For all of two weeks, Nigerians have been riveted by the disheartening revelation that Aviation Minister Stella Oduah approved the purchase of two bullet-proof BMW cars at the cost of $1.6 million. Once SaharaReporters broke the story, we were treated to a predictable game of fibs and obfuscations. First breath: an aviation official denied the report. Second breath: the minister’s spokesman admitted the purchase. He then defended it on the ground that the minister needed the cars to protect her from faceless threats to her life. Third breath: Yet another official said the cars were actually bought for the use of foreign aviation dignitaries on official visits to Nigeria. Fourth breath: Ms. Oduah, appearing last week before a committee of the House of Representatives, disavowed her spokesman’s account of events. If the varied accounts had any characteristic in common, it was this: each narrator seemed to speak before thinking. If there was a common impression, it was of a desperate bunch trying hard – but failing mightily – to defend a transaction that’s simply impossible to justify. If Ms. Oduah were an official in a country where ill-thought actions have chastening consequences, she would long have handed in her letter of resignation. Instead, she’s extremely lucky to be a Nigerian, a space where anything-goes is the going style. Nigerians can’t stand the small crook, won’t forgive the petty thief. If a wretched, starving fellow is spied picking somebody’s pocket for a hundred naira for a meal, you can count on any Nigerian mob to deliver a sentence of death. And that sentence is instantly executed, no appeals for mercy from the hapless thief entertained. But let a Nigerian public official – a governor, say – steal billions of naira of public funds, and the same mob becomes amazingly dovish. Some will rise to the thieving governor’s defense because he’s a “son/daughter of the soil,” a fellow “tribesman/woman.” Some will put much store by the fact that s/he worships in the same church or mosque. Some will declare that the Bible warns, let s/he who is without sin throw the first stone. Some will ask whether you expected a person who had sugar sprinkled on her/his tongue to spit it. Nigeria is a paradox. It metes out instant capital punishment on pickpockets. Yet, it is the perfect kingdom for the big, bold, audacious embezzler or squanderer. It’s a country where ethics is frequently asked to surrender to ethnicity, principle must cower before sectarian claims, and where institutions are made to shudder in the presence of personalities, the merest achievement of public officials is inflated beyond belief. It is, above all, a country where nothing is ever any body’s fault. In Nigeria, the buck never stops at anybody’s desk; like the Energizer bunny, the buck must keep on going.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 19:44:01 +0000