Whose convoy killed two in Lagos?

 

Gov. Fashola, Lagos

Another convoy wasted the lives of two citizens in Lagos yesterday, according to the Punch. Eye witness reports indicated that it was a government convoy returning from visiting a patient in a private hospital.

One of the escort police vehicles was said to bear an Ogun State number plate. But the governments of Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State have said no high profile official visited that location at that time.

In my personal experience, Governor Fashola’s convoy does not drive menacingly and does not even use a siren. You only know it’s him from the state insignia. It would be really out of character for him to be involved in a thing like this.

I was once at an event where he was being awaited and his convoy came in without us noticing. At that same event, rain started pouring and he sprinted inside the rain to commission the project he was there for. Other dignitaries who were initially reluctant to enter the rain sprinted after him and were all wet like the rest of us.

This picture of him is incongruous  with a menacing convoy that killed two people and didn’t bother to wait.

Of course, people change.  But what is needed is a thorough investigation. The question is who will do the investigation.

The news reporters can help by visiting the hospital the convoy was returning from before the accident. If they make discreet investigations there, they can establish who the govt official was.

In the meantime, we await a serious-minded president who will outlaw the use of sirens by government officials nationwide forever and enforce it.

Another tale of two female ministers

Victoria Hammah

Victoria Hammah, Deputy Minister of Communications in Ghana has been fired by her boss for allegedly planning to make one million dollar from politics.

Her girly conversation over the phone inside the comfort of her car was allegedly taped by her driver last Thursday. He put it online and it went viral. The presidency got wind of it today and sent her packing in a one-paragraph release.

Over here a female minister has openly confessed to approving a transaction well over her powers and against budgetary allocation, among other infractions and she is still sitting pretty, all because we have a clueless, dithering president.

To Victoria Hammah, sorry babe. You were serving the wrong boss. You should have been in GEJ’s cabinet.

Beware of uniformed hustlers at Berger

If you drive through Ojodu Berger Bus Stop on the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, take special precaution not to pick up or drop people on either side of the bus stop.

If you must, go further away from the bus stop and ‘shine your eyes’ very well.

LASTMA officials and policemen have of late turned the bus stop to ‘work-chop’. Remember the year is drawing to a close. People are getting desperate for money for the Yuletide. 

Actually, there are ‘No Parking’ signs on either side of the road, but if you reason that they are only meant for commercial drivers who park indiscriminately and not private car owners who drop off people in seconds and zoom off, you will be making a mistake.

They will pounce on you and quote Lagos State Traffic law that specifies a fine of N35, 000 for such an offence.  It will then be up to you to offer something impressive enough as a bribe for them to let you run along to meet your appointments.  

A police van blocked me yesterday as I tried to pick my wife. The waiting could not have been up to a second, because she had not even opened the door when they came from their hiding.

One of the boys rudely told me I had committed a traffic obstruction offence by picking someone at Berger. I was to follow them to their office somewhere to pay my fine. At his command, one of them got into my car and was piloting me to the location.

I got off by demanding to see their most senior officer, to whom I introduced myself and explained that I did not park, but was to pick my wife for less than a minute.

He sent me off with a warning in espirit de corp. (I spent some of my early years in journalism on the police/judicial beat.)

 

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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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!

Driving licence and the fight against corruption

Osita Chidoka, Corps Marshal, FRSC

It’s over a year this month since I applied to renew my driving licence at FRSC, Ojodu.

As usual when I got there earlier this month, I was given another extension of my temporary driving permit. I was asked to go home and wait for a summon to come for image capture.  It was probably the fifth extension, and I’m sure, there are many more to go before I get that licence.

The subtle message is clear to me:  Bribe an official and and cut out all this endless stress of taking time off work, driving all the way to FRSC Ojodu, wasting more precious time looking for where to park your car, wasting even more time sitting in a crowded canopy and enduring indignities from uncouth civil servants, and having to go back empty-handed at the end of it all.  I’m just intentionally ignoring the message. I don’t know for how long I will be able to ignore the message, though.

There is some form of order in the process these days, compared to what used to be. There is a clear procedure now. Nobody bothers to explain it to you, but in my experience, it moves along smoothly enough, until after all the tests and it remains image capture, the final hurdle.

The officials haven’t changed much though. The elderly, irreverent and uncouth civil servant types are still aplenty, such as the dreaded sharp-tongued woman in Room 5. She is something of an insult goddess, worshipped by her own colleagues and feared by applicants. She treats applicants with the contempt usually reserved for kitchen pests.

Those who want to avoid these indignities would prefer to induce an official to fast-track the process.

If Nigeria is serious about cutting official corruption, it is not hard to figure out what needs to be done.  Look into the processes and make them work. Fish out those who deliberately prevent the processes from working in order to extort the public.

If an application is made, there should be a maximum number of days that application should stay on any official’s table before it is moved along. One year for a licence renewal is unacceptable!

The idea of death penalty for corrupt public official in my humble opinion is silly. How much seriousness have we applied to implementing existing law? If you have not effectively utilized what is existing, how can you complain it is ineffective? Is it when you cannot muster the courage and necessary sincerity to commit a thieving governor to jail that you will now find the courage to kill him? I get pissed off with this tendency for Nigerians to grand-stand and romance highfallutin ideas, when we lack the basic honesty to implement simple, practical measures to achieve the desired results.

Get a leader that is sincere to wipe out corruption in this country today and without changing a thing in our laws will cut official corruption by more than half overnight.

It is not rocket science. Neither is it brain surgery. Nobody wants to go to jail. But people will steal public money when they know they can pull a few strings to avoid going to jail. There only needs to be a leader with a strong determination and the COURAGE to stop that and there will be a positive change.