to clean up the entire Nigerian political setup – going from the presidency to all the ministries and the judiciary,and then down to the legislators, the states and local governments. This is the only way to put an end – once and for all – to the robbing of the nation by few individualswho see themselves as sacred cows. Every Nigerian public office holder, past and present, is like Oduah. If Oduah were to be fired today, who’s going to replace her as the nation’s aviation minister? Is the person coming from Mars or Jupiter and not from Nigeria? Scapegoating one person for what the world knows every public office holder does in a brazen fashion in Nigeria can never give us the answers we seek or put an end to the culture of stealing-by-government in the country. Uprooting the corruption cankerworm is what will. So, no to Oduah’s resignation!
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 07:14:25 +0000