Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

The job of the police is well cut out. It is to maintain law and order. In so doing, the police are expected to be up and doing, proactive and be ahead of criminals. The police, though not spirits, are expected to be everywhere in order to nip crimes in the bud. In societies where the police know their duty, they discharge their functions with the best of intentions. They leave no room for the people to doubt their integrity. How I wish our police could be like that.

Don’t get me wrong, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is trying within its limited resources. We know its constraints but those are not enough for it not to rise to the occasion when the need arises. Our police do certain things which the larger public finds worrisome. They tend to pander to the whims and caprices of the powerful. The downtrodden have no chance with the police even where they are the aggrieved. It is very easy for the police to turn them to suspects suddenly and before they know it they are behind the counter.

Getting out of the counter entails the greasing the palms of the policemen at that station. If they don’t pay in time, they may end up in court as accused in matters they know nothing about. Where they are lucky not to be taken to court, they pay through their nose because the longer they are at the station, the more they pay. The sins of our police are many. They arrest people at will and engage in extra – judicial killings. They also know how to perform what the late Afrobeat sensation, Fela Anikulapo – Kuti, called ”government magic”. They can turn blue to white and green to red in a twinkling of an eye. When they do such things, I wonder if our policemen have conscience.

What do you make of the killing of a man, as it happened some years ago, who sought refuge in a police station at Mafoluku in Lagos. The deceased had been driven to the station by a taxi driver, who returned the following day only to be told that his customer was nowhere to be found. The driver, who suspected foul play, raised an alarm. It was later found that the deceased, who returned late from abroad the previous day had been killed because of the foreign money he was carrying by those who should naturally have protected him. Can those involved in such bestial act be called policemen? Many years after that unthinkable act, we don’t know what has become of the case. Were those involved dismissed and tried? In what court were they tried? Is the case still on or has it been concluded? Are the policemen still in service?

We need to know all these in order to know how to reform our police, which do well when on peace missions outside the country. How can that be, you may wish to ask, when they treat us their compatriots like nonentities back home. Is it a function of those ”I know I can treat anyhow and those I don’t know I must respect”. We, the people, deserve all the respect we can get from our policemen to enable them discharge their job well. The police also deserve our respect. But with the hostile attitude of some of them, they have alienated themselves from the people. Many Nigerians will think twice before they help any policeman because they believe he does not mean well for them. But it should not be so.

The police and the people should work in sync for their mutual benefit. The police leave room for suspicion when they engage in acts in which ordinarily they should not be found. Like Caesar’s wife, the police should be above board in whatever they do. When the story of the N255 million bulletproof cars broke, the police were not involved. Up till now, I cannot say if they are investigating the matter which involves the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah. Now madam is not a small fry. Remember, she was the brain behind Neighbour2Neighbour, one of the groups that worked towards the election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. The group, it was learnt, is waiting in the wings to reenact in 2015 what it did in 2011. The bulletproof cars will become handy then, sources said.

Although the princess has since denied that the cars were bought for her use by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the police and her henchmen appear to be manufacturing a reason why she should have such cars, if not now, but certainly in 2015 when she will again be in the forefront of the president’s campaign. How do I mean? The THISDAY, in its lead story on Tuesday, reported the police as confirming that there was an attempt on Oduah’s life in Abuja on Saturday night. She was said to have escaped the attempted assassination because she was not in the Escalade Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), with registration number FST 914 BL. The paper forgot to tell readers if the SUV was bulletproof. According to the paper, a report of the incident was lodged at the Mabushi Police Station at 5.35 p.m., on Monday, that is about 48 hours after the attack.

Now I can smell a rat. Those behind the story know what they are doing. With the House of Representatives indicting Oduah over the bulletproof cars, they believe that now is the time for them to act to save the minister’s neck before the president looks that way. The administrative panel set up by the president has also submitted its report. We know the content of the lawmakers’ report, but we don’t know that of the administrative panel. The House, which indicted Oduah, asked the president to take a decision on the issue because the penalty for the offence is three – year jail with N100,000 fine option. The president may not act on the House report, but since we don’t know what his panel recommended, we wait to see how he will handle the matter.

But Oduah and her people are not waiting. They are moving fast to whip up public sympathy for her. This is why we are now suddenly getting to know that an attempt was made on her life last Saturday. Let us take the THISDAY report verbatim from here : ”The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Femi Ogunbayode, through his Public Relations Officer, Mr Athine Daniel, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said what was found inside the car after the shooting was a mettalic object, which the police are investigating. The driver of the vehicle, whose name he withheld, was not injured, he added.

”Also speaking to THISDAY on the phone, Mr Joe Obi, the Special Adviser, Media to the minister, said the incident occurred on Saturday along the Nnamdi Azikiwe Road by Banex Bridge, Ministers’ Quarters, Maitama. He added that unknown to the gunmen, Oduah was not in the car at the time of the attack. He said the driver was lucky to have escaped the assassin’s bullets. Also, photographs of the Escalade provided by the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) spokesman, Yakubu Dati, showed that it appeared to be riddled with some bullet holes, but the reference to the bullet holes was inexplicably missing in the statement provided by the police on the attempt on Oduah’s life”. ‘’Inexplicably missing’’ link? No. Their lie caught up with them.

For over two years, he was denied his right. Though he fought hard to regain what truly belonged to him, he was frustrated by the powers that got him out of office as president of the Court of Appeal on August 18, 2011. Justice Isa Ayo Salami is a principled man and he displayed this throughout the years he was on unjust suspension. They wanted him to jettison his principle for filthy lucre but he refused and stood firm to the end. Such men of courage and conviction of their actions are rare in our society.

Justice Salami was treated like a non – entity because he refused to do the bidding of those who wanted to ruin the judiciary, which is the last hope of the common man. Politicians and some senior members of the Bench wanted to sell the judiciary to the highest bidder, but he said no. What did Justice Salami get? He was slammed with an unjust suspension. The few men of conscience in the society spoke against the suspension, demanding that Justice Salami be recalled. President Goodluck Jonathan, who in the first place should not have intervened in the matter, pretended not to have heard.

If the president had not wielded the power he did not have by suspending Justice Salami at the behest of the then much compromised National Judicial Council (NJC), things may not have turned out the way they did. The president, his Minister of in(Justice)Mohammed Adoke and his party were on the same page on the Justice Salami saga. Their plan when they found that they could not get the man to sell his integrity for a mess of porridge was to look for ways to push him out of office. They succeeded in retching up wild allegations about his alliance with the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which defeated the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in court in some governorship election cases.

The Court of Appeal voided the governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states, among others, to the annoyance of PDP. Since it is the party in power at the centre, it hatched a plot to get the president to deal with Justice Salami as head of the court for refusing to play ball. His refusal to play ball, a euphemism to turn a blind eye to what is wrong and allow injustice to prevail, cost him his job. Justice Salami found himself in the cold because he allowed the court he presided over to uphold justice. A judge’s oath to which he swore is all about being fair and firm no matter whose ox is gored. A judge, who cannot dispense justice without fair or favour, is not worth his seat.

Justice Salami proved that he was worthy of his position. If those against him had found any thing against him, he would have been mince meat by now. There was nothing they did not do to nail him, but his honesty and sincerity stood him in good stead. We have many like that in the judiciary. My fear is that with what happened to Justice Salami these judges may start having doubts about standing by the truth come rain come shine. Won’t Justice Salami’s experience affect them negatively? Will they like Justice Salami abide by the conviction of their action when the chips are down? A society gets the kind of judges it deserves. With a corrupt political leadership, the judiciary cannot be expected to be incorrupt, except by the grace of God. This is why today our judiciary stinks. What happens at the customary and magistrates’ courts is a just a tip of the ice berg.

What goes on at the courts of competent jurisdiction, that is, the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court is something else, going by the stories we hear. It is a case of if the head stinks, what do you expect of the body? It is a shame that we cannot boast about our judiciary because of the conduct of some judges, who believe that they must use their exalted position to make money, while doing what is wrong. Our society has become the worst for it. The few upright judges cannot do anything or else they will be ostracised. A judge, a good judge, deserves the protection of the state. A state, which believes in the rule of law, must not allow its judges to come to ridicule under whatever guise. Unfortunately, a state like ours believes in disgracing its honest judges.

It allows the corrupt ones to go

scot free because they are at its

beck and call. They are the ones used to do the dirty jobs, which conscientious judges refuse outright. Must a judge be afraid of those in power? A judge, who knows what he is doing should not fear the political leadership, as clearly shown in the case of Justice Salami. If Justice Salami had skeleton in his cupboard, he would not have been able to stand up to those who wanted to drag his name in the mud at all cost. He has shown that a judge, who is above board, has nothing to fear but his conscience and God. Justice Salami should be happy with himself that he upheld his oath of office faithfully. This is what saved him in his fight with the forces of darkness. His joy should be that the same cannot be said of his antagonists.

This is why today he holds his head high in retirement. They only succeeded in getting him out of office two years before his retirement, they did not succeed in killing the values of discipline, hard work, fairness and firmness, which he cherished. He has left the Bench, but he left something behind, which those still in office must ensure does not die and that is the integrity of the judiciary must not be compromised come what may. If Justice Salami had soiled his hands, he would not have left in glory as he did last week. From every part of the country people gathered to honour him; to tell him that they stood by him during his travail but could not do anything because they lacked the power to right the wrong done him.

How did his tormentors feel, seeing him standing tall before a quality gathering in Abuja last month? They would have given anything to exchange places with the eminent jurist. But such privilege does not come cheap, it is earned. To earn it, every public officer must be God fearing, diligent and above board. But these are words many of them do not wish to hear. Politicians got Justice Salami not because he was “too rigid” as some are wont to say, they got him because his people were not with him. A man’s enemies are his own relations. This exactly was what happened to Justice Salami. “My colleagues, friends betrayed me”, he said at the valedictory court session for him in Abuja on October 31. The previous day at the presentation of a book : “Isa Ayo Salami : Through life and justice”, written in his honour , encomiums were showered on him for being the quintessential judge.

All the speakers spoke glowingly of the man whose last two years on the Bench may in future be a research topic for law students. Why did the NJC act the way it did? Why did the president intervene in an issue in which he is not constitutionally empowered to act? Why did he not ignore the NJC recommendation to suspend Justice Salami? Why did he not reverse himself when the NJC subsequently asked him to recall Justice Salami? Can a president, who defied the court in suspending Justice Salami, hide under the same court in not recalling the judge? These are some of the posers law students will seek to unravel in future. It is painful when brothers and friends betray one. Such betrayals are felt in the marrow.

This, perhaps, was what Justice

Salami’s reflection was all

about at his valedictory. Hear him : “The last three years of my career were dogged by travails which are not dissimilar to the fate of Joseph in the book of Genesis in the Bible. As his brothers conspired to destroy him by throwing him into a well and selling him into slavery, my learned brothers and friends in the legal profession planned and executed evil against me. The NJC created by the Constitution to protect me, nay any judicial officer, was in the vanguard of my travails. The NJC failed in its duties and thereby surrendered its functions to the Executive arm of government, thus ingratiating itself to the Executive…

“…The NJC having cleared me of any wrongdoing, following the recommendation of CJN Aloma Mukhtar’s committee, ought to have recalled me ito office without asking the president to exercise the power that he does not possess, on the flimsy excuse that it had earlier referred the matter to him”. Milord, all is well that ends well. If they had not acted this way, we won’t have known the kind of friends they are. With friends like them, you don’tbo need an enemy. Happy retirement sir.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem was well publicised. His media managers did no miss any opportunity to record for posterity the historic and significant places which he visited to pray for Nigeria. Yes, the pilgrimage was an opportunity for him to pray and be seen praying for his beloved country. The essence of such an exercise is usually for the pilgrim to find peace with his Creator and mend his ways with his fellow man.

Pilgrimages are open to all as long as they have the means. They are not a matter of class or status although you cannot rule that out in the way some pilgrims are treated. Presidents and other leaders because of the world we live in today are given preferential treatment. They are accorded privileges, which other pilgrims are usually not entitled to. They enjoy security protection and are granted audience by the leaders of such countries, in this wise Israel and Saudi Arabia.

People go on pilgrimage for different reasons, but the major reason, especially for Muslims, is to fulfil the tenets of their religion. In the Muslim world, hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. So, many Muslims strive to visit Mecca at least once before they die as required by their faith if they have the means. Christians do not place much store on pilgrimage as their Muslim counterparts. If a Christian is fortunate to visit Jerusalem in his lifetime, he praises the Lord, but if he does not, he takes it in his stride.

In this country, we wear our religion like a glove. We like to see people hailing us that we are worshipping God. We believe more in the outward show of faith than to honour the Lord quietly in the confines of our homes. Little wonder today that churches are many, but the doers of good are few. Why is this so? The answer is not farfetched : we are excited to be seen as doing good when our hearts are full of evil. Unwittingly, we are deceiving ourselves because God knows us more than we know ourselves; He knows the inner workings of our minds. So, when we are pretending before the world to be saints, He knows us for what we truly are.

We cannot fool God, not even with a million trips to Jerusalem or Mecca. The president’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem was celebrated because of the political mileage his people expected to gain from it. They told us that he was the first sitting president to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Not only that, at every stop, he prayed for Nigeria and its people. The president’s pilgrimage would have made more meaning to me if he had made it quietly without the fuss of officialdom. It would have been better for him to have a solemn time with his Maker without distractions from his aides, who were overshadowing his every movement to make political capital from it.

The president might have meant well in going on pilgrimage, but the religious exercise was badly managed by overzealous aides, who wanted to be seen as working hard to keep him in office at a time he should have been left alone to commune with his God. It was a period the president should have poured his heart out to the Lord; cry out to Him if need be over the problems of our country and most especially his own role in these crises. The political crisis within his party should have attracted his special attention because they are at the heart of the nation’s problems. If Nigeria disintegrates today, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stands to be blamed. The PDP is a house divided among itself and the president is fully involved in the crisis.

I expect him to have prayed for a speedy resolution of the crisis while on pilgrimage. If he had done so, I believe that he would by now be working for an amicable resolution of the matter. That seems to be far from the mind of Mr President. Rather than have a contrite and forgiving heart, the decorated Jerusalem Pilgrim (JP) is still in the trenches, fighting. What then do we make of his much publicised pilgrimage? I am not judging him for I do not have such powers, but merely reviewing the exercise to see if the president learnt from it. The biggest lesson would have been to have a forgiven spirit. By now, being a born again by virtue of the pilgrimage, he should have forgiven all those who offended him.

What will be the benefit of the exercise if he should still be fighting meaningless political battles? Will these battles put food on the tables of hungry and angry Nigerians? On his return from Jerusalem, I expected him to be more interested in the wellbeing of the people and commit himself more to improving their lives. But what do we have? A president, who is more interested in fighting governors and other members of his party that are against his perceived planned return to office in 2015. The group of seven (G 7) governors of the PDP that has vowed to stop him from returning to office is being driven from pillar to post. The governors seem to have been declared persona non grata even in their own country.

Their lodges in Abuja, which

are considered their gov

ernment houses outside their state capitals, have been sealed off at will by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The lodges came under the siege of security operatives in order to stop the seven governors from meeting. Why the fear? Are we no longer in a free society? When did it become an offence to gather? If governors can be this treated, what happens to less privileged Nigerians? And all these are happening under the watch of a brand new JP. By now, we should have started seeing the effect of the president’s pilgrimage in his words and deeds. No matter his political differences with others, he should be more tolerant and accommodating.

We have yet to see that new president – the returnee JP. Of what use is his pilgrimage if he is still involved in his old fights? Pursuing the G 7 all over the place as if the governors are criminals should not be the pastime of a returnee JP. The president should show us that he is now a changed person with his return from pilgrimage. If he cannot do that, it is sad and heart wrenching that scarce public funds were spent on the exercise.

The governor’s wife

Until she reportedly cried out some days ago, nobody knew the circumstances under which Mrs Clara Chime and her husband, Sullivan, the governor of Enugu State live. The wife, according to media reports, is alleging maltreatment by her husband. She claims to be held incommunicado and denied access to her four – year old son. She says she is tired of living in the Government House (a place where many women will like to die no matter how they are treated) and wants the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to rescue her from there. The truth is when the love between a man and a woman goes awry, we hear all sorts of stories. Is Chime the monster his wife is painting him? For now, we cannot reach a conclusion on the matter because everything is still hazy. The government has invited the media to give its own side of the story and until we hear it, we will keep our fingers crossed. But things dey happen for this country o!

Tony Nyiam became a household name 23 years ago. He shot to the limelight following the 1990 Gideon Orka coup. Nyiam, a colonel, was one of the arrowheads of the putsch, which was purportedly sponsored by fish magnate Great Ogboru. Until the coup, Nyiam like many of the plotters was an unknown figure in the army, who went about his duty unobtrusively. The coup changed everything and he became an instant celebrity.

Unlike some of the plotters, Nyiam was lucky to have escaped the long arm of the law. He evaded arrest and fled abroad from where he became a thorn in the flesh of the Babangida regime, which he and his friends attempted to topple. Because the Babangida regime’s cup was full, many no longer had sympathy for it at the time of the coup. They had wished that the plotters succeeded in sacking the government. The plotters’ failure was, therefore, bad news for those who did not see anything good in the Babangida regime.

With such support from the public, the plotters stood commended in the court of public opinion. This was all Nyiam and his co – travellers needed to become political activists. Nyiam especially has been riding the wave of political and rights  activism all these years  to make himself relevant in the country since his return from exile after Babangida left office unceremoniously in 1993. Even though he was tried in absentia and retired from the army by the Babangida regime, he has not allowed  this to bother him since his return home.

Since he was perceived as doing no wrong in the  attempt to topple the Babangida regime along with others, he has been well received  everywhere he went to since he came back.  Even those he attempted to topple seem not to hold that against him anymore. Nyiam, the fugitive from the law some years ago, has become the man campaigning for people’s rights and participating in democratic struggles. When he was named into the National Conference/Dialogue Advisory Committee, the public did not raise an eye brow. To them, Nyiam has paid  his dues and  as such deserved the appointment.

In the past few weeks, the Senator Femi Okurounmu – led committee has been going round the country rubbing minds with the people on what line the planned conference should take. At each sitting, people expressed their minds. They spoke from the heart. Some condemned the planned talks, some said it was long over due and yet some were non – committal. Until the committee went to Benin, the Edo State capital. At Benin on Monday, the unexpected happened. Nyiam, an officer, who is expected to be a gentleman, blew his top over the remarks of Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

Whether in a fit of anger or not, Nyiam, as a member of such an august panel, is expected to be accommodating and self restraining in dealing with people, particularly those who appear before the committee. The committee and its members should be ready to take anything from people because it is by so doing that they will be able to arrive at a fair and accurate conclusion. The panel was not set up to impose its will on people; it was not set up to sell its or the government’s views. It was set up to collate the people’s views and prepare a report accordingly for the government. Can the committee do that by being hostile to those who appear before it? The answer is no.

What happened in Benin on Monday was a shame, a big shame. Nyiam did not exhibit  the traits of an officer and a gentleman the way he lunged at Oshiomhole. If he had not been held back, only God knows what he would have done to the governor. What did Oshiomhole do to warrant such an indecent attack? Oshiomhole merely expressed his views on the planned dialogue, but this did not go down  well with Nyiam, who threw caution to the wind as he went for the governor. A case of if you miss the ball don’t miss the leg. But this was not a football match. It was a public gathering of people from different walks of life.

Mind you, these people were there at the behest of the committee, which needed  them to gauge how the public feels about the proposed dialogue. Oshiomhole took the floor to speak and repeated what he told the committee when its members visited him at the Government House earlier in the day. According to Oshiomhole, there is no need for the planned conference. The governor was not saying anything new, so there was no need for Nyiam to flare up. Except  there is something we don’t know that made him to act that way.

‘’I want to make my own comments’’, Oshiomhole began. ‘’They are my views and not the views of Edo State. It is not the view of any particular ethnic nationality. I think as a Nigerian we all have a stake in this country and we have a duty to lay a solid foundation for the future of this country. I have a duty to be honest and truthful on the views and position that I canvass. My views are different. I asked the question, why are we having a national conference?

‘’I believe that anyone who convenes a meeting must be clear why he convened a meeting. I have the opportunity to travel far and wide. You don’t assemble people and then ask them, what do we talk? Whoever  wishes to convene a meeting must be clear on what the issues are. When you have stated why the meeting was convened, you can then ask what should be added or deleted. You have hundreds of agenda. When I was in the NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress), a former president convened a national conference…

‘’People from various states converged, money was spent and in the end I can’t remember what came out of that conference. It is a valid point to make that we failed before, we can make amend but it is important we learn from our history. I will be surprised if anything changes. As a leader, I have no business to mislead anyone. This conference will not be different from any previous conference’’. From his seat, Nyiam sprang forward, shouting : ‘’No’’, ‘’no’’, ‘’no’’, while banging the table. His action paved the way for thugs, who had been heckling the governor,  to disrupt the proceedings.

Did Nyiam act in concert with the thugs?

Was he privy to their coming to the sitting? Was his action premeditated or spontaneous? Whatever, by his action, he has soiled the reputation of the committee, which will now be hard pressed to convince Nigerians on the genuineness and integrity  of its mission. It is good that the panel has dissociated itself from what it calls the ‘’unruly behaviour of one of our members, who joined the crowd in shouting down the Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State’’, and  accordingly  apologised to Oshiomhole.

The committee has done well in taking this bold step, but the matter should not be allowed to die like that. Should Nyiam continue to be a member of such an august body? With his uncivilised behaviour in full public glare, he should be stripped of his membership forthwith, if the government wishes to restore public confidence in the committee’s job. For now, whatever trust the people have in the panel has been rubbished by Nyiam’s unbecoming behaviour. He should be removed now before he does further harm  to the committee. Who knows he may come with a gun next time. The government should not wait till then before it acts.

The world over men are perceived to be more corrupt than women. This has given rise to the clamour that women should be given more positions of responsibility in order to build an healthy society. In the world’s corruption index, Mexico is rated among nations where graft has grown root. Between that country and ours, only God knows where corruption thrives most. Mexico seems to appreciate the problem it is in, this is why the governor of one of its states directed that male traffic cops be replaced with women. Will that solve the corruption problem?

This question is pertinent because it is not entirely correct to say that women are not as corrupt as men. When it comes to corruption, it is hard to determine which gender comes tops because money itself knows no gender. Money does not know the difference between a male and female touch. It enjoys the embrace of whoever touches it, be it man or woman. But women like to delude themselves that they are more honest than men.

They say it without qualms that when it comes to moral integrity, men stand no chance against them. We have come to find out that this is all baloney. How do I mean? We have seen female robbers, female pick pockets, female car snatchers, corrupt female politicians and thieving female bankers. All these : robbing, stealing and the other vices were associated with men. Now, it is a case of what a man can do, a woman can do, even better. To the consternation of many, women now compete for space with men even in the nastiest areas of life.

Many women have thrown overboard their God given grace to be the meek of the earth. They have shed their motherly toga in the craze for wealth and power and the society is the poorer for it. A country where its women behave as true mothers will attain lofty heights because they will serve as the moral beacon for the young and old. Women were specially created to assist men, but many of them have abandoned this role in their desperation to carve a niche for themselves.

There is nothing wrong in a woman asserting herself, especially in these modern times. It is an era of survival of the fittest and women are not left out in this rat race of life. This is why many of them do abominable things in order to belong. You find them where women are not supposed to be found and do things that women should not be involved in. Society overlooks their excesses and allows them to be. Once in a while, society is shocked by the behaviour of some women and it reacts accordingly.

It condemns such women and shows them to the world as bad examples of womanhood. Who is a good woman and who is a bad woman? A good woman is pure, simple, unassuming, honest and diligent. A bad woman can simply be described as one that lacks moral scruples. It is such women who dip their hands into anything, no matter how bad because they want to belong or prove to their peers that they too have arrived. What they don’t know is that a woman will surely arrive when her time comes. It cannot be otherwise, but they want to hasten things and so end up doing what they should not do.

They call it opportunity. Yes, it is good to cash in on opportunity to make good in life, but it is wrong to use our commonwealth to achieve their so – called opportunity. Being a minister or occupant of any other public office should not be a licence for any man or woman to abuse such trust to enrich himself or herself. Our public officers are fond of using their privileged positions to do the unthinkable. They use both hands to acquire everything at sight under the guise of serving us. We can understand if men do this, but what do we say of women, the so – called fairer sex, who are expected to be the paragon of virtue?

By now, you must have heard of the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, a princess, who got two BMW bulletproof cars from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), a parastatal under her ministry. NCAA Director – General Captain Fola Akinkuotu describes the cars as “operational vehicles”. As a minister with many parastatals under her purview, should we take it that she is entitled to such “operational vehicles” from each of them. The aviation sector is in deep crisis, but here we are, our minister is busy acquiring or is it arm twisting agencies under her to acquire armoured vehicles for her. If the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) buy her such vehicles she will end up having 10. What does she want to do with 10 armoured cars when the only record of the aviation ministry she is superintending is that of crashes? Under her watch, we have witnessed two crashes.

The first was the Dana plane crash of June 3, last year, and the second was the October 3 Associated Airlines plane crash. Our public officers are only interested in themselves; they do not care about their countrymen that they were appointed to serve. We can all perish in plane crashes for all that Princess Stella cares as long as she gets her armoured vehicles. For NCAA to have spent N255million on the princess’ cars shows the extent some of our agencies go to in order to please their supervising ministers just for the heads to keep their jobs. No wonder Akinkuotu is already blowing hot that the workers, who leaked the purchase of the armoured cars, will be shown the way out.

If there is anyone to be sacked over this matter, it is the director – general, who in less than six months in office, took this major decision of buying armoured cars for his minister. What is the reason for this acquisition? Is it to thank the minister for his appointment? Akinkuotu and his management must tell us how they got the money to buy these cars. Was the money appropriated for by the National Assembly? Under what subhead was it taken to the National Assembly? What reasons, if any, did NCAA give for the acquisition? The National Assembly, which resumed from break on Tuesday, should show keen interest in this matter because it borders on the oversight functions of its aviation committees.

If the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Aviation are not aware of the acquisition of these vehicles, then the NCAA has a lot of explanations to make as regards how it came about the funds for the cars. It means the authority bypassed the legislature in making such capital expenditure. Asked whether the money for the purchase was appropriated, Joyce Nkemkolam, NCAA’s Director of Aerodrome and Airspace, could not provide an answer when he appeared on Channels Television on Tuesday morning. Yet, he signed some of the papers for the purchase of the cars.

The NCAA management and the minister deserve the harshest of punishment for this seeming cutting of corners to acquire these armoured cars. They should not be spared if we are really serious about prosecuting the anti – corruption war. Let us make an example of them to deter others. But will we? Over to the Presidency and the National Assembly.