Stella
Oduah-Ogiemwonyi, Nigeria’s aviation minister
The
news that the NCAA purchased two armored cars at a whopping sum of N255
million naira is utterly depressing. It shows that people who occupy
political offices in Nigeria place their own security over and above the
security of the people.
First,
they do not see that their reckless spending is fueling the insecurity in the
country by worsening the poverty condition of the people. It is precisely as
a result of the kind of indefensible expenditure made by the NCAA that many
young Nigerians have taken to crimes as there are no jobs for them elsewhere.
Second,
when public officials fortify themselves as in the case of the minister of
aviation, they lack incentives to make them take public security seriously.
The purchase of the vehicles and the acceptance of the vehicles is so
egregious that now that the scandal has broken, even the minister herself
must condemn it, apologize to the people and resign immediately. Nothing
short of this is acceptable.
The troubling truth is that the NCAA action is not an isolated one. The
culture of senseless spending is pervasive in the government. We may need a
commission to unearth other silly and reckless expenditures. This is why it
is arrant nonsense for the DG of NCAA to be threatening whoever leaked the
information about the irresponsible use of our resources to protect a clearly
incompetent minister.
Even
if the minister had been competent, the misuse of public funds to buy her
armored vehicles would still have been indefensible. Whoever leaked the
information should be given the higher national award possible, for I know of
no better act of patriotism this year than the leak.
Wish
the fellow could demonstrate some more courage and own up so we can compel
the government to give him or her GCFR. The DG of NCAA by his incoherent and
incomprehensible rantings show that he does not deserve to stay a day longer
in that office. He should be thrown out.
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