Arik shocks Aviation minister

Arik gave Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, their famous bitter pill on March 9. Unaware he was on the flight, they rescheduled it at the 11th hour and messed up his appointments in Lagos.

What I find commendable in it all is the discipline to refrain from throwing his weight around to have his way like they all do.

One of the problems we have in Nigeria is that govt officials create a little heaven for themselves out of the hell that the rest of us have to endure. So the impetus to change things is not really there.

In rowdy departure halls with malfunctioning central ACs, they sit in cosy VIP lounges with split unit ACs. When others waste hours standing by an 'ogbanje' conveyor belt, they have their aides pick up their luggage directly from the aircraft.

When people sit in hellish traffic, their armed escorts blast a passage for them, flogging and pushing motorists off the road. When millions languish in poverty, they create bubbles of stupendous wealth around themselves and their families.

So, really, why would they want a change?

Oduah-gate: Scandal that won't go away

Stella Oduah

Weeks after the scandal was blown open, the N255m bullet-proof scandal rocking the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah has refused to go away.

It is not for want of trying. As a matter of fact, there is no doubt that this minister is one hell of a strong, connected Naija babe. She’tanda gidigba’ and has thrown virtually everything, including the kitchen sink, into the fray. But the scandal has simply rebounded every day.

She has foot soldiers to aggressively engage with everyone at all possible battle fronts: Street protest level, Facebook, Twitter, Chat forums, listservs; just name it. Intimidations, insult-hauling, ethnic cards, all are fair game to her apologists.

As a result of her efforts, this has become one of the most divisive battles that the civil society has fought in recent times. For instance, the FOI listserv wherein members are typically unanimous in agitation for justice in such cases is visibly polarised along ethnic lines.

People who have made name fighting official corruption are curiously firing emails to colleagues to take things easy with Madam Minister.

In spite of all, as of this morning, Oduah-gate is still the lead of The Punch. Kudos to all who have remained vociferous in insisting that this case is not brushed under the carpet.

And to Madam Minister and her apologists who can’t simply fathom why this case won’t go away in spite of their best efforts, there is a reason:

‘When your problem is bullet-proof, assassinating it is always extremely difficult.’

- Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

Hehehehe!

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It's not a fair world
Oduah-gate: More rot revealed

Oduah-gate: More rot revealed

Nigeria we hail thee!

According to Thisday this morning, Contract papers with Coscharis Motors listed the two armoured cars as costing N225 million on the Goods Received Note dated August 14. However, on NCAA’s side, the sum of N255 million was approved.  A whopping N30 million no get fixed address o!

It's not a fair world!

Princess Stella Oduah

It is not a fair world, people.

I recall today how a world class professor and renowned paediatrician was disgraced out of office as Health Minister in 2008 because her ministry shared unspent part of their 2007 budget as bonus.

The moment the news filtered out, the late President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered EFCC to arrest and investigate her.  She and her deputy were relieved of their posts three weeks later upon conclusion of investigations. All senior members of the ministry from the Perm. Sec down were suspended pending full investigation.

The minister was later arraigned in court like a common criminal, {over what?}. Imagine the shame. I personally felt for the woman who was described by some analysts as a victim of political naivety.

Fast forward to Oduah-gate. Another female minister is accused of corruption. For the first two weeks or so, President Jonathan Goodluck pretended not to know what was going on.

When the noise became deafening, he set up a committee to investigate, while the woman jets out to Israel to be by his side as he signs some docs. EFCC has not been disbanded o.  Of course, we realise that GEJ needs to allow EFCC to focus on chasing down and visiting cruel justice on corrupt landlords and tenants in every nook and cranny of Nigeria at this point in time!

And they say GEJ is not a joke!  

Fear of flying in Nigeria

The gentleman who sat by my side on an Arik flight from Abuja to Lagos  on Monday registered himself with me as a grouchy old man.

He would not respond to greetings. Even when I offered to help him reach up to the baggage hold to keep his suit holder (he is short), he just looked at me as if I was not there, and continued to struggle. I concluded he was a frustrated fellow and left him alone.

For the entire flight he looked like one fed up with life, even though he accepted the inflight snack and ate it with aplomb.

The moment our flight touched down, this same gentleman turned to me and shared a joke, smiling broadly. I had to look around to be sure I was the one he was talking to. I was.

I took another look at this man, and he was literally lit up with smiles all over. Then, it hit me. He had nothing against me. His grouchy behaviour of the previous 40 minutes was his own way of dealing with the terror of flying in a Nigerian commercial plane post Associated Airlines crash.

Leave nothing to chance

Trying his best to sound like airport announcers, the driver of the bus conveying passengers to the tarmac switched on the bus’s public address system and thundered a little too loudly: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the doors of this bus do not close properly (make that: do not close at all). So, please endeavour not to fall out when we move.’ (General laughter).
 

Some passengers wondered if it was by force that he must communicate. They argued that he was carrying adults and not school children who required to be told how not to fall off a moving bus.

 
My take is that the gentleman was being professional. He has probably worked long enough in the aviation sector to realize that you leave nothing to chance.

We can learn something from him, actually. Cover all possible angles and leave nothing to chance.

 

 

Sleepy woman's fails to disembark from plane at destination

 Some people can sleep, sha!

A Frenchwoman endured an 18-hour journey from the Pakistani city of Lahore to Paris and back again after sleeping through her plane's stop in the French capital, officials said on Wednesday.

 

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are investigating how ground crew failed to notice the woman during the plane's two-hour stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

 

The woman, named as Patrice Christine Ahmed, who is married to a Pakistani, left Lahore at noon on Tuesday to fly to Paris via Milan, but did not wake up to get off the plane, airline spokesman Sultan Hasan told AFP.

 

The woman did not mention her mistake to cabin crew and the matter only came to light when she was stopped by immigration officials on arrival back in Lahore on Wednesday morning -- after a 12,000-kilometre (7700-mile) round trip.

 

Hasan said PIA were investigating the incident and the French subcontractor responsible for passenger handling in Paris.

 

"We have put questions to this French firm also about the incident but it is also the responsibility of the passenger to disembark at the destination," he said.

 

"It is a passenger's responsibility to check about the destination and disembark when the plane arrives at the particular airport."

 

PIA later arranged to send the woman back to Paris with another airline because none of its own flights were available, but said that the party responsible for the negligence will pay for the extra ticket.

 

"It depends who is at fault. If it is a mistake by the local firm, they will pay and if the woman herself is responsible than she will have to bear the cost," Hasan said.

MTN offers aeroplane to customers!

A Cessna 182T                                      Credit: Access 

The front page of The Punch this morning is a wonder. MTN plastered more than half of the page with an advert inviting customers to win a brand new aeroplane.

They call it MTN Ultimate Wonder. They got that right because I still find it hard to believe.

Apart from the mega prize, N200 million cash is to be dispensed as well. There will be weekly Star Prize of N2million for 12 people, weekly prize of N150, 000 for 100 people and instant cash prize of N50, 000 if spotted with an MTN Ultimate Wonder Sticker.

To qualify, customers are requested to recharge with a minimum of N200 to be in line for the weekly draws to win N2m or N150, 000 weekly prizes. Total recharge of up to N3000 during the promo qualifies customers for a draw to win the mega prize of Cessna 182T physically or the cash value.

You have between today and 31^st October, 2012 to join the club of the Dangotes, Pastor Oyedepos and other jet-flyers. What are you waiting for?