Stella Oduah
As President Goodluck Jonathan’s pretense to be investigating Aviation Minister Stella Oduah over her purchase of two BMW armored cars at a scandalous price of N255 million runs into premeditated silence and inaction, a group of activists in Lagos say they are not shocked by the president’s habitual insincerity in handling the fraud. Even though Mr. Jonathan had asked the so-called investigation panel to submit a report within two weeks, no action has been taken more than a month after the deadline’s expiration.
In separate interviews yesterday, the various leaders of several civil society organizations stated that President Jonathan’s romance with corrupt officials did not start with the Aviation Minister.
Describing the president himself as an overseer of corruption, the activists said they were not alarmed by his attitude and that of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies to fraud in the aviation sector.
Yinka Odumakin, a spokesperson for the Afenifere Group, said Nigerians expected no other outcome than the one that had manifested. Mr. Odumakin contrasted the situation with what happened in Ghana recently where a female minister was sacked for merely boasting that she would accumulate a million dollars during her tenure.
He noted that Ms. Oduah’s scandal happened long before that of Ghana. “And in a few days, you saw what happened in Ghana over what was [a minister’s] mere thought. Compare that to what obtained in Nigeria, where what happened was actually a committed crime and yet nothing is done,” he said. He added that President Jonathan did not disappoint in showing off his sustained fraternity with titans of monumental corruption.
Debo Adeniran, one of the leaders of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), recalled that President Jonathan traveled with Ms. Oduah on a questionable pilgrimage to Israel just after setting up a lame committee to “probe” her. He added that he was hardly surprised by the president’s safari to Israel in the company of cohorts, including the Aviation Minister who should have been investigated and prosecuted.
“We received all the clues already that this administration has no intention to punish crime. On Stella Oduah, we knew from the point the president set up an ‘administrative panel’ to investigate her, that it was not intended for any tangible outcome,” Mr. Adeniran said. He added that it was a sign of hypocrisy to set up a probe committee and then travel with the main subject of the investigation as well as a member of the investigating panel.
For her part, the President of Campaign for Democracy (CD) and leader of the Women Arise Initiative for Change, Joe Okei-Odumakin, called on women to openly condemn Ms. Oduah’s fraud, describing it as a disgrace to women.
“Although it is not fair to say women are generally evil because men have also disappointed many times, but then, most of the time when we advocate for women's active participation in governance, characters like Stella Oduah are making the task difficult. They are setting bad records for others,” she said, emphasizing that Ms. Oduah deserved due prosecution.
Disclosure of Ms. Oduah’s outrageous car purchase scandal stirred outrage from many Nigerians. In seeming reaction to the spate of condemnations, President Jonathan set up a committee to “probe” the scandal. But no sooner did he set up the committee than he traveled to Israel with an entourage that included the embattled minister as well as a member of the administrative ‘probe panel.’ The impression sold to Nigerians was that Ms. Oduah was to sign a bilateral agreement in Israel, even though the documents were rather signed by Ms. Viola Onwuliri, Nigeria's foreign affairs minister.
It has being reported on plans by President Jonathan to suppress any thorough investigation of the Aviation scandal. From Israel, Mr. Jonathan had pressured members of the National Assembly who were also investigating Ms. Oduah to fold their hands and help sweep the matter under the carpet. Recently, after an uproar by citizens, the Senate leadership announced that Ms. Oduah would appear before its members to answer questions. But as the scheduled date neared, another announcement came that her appearance had been canceled.
It was learn't that Ms. Oduah was a late addition to the delegation to Israel. The inclusion of a member of the administrative probe panel on the Israeli trip was seen as part of the president’s efforts to shield Ms. Oduah.
Apart from the over-inflated price of the armored BMW cars that were never delivered or provided for inspection by the legislative committees, there are also allegations that Ms. Oduah has wasted billions of naira in the airport rehabilitation and upgrade scheme. Workers in the aviation sector accused the minister of handing consultancy jobs as well as contracts to her cronies, sidelining due process and deceiving the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) with a claim that the projects were “urgent.”
The workers also alleged that the contractors who showed up on site were the minister’s cronies and not those who originally won the contracts.
The sham in Ms. Oduah's airport rehabilitation began to show as facilities in the rehabilitated airports continue to fail. Passengers at a variety of the airports have complained about non-functioning air conditioners, failing elevators, leaking roofs and incessant power failures despite the billions of naira Ms. Oduah has sunk into upgrading airports.
Mr. Jonathan’s efforts to shield Ms. Oduah are part of his agenda not to ruffle the feathers of Nigeria’s corrupt class. In addition, the president’s stance is seen as part of his 2015 strategy. The Aviation Minister had spearheaded the “neighbor-to-neighbor” campaign for Mr. Jonathan during the 2011 presidential campaigns. The initiative raised billions of naira in campaign funds for Mr. Jonathan, who is seen as paying back by looking the other way as the minister sinks deeper into corruption.
Civil society activists also pointed to the fact that President Jonathan used the same smokescreen to protect fuel marketers who defrauded the Nigerian people of hundreds of billions of naira through fraudulent fuel subsidy claims. One of the indicted fuel marketers, Walter Wagbatsoma, alongside his associate, Adaoha Ngo Ngadi, played a role in funding Mr. Jonathan's campaign. They failed to appear in court many times until the judge threatened to take action against them. Only then did Mr. Wagbatsoma appear for his trial.
Mr. Wagbatsoma had reportedly threatened to expose how the subsidy funds were used to bankroll President Jonathan's ambition, if the president did nothing to frustrate his trial. Earlier in this year, President Jonathan also exposed his affinity for corruption when he declared a presidential pardon for his political benefactor, Mr. D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha.
No comments:
Post a Comment