Ugwuonye
By Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire
It is important to speak professionally on this matter for a number of reasons. There is really no case against Ms. Stella Oduah, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, in any real sense of the term. What there may be is a pent-up sense of frustration, which the average Nigerian bears toward governments and regimes that have failed them woefully. This sense of frustration and outrage bubbles up whenever there appears to be a target to whom the people could direct their anger.
Today, Ms. Oduah represents such target of opportunity. Not long ago, Speaker Bankole was such a target. So was the Chairman of a House Committee that was caught on video pocketing wads of dollars. Note that the type of evidence in these three examples is not identical and the storylines are not the same. In all these cases, there was a clear display of misdirected public anger that has been as illogical as it has been ineffective. Bankole’s case was thrown out by the court at the earliest opportunity for lacking basic evidentiary and prosecutorial merits. The Committee Chairman’s case will fare no better. And Ms. Oduah’s case will not even result in any charges. Why, because in all these cases, it is pure sentiment and no law.
Having made the above opening, there is something unique about the case of the Aviation Minister; several things actually. First, the story so far presents no clear case of violation of the law. An agency of government under the Aviation Department decided to spend 1.6 million dollars on secured logistics for the Minister, and ended financing (through a bank and a dealership) two armored BMW vehicles for about $800,000 a piece. Yes, you can question the idea of armored vehicle for government officials. But that is not a question that should be directed at the Director of the Agency or even the Minister herself. Rather, it is a question to be directed to the entire administration in which every person of any level of importance (except the truly important people like the Chief Justice of the Federation) has multiple armored vehicles. Every Governor in Nigeria has multiple armored vehicles. Every Minister, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House, the President and Deputy President of the Senate and other members of the legislature all have such cars. That question should be directed at them all, not just to this Minister.
Also, you may question the assessment of security threat that necessitated the purchase of these vehicles for this Minister. But again, you would not go far to agree that the security situation in the country is terrible. The family members of Ministers have been recently kidnapped and worse. The perception of insecurity is therefore not wrong. Indeed, if this Minister were to be kidnapped, the same Government would pay as much as two million dollars as ransom to the kidnappers for her to be released. However, the government as a whole, not this Minister, ought to be faulted for the security situation in the country. And there is no sense in making this Minister the sacrificial lamb of the security situation in the country. In other words, there is no need to expect her to be kidnapped or killed in order to prove that she is a good Minister.
Second, there has been a question of whether the price of the vehicles was inflated at $800,000 a piece. But nobody should attempt to answer that question without understanding the details of the financing package. If the vehicles were financed through a financial institution for 36 months at the interest rate of over 22% per annum with all the charges and fees that are known in the Nigerian banking industry, yes the total price for the vehicles would be double or more of the price if it was outright cash purchase. Indeed, the financial package reported here suggests a rather much lower price than if an ordinary person were to engage in the same type of transaction in Nigeria. The logical conclusion is that the vehicles were actually purchased at below their true market values.
A third question is why would the Government engage in such extended financing option that causes the Government to spend more money over time than it would in an outright cash purchase. The answer to this question would shock the average person and address a separate question that has been asked here. The reason the Agency embarked on such financing option is simply because there may not be $800,000 dollars in the budget for this year for those vehicles if they were to be bought in an outright cash sale. So instead of spending the $800,000 that is not in the budget for this year, they decided to spend a much lower amount on the vehicles this year with hope to have more money in the budget for it in the coming years. That makes sense and is perfectly logical. And this point addresses in important way the question of whether or not the vehicle was budgeted for. The deal makes the vehicles the collateral against the loan, and the bank could take them over or repossess them if the vehicles are not paid for. So, asking the members of the National Assembly whether the vehicles were budgeted for in this year’s budget is an idle and pointless question.
Even if there is indeed, no budget whatsoever for logistics in the present year’s budget for this Agency, the vehicles would be justified under the budget for security. And it is fair to say there would be quite a tangible amount for budget for security for an aviation agency and if there was none, it would be a dangerous oversight. Assuming there was an absolute failure of budget accommodation for these vehicles, the only problem would be that the aviation agency spent money outside budgetary allocation. But this is what every segment of the Nigerian Government does. There is no part of the Nigerian government that has been free of such problem. Indeed, recently, Nigerian Ambassador to Washington admitted that he spent 10 million dollars outside budgetary allocation and not even a question was asked by anybody, particularly the ringleaders of the lynch mob after Ms. Oduah.
The overall evidence: There is nothing there to indict the Minister at all. In fact, it seems that this was a purchase made by an agency in her Ministry and there is no evidence that she was the primary decision-maker or that she was involved in addressing the pricing details. The only thing there is in this case is a sensational tabloid report that missed all the important questions because it was directed at creating hysteria among a sensitive and restive population that rightly distrusts the government.
The expected reaction of the Nigerian Government over this matter: There is no doubt that Jonathan’s Government is weak and panicky and any such hysteria would cause it to shuffle around in confusion, and it may choose to take this non-issue too seriously. The Government should rather focus on improving the security situation in the country that makes officials like Ms. Oduah prime targets for kidnapping and assassinations and on reforming the financial sector that causes banks to charge over 22% of interest on such financing of vehicles. Also, the Government should seek to improve the economic situation in the country and alleviate poverty across the board, which is the sort of thing that makes a hungry man in the street mad at the mentioning of expensive vehicles for Government officials.
The ethnic dimension to this particular hysteria: From all indications, some people have come out to defend this Minister, and those people got accused of being ethnically biased in her favor. But the truth is that she Minister has been persecuted on ethnic basis. And once it is okay to target people for persecution on the basis of their ethnicity, it would be logically justified to defend them on the basis of ethnicity too. Such actions and reactions are equal and opposite. One necessitates the other.
Ms. Oduah is entitled to due process of the law. She has not been charged with violating any laws. Nobody has the right to call her a thief or a criminal. And those who seek to preempt the law and pressure her to resign are going to meet stiff resistance from several sources including my law firm, should she decide to engage my services. And if I am satisfied that she cannot pay for my services, I would represent her free of charge. Those who are eager to crucify her must wait for the law to take its course. Any attempt to place the cart before the horse here would be squarely resisted to the fullest extent of the law. Even though she might have infuriated everybody, including this author, by blaming the recent plane crash on God before any investigation could be completed, that is not a basis to unjustly accuse her of a crime in this matter.
Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire, is President, ECULAW GROUP.
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