The renewed outcry arising after the latest air crash in Nigeria about the apparent lack of safe domestic aviation practices has barely died down before another type of outcry ensued. This time it is about the recent revelation of part of the corrupt practices going on in the aviation industry in particular and the entire Nigerian government at large. Initially the Nigerian government tried to play the victim by threatening to fish out the 'whistle blowers' but the increased public awareness of the implications of the scandal has perhaps made the President Jonathan administration to make a detour with the President appointing a three man committee to look into it and submit its findings in two weeks.
In the center of the storm is the aviation minister Mrs Stella Oduah who has been accused of approving a contract for the purchase of two armored vehicles for her office. The question on the lips of many is 'why on earth does the aviation minister need armored vehicles?' Is Nigeria in a war situation? To make matters worse, the cost of purchasing the vehicles at 255 million naira (about USD1.6m) has been discovered to be about ten times the actual cost! As if that was not enough, there are fresh indications that the whole transaction was not real and could have been staged to defraud the government of tax payers money. This is because there are no records of such vehicles in the government fleet nor was the mandatory authorization certificate to use such vehicles gotten from the office of the National Security Adviser.
True to type (as is always the case in this part of the world) neither the minister nor any official of the aviation ministry involved in the scandal has deemed it proper to resign. Instead the minister has been battling to save her job through intense lobbying and mobilization of some groups in a bid to influence the Presidency into forgiving her sins.
But the truth is that she is not alone in this, neither is corruption peculiar to the aviation ministry. There are many other government officials feeding fat on public funds without being caught. Corruption has remained Nigeria's greatest problem.
Now with an invitation from the House of Representative standing aviation committee to the minister and other major players in the scandal to appear before it on Tuesday, it is left to be seen if she like so many Nigerian government officials before her can pass through this unscathed.
In the center of the storm is the aviation minister Mrs Stella Oduah who has been accused of approving a contract for the purchase of two armored vehicles for her office. The question on the lips of many is 'why on earth does the aviation minister need armored vehicles?' Is Nigeria in a war situation? To make matters worse, the cost of purchasing the vehicles at 255 million naira (about USD1.6m) has been discovered to be about ten times the actual cost! As if that was not enough, there are fresh indications that the whole transaction was not real and could have been staged to defraud the government of tax payers money. This is because there are no records of such vehicles in the government fleet nor was the mandatory authorization certificate to use such vehicles gotten from the office of the National Security Adviser.
True to type (as is always the case in this part of the world) neither the minister nor any official of the aviation ministry involved in the scandal has deemed it proper to resign. Instead the minister has been battling to save her job through intense lobbying and mobilization of some groups in a bid to influence the Presidency into forgiving her sins.
But the truth is that she is not alone in this, neither is corruption peculiar to the aviation ministry. There are many other government officials feeding fat on public funds without being caught. Corruption has remained Nigeria's greatest problem.
Now with an invitation from the House of Representative standing aviation committee to the minister and other major players in the scandal to appear before it on Tuesday, it is left to be seen if she like so many Nigerian government officials before her can pass through this unscathed.
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