Vultures are birds of prey but unlike other birds in that family, especially the eagle, they prey on carcass. They are at their best in sordid environments where decent animals detest.
They cannot stand healthy competitions in healthy environments. They are lazy and do not have the liver to fight with their prey, so, they wait until the prey is dead cold and rotten before they begin to feed on it. Sometimes, they rely on stronger animals to kill the prey and leave it behind for them to prey upon.
In the same way, there are Nigerian “businessmen”, who are vultures in every sense. They are lazy and will, therefore, never engage in any transparent and competitive business. Their claim to any form of business acumen is limited to how to use their connections or god-fathers in government to feed fat on government agencies, especially those they consider economically viable. With the connivance of such unpatriotic and shameless “big men”, they concoct unimaginable concession agreements that surreptitiously siphon the resources of these agencies into their private bank accounts.
Their definition of injustice is the reversal by any right thinking government, of this aberration of using tax payers’ money to justify the future of their unborn generations.
This reality is commonplace in Nigeria and several well meaning Nigerians have written to suggest that such unpatriotic Nigerians , no matter how highly placed, should be exposed and jailed for stealing the common wealth of all Nigerians. It is therefore shocking that any right thinking can suggest that it is wrong for the Federal Government to put a stop to this ugly trend in our society – a phenomenon that has led to the demise or impoverishment of otherwise healthy government establishments.
One case that easily comes to mind, in this regard, is the controversial concession agreement between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and Bi-Courtney Nigeria Limited for managing the Murtala Mohammed Airport Domestic Terminal I, popularly called MMAII. One obviously jaundiced feature that appeared in an online publication recently, written by one Kayode Adewunmi, is a good case in point. Such pseudo writers and their sponsors deserve pity because they still live in the dark ages when Nigerian readers were less discerning and could be bowled over by such cheap blackmail.
There are pertinent questions that such uninformed writers need to answer on the MMAII concession between Bi-Courtney and FAAN, if they, and their fellow vultures, could be taken seriously. First, how many years did the Federal Government, under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, approve for the concession – 12 years or 36 years?
Can Bi-Courtney present any document to the public, either in the press or at a public hearing by the National Assembly, substantiating its claim to 36 years of concession?
Secondly, did the initial agreement between FAAN and Bi-Courtney specify that the multi-storey car park be located where the five star hotel is presently located? And did the agreement mention anything about Bi-Courtney constructing a five star hotel as part of the concession?
At what point was the conference centre being constructed by Bi-Courtney smuggled into the concession agreement and with whose approval? Was it justifiable that MMA School was disposed of its land, meant for the expansion of the school, to serve the acquisitive tendencies of Bi-Courtney?
Can Bi-Courtney prove to all Nigerians, if it is true that it is being unfairly treated by the Federal Government, that the GAT was part of the agreement between it and FAAN? I believe that Nigerians will sympathize with the company and support its supposed good cause, if it is able to show such evidence.
Was Bi-Courtney given a ceiling of expenditure on the concession? If so, who gave it the approval to spend the 36 billion naira it has claimed to have spent on the terminal?
Does it make economic or even, commonsense, for any agreement, except those drafted by mentally deranged people, to give a private company, in competition with similar organizations in the same business, the monopoly of airport development in a place as big and economically vibrant as Lagos for 36 years. This is especially so, if we consider that Lagos State is bigger in size than most countries of the world.
Is it the present Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, who is responsible for Bi-Courtney’s non-performance with the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway concessioned for over six years? Have some governors in the South-West not approached President Goodluck Jonathan to cancel that shady concession on a road that has claimed many innocent lives, due to motor accidents because of its extremely poor state?
Anybody who has visited any of our airports undergoing remodelling in Lagos, Benin, Port-Harcourt and Kano, to mention but a few cannot but hail the Federal Government for breathing life into dying airport infrastructure across the land. A visit to the GAT in Lagos will convince any pessimist that this government truly means business with its transformation agenda in the aviation industry.
I dare say that any person condemning this government for its efforts at stamping out the corruption in the aviation industry, especially by cancelling evil concessions designed to kill government agencies, is not only myopic but also qualifies to be grouped among the army of vultures fighting frantically to frustrate the ongoing transformation, designed to resuscitate a dying industry.
The game is over for them, for the vultures. I advise them to look elsewhere for their nefarious past-time because I sense that the Minister in charge of that industry today is someone I believe, can call their bluff.
Bayo Shittu is a public affairs commentator who resides in Lagos.
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