The near-disastrous crash-landing of a plane carrying the minister of power and 11 others in Ibadan recently is reminiscent of excesses of public officeholders and how not to lead a hurting people by example.
While the entire country and the extremely lucky survivors should be grateful for the tragedy averted, the undercurrent prodigal spending of State resources on vanity under the guise of public service is condemnable. Strict fidelity to core demands of fixing a broken country and within a frugal budget that the current reality can afford are minimum requirements expected of the current office holders.
Heartily, we congratulate the country, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, and his retinue of aides and friends onboard the Hawker800 aircraft that missed the Runway Approach and skidded into the bush. It was a narrow escape for which there are not too many survivors of such incidents globally. The survivors are lucky that there was no fire incident on impact, unlike the 2005 Sosoliso airplane that missed the runway in Port Harcourt, on the roll impacted a concrete, caught fire, and killed 108 passengers onboard. Thankfully, the Ibadan incident only slightly dented the lofty safety records of the local aviation industry, which both the commercial operators and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority are nursing daily.
But besides the thanksgiving services in mosques and churches, the circumstance of the flight is more confounding – as it falls far below the dignity of a public officer, how much more so a serving minister. First, the aircraft in question is officially registered as a non-commercial private operator, and therefore on an illegal and criminal cruise to have flown Adelabu and Co. for hire and reward. Such illegality, which is all too frequent among the rich and public officers, contravenes the Nigeria Civil Aviation Act and robs the government and aviation agencies of statutory taxes and charges, and insurance cover for victims in cases like this. How a serving minister could have been so complicit against the laws he swore to uphold and against the progress of his country beats one’s imagination. In more serious countries, Adelabu should have been shown the exit door for conspiring against the law, opposing the fiscal interest of the State, and as someone whose fidelity to the law is suspect.
Secondly, the said aircraft flew into the Samuel Ladoke Akintola Airport, Ibadan, which is from the record, a sunset airport – that is, only at its optimum between sunrise (7 a.m.) and sunset (5 – 5:30 p.m.). Reports have it that the navigational operation was extended beyond the 5 p.m. closing hour to accommodate Adelabu and co. who arrived at past 7 p.m. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the service extension, the pretentious urgency in the charade sticks up like a sore thumb.
Adelabu recently defended that the fateful flight was done in the national interest. By that he meant, having “an appointment to visit the soon-to-be-commissioned 2 X 60MVA, 132/33KVA transmission Station in Ogbomoso, Oyo State on Saturday morning and to also join the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to commission the Oyingbo overpass of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) route on Sunday. “Recall that we had a ministerial retreat with Mr. President till late Friday evening. However, due to the prior appointment in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, I had to personally pay for a private jet to convey us to Ibadan from the Villa, where the retreat was held in order to meet the Saturday and Sunday appointments.”
On the contrary, neither of these “services to the nation” is as urgent to warrant circumventing the law and risking it all as the minister has done. If anything, a busy Minister of Power should have no business attending the opening of a road infrastructure that has no connection with an erratic power supply. A committed public servant with a clear understanding of the enormity of the task at the power ministry and its seemingly intractable supply challenges would sit down to draw a workable Marshall Plan of action to wriggle out of the power privatisation mess and corruption, redundancy at the Distribution Companies despite their takeover by the Federal Government, lack of new investors, multiple collapses of the national grid and a country in a perpetual blackout. A clear-headed minister, if not another journeyman, should by now have a work plan and timelines for these challenges instead of junketing about town in the name of exigencies of duty.
And it is such misplaced priority, hypocrisy, and squandermania that have enveloped the political class in this part of the world. They are all too busy with self-preserving political agenda than public service. It is all about the next political job, to become the senator, governor of their state, and all sorts. And for hubris, there is no limit to public resources that cannot be plowed into the jamboree.
Just last weekend, the Lagos State government was uncovered to have enlisted N400 million worth of charter services within a quarter. A la Adelabu, perhaps Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu would also claim to have paid that sum from his pocket. This is a direct anti-thesis of the endemic poverty and destitution ravaging the Nigerian people, for which the profligate Bola Tinubu-led administration hypocritically keeps calling for endurance and sacrifice in the face of harsh economic realities. Lest they forget, public-spirited leadership is all about true sacrifice, fellow-feeling, problem-solving and empathetic morality – that is, the ability to mentally occupy the world of others, to experience their pains. Not one of the current crops of politicians, including Mr. President, has shown such character traits – if they have them.
The system too should stop indulging profligate spending and disdainful irreverence for probity, law, and order among the ruling class. That such executive rascality has crept and festered in aviation – in the case of Adelabu – should have only the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to blame for the negligence of duty. As a people, our show of excessive respect for public office holders is to our national peril. As tin gods in ordained roles, created by warp class mentality, governors, ministers, and senators already have a sense of entitlement to everything imperial – even when the State is borrowing to feed their vanities. But except in emergencies, there is no reason governors or ministers should not plan their itineraries in advance and fly commercial airlines to their destinations. In truth, they are just ordinary citizens in privileged positions – and they should be treated accordingly. Anyone who wants more should earn it.
The Guardian
