By Josef Omorotionmwan
Our system has become so warped that some of the things that bring happiness elsewhere only succeed in producing the opposite effect in Nigeria. This is where corruption has landed us.

The world is today celebrating a major feat achieved by a Nigerian, Adebayo Ogunlesi, 56, who has just acquired the London Gatwick Airport for £1.455 billion (about N366.66 billion).

As we join in the celebration, this column feels impelled to bring you a short history of this young achiever. Ogunlesi attended Kings College, Lagos. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association, USA.  He was a lecturer at Harvard and Yale Law Schools.

Ogunlesi, whose father is on record as the first Nigerian-born medical professor, studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University before proceeding to Harvard where he earned degrees in law and business. Ogunlesi is the Chairman and Managing Partner, Global Infrastructure Partners, GIP, an independent investment firm based in New York City where he has lived for 20 years while maintaining close ties with Africa.

The Ogunlesi initiative is being celebrated because it comes out clean. The same cannot be said about Nigeria’s disposal of its assets. Corruption comes in various forms and sizes.

In Nigeria, government business is no one’s business. Its transactions are shrouded in secrecy and dubiety. That explains why tongues must wag each time we hear of government’s intention to dispose off its property. In most cases, the sellers of government property are also the buyers, albeit under pseudo names.

We are reminded of the Governor of one of those not-too-viable states in Nigeria who, as soon as he assumed office, embarked on the renovation of the state’s property in Abuja to the tune of N400 million. Soon after the renovation, he sold it to himself for the sum of N100 million – just a quarter of the renovation cost!

We recollect, with nostalgia, the days when the Nigeria Airways (The Flying Elephant), the Nigerian National Shipping Lined, etc, adorned the air and the high seas. They were simply the pride of the nation but today, they are no more. They have either been sold for peanuts or simply run aground. Whichever way they went, they provide the saddest memory.

There are indications for sale. When an establishment suddenly becomes favoured in funding or when government embarks on the renovation or repairs of its assets; and when they begin to advance the ludicrous argument that government has no business in business, watch out, for the assets will soon come under the auctioneer’s hammer.

We virtually devoted our entire budgetary outlays, starting from the Obasanjo presidency, to the power sector before selling the assets. Even after sales, we are still bank-rolling the organisations. In essence, we pay the bills and other sundry costs while the buyers simply sit back and collect the profits.

The obnoxious practice comes under what they call bail-out loans in which we sell out our assets and still continue to fund their operations.

Surely, cheap government-sponsored financing has potential benefits but when we lack the ability and sincerity to manage the process, it only leads to the crass opportunism to put some quick money in the hands of a few individuals while the nation loses more money, more quickly.

In line with the current administration’s transformation agenda, Nigeria’s airports will soon fall under the auctioneer’s gavel.  Speaking at the 9th International Trade Fair, organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, ABUCIMA, the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, Benjamin Ezra Dikki, said that they were in the process of engaging experts to design an appropriate framework for the concession of the enterprise.

We saw it coming. The airports in Nigeria have since been put on the path for sale for a very long time now. It would be recalled that the administration under the immediate past Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah, embarked on quantum renovation of virtually all the nation’s airports. By Nigerian standard, they were being prepared to qualify for sale. Evidently, such revamped assets cannot continue to remain in the nation’s portfolio. They must be sold!

It is also not by accident that since 2012, the Federal Government and the aviation industry have been engaged in this diabolical romance that would enrich the industry players and further impoverish the nation.

Rather than breathe new life into the nation’s carriers with a view to resurrecting them, Nigeria began to talk of procuring 30 aircraft for distribution to the country’s airlines in an effort to improve efficiency, safety standards and reduce fares. The aircraft acquisition was funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Bank of Industry, BOI.

Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, spokesman, Yakubu Dati, was categorical at the time: “An hour’s flight in Nigeria shouldn’t cost more than N10,000 (US $63.97) or N15,000 (US $95.95)”.

Contrariwise, air fare in Nigeria has remained at the roof-tops ever since. In Nigeria, whatever goes up comes down, except inflation and commodity prices.

While the unconventional move may help Nigeria’s struggling airlines upgrade their fleet, this is yet money flushed down the drains because like previous bail-out loans, this, too, will not be repaid.

A propaganda-based government like ours can only sell what it will. While it may be willing to sell everything, including the Government House, even in the worst of times, it will never sell its propaganda machines – NTA and FRCN! It is a matter of the protection of self-interest.

With the government’s mind already made up on the Nigerian airports, to sell or not to sell is no longer the question. Rather, the question is when. Before the hammer falls on them, the only wise option left for us is to appeal to their conscience.

Let there be some semblance of transparency in the transactions; and let us begin to imbibe the attitude that government’s business is somebody’s business. After all, with every quick fix done on government, some citizens somewhere are being short-changed with all the injuries flowing therefrom.