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Tag: Stella Oduah

  • Too little, too late

    Too little, too late

    •Sack of four ministers by president is motion without movement

     

    It came too late, it was utterly anti-climactic and hardly of any effect whatsoever. This is the most apt way to describe the ouster of four ministers from the Federal Executive Council (FEC), last week. President Goodluck Jonathan had dropped the powerful and controversial aviation minister, Ms Stella Oduah. Also gone are: Mr. Godsday Orubebe, Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs; Navy-Capt. Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Police Affairs and Dr. Yerima Ngama, Minister of State for Finance.

    Recall that last September, President Jonathan sacked nine members of his cabinet and none of them has been replaced till date. Indeed, it has been suggested that President Jonathan’s tinkering with his cabinet is more a gambit aimed at the 2015 presidential election than an attempt to rescue the country’s faltering socio-economic conditions.

    The need for a total overhaul of the current FEC had been long overdue as the president’s team has been long jaded, corruption ridden and lackluster. Many of the ministers have been caught with hands in the pie while some had lost any drive or initiative whatsoever.

    The case of Ms. Oduah was spectacularly scandalous. Apart from embarking on a whirlwind of airports renovation which has turned out to be of poor quality, she was involved in the purchase of two bulletproof cars for N255 million found to be grossly over-valued and shorn of due process. It was a scam that shook the entire nation and smeared the country’s image. The House of Representatives committee which investigated the matter found her culpable and recommended a review of her appointment. But the Presidency had dithered, refusing to take any action since last year over an affair that the world came to know as Oduahgate.

    In spite of her firing, the issue of due process and corruption hovers like a gaping bird of prey over the Jonathan administration. He indicated the files were on his desk. Did he fire her because of the scandal? No records show an answer, and until a verdict on the matter comes out of the presidency, Mr. Jonathan is deemed to have papered over this big, scandalous crack.

    Though Mr. Orubebe claimed he was not sacked but quit to pursue his political ambition, he however, proved to be utterly inefficient on his beat as the manner and quality of work on the East-West Road has shown. His ministry, being in charge of this major artery linking the restive Niger-Delta zone to the rest of the country, has been unable to make much headway on this important project more than two years after. Akinbolade and Ngama deny they were axed but their ministries did not epitomise any remarkable service or notable performance.

    Beyond being a run around the roundabout, the entire cabinet makeover remains ineffectual as ministers who ought to have been given a public reprimand through an express pronouncement of sack are being afforded a face-saving exit. In clarifying their exit status, the Minister of Information and Communication, Mr. Labaran Maku, noted that, “The president said he had asked them to go because they indicated interest in playing deeper roles in the politics of the country.” Jonathan’s method of governance has left many Nigerians wondering whether he is serious about setting aright his floundering administration. If ministers found to have brazenly compromised their offices are simply asked to go, then there seems to be no hope for any redemption.

    Apart from those ‘asked to go’, there are still many in the cabinet who have been found wanting, either in keeping proper account of their activities or what is clearly inefficient performance of their duties. The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has been in the heart of mind-boggling scandals in the last two years, yet she sits pretty in the cabinet as if she were an untouchable. Under the watch of Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who heads the finance ministry and who also wears the appellation of coordinating minister of the economy (CME), the economy has been in the doldrums and the annual budget mere routines with no value-added whatsoever. But she has remained at her desk, inured to the cries of the populace and unmoved to make any change.

  • Why ministers were ‘allowed to go’, by Maku

    Why ministers were ‘allowed to go’, by Maku

    Yesterday’s meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was solemn.

    President Goodluck Jonathan shocked the ministers when he announced the exit of four of them from the cabinet.

    A major casualty – the controversial Minister of Aviation Stella Oduah – was absent at the meeting. She had been told by the President of the decision to “let her go”.

    It was not clear whether the three other ministers dropped from the cabinet were told before yesterday.

    Police Affairs Minister Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Niger Delta Godsday Orubebe and Minister of State for Finance Yerima Ngama, attended the meeting.

    But Olubolade and Orubebe left before the end without talking to reporters.

    Ngama spoke briefly in Hausa to a few reporters on his way out of the Villa.

    Yesterday’s action by the President followed Monday’s forced exit of Chief of Staff to the President Mike Oghiadomhe.

    Minister of Information Labaran Maku told reporters at the end of the FEC meeting that the ministers were “allowed to go” to pursue personal and political goals.

    According to him, the President thanked them for their contributions and wished them well in their future endeavour.

    Until substantive ministers are sworn in, he said the President directed the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom to take charge of the Aviation Ministry, the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Isiaku Darius is to take charge of the Ministry, Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will oversee her portfolio in addition to that of the Minister of the State. Minister of State FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide will take charge of the Police Affairs Ministry.

    He said: “The President announced further changes in the federal executive council. He said a number of ministers have been asked to step out of the federal executive council to pursue or further their own interests, some in politics others private-focused. But mainly what the president did today was to allow ministers who have indicated interest in pursuing further goals in the polity and in the economy and in the life of the country, to be allowed to go.

    “In announcing the acceptance of their decision to participate further in the polity, the President thanked them very sincerely for the great job they have done in helping the government realise a number of the goals that have been achieved under the transformation agenda. The President believes that they have done so well for the country, they have done so well for this administration. He was generally happy with what they have done, particularly in their various sectors to help the administration realise the goals that we see today and the results that we have arrived at under the transformation programme of the government.”

    Maku said the President explained that the former Chief of Staff, Mike Oghiadomhe was not sacked because of corruption or malpractices.

    Maku said: “The President explained that contrary to this insinuation which came from the social media and were also replicated in some regular media, Oghiadomhe left to pursue further interest in politics.

    “The office of the chief of staff does not supervise the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), it has no direct correlation with the work of the NNPC and he said if Oghiadomhe had left because of NNPC, then it will suggest that there must have been people in the NNPC that would have been involved with him and those people too would have gone. So contrary to these speculations, the President asked him to go when he offered to resign to participate to pursue interest in politics. The president made it very clear that the resignation of the former chief of staff has nothing to do with the alleged misdemeanors in NNPC, but rather it was purely a decision of the former chief of staff to withdraw his services to participate in pursuing further interest in politics,” he added.

    On whether Mrs Oduah was asked to go based on the report on the N255 million car scam by the committee set up to investigate the allegation, Maku said: “I have just reported exactly what the President said. Also don’t forget allegations don’t necessarily mean guilt and I think the press should always take sometimes to be patient. But the truth of the matter is that they left because they indicated interest in playing deeper roles in the politics of the country and the President has decided to let them go”.

    On why the government is keeping silent on the allegation of missing funds by Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, he said: “I will caution that we be patient for the institution of government to respond. You will recall that the CBN governor claimed $49 billion or there about was missing and inquiry shows that that was not so. Now he has been making further claims and NNPC has been responding and I believe that I do not have the facts now to answer your questions.”

    Maku added that the council considered the report of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group and referred it to the Minister of Agriculture to look into the recommendations and present a memo.

     

  • What becomes of Oduah’s aviation master plan?

    What becomes of Oduah’s aviation master plan?

    Following last week’s sack of the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, by President Goodluck Jonathan, anxiety is mounting over the fate of her airport infrastructure projects.KELVIN OSA OKUNBOR reports.

    During Princess Stella Oduah’s tenure, the aviation master plan was dear to her. With her exit last week as aviation minister, questions are being asked on what becomes of the project. Under her watch, she undertook the remodelling of 22 airports across the country , which were scheduled to be implemented in phases.

    Besides, she initiated the airport city concept, otherwise known as aerotropolis, the building of perishable agro-allied terminals and replacement of obsolete air nivagation facilities at airports across the country.

    Part of the projects in the master plan include the five international airport terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano to be built by a consortium of Chinese investors.

    Others are the construction of the General Aviation Terminals (GAT) for charter operators in Lagos and Port Harcourt and a state-of-the-art car park, transit passenger lounge, and an independent power plant at the Lagos Airport.

    Some aviation players, including Comrade Benjamin Okewu, President of the Air Transport Services Senior Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) believed that the projects would be completed despite her exit; others, including Comrade Olayinka Abioye, General Secretary, National Association of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), think otherwise.

    Okewu said the projects would be completed because aviation workers have resolved to ensure projects meant to benefit Nigerians are not abandoned.

    He spoke of plans by aviation workers to remind whoever is appointed her successor to ensure he or she does not deviate from the master plan.

    In a statement, issued after a meeting in Lagos, Okewu and ATSSSAN’s Deputy National Secretary Tarnongu Captain said all hands must be on deck to ensure that the exit of Princess Stella Oduah should not have any negative impact on the aviation industry.

    The group said it was not averse to change since it is the only thing that is constant in life .

    It said it was time for the President to appoint a person with sincere and fundamental interest of the aviation industry at heart.

    The association assured President Goodluck Jonathan of its readiness to provide the platform and safety valve to support the in-coming minister to ensure that the Transformation Agenda in the aviation industry is not truncated.

    Abioye alleged that there is nothing to convince industry players that the projects would be completed because they were shrouded in secrecy.

    He said details of the scope of work and the contractors handling the projects are not in the public domain.

    The Secretary-General, Nigerian Aviation Professionals Association (NAPA), Mr Siedu Abdulrasaq, believes that all the projects initiated by Oduah will be completed. He says there are competent hands in the team she left behind to complete the projects.

    He said the former minister has put the necessary measures in place to see to the completion of her numerous projects, including the airport remodelling and the aerotropolis project.

    But an airline operator who pleaded not to be named said there is no need to entertain any fears over the projects that Oduah left behind because they were funded by the government.

    He said: “Because these projects have changed the face of aviation, there is no way they will be abandoned, whether Oduah is there or not. Look at the airport terminals. These projects will continue because they are in the interest of the aviation industry.’’

    Mr Chris Aligbe, an aviation consultan, said it would not be acceptable for the government to allow the projects to hang in the balance because of the minister’s exit.

    He said: ‘’It is not ideal for anybody to think that the ambitous projects started by Oduah will be abandoned. Government is continuous, so who ever is appointed to head the ministry will work with heads of aviation agencies to ensure the completion of the projects. This has to be so, because these projects have turned around the sector which for many years was almost comatose.

    “There is no debate that the former minister of aviation, Stella Oduah made her mark in the sector, with the massive infrastructure upgrade, the ambitious aerotropolis, the proposed cargo terminals, the new international terminals, these were projects others could not deliver in the past. Despite the scandais and other issues raised by stakeholders, I think she made her mark, and the greatest disservice by any successor is not to continue from where she left off.’’

    Sheri Kyari, an Aircraft Engineer and Executive Director of Centre for Aviation Safety and Research, said there is no need to fear over the noncompletion of the projects Oduah left behind.

    Kyari said: ‘’One may be tempted to be afraid, but stakeholders want government to sound it to her successor that the greatest disservice to the industry master plan is not to complete those ambitious projects that take aviation to the next level. Honestly, Oduah made her mark, with courageous and ambitious projects that will take aviation to the next level. I do not think government would be insentitive to do that. This is because the expectation of industry players is so high, as to what becomes of those projects in the master plan. Despite the scandals, this was one minister that took the bull by the horn to deliver projects that have changed the face of aviation. If other ministers did a little of what Oduah did, the aviation sector would have moved forward.’’

    It is believed that the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), should work towards completing the projects.

    In an interview in Lagos, Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Meggison said Oduah contributed her best to turn around the aviation sector.

    Meggison said Oduah attracted a lot of funding into the aviation sector, which helped her carry out the massive airports rehabilitation programmes.

    The AON chairman said her leadership style may appear controversial , but, she ensured any project she was convinced about was executed .

    He noted that if she had some knowledge of the rudiments of aviation, perhaps she could have done better.

    Meggison said: ”Today, we may be clamouring for the appointment of an aviation professional as minister, but Oduah before she left attracted a lot of funding into the sector, which helped her to carry out the remodelling of airports.

    In other critical areas of the aviation sector, she could have done better, if the information at her disposal at the time of leaving office was available to her when she assumed duties two years ago. But, we must admit that she tried her best.”

    However, during her tenure as aviation minister, Oduah fought a running battle with many concessionaires, whom she said were shortchangingTHE government through fraudulent airport concessions.

    She said the collective wealth of the nation, was being enjoyed by a tiny fragment of the population through airport concessions that were skewed against the interest of the government.

    This led to the revocation of the concession agreement with Maevis Limited, for the provision of automated airport management system at both the Lagos andAbuja airports.

    The matter is still in court. She also had a running battle with Bi- Courtney Aviation Services Limited, over the tenure of its concession of the new Domestic Terminal Two of the Lagos Airport as well as the building of hotel and conference centre opposite the new domestic terminal.

  • Jonathan’s late salvoes

    Jonathan’s late salvoes

    President Goodluck Jonathan may have eased out four members of his so-far uninspiring cabinet, and seems set to bring in more notable persons, but it is doubtful whether the reshuffle will have quite the remarkable momentum he hopes to create for his performance as president and his re-election campaign. His Chief of Staff, the much reviled and hated Mike Oghiadomhe, has been shoved out. So, too, were the haughty Stella Oduah of the Aviation ministry, the officious Caleb Olubolade of Police Affairs, the imperious Godsday Orubebe of the Niger Delta ministry and the relatively unknown Yerima Ngama, Minister of State for Finance. Having watched with macabre delight the effect the reshuffle was having on the country, the president, reports suggest, is now seized by a frenzy to draw more blood. Converted to bloodlust and energised by the sanguinary effect of sacking his men, the president will probably do a little more, if not at a high level, then at a more sober and lower level.

    The president is believed to be prepared to bring in well-known persons, some of them retired generals, former governors, senators and technocrats. Many think his new team is more likely to be accurately described as star-studded, and he himself seems to have rediscovered the zest to tinker with things. He will also probably think he is in the process of assembling a team that will deliver the presidency to him once more, that is, if the truculent and bellicose former President Olusegun Obasanjo does not derail his wagon. My private thoughts are that Dr Jonathan’s cabinet reshuffle is motivated by wholly expedient reasons, nothing to do with performance, public morality, or even ideas.

    His paradigms will not only remain the same, woolly and stifling as they have been since he assumed office, they will also fail as usual to achieve any significant purpose. The problem with the Jonathan government, as everyone knows, is not just a case of long-lasting policy inconsistencies, accentuated by bureaucratic in-fighting; it is a case of acute absence of a solid inner core around which his governing paradigms could coalesce. So, the reshuffle as well as the selection of new cabinet members will neither be dictated by any attempt to reinforce the ideas that underpin and propel his government nor be geared towards demolishing his image as a bumbling president and recasting him as a statesman or a charismatic leader. When he assumed office, there was no indication of a genuine conviction about what and how his government should look like; there is nothing at the moment to indicate such a conviction has been birthed.

    As a matter of fact, Dr Jonathan has shown over the few years that his leadership style is marked by a noticeable reluctance to do what is right and a marked stubbornness to amend what is wrong. He waited almost forever to get rid of Mr Orubebe even after it had become obvious the minister specialised in fomenting animosities in the Niger Delta than making friends for the president. Dr Jonathan also demonstrated an unrestrained foul mood in disciplining Ms Oduah after her serial indiscretions had all but alienated virtually everyone in the Aviation industry, civil society, and an incredulous international community stupefied by our government’s slothfulness. It is not clear what Dr Ngama’s faults were, or why the president should skip the head of that ministry and hit upon the seldom-seen and little-known Minister of State.

    Left to Dr Jonathan, and had circumstances not pushed him to act, there was no way he would have unhorsed Ms Oduah. He proved quite reluctant to do what was right when he stuck adamantly to Bamanga Tukur, the arcane gerontocrat who turned both the PDP and reason itself on their heads. Until it became impossible for him to ignore the uproar triggered by Alhaji Tukur in the ruling party, the president was determined not to touch the former party chairman. Whether now, in the past, or in the future, Dr Jonathan will neither act out of conviction nor out of principles. On many occasions in the past he had acted solely out of expediency, dithering and pussyfooting all the way; he will continue to do so until the end of his presidency, whether or not he gets a second term.

    Closely leashed to his often expedient way of handling grave matters is the fact that the president always acts when it is too late. When he finally and reluctantly removed Ms Oduah, he had left the matter to fester every badly until there was no honour left for him in the ugly incident of the armoured cars scandal. It had been expected the president would act firmly and expeditiously by sacking Ms Oduah and sustaining the integrity of the presidency. Instead, he left the matter for far too long, and tongues to wag ceaselessly, before he stirred himself. Whether he convinced himself his re-election chances were threatened by his lack of principles and promptness, or others persuaded him he risked a second term by doing nothing, we may never know. But at least we know he is a skilful procrastinator, one with an eye perpetually on the main chance.

    Some of the names bandied as candidates for ministerial appointments are gentlemen the country is familiar with. They are strong, may add value, even if nominal, to the Jonathan presidency, and are ordinarily not bad choices. But for a government devoid of positive qualities other than the character of nothingness it both embodies and engenders, and for a government that values expediency over principles, these ‘strong’ men may end up adding nothing to the government, not even in an election year, contrary to the president’s expectations. Indeed, we should expect more procrastination, more surrender to expediency, more sacrifice of everything valuable on the altar of politics, and less adherence to the cause of anti-corruption, justice, fair play and equity. These, in short, typify the essential character of the Jonathan presidency. This character will not change in a million years, and it must shock the rational mind that any talented politician should invest his accomplishment and person on a government whose primary and primordial notions take on life only when mediocrity and farce manifest.

  • Oduah’s enemies got the better of her, so she thinks

    Oduah’s enemies got the better of her, so she thinks

    SACKED Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, will most probably think she was undone by her enemies, chief among whom were those who have one thing or the other to do with the Aviation ministry or the agencies under it. Long used to lying to herself and believing her infernal lies, she is unlikely to put her overdue sack to her own irresponsible managerial misbehaviour, not to say personal conceitedness and deliberate exaggeration of her importance and indispensability to the President Goodluck Jonathan government. But there is no question she is the architect of her own doom. And as this column noted a few weeks ago, her sack was a question of time, for there was little or nothing President Jonathan could do to either salvage her reputation or keep her in office. Indeed, the more the president delayed action, this column observed, the more the image of the president would be battered.

    The immediate trigger for her sack was of course the overpriced bulletproof cars she approved for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) ostensibly for her use. She denied the cars were for her use, but few, perhaps no one, believed her. Without the scandal of the controversial cars, it is doubtful whether the president would have assented to her sack though she ruled her ministry with lack of circumspection and carefree brazenness. Nearly all the unions in the Aviation sector were against her brusque and excessive style, but she couldn’t care less. She reshuffled the agencies under her ministry with absolute disregard for national and ethnic sensitivities, and she met complaints and agitations with even more ferocious temerity and contempt. And though her so-called airport remodelling was nothing but razzmatazz and superficiality, she dared grumblers to go and hang for all she cared.

    Her tenure and the serial bizarreness that attended her policy initiatives were more appropriately a reflection of the spectacular inattentiveness of the president himself, especially how he unbelievably gave so much space and accommodation to his misfiring ministers, many of whom moved around ponderously with oversized egos. But for the car scandal, however, Ms Oduah would have remained in President Jonathan’s cabinet, restlessly concocting new and noxious policies, poking her fingers disdainfully into people’s eyes, and preparing for the next great re-election job after the Neighbour-to-Neighbour boondoggle. Before the car scandal, Ms Oduah felt untouchable. During the scandal, she felt immovable. After the scandal, however, she is more likely to feel more recriminatory than anything else. Don’t put it past the president to find some great succour for the fallen minister, as he famously did for the ousted chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bamanga Tukur.

    President Jonathan may have sacked Ms Oduah, but we must never romanticise his action. He did it against his wish and desire, and probably loathed been compelled to take a course of action that violated his compulsive habit of indulging folly and excusing bureaucratic rascality. If he had his way, he would have continued to condone Ms Oduah’s malfeasances, for both his principles and public morality are so expansively defined and delineated that it often takes a huge affront to rules and regulations to ginger him into public expressions of anger. After all, apart from disregarding the reports of panels set up to probe Ms Oduah’s car scandal, he also kept the report of his own panel on the same issue for much longer than was tactful or made sense. And without saying a word on the panel report, he has finally but it must be added, reluctantly sacked the erring minister. Did Ms Oduah commit an error of judgement for which she deserves nothing but a sack, or did she criminally breach rules for which she ought to be hauled before a court of competent jurisdiction? We may never know, and the president will probably hiss at this rhetorical question should we make it the next subject of our campaign.

  • Good riddance

    Good riddance

    At last, the President sums up courage; fires controversial Stella Oduah

    Whether President Goodluck Jonathan finally got his mind made up for him, or he made it up by himself; or whether the President asked the embattled former Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah, to resign or he gave her the boot, what is important is that Ms Oduah is no more a minister of the Federal Republic. If the President studied the newspapers on Thursday when the news made the headlines, he must have seen that the other ministers that also lost their jobs: Police Affairs Minister Caleb Olubolade, Minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe and Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, were more or less footnotes in the matter. The issue was Stella Oduah.

    And this is understandable. It is true that the present government had been rocked by many scandals: the fuel subsidy scandal, pension scandal, etc, Oduahgate is simply in a class of its own. It was one that recommended itself for instant judgment, yet, for over four months, President Jonathan’s courage failed him to show the minister the door. A minister who approved the purchase of two bullet-proof cars at a staggering cost of N255million without authorisation over four months ago ought to have had her case decided since, if not for the fact that the government loves wasting time on irrelevancies.

    Quite interestingly, just as President Jonathan was still thinking about how to handle the scandal, a lesser incident occurred in Ghana in which the deputy minister of communications, Victoria Hammah, was sacked for saying that she would not quit politics until she had made $1million. It was a God-sent example that should have shown President Jonathan the light; but he chose not to see it. The House of Representatives set up a committee to probe the matter and the committee found her guilty, making the full house to recommend to the President a review of Oduah’s appointment. Again, the President ignored the representatives. He then set up his own committee. Months after, mum was the word from him on what the recommendation of the committee was. But it was obvious the report was not what the President expected, otherwise he would have hid under it to exculpate Ms Oduah.

    What is particularly annoying is that while it took this long for President Jonathan to get Ms Oduah out of his cabinet, he did not waste time in throwing away Barth Nnaji, the former Minister of Power, over conflict of interest. This selective approach to the anti-corruption war (is there any war?) does his government no good. Some have contended that Oduah was doing well in the aviation sector; but Nnaji too was making slow but steady progress on power supply until he was given the boot. In Oduah’s case, her so-called good performance in the Ministry of Aviation was questionable. Even as at the time she was said to be doing well, the arrival hall of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos was a sorry sight whenever it rained, as buckets and other items had to be brought in to collect rain water from the leaking roofs. Those who say the President dilly-dallied for this long on Oduah’s case because he wanted to be thorough, or because he did not want to be stampeded into taking actions would do well to ponder the Oduah saga vis-à-vis other cases that he almost summarily disposed of.

    Without doubt, the Oduah saga made many Nigerians wonder what it was that made President Jonathan adamant on retaining her. I cannot think of anyone in recent Nigerian history that has survived such an onslaught. But that the President eventually bowed to public pressure has convinced me that it is true that when a child gets to a place of fear, it is natural for him to be afraid. But it is not only a child that frets when he gets to the home of fear; elders too do. That was why Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, hitherto thought to be a strong man, became lily-livered and had to pull the brakes at a point when he discovered that his insistence on having a third term by all means was going to backfire. In Nigeria, few people live to regret toying with handover dates. The docility that Nigerians are usually accused of, and which their leaders often exploit, does not extend to toying with transition schedules!

    Anyway, now that President Jonathan has fired Oduah and thus relieved himself of the moral burden, he still has to decide what to do with his petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. If the Jonathan government was embroiled in any scandal, the fuel subsidy scandal which became public knowledge barely seven months after the government was sworn in, is the most talked-about. Since then, there have been sundry other allegations of fraud rocking some parastatals under her ministry, particularly the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), whose books are in a mess. No one can say for sure how many billions of dollars could be missing from its record. Yet, the minister under whose nose these unfortunate developments are happening sits pretty in office, years after. We never had it so bad.

    It bears restating that no matter what the Jonathan government does, it won’t go far if it does not tackle corruption. Yet, it does not seem the President has the nerve for this task. His self-inflicted distractions on which he wastes precious time and scarce resources cannot permit him to do any tangible thing. Imagine the man-hours lost to the war to dislodge Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State! Whereas if the President had led well, he would not have to lose sleep over whether his party’s lawmakers and governors are defecting; all he would lay bare for Nigerians is his score card which should be speaking for him now, about three years after his assumption of office.

    This excludes the period he spent to conclude the tenure of his former boss, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua. If the President’s kernel is cracked for him by some benevolent spirits (because if it is in terms of performance, his government is a monumental disaster) and he manages to get a second term, the story cannot be different. If care is not taken, this is how we would continue to be adrift, and by the time he realises time is no longer on his side, it would have been late and he, like his political godfather, Chief Obasanjo, would start looking for third term. Yet, his government does not seem to have answer to any of the country’s challenges, no matter the number of terms it is given. To worsen matters, it cannot even arrest corruption. So, that is double jeopardy for Nigerians. This is why many Nigerians feel that it is immaterial if President Jonathan sacks his entire cabinet and decides not to work with ministers again, more than enough damage has been done to his government. Now, he would have not just to claim to be fighting corruption but must be seen to be doing so.

    Well, now that Oduah is gone, that is one down. But she is not the only clog in the wheel of the country’s progress. In terms of performance, most of the present ministers are not just there, that is why we are making progress in reverse; although the government boasts a surfeit of attack dogs, sycophants and mischief experts. The truth is, Nigerians had expected a near clean sweep of the cabinet because if a government is as inept as the one we have now, throwing only four ministers into the unemployment market cannot make much difference.

  • PHOTO:Check out Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah

    PHOTO:Check out Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah

    Oodua photo

  • Yola Airport to commence International flights

    Yola Airport to commence International flights

    International flights will soon commence this year at the Yola International Airport, Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, assured yesterday.

    She stated that all necessary machineries have been put on grounds to make this happen soon.

    Oduah also ordered the authorities of the airport to commence use of the newly built terminal before its inauguration.

    She spoke yesterday during an official inspection tour to Yola.

    The minister expressed satisfaction with the quality of work executed, saying that the airport can compete with its contemporaries in the world.

    According to her: “The official commissioning of the airport project is just a matter of time; for us to officially commission the Airport, we just need to do a little touch as the work has been completed save for some little things that need to be done.

    “The terminal as it is now is comparable to any terminal anywhere in the world.

    “We are proud of what we were able to accomplished, here, we thank God for the strength to be able to do that.”

    The Managing Director of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), George Orisi, said that international operations will commence immediately after the opening of the airport terminal.

    He added that flight operations in Yola will grow from domestic operations to international operations which will allow up to a million passengers to use the terminal annually.

    He said the airport terminal is efficiently designed with state-of-the-art facilities which include two laundries, shopping malls and better accommodation for passengers.

    Orisi said: “You can walk from the checking area to the arrivals area. It allows people to mingle inside the terminal, allows us to have a lot of shops and commercial offering.”

    He added that the cargo terminal project has also begun just as he said the lightening of the airport will soon be finished.

  • Akure Airport is perishable cargo terminal

    Akure Airport is perishable cargo terminal

    The Federal Government has designated the Akure Airport as a perishable cargo terminal.

    Minister for Aviation Princess Stella Oduah announced this yesterday while inspecting the airport in the company of Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

    Princess Oduah said the perishable cargo terminal would be a gateway to farmers and industrialists and create jobs. She said the terminal would be one of the largest in Nigeria when completed.

    The terminal is to be completed in six months and the domestic terminal is to be completed in three months.

     

  • Jonathan and the sisters of good luck

    Beyond the flood of interpretations that greeted the eventual fall of former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, Bamanga Tukur, there is a possibly overlooked dimension to his forced resignation after a long-drawn-out battle with antagonistic forces within the party. It is instructive that President Goodluck Jonathan apparently finally sacrificed Tukur when it came to choosing between protecting him and retaining control of the party to reinforce a possible desire for re-election in 2015.

    Jonathan, ironically, identified the man Tukur as an obstacle, despite his unapologetic support of the presidential agenda; perhaps helping to put in clearer perspective just how dispensable the president regards masculine figures, especially those in the power loop.

    With women, however, the picture of the president is that of an accommodating gentleman; or a man who appears to be gentle. It is generally believed that Jonathan would probably do anything to satisfy his beloved wife, First Lady Dame Patience, particularly considering his demonstration of enmity towards the perceived enemies of his better half, represented in recent times by the embattled Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

    Speaking of Jonathan’s tender treatment of females, three other prominent feminine figures, in particular, come to mind; specifically, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah. Perhaps never in the country’s political history have women been the custodians of so much power, and controversially too.

    While Okonjo-Iweala continues to attract loud criticism for alleged ineffectiveness, Alison-Madueke for alleged imperiousness and Oduah for alleged impropriety, Jonathan has interestingly carried on as if nothing is amiss. Notably, they have something in common: strident calls for their removal. Oduah’s case is especially reflective of Jonathan’s soft spot for the opposite sex, with the presidency treating her with kid’s gloves, in spite of weighty charges of misconduct relating to the scandalous purchase of two armoured cars for N255 million.

    Indeed, it is food for thought that Jonathan apparently does not consider the public outcry against these women, or outrage in the Oduah matter, sufficiently threatening to his administration, which contrasts with the treatment that Tukur received at his hands. This double standard approach, not to call it mentality, does not speak well of Jonathan’s sense of fairness, does it?

    While it may not be so obvious what charms the women possess that make it tough for Jonathan to treat them as expendable objects, there can be no doubt that there is more to their survival than meets the eye. Unlike the Tukur affair, Jonathan evidently does not feel any embarrassment in the company of the trio. The phrase “sacred cow” seems to find clear expression here.

    Jonathan’s gender politics, for that is what it looks like, has the appeal of ugliness; and it is possible to speculate about feelings in the corridors of power, where the circle must know that the overall boss would rather keep the strong women than the weak men, which may not necessarily be a matter of perception. These three sisters of good luck must be the envy of many.