By Joseph Edeh
When President Buhari came into office, the anti-corruption fight was given a boost as one of the major policy thrusts of this administration that rode to power on the mantra of change. One year after, the successes and failures of the anti-graft campaign remain a subject of intellectual fireworks in the court of public opinion, especially as it regards whether the campaign is selective as being alleged in some quarters. Some pundits have already taken an extreme position that the anti-corruption fight of this regime is not only lopsided but is a political strategy deployed by the ruling party to decimate the opposition and silence every dissenting voice.
Worrisome, however, is the modus operandi being deployed by the anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in waging the difficult battle against corruption in a country that has been described as being “fantastically” corrupt. One of the alleged strategies being engaged by EFCC in prosecuting this battle is propaganda cum media trial of suspects.
Recently, some online publishers and newspapers broke the news that EFCC traced N2.5 billion to the bank account of a domestic aide of former Aviation Minister and serving senator representing Anambra North Senatorial zone, Senator Stella Oduah. The purported story emanated from EFCC because as at the time of writing this piece, EFCC is yet to deny or refute the propagandist story meant not only to tarnish hard-earned image of Senator (Princess) Oduah but to prepare ground for her unfortunate arrest and detention.
It is quite disturbing that since Senator Oduah left office as Aviation Minister, there has been this unwritten media conspiracy to portray her in bad light by those who felt that her unprecedented reforms in the aviation sector truncated their illicit source of livelihood. It can be stated without utter equivocation that no Aviation Minister before and after Princess Stella Oduah has achieved the kind of landmark transformational strides this Amazon recorded in a space of two and half years. The current befitting look of Nigeria’s airports was made possible by her remodelling policy when compared with what it was before her emergence as Aviation Minister.
With the hullaballoo and grandstanding cloaked as anti-corruption fight, EFCC is yet to invite Senator Oduah on any allegation of corruption since the commencement of the reinvigorated fight against corruption by the President Buhari-led administration. If EFCC truly traced N2.5 billion to Senator Oduah’s domestic aide’s account, does it need to run the story as headlines in some online platforms and newspapers as part of anti-graft fight? Why can’t it quietly invite the domestic aide and her principal to their office to state their own side of the story or possibly charge them to court if they are found wanting? Why this so much noise about a storm in a tea cup? Is this a propagandist war of mudslinging or anti-graft battle? Why has tracing N2.5 billon (if at all it is true) to someone’s aide’s account amounted to corruption if the source of the money is not questionable? EFCC should borrow a leaf from advanced agencies of the developed world like CIA, FBI, on how to fight crime cum corruption without making so much noise about it.
It is worthy to note that Senator Stella Oduah’s life did not start with being Aviation Minister. She had made her fortune in oil, gas and agricultural sectors before venturing into the murky waters of politics. Those who knew her personal worth cum wealthy family background before being appointed as Minister of Aviation always make mockery of he unsubstantiated corruption allegation thrown in her direction by those who do not like her face and ethnic origin. If Princess Oduah had come from other tribal regions different from where she was born, she would have won prestigious awards on excellent performance as Aviation Minister. The same media irredentists, who are celebrating all these fallacious conjectures in the media against her, would have been the very people singing her praises to high heavens. What an irony!
The cabal she uprooted and unravelled in order to reform the aviation industry are yet to let her enjoy tranquillity of life even after being blackmailed out of office using bullet proof cars allegation, purchased not for Senator (Princess) Oduah’s private use, but for the office of minister of aviation—which successive ministers of aviation would have inherited. These insufferable hypocrites, who labelled her “corrupt” for purchasing bullet proof cars for her official assignments, are the same crop of individuals celebrating other government officials today, who enjoy the same privilege, denied Princess Oduah as Aviation Minister.
One of the major reasons Senator Stella Oduah is being persecuted today irrespective of her trail-blazing reforms in the aviation sector, which remains unknown to political neophytes who are being swelled by the anti-corruption semantics cum media propaganda, is her resoluteness in giving South-East geo-political zone the only international airport in the zone, which is located at Enugu. Those who want to keep Igbos in the shackle of perpetual economic and political backwardness are yet to “forgive” Senator Oduah for daring to short-circuit the unwritten post-civil war agreement that Igbos would be denied access to outer world via non-availability of functional air and seaports of international standard in the marginalized region.
• Edeh writes from Abuja