WELCOME TO NIGERIA AWARDS 2013 (2) It was difficult picking the Minister of the Year, considering the array of cabinet members who are fit and proper and worthy in character and action to get this prestigious prize. For a long time, people were dying in accidents on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. A company won the concession to rebuild the road - Nigerias busiest - but for one reason or the other it could not do the job. There is also the East-West road, another killer highway. Both seemed abandoned until Mike Onolememen mounted the saddle. Now, President Jonathan has cut the tape to signal the commencement of work on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, but skeptics are asking: when will work start? But the prize is not Onolememens, despite his exceptional deeds. Neither is it Agriculture Minister Akinwunmi Adesinas - for making cassava bread the king on all breakfasts tables. Nor is it Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealas - for all those esoteric figures which, to her, mark a remarkable leap in the economys growth, even as many go to bed hungry and the jobless queue is growing. Aviation Minister Stella Oduah is Minister of the Year. All our airports are sparkling, courtesy of multi-billion contracts that many poor students of arithmetic cant just figure out, saying they are shrouded in secrecy, as if contract details should be pasted on town hall notice boards. There have been just a few crashes - thanks to Ms Oduahs safety-first policy, which states that safety should not only be an all-flight affair. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has bought two BMW bulletproof cars at N255m for her safety. The Transaction of the Year has raised so much dust, in a manner that has confounded safety experts who know the value of a ministers life. A young fellow who knows a Cabinet source told me the other day that he learnt the safety-first policy would soon be adopted by all ministries, who will be required to do the needful by getting more sophisticated armoured vehicles. Prices? Keep guessing. So a round of applause for Madam Oduah........
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 18:13:17 +0000
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