Okorocha and presidential jet
SIR: When President John Kennedy, the Charismatic American leader, appointed his brother Attorney-General of the United States of America, it raised a furore reminiscent of the uproar which some people who lost out in the recent auction of Presidential Gulf Stream Jet are making against Owelle Rochas Okorocha who is said to have an interest in the company that eventually won the bid. President Kennedy had argued then that his brother was competent to hold the post and being a Kennedy should not constitute a liability to him. It would appear that the criticism stemmed more out of envy of a political successful family than any other thing. His other brother Ted Kennedy was then a member of Congress.
Like Okorocha's case, one of the arguments of the critics is that since he is in this government, his company should not have bided. This reasoning is faulty. The mere fact that a person is serving a government, in this case an adviser on intra-party affairs, does not mean that his business concerns should suffer especially in this circumstance when all that the company did was to make a purchase of an item that was on sale from an agency not in anyway under his control or supervision.
The second argument is that Okorocha intimidated the auctioneers. This is an interesting point because the person whose company was defeated is a senator. If a senator admits that he is not influential enough then that is too bad because often we the ordinary mortal are reminded that "once a senator always a senator". In other words, senators are superior beings before whom all of us are to tremble for the rest of their lives. In this case it is only regrettable that we have a senator who admits that he is not influential enough. After all, the senator is to the legislative arm of government as what Okorocha is to the executive arm.
These controversies are unnecessary and have dragged the process of privatisation back for several years even during the era of Nasir el-Rufai at the Bureau of Public Enterprises. We have to accept that in every bid, one person has to win. As far as the process is fair and transparent, we should not conjure theories that are far-fetched or allow our imagination to run wide.
Finally, dragging the President into the matter is really an over-kill. The auction group is independent and credible. Besides it would appear that at every point, people who are bent on tarnishing the image of Okorocha for political gains are always at work causing storms in teacups. Okorocha is a rising and shinning star in the political firmament of Nigeria and we should let him be.
Aham Njoku,
Lagos
