28th October, 2013
The Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has again invited Ms. Stella Oduah, Minister of Aviation, to appear before it on Tuesday 29 October over the BMW car scandal rocking her ministry. She should no longer give excuses. She should honour the lawmakers’ invitation.
Oduah, who is with President Goodluck Jonathan in Israel, failed to attend the last public hearing on Thursday 24 October on the account that she had already left the country when the invitation got to her office.
She had left Nigeria two days earlier on Tuesday 22 October allegedly to sign the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, with the Jewish state. The agreement will allow direct flights between both countries and does not need to be signed personally by Oduah. We have since learned that BASA would be signed on 29 October, a week after Oduah left Nigeria last Tuesday morning.
The lawmakers said last Thursday that Oduah must unfailingly attend tomorrow’s session to provide answers to the myriad of questions being asked about the two BMW bullet-proof cars bought for her by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority at the outrageous sum N255 million.
We believe Oduah should leave Israel and return home to face the Nigerian people.
To have no regard for the House of Representatives, is disrespecting the constitution of Nigeria. According to the 1999 Constitution, the Nigerian House of Representatives has the power to summon anyone in Nigeria no matter how highly placed or how ordinary they are to provide answers to questions of national interest.
Israel is just hours away from Nigeria and Oduah cannot represent the interest of Nigeria in that country while she is under a financial investigation at home, and after she had been given a query by the President. Anyone in the ministry of aviation can sign BASA on behalf of Nigeria. Oduah does not need to be there. There are so many questions that need urgent answers.
For instance, why did Oduah approve the purchase of the two cars at that amount knowing they had not been budgeted for and were highly inflated? The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said last week that Oduah approved the purchase of the armoured cars.
The office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, which ought to be notified when bullet-proof cars are brought into Nigeria, was not informed. So where are the cars in question? Why were they not shown to journalists in Abuja when they demanded to see them after a recent press conference in the Ministry of Aviation? Or was the transaction only on paper to launder hundreds of million of naira while most Nigerian people remain stuck in squalor and hopelessness?
The Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, has clarified that no ministry in Nigeria can approve expenditure above N100 million. Why did Oduah approve expenditure above N250 million? The House of Representatives had last week explained that the car purchase had been deleted from the budget. Why did the NCAA then go ahead? Why did Oduah approve the purchase? Why did Oduah wait for Harold Demuren, ex-NCAA DG, who had kicked against the car purchase to be sacked before the approval was finally made under an acting Director General who had virtually no power?
There are many other questions that need to be answered by Oduah. That is how democracy works. Public office holders should be held to account and be punished if found culpable.