Greed is thy other name PDP. The arraignment of former Minister of Aviation, Senator Stella Oduah by the federal government over an alleged N5bn fraud committed in 2014 is a sad reminder of PDP years of the locust when vicious battle over ‘sharing’ of our resources often subtly termed ‘family quarrel’ threatened the very survival of the nation.
Of course, greed over control of resources of a nation is not limited to the ruling class in Nigeria. It is the reason for climate change denial by owners of society in the US despite overwhelming scientific evidence just as it is the source of social dislocations and chaos in Europe.
Indeed, greed is what sets aside the less than 4% that control the resources of the world from the 96% of humanity who, because of their daily struggle for survival, have questioned claim of some social crusaders who insist ‘we are not the savage, irredeemably greedy, violent and rapacious species we can be led into thinking ourselves to be”. (Stephen Fry on Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History.
For many troubled by prospect of our country’s possible descent into a one party state because of the current mass movement to the ruling All Progressive Party (APC), the question is what such return portends for the country without expression of remorse even as their renewed greed-driven battle took them straight from their Ibadan controversial convention centre to their Abuja Wadata headquarters, where the two factions and their thugs had to be driven out by police with Kabiru Taimu Turaki-led faction emerging from Obasanjo’s library rendezvous in Abeokuta last Saturday.
But before PDP’s unpredictable fathers and troubled children often described as ‘new-breed politicians’ that breed nothing but corruption, let us first examine the travails of Princess Stella Oduah and the alleged N5b fraud, which will be not a fraction of what she must have spent on her well-advertised philanthropic activities.
Oduah was before her ministerial appointment, we were told, was a pacesetter who had spent about 25 years in the oil and gas industry, before resigning in1992 from the services of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to found her ‘Sea Petroleum and Gas Company’ she had nurtured to a multi-billion naira company.
She was a multi-award winner, starting with the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), from President Obasanjo, Distinguished Catholic Professional, Dame International among others. She was an avowed philanthropist who through her JOE life Foundation “launched the Farmers Loan Scheme for peasant and subsistent farmers in Ogbaru LGA of Anambra, constructed a 19-bed medical centre in Orhionwon LGA in Edo State, weekly feeding of the poor, potable water project at Ogbaru Local Government Area, annual scholarship scheme for 36 indigenes of Ogbaru from primary to university level; annual award for the Best Female Petroleum Engineering graduating student and building of an ultra-modern secondary school at Akili, Ogbaru local Govt. Area, Anambra State.
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Oduah believes that “wealth acquisition is a God-given grace and not necessarily an act of human ingenuity, and that wealth acquisition makes sense only if it is spread to affect the lives of the less privileged around you”.
When you imagine the princess did all the above before joining Abuja seat of power where politicians struggle for their constituents’ share of the national cake is to understand why her people immediately rewarded her with a senatorial ticket the moment the scandal first broke out during Jonathan presidency.
Now let us examine the baleful legacies of PDP and its pathfinders:
First, PDP was never a political party, John Campbell, a former US envoy to Nigeria had during a proceeding at the hearing on the topic: Nigeria in Turmoil in the British House of Commons in March 2010 defined PDP as “an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria …essentially a club of elite for sharing of oil rents and political spoils”.
It’s prevailing ideology was therefore “sharing”, which Doyin Okupe, Obasanjo’s spokesman, while speaking on the marginalization of Yoruba under the Jonathan administration, explained as “If things that are not enough, when people sit down to share and take decision, if there is no one to speak for you, there is a problem”.
In this regard, Ahmadu Ali as chairman of PDP and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), was responsible for increasing fuel importers from about four to over 140 independent petroleum marketers some of who were later tried and indicted for the theft of about N2trillion. And distancing himself from the mess, the late Audu Ogbeh, a former chairman of PDP, had said ‘when I was chairman of PDP, my son never got involved in oil but two PDP national chairmen after me, their sons pocketed over N400billion without supplying a tea cup, of oil”.
As for President Obasanjo who once publicly tore his PDP card claiming he was no more playing partisan politics, it is on record he set up ADC as a vehicle for any disgruntled group with the party already taken over by a faction of PDP, the second faction going to his house to seek last Saturday while a third faction headed by Nyesom Wike was counting on the court to end the shenanigans of those who put their faith in the hands of those without electoral value.
Everyone in PDP is tarred with the same brush. As for Obasanjo, PDP leading members swore he spent close to N10b on his failed third term bid, a charge he denied. What he could not deny however was that he corralled serving governors and government contractors to donate about N7.5billion towards his presidential library while the national library he stated has been abandoned for close to 18 years.
Senator Bukola Saraki, the whistle-blower in the fuel subsidy scam for fuel neither imported nor delivered to Nigeria, was accused by PDP of indirectly benefitting from the scam. Farouk Lawal, whose committee uncovered the scam, was jailed for extorting bribe from Femi Otedola.
When Bode George who was later pardoned on technical ground after serving a jail term for helping PDP party members as chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority was appointed PDP BOT chairman, Dino Melaye who had just fallen out of favour with PDP said Bode George’s choice was because “everybody in PDP was an ex-convict”.
Unfortunately, when Oduah found herself among these hawks, she did not learn how to walk the tight rope before launching a crusade against foreign airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic KLM and Lufthansa over excessive ticket charges on international routes. She was to discover later that it was a question of supply and demand as our elected and political appointees insisted on business and first class seats from the airlines.
Of course with her N500b loan part of which she said would be used to buy new aircrafts for airlines, she was also stepping on the toes of some PDP stalwarts who also doubled as airline operators. Many of them were only interested in interest- free bailout loans which were often diverted to run other businesses in other West African countries.
The Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) first indicted Stella Odua and the Nigerian subsidiary of Chinese construction giant, CCECC, of fraudulent cash transaction of N5billion in 2014. She was sacked by Jonathan on February 12, 2014 as a result of scandal that accompanied over N255m armoured cars which she authorized NCAA to procure for her use.
On Dec 17, 2022 EFCC filed a total of 25 counts against Oduah and CCECC.
Princess Oduah has since denied all allegations of corruption levelled against her claiming she had “made a mark in oil and gas and agricultural businesses before joining politics”.
Not much has been heard about the case which started some 11 years ago. Now that EFCC has brought the case up again, it must ensure it is brought to a closure if people are not to believe it is a case of witch-hunting against high-achieving professional and a pacesetter by politicians on whose toes she had stepped. Justice delayed as they say, is justice denied.
