Opportunity cost of Oduah’s armoured cars

Recently, the sensibilities and collective psyche of hapless Nigerians were, once again, traumatized by a nauseating revelation that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) spent N225 million to acquire two bullet-proof cars for Stella Oduah, the ‘honourable’ Minister of Aviation.

So far, no other reason has been given for this stupendous and breath-choking expenditure than that the minister’s life is under threat from those who are uncomfortable with the reform she is carrying out in the aviation sector.

This is not however, an isolated case because we have had similar or/and worse cases in the past but, it is pertinent to point out that sin against conscience can only be committed  in Nigeria where executive arrogance and insensitivity confound even the devil.

In looking at public servants and public expenditure in Nigeria, we are compelled to evoke Beta Mclay’s frustration in her classic Beyond Pardon which says that “there are many sorrows—the misery of poverty, the agony of long suffering, the anguish of death etc—but none of these is as heart-rending as the treachery of the one we love and cherish”.

Public servants are our people who we are supposed to love and cherish, but the way and manner they spend tax payers’ money make us sick and portray them as though they no longer have sense of moderation. Public funds, also called ‘government money, are so mindlessly spent that it appears such funds don’t have alternative uses.

Within government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), at all levels of governance, corruption and corrupt practices have deadened the sensibilities and rational thinking of everybody and anybody who have access to public money.

For us N225 million for just two cars to guard against phantom threat on the life of one individual can only make sense in the theatre of the absurd.

We are aware, just like many other Nigerians, of many teething challenges within the aviation sector in Nigeria arising from ‘lack’ of funds.  In a sector where skilled man-power is a major challenge, N225 million (about $1.36 million) would have done a great deal to turn its fortunes around for good.

At N6.67 million (about $41,000) per person, N225 million could have trained overseas about 33 pilots qualifying for Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) in 10 months.

Similarly, that amount of money could have done the perimeter fencing of the whole of Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMA) in Lagos just as it could also have replaced the conveyor belts, which are always faltering, at Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt airports.

Outside the aviation sector, that money could have fixed many federal roads which are in dilapidated conditions, saving the lives of many Nigerians who have lost their lives through motor accidents. It could also have helped in acquiring fire-tending machines at the airports.

It amounts to emphasizing the obvious that Nigeria is adrift, not because the country is not blessed with both human and natural resources, but simply because the leadership is not only inept, but also corrupt. Today it is Oduah, tomorrow it could be another minister and so the country continues in its journey to nowhere, wasting money on non-issues.

We are alarmed by these mindless spending of public money considering that there are so many alternative uses for such money. Going by the economist’s definition of opportunity cost as ‘foregone alternatives’, we painfully note that the opportunity cost of self-centred expenditure of public money are the deaths in our hospitals because there are no drugs; deaths on the highways because the roads are bad; social instability/insecurity because the youths are unemployed; moribund manufacturing sector because of decaying infrastructure, low GDP growth because there are no more new investments, among other costs.

In a country with 17 million housing units deficit, the wasteful spending of N225 million has cost the country the opportunity of reducing that deficit by about 45 low cost housing units at N5 million per unit.

We join the  sane voices of many Nigerians to call for the resignation of the minister and her cohorts who conceived, approved and implemented the absurd purchase of these needless bullet-proof cars.