The real lessons of Oduahgate

Apart from the PDP rigging machine, conniving INEC and compliant security officials, so the rumour goes, nothing else helped President Jonathan to come to power more than Stella Oduah’s Neighbour2Neighbour initiative, hence her being rewarded with a “juicy” ministry. So what did we really expect? That an investor would not make a profit? The Panel […]

Apart from the PDP rigging machine, conniving INEC and compliant security officials, so the rumour goes, nothing else helped President Jonathan to come to power more than Stella Oduah’s Neighbour2Neighbour initiative, hence her being rewarded with a “juicy” ministry. So what did we really expect? That an investor would not make a profit? The Panel (funnily constituted admittedly) has not finished its job yet, so the outcome is being awaited and we must assume her innocence until proven guilty. We must however interrogate the “scandal” and learn the appropriate lessons.
It is clear that our leaders put their efforts and wealth into supporting aspirants or parties for what they expect to make out of it. We somehow have come to accept that. What we expect in addition is that these leaders would, at the very least, have a sense of service to the whole nation. In addition, we expect them to abide by the law, due process, laid down procedure and the oath they took. These are areas where we need to draw the red line. Minister Stella Oduah current predicament seems to have brought all these into question.
The matter of the two N255 million bulletproof BMWs is drawing all the attention; but there are many other aspects to the problem. The Presidency and the National Assembly have promised to get to the bottom of it. Even if the minister is subsequently found to have purchased these vehicles at over-inflated cost without budgetary provision, and in contravention of the Public Procurement Act, do we really believe much would change? Were we sleeping when the Presidency and other agencies, since Obasanjo but especially recently, have been breaching the provisions of all our budgets?
How many other ministers have been guilty of observing our budgetary provisions only in the breach? How many parastatals even bother to report their internally generated revenues, not to talk of accounting for them? If at the end of all the noise we are making nothing much comes out of the investigations I would not be surprised.
Stella Oduah was also contemptuous of Nigerians who were complaining about the performance of her ministry.  She said, “What saddens me really is that the ICAO says just last week that Nigeria is well above the global average (in aviation safety). We actually scored 65 per cent. Secondly, the ICAO says Nigeria is the 12th safest aviation globally. And then, when you hear bad comments, drunks and addicts making comments that have zero bearing on reality, it’s very annoying”(emphasis mine). She simply brushed aside comments on the high number of aircraft accidents recently (beer-parlour talk according to her) saying that accidents are acts of God, and are thus inevitable. Nobody cares if she is annoyed, and neither she nor any minister has the right to refer to her critics in such uncouth language.
Her “act of God” explanation is only slightly better than the insults. We only leave things to God when we have tried our best and taken all necessary precautions. You do not stand in front of an oncoming train and expect us to believe your death was not suicide. People are simply saying that the government is not doing enough. As one commentator said recently, “A person given the power to make sure that only properly maintained aircraft are allowed to fly cannot blame God when he allows corruption, ineptitude, politics or any other distractions in the environment to make him fail in his duties”.
While we welcome ICAO’s pat on the back, we must heed its’ disclaimer. The organisation states clearly that “This report makes use of information, including air transport and safety-related data and statistics which are furnished to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) by third parties. All third-party content was obtained from sources believed to be reliable and was accurately reproduced in the report at the time of printing. However, ICAO specifically does not make any warranties or representations as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of such information and accepts no liability or responsibility arising from reliance upon or use of the same”. Remodelling airport terminals are not the only requirement for revamping the sick aviation sector. In any case, others pray to God and still take other measures to minimise the likelihood of accidents.
The lesson here for Oduah and her fellow ministers is simple: they accepted to serve the people and thus must show decorum, humility and politeness- yes, and politeness. They accepted to serve, for goodness’s sake, so they must be tolerant and use decent language even under heavy criticism.
A third crisis the minister created is that of Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport Kano (MAKIA) which she hates with a vengeance. She would not give international airlines that desire to land there the permission to do so, advising them instead to go to Enugu. Since when has she been appointed as their consultant on where to go to, or not, is not very clear. Emirates, Ethiopian, Qatar, or indeed many other airlines have been told it is either they go to Enugu or else. Haba, this airport (MAKIA) was built in 1934 and has been the main international entry and departure point for the whole of the North. One came up to serve the then Federal Capital and Business Heart of the nation, Lagos. Port-Harcourt was inevitable given its proximity to the oil and gas heartland. Abuja came up to serve the new Capital. Nobody says airlines should not go to Enugu but why should she be the one to decide for them, and why is she so bent on crippling MAKIA? Is this really the free enterprise economy we are talking about when a minister and her staff decide upon themselves to dictate where airlines should prefer to land and take off from? Is Enugu that far from Port-Harcourt? Why should the whole of the North have only Abuja to fly out from? We know we are land-locked but do we have to be air-locked as well?
The fourth lesson is now unfolding: ignoring Oduah’s mess and blaming the victims for ethnic bias. This media campaign is very strange given that the whole world can see the minister’s own bias, apart from her praise singers. I refuse to believe that crippling MAKIA and the northern economy is a collective ethnic agenda; it is simply Odua’s pet project. But, does it bother the president? After all, didn’t he say we (the North) never voted for him? Perhaps control of the nation’s airspace should be added to the Conference Agenda.