NAMA DG, watch what you say!

I am offering this advice to Mazi Nnamdi Udoh because as a patriotic and humane Nigerian, I do not want to see many of my countrymen land in trouble unnecessarily, especially when it is due to no fault of theirs. Scandal is spreading in the aviation industry. The country has hardly come to grips with […]

I am offering this advice to Mazi Nnamdi Udoh because as a patriotic and humane Nigerian, I do not want to see many of my countrymen land in trouble unnecessarily, especially when it is due to no fault of theirs. Scandal is spreading in the aviation industry. The country has hardly come to grips with revelations that Aviation Minister Stella Oduah used NCAA funds to buy two bullet proof BMW cars for her own use when it surfaced that you too, at NAMA, bought four limousines and some Tundra Jeeps for the same minister.
Well, it is up to the political authorities, the legislature and the anti-corruption agencies to determine which laws and which ethical rules were violated and to mete out punishment. My own worry for you is that you should not, in the process of defending the indefensible, shoot yourself in the foot as your NCAA colleague did last week.
I was looking at the contents of this letter that restless Lagos lawyer Femi Falana wrote to your colleague Dr Fola Akinkuotu, the NCAA DG. He asked him to within seven days furnish the lawyer with certified true copies of documents for the acquisition of bullet-proof cars worth $1.6 million. Relying on the Freedom of Information Act, Falana said he wants to see “budgetary approval and due process for the whole transaction and all papers for past acquisition of such armoured vehicles by the Aviation Ministry or NCAA.”
Why was Falana making this demand? It was Akinkuotu’s own words that came back to haunt him. At his press conference in Abuja last week where he gamely tried to defend the controversial purchase, he said it was “customary” for agencies such as NCAA to purchase such vehicles and keep them in their vehicle pools for transporting VIP visitors from abroad. Falana therefore said, “In your press conference you did admit that NCAA actually bought the controversial armoured cars and you said that it is customary to convey the Minister and visiting dignitaries in security vehicles wherever they are in Nigeria. In the light of your claim, we are compelled to request you to make available to us certified true copies of the documents relating to the purchase of the cars…”
You see the trouble that a man’s words can fetch for him? So, DG of NAMA, as you try to cope with the revelation that you also bought jeeps and limousines for Mrs Oduah, you should please choose your words carefully. Don’t say that it is customary to buy limos for ministers. Falana will ask for all the papers!
What? Students want ASUU strike to continue?
I was puzzled by a story in the newspapers yesterday. While the government, clerics, traditional rulers, market women and parents are busy pleading with the Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU] to end its marathon strike action, some students say they are not party to the call.
The story said “Nigerian students” in their thousands held a town hall meeting at the University of Ibadan’s Trenchard Hall on Monday. The “students” urged ASUU “not to betray them” by calling off the strike, and that the strike should continue until it achieves something. They also condemned the Nigeria Labour Congress [NLC] for not calling a total strike action in solidarity with ASUU.
Four months at home and you want the strike to continue until it achieves something? What kind of students are you that never heard of a phrase called Pyrrhic victory?