A former aviation minister and now Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Mrs. Stella Oduah, in this interview with an online news portal, Naij.com, opens up on the truth behind the alleged N255 million BMW scandal, her involvement in the campaigns that brought former President Goodluck Jonathan to power, her passion for humanity, among others. NDUBUISI UGAH reproduces excerpts of the interview.
What will you say has been your motivation over the years given the fact that politics is not a female dominated area? And how have you been able to encourage other women to get involved in politics as well?
You have to be in my shoes as well as those of other women to come in close contact with rural communities and see the abject poverty, underdevelopment, the horrible state of unemployment. When you see all that and you have passion for people, nobody will tell you that you need to get involved for you to have a platform to make a difference.
For me, that has been the driving force. How can I make a difference? How can I help? That is why I am doing what I am doing. On why I mentor women, there are various vanguards and NGOs. When you talk to young women and you wonder what they want to be when they grow up? In a state where you have this glass cylinder that has refused to disappear, the chances of them doing well and thinking well of themselves appear very slim.
And for me, that’s totally unacceptable. So how do we mentor them to say, ‘if you want to become somebody’s wife, there is nothing wrong with it but what is important is that you are a human being and you have the right to aspire, you should aspire and to be something better than your mother.’
Not just that, I think having a vision about themselves and seeing themselves becoming professionals in their own rights for me would be a dream come true.And so these vanguards are platforms to do all that, from counselling them and generally underlining the fact that being a female should not be an impediment to you goal for life; you must aspire to be better.
Is politics something you always had zeal for from childhood?
I never wanted to go into politics. I have always wanted to help. When I started business, that was a platform for me to help. Being able to employ people and give them opportunity to excel, I did that very well. I’ve gotten to the peak of it. But it wasn’t just enough; there has to be something much better, a much better platform that would have a robust coverage, hence politics for me. It’s a beginning and I think it would be better as we move on but things have to be priotised, otherwise it is not worth it.
You have said that there was a change in the aviation ministry while you were the minister. Can you tell us some of your achievements as aviation minister?
First of all, aviation ministry is a very complex ministry. It is a combination of social, economic and technical areas, therefore for one to do well in aviation, one must have skill in all these aspect. But what is most important is, one must have the passion to change. When I went to aviation, it was in a horrible state of decay.
It is unfortunate that we have some sense of amnesia in Nigeria, otherwise if you take an average airport and how it used to be, like the Abuja airport, we used to have horrifying experiences. I couldn’t use the toilet when I get to the airport and some of the doors, you have to literally bend your head. The local airports in Lagos was a horrible sight too.
It was the same story all over. So what we did was to have a holistic view of the state of these airports but it was not just the airports because there are several things that go on behind the airports, the runway lights, raiders, etc. And so we tried to holistically have a review of that and provide holistic solutions that would ensure that we have safety airspace, that we have terminals that truly represent us.
If I come to your house and your living room is in a very dirty state, it tells me who you are before I even get a chance to talk to you. And when you come into Nigeria, the first place you will see is our airports. So it is very important. As much as comfort and safety are crucial, the aesthetics is equally important and so we cleaned that up. We did the renovation.
Money that was meant for four airports, we spread it to do sixteen airports. Not only that, we prioritised training because you can have that beautiful atmosphere but when you do not have capable hands to run them, it would go back to a worst state. And we ensured that we imbibed maintenance culture.
I have left for almost three years so I do not know the situation now. What we did was in a way suicidal, very hands-on, very tasking, I lost my privacy, I was literally working 24 hours to ensure that we did all that. For me, my conscience is clear, I feel happy that I was able to contribute. I am also happy that the evidence is clear except for those who decide to go blind. Given the funds we had, we justifiably did the best for the ministry.
Just when most Nigerians thought you would take a break from politics considering how you left as minister on the grounds of the alleged N255 million BMW scandal, you picked your senatorial ticket. What motivated you to do that?
My motive hasn’t changed. It remains constant and the drive is consistent and that is “how can I help? How can I showcase to the people that gender is an accident of birth?” How can I be relevant to my people? How can I showcase to the young ones that gender, birth have absolutely nothing to do with your capacity? So when one door closed and God in his infinite mercy opened a window, I took the opportunity and my people were anxious for me to continue helping them. And so I took it and I intend to do that with confidence.
Do you intend taking your political career to a higher level in the nearest future?
I don’t know, I think only God will decide that. But again, my passion remains consistent and that is how I can be useful to my people? How can I encourage the young ones, especially females that the sky is their limit if only they believe in themselves and God?
You were an active force in the Neighbour- to-Neighbour campaign for former President Goodluck Jonathan. Would you say that contributed to the support you enjoyed from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while running for your senatorial seat?
The PDP is my party, and clearly as a party they would give you support. The support they gave to me, they gave to all candidates. They didn’t go out of their way for me, but yes I was their candidate. For Neighbour-to-Neighbour is and was at that time the best grassroots support platform. I am yet to see any platform that would beat Neighbour-to-Neighbour because they did very well.
I founded Neighbour-to- Neighbour but on one purpose which had to do with the neglect of the grassroots and rural communities. It was about how do we tell them that it is their lives, they have been neglected over the years, and they should stand up to say who they want and who they do not want and it worked. For the first time, we had access to the average man and woman and we were able to talk to them one-onone and got their full details. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it and am happy we did it.
What constituency projects are we expecting from you?
My focus is community/rural development. I believe that unless we have a bottomup approach to our development, we will never have a sustainable economic growth. Rural areas must have independent, integrated economy that would integrate with the federal economy.
I think industrialisation needs to go back to our rural communities because that is where the raw materials are. When that happens, we are going to have clusters of industrialisation coming out there, urban migration would seize, employment would be created, but most importantly these rural dwellers would have access to international markets. And so when you grow tomatoes in Kano, when you grow yam in my village, you can find them in markets even in London. You can go to Tesco and find our teas, pepper, tomapep.
We must go back to our rural communities. We must integrate and industrialise them. If only we can do that, then you will see development coming to those places. Right now there are no basic amenities like healthcare centres; the roads are occupied by rats and rabbits and all that. So we must have a rethink and prioritise rural development, we must mainstream them. Our youths are idle; women are the chiefeconomists in these rural areas, so we must mainstream and develop them.
That would be my focus. And it would give me joy to see that rural communities have basic amenities, industries where people would work. If you go abroad, you won’t see industries on the streets of London or New York. You would see them in suburbs and rural communities. That is where they ought to be. You grow them, they come up and blossoms. That is my passion.
Have you started doing anything in your constituency since you became a senator?
Yes! We have started clusters of farming communities, so we can now bring the processing part of it which is secondary. For instance, if a particular community is good at planting corn, tomatoes or pepper, we ensure micro support to such communities, so they can do more and guarantee buying those crops from them.
Second, is to bring the processing plant that would be situated there to mop up all the tomatoes, pepper and can them. In doing so, we would have value chain of opportunities like those who will do the farming, the packaging, the cleaning and the industry work which is where the employment part of it comes into play. While that is happening, banks will come because they know there is an economy above the merge, roads will get involved because we need road access to such communities and so many others. All these will be to the benefit of the rural dwellers.
Recently, Port Harcourt International airport was named one of the worst airports in Nigeria. What is the effort of you committee to do an over-sight on that?
It is horrible but it is far better than what is used to be. Also, I think there is something people are not seeing. Port Harcourt airport has a new international terminal that the Chinese are building. It’s suppose to be a 45,000 passenger processing terminal. It would be completed in December next year but that is a long time.
The short-term solution was to use the little funds available to do one wing, then due to lack of funds, the second wing was affected. When we spoke to the ministry the last time that is being prioritised. So I believe in a couple of months, they should be able to get it done and make it more useful. But it can’t be the worst airport in the world.
Clearly, Port Harcourt is bad because the passenger rate is high and the airport is just way too small to accommodate all those people. We need patience because the decay has been there for a very long time. It needs resources, manpower, but most important, is encouragement because these guys are really working hard but all you hear is the negative part.
I remember when we were there, we won an award for the best aviation industry, ACAU gave it to us and ACAU passed Port Harcourt which means it is okay for them to have passed. And if I also look at what is in the works, then we need be the patient with them knowing that they will get better.
You have a foundation (Princess Stella Oduah Foundation) which is supposed to be responsible for payment of bursaries to students majoring in ICT, agriculture and engineering, disbursements of loans and all that. What has been your drive? Have you been able to achieve most of these things?
Well, foundation has no destination just as charity has no destination. It is ongoing. You keep on helping as much as you can and keep in focus the main objective which is a developmental NGO that focuses on helping the youths, making sure their unique skill is enhanced.
For instance, people from my constituency are mainly farmers so how do you take the traditional farming and bring it into entrepreneurial farming and expose it to the younger generations that because they are a farmer doesn’t mean that you would remain poor or you won’t amount to anything in life. Most wealthy people in the US today are actually farmers. So we can create that but first they must have the skill, implements to work and they must understand the global market as it is. In doing so, you have given them the tools to survive and make a living.
That is what we want to accomplish and we are doing very well because they have done over 200 plots this year. It started as what we call Jolife. Jolife was the concept of abstaining from excess to help your neighbour. So if you are a beer drinker and you are buying beer for N100, if you can abstain from that beer and save that N100, you would be amazed what you would save.
And that worked so well and later metamorphosed into this foundation that is far much wider and can accommodate much. We are also doing talent hunt for those who have untapped skills. In my place we have the singer, Flavour, so we are hoping that there would be many more Flavours and things like that. So essentially, it’s developmental and also give confidence to the young ones that they can actually make it.
You raised a motion two weeks ago concerning flood which got you a lot of support from your colleagues. Has anything been done in that regard?
Well, I am particularly following that up because every year we have flood and so it should not come as a shock to us anymore. Prior to that, we have the forecast which tells us the damage that would be done. So except we are deaf, daft and dumb we should know that these things would come. Just like a pregnant woman, and the pretends not to know she is going to have a baby after nine months.The essence is to seek preventive measures to avert the damages that flood cause to our communities and one way of doing this is having a dam. And also look for a much better way of communicating this information to the rural communities so they know what to do to help government in preventing this flood and the damages that it has done.
After the Dana air crash, you came out publicly to say that the crash was an act of God, and there was a lot of controversy around that. What is your take on this?
I think I was taken out of contest to start with. The guy asked “what do I think about death and accident?” And I said that as a Christian, God determines what happens in our lives. But also he asked me a question which for reasons best known to him should not be added, he asked “what have we done to ensure accidents do not happen as frequent as possible?”
And I gave him all the preventive measures that the ministry has taken including equipment, penalties, including the fact that the pilots have very strict rules and regulations that have been put in place and even the maintenance, with the help of experts in the field. But those were not interesting to him but the fact that I said “accidents were an act of God.” So he took me out of context.
There was a publication on an online newspaper about a fake doctorate degree. What is your reaction to that?
I couldn’t react because I found it mean and unfounded. At a point, I began to doubt myself that maybe there is something about me that I do not know or maybe Sahara knows more than I do or they attended schools with me? So I called the guy that did my documentation to go through my file to check if I did something wrong.
He asked why and I told him to check up Sahara and see if my documents are forged. So the guy called me back and laughed and said “oh is it Sahara?” I said yes, because the stories are just getting too much. So when I was got the satisfaction that it could not have been me that they were talking about, I made up my mind not to allow anyone define me. It’s either you accept it or not. So, that story was absolutely untrue. In all these they didn’t ask me; so I can be quoted, so it’s not true. And I know the next question would be about the BMW cars.
How badly did the BMW scandal affect you?
The BMW episode was the worst period of my life because it went completely haywire with absolutely no truth attached to it. But I guess it was for a reason and I learnt quite a lot from it. When I came into aviation as a minister, I promised myself that I’d rather let my work speak for me.
I wasn’t going to spend my time talking to media, and advertising what we were doing, but I’d rather dedicate that time to work so people can come and say “oh, how and why did they do this?” But I guess we are in a society where that is not the way to go because you have to advertise what you are doing. I still have no apologies for doing what I did.
What is the real truth behind the N255 million BMW scandal…
We did not buy BMW to start with. BMW was a lease vehicle to the parastatal, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). NCAA had to do so because their expatriates were supposed to in Nigeria at the peak of Boko Haram terrorism and they literally refused to come to Abuja unless they had a bullet-proof car and security vehicle with them.
We went to several car dealers to lease it. It didn’t make sense to me that we were going to have short-term leasing for this so the director-general wrote a proposal that they do not have the money nut on their budget, they had operational security vehicle. I don’t know the difference between bullet-proof and operational security.
It means a vehicle that is secured so when you are going to any of those states, you can have some sense of security. He came to me as a minister, I approved it that he should go ahead and lease. They went to First Bank and they leased it to them and as we speak, except they had concluded the purchase, the vehicles still don’t belong to the ministry, could not have been mine and not mine.
If you go out, you will see my BMW, I didn’t need to have two BMW. Why would anyone do that in the same city? It doesn’t make sense. That was the truth the for any minister who knows that their position was transitional, if you are lucky, you will be there for four years. The day you leave, you won’t take the vehicle with you because it’s not yours; it belongs to the ministry. Dignitaries and operation people pay to use my car when dignitaries come into the country.