There was this nominee, several years ago, to serve as a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States of America (USA). He was a black man, if my recollection still serves me right. His confirmation hearing was so bitter and divisive that it spilled over from the otherwise hallowed chambers of the US Senate to the streets of the country. It was so bad that in the effort to spike his nomination, the issues and questions to be thrown at the nominee would be ‘leaked’ to the public by sources 24 hours before hand.
The idea by those behind the ‘leaks’ was ostensibly to dehumanise and demonise the nominee to the Supreme Court before the American public and in the court of the American public opinion. At the end of the brutal hearing, the nominee was confirmed and he got the job. Before that nominee assumed his position in the Court, he spoke, addressing many issues including what he considered the planned, coordinated, orchestrated and well-funded effort by some people to find him guilty even before trial. He described it as an attempt at ‘hitech lynching’.
As events unfolded in the past two weeks or so on the subject of purchase of operational vehicles including two bullet proof cars (which some writers and commentators also refer to armour-plated/armoured cars) by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA); the alleged roles of the supervising Ministry of Aviation, and the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, and the diverse positions taken by individuals and groups, it has been difficult not to recall and relate what has been going on as akin to the phrase of attempt at ‘hitech lynching’ of Oduah.
At the risk of naivety, I want to assume that the issues and allegations are well known to the partisans to warrant a detailed and exhaustive recall. So, we will summarise. The NCAA ordered, procured and/or leased operational vehicles. Thrown into the basket are two BMW bullet proof cars that were not appropriated for fiscal 2013. The bullet proof cars enjoyed duty waivers they should not have enjoyed. The N255 million committed to the bullet proof cars was insensitive and wasteful. The N643 million for the operational vehicles even after discounting the N240 million appropriated by the National Assembly in fiscal 2013, was beyond the Minister to approve without reverting to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Due process was not adhered to, including allegedly ignoring the Public Procurement Act.
It’s important to note that calls by individuals and groups for Oduah’s sacking commenced the very day the story broke. Indeed, the campaign to oust Oduah from the Aviation Ministry started immediately President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan assigned her the portfolio. She was derided as having no experience in the industry and of being a square peg in a round hole. Critics were somewhat shamed when she doubled down and went to work and began an amazing transformation (a cardinal principle of the Jonathan government) and remodelling of our airports. But it was obvious the critics were not pacified and this became manifest whenever there was a mishap in the sector. After the air mishaps, the orchestrated controversy over bullet proof cars procured by the NCAA has provided a fresh fodder for the enemies at the terminal.
In the quest to stampede Oduah out of office or get her sacked by the president, some anti corruption ‘activists’ have procured protesters to further the plot. Talking about protesters, the Nigeria variant, there was this true incident in Abuja during the presidency of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. A group was as usual procured to sit-in with placards at a particular institution with a view to getting the leadership removed. A perceptive middle ranking officer of the institution that was besieged, acting on his own, discreetly interviewed some of the protesters and was told that each person was paid N1000 to carry the placard for a few hours.
Quickly, the officer went into the office, prepared a fresh set of placards in favour of the institution and its leadership, arranged money, came out, retrieved the offensive placards from the ‘protesters’, gave them the new placards with positive messages and N3000 for each ‘protesters’. By the time the original sponsors of the ‘protesters’ arrived the venue of the sit-in with their horde of hastily arranged photojournalists, they met ‘protesters’ carrying placards they did not bargain for. I leave you to imagine their disappointment and then to ruminate on the ‘protesters’ we see sometimes on national television. It has to be said that not all protests are rigged.
So when the issue of Oduah moved from the cacophony of voices and the charade of ‘protesters’ to the setting up of a probe panel by the House of Representatives, I reasoned that a measure of sanity is returning to the discourse. The fear remained that there may be some panel members with mob mentality but there was also a feeling that there could just be one or more sober elements in the panel. From ‘leaked’ reports to the media, the House Panel has written its report which formed the basis of their recommendations to the whole House.
If the report and recommendations ‘leaked’ to the media ahead of submission to a committee of the whole House were to be believed, it would then appear that the House of Representatives Probe Panel members on Oduah worked from the answer – Get Oduah out by all means.
Let us analyse their findings and recommendations taken from newspaper reports: *President Jonathan should sack Minister Odua for bursting her approval limit. *Oduah breached the Appropriate Act 2013 by allowing an Agency under her watch to procure vehicle not captured in the budget.
*Minister bypassed public procurement process.
*A clean bill of health for First Bank, but that the executed lease purchase agreement should be revoked.
*Other recommendations which obviously were designed to fulfill all righteousness. We will ignore them for being inconsequential.
It is interesting that a member of the House Probe Panel told a newspaper that there was nothing in their findings that suggested that Oduah derived or would derive personal benefits from the transaction and that the bullet proof cars were not bought in her name. Drawing from the findings so far, it would appear that if Minister Oduah was guilty of anything, that thing would be indiscretion. And indiscretion in this instance cannot be equated with corruption.
Anticipatory approval for a contract is part of government business in our clime. The N255 million for bullet proof cars by NCAA will surely be covered by this mode of doing business. If the Minister gave approval (which of course she did not do, given the documented evidence she directed the Agency to do the “needful”), the sum which lease arrangement spans over 36 months would still be accommodated within her approval limit. The argument that by so doing, Minister Oduah would be committing succeeding Aviation Ministers is a non issue. And I will explain. The Federal Minister of Works will be stupid to limit the lifespan of contracts for road repairs and construction to terminate with the duration of his stay in the Jonathan Cabinet. In any case, how would he know how long he will serve? Nothing that says he will be in the FEC and in the same post till 2015. He, like others, serves at the pleasure of the president. In like manner, the bold statement in remodelling our airports cannot begin and end with the initiator – Oduah. In other words, future Aviation Ministers will have to continue with contracts entered into under her charge as long as such contracts are not incurably bad.
More important is the fact that the travails of Oduah have little, if anything, to do with corruption. It’s more about 2015 and Jonathan. For those who choose to live in denial, they are free to do so. Princess Stella Oduah inspired an NGO-Neighbour to Neighbour-that gave hell to those who opposed Jonathan ahead of the 2011 presidential election. Neighbour-To-Neighbour was a formidable movement and a nightmare to opponents of Jonathan. If Jonathan needed Neighbour-To-Neighbour in 2011, he will need it more for the yet undeclared reelection quest in 2015. The plot of Jonathan haters is to discredit Oduah and weaken the credibility and moral standing of Neighbour-To-Neighbour when the time comes.
They have started with the president’s party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Nobody needs a prophet to confirm that Jonathan will seek reelection in 2015. But he should realise that his opponents in the forthcoming contest will not take prisoners. Prisoners can be a burden and a distraction. They would rather apply the Italian solution. But for as long as he is the president, Jonathan holds the aces.
• Onuoha, is a public
affairs commentator
