ExxonMobil chief warns Nigeria could lose new investments because of new oil law

A bill seeking to overhaul Nigeria’s oil sector would lead to a halt in new investments if passed in its current form due to onerous fiscal terms, the head of ExxonMobil’s Nigeria operations warned Thursday.
Mark Ward, who also leads a grouping of oil majors operating in Africa’s top producer, said industry players shared the view that the current bill jeopardises Nigeria’s bid to boost new investment and output.
New investment in Nigeria’s oil industry has already been limited in recent years due to lingering uncertainty over the bill.
“Quite frankly, the extremely large investments that are needed are seriously at risk under the proposed PIB (Petroleum Industry Bill) terms,” he told a forum on the bill in the economic capital Lagos.
If the bill passes without significant changes, “the government’s aspirations to grow the business and the industry will not be met,” he said.
Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has described the bill as fair to the government, oil firms and Nigerians, who have long pushed for a fairer shake from an industry that has left the country’s Niger Delta region badly polluted.
Legislation to reform Nigeria’s much criticised oil sector was first introduced in 2008.
President Goodluck Jonathan sent a fresh version of the bill to parliament in July that lays out immense changes to the industry and restructures the state oil firm, widely seen as corruption-riddled.
Ward argued that the new bill could push the government take from oil revenue to above 90 percent of all revenue.
“Nigeria is already one of the most onerous fiscal regimes and now the government wants to make it tougher?…That is something we don’t understand,” Ward said.
Any hopes of expanding lucrative offshore production would be quashed if the bill passes unchanged, Ward said.
“For deepwater: we’re done. There are no investments that can be supported under the current terms of the PIB,” Ward said.
Nigeria’s house recently ended a recess and lawmakers have said the bill is among the first items to be debated in the new session.
Other concerns raised over the bill include powers granted to the president and the oil minister and what activists describe as insufficient measures to improve transparency.
Meanwhile, from the Nigerian perspective, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of the oil-rich Rivers state has applauded the PIB, urging law makers to speedily pass it.
In his view, PIB will promote investment and employment opportunities in the country.
Addressing members of the House of Representatives Committee on Air Force who paid him a courtesy visit on at Government House, Port Harcourt, Amaechi said the PIB would contribute to curbing the security challenges in the country.
He explained that apart from the state and federal government having a duty to fund security, passage of the PIB would pave way for investors to invest and create employment opportunities that would address the security challenges, poverty and unemployment facing the nation.
“The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is a law for the overall benefit of all Nigerians to allow investors to come into the country and invest. This is so because, if we don’t enact a law that would attract investors, then we can’t make progress; right now investors are heading towards Angola, we must seek ways of attracting investors,” Amaechi said.
He urged the federal government to make the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) a regulatory agency and give wider opportunities to the private sector to participate in investment to create more employment opportunities and tackle poverty in the country.
“As Governor, I don’t know the quantity of oil NNPC produces per day, this is why government should be a regulatory agency and allow investors to come in, and I think it will go a long way to address the needed peace in the country.”
 BusinessNews

$15m Ibori bribe: “Return money to Delta State, sack EFCC boss” – Edwin Clark weighs in

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by Isi Esene
The self-styled godfather to the president, Chief Edwin Clark has called for the removal of the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde over the $15m allegedly offered to former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu by the former Delta State governor, James Ibori.
Clark said this at a press briefing in Abuja to address matters regarding the alleged bribe. He canvassed for the prosecution of Lamorde, who was EFCC’s director of operations under Ribadu, when Ibori allegedly offered the money and was asked to fetch it from the home of a former presidential aide, Andy Uba, now a senator.
He said there were contradictions and lies in the affidavit deposed to by the EFCC concerning the Ibori’s $15m bribe insisting that the funds belong to the Delta State Government.
According  to him, an affidavit deposed to on August 10 2012 by Bello Yahaya, a police officer attached to the EFCC on behalf of the EFCC was suspect.
He gave an instance where Yahaya reportedly stated that no one has claimed ownership of the said money.
He said:

“In paragraph seven of his affidavit, Yahaya claimed: ‘I know as a fact that the said $15m is an unclaimed property and no one has claimed or shown any link to the sum’”.

“This is not true as in September 2009, the Delta State Elders and Leaders Stakeholders Forum in a protest march that took them to the Central Bank of Nigeria premises in Abuja submitted a written petition to the Governor of Central Bank urging him to refund the money to the Delta State Government as Ibori, as an individual, could not have raised the said huge sum.

“Also in the charges that were later dropped by the London Crown Court against James Ibori and in the statement of former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu statements to the Metropolitan Police, the ownership of the said money were not in doubt.”

He explained that this sort of actions will only portray the anti-graft agency in bad light urging them to do the right thing.
He said EFCC’s position on the alleged bribe offer will “put the anti-graft agency not only in ridicule, but portray it as an agency not transparent, competent and committed to war against corruption”.
YNaija

FG Must Appeal Bakassi judgment -Senate

THE Senate, yesterday, declared total rejection of the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon following the judgment of the International Court of Justice, ICJ, and directed President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently appeal the judgment.

The ICJ in its ruling in 2002 ceded Bakassi Peninsula, located in Cross River State of Nigeria to Cameroon, with a 10-year window gap for appeal which expires on October 9, 2012.

Also, the Paramount ruler of Bakassi, Dr. Edet Okon Etim, said in a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that the most significant issue for the people of Bakassi was the right to self determination, which is enshrined in the UN Charter on Human Rights.

Bakassi protesters Photo by Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru, has been criticized by lawyers for his comments that members of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, that gave the Federal Government seven-day ultimatum to approach the ICJ to review the Bakassi case were doing so for pecuniary interest.

The position of the Senate came at a time  China and Japan are flexing muscles over the uninhabited Daiyou Islands in the South Pacific Island and Nigeria has 12 days to make a fresh case to ICJ on new facts supporting its claims to Bakassi peninsula.

While considering a motion on Bakassi sponsored by Senator Abdul Ningi and 17 others, the upper legislative chamber faulted the ICJ judgment, declaring it as null and void.

The Senate held that the Vienna Convention on treaties that required domestication of the ICJ judgment by a national parliament was not done by the National Assembly before Bakassi was handed over by fiat to  Cameroon by the Federal Government.

Bakassi could not be ceded to Cameroon —Senators

Senators during an emotion-laden debate expressed shock at the approach applied by the Federal Government in the handing over of Bakassi to Cameroon without referendum by the people of Bakassi as stipulated by the United Nations, UN.

Senate President, David Mark, who presided over the motion, maintained that Bakassi could not be ceded to Cameroon, adding that he would write to President Jonathan to immediately begin the appeal process which expires in nine days time.

According to him, “the resolution that we need to make is that Bakassi should not be ceded to Cameroon. I think that is the final objective of our decision.

“If we do not go to an appeal at all while we have subjected ourselves to the international court, I think that will be a grievous mistake. There is room for us to appeal. Going on an appeal is a line of action that we should not reject. If that is what is available through the court, we should utilise it. I think that is the most appropriate thing to do now. The most we should do now is to quickly rush an appeal in spite of what the President said at the UN.

“We have obeyed the international court to this point, but we still do not accept it. It is not that we accept it, we have simply obeyed their decision. We have not accepted it. There is a lot of pressure at home here and I think it is the belief of every Nigerian that we should not cede Bakassi, not the way it has happened. I think that is really where the problem is.”

Mark assures

Mark assured that the Senate would go ahead with all legislative processes to ensure that the judgment is over turned in favour of Nigeria.

He said: “There is a host of other things, letters written to National Assembly are actually here and we on our part have not done anything. We have neither rejected it nor said anything. They just came and went like that.

“We will revisit the letters and whilst we are urging the Federal Government to go on an appeal, we on our part will revisit the letters and see what we can do from our own side, may be to quickly again come up with a debate and then reject it and forward it to buttress our points and to buttress our resolutions arrived at today (yesterday),” he added.

Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, leading debate on the motion urged Nigeria to appeal the judgment, stating that the whole process that led to ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon was full of irregularities. He argued that both Cameroon and Nigeria had not fully complied with details of the judgment, adding that new facts have emerged to show that the peninsula belongs to Nigeria, in accordance with article 61 of the ICJ.

He said: “The dateline of the judgment of the ICJ on the International Boundaries between Nigeria and Cameroon including Bakassi that cedes Bakassi Island from the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Republic of Cameroon would expire by October 9, 2012.

Judgment erroneously based on agreement

“The judgment was erroneously based on agreement between the British and Calabar Chiefs in 1884. There has never been a precedent in history where any case of this nature was executed without a referendum as enshrined by the United Nations.

“There is lack of faithful implementation of articles 3 (1) and 2 (a) of the ‘Green Tree Agreement’ signed by both the Cameroon and Nigeria, thereby violating the basis of the implementation of the court of judgment.”

Senators to fund appeal process

Ningi added that the action of government was a conspiracy of silence against the minorities in Nigeria and that Senators had agreed to fund the appeal process.

“Let government appeal, we are ready to fund the processes if the problem of government is money,” he stated.

Senators unanimously backed the call for an appeal, as some of them who spoke, yesterday, urged government to physically reclaim the Island from Cameroon.

They said it was very shocking for government to hand over Bakassi without even a fight, pointing out several instances where there have been long drawn battles over lands between countries, without the ICJ settling the disputes.

Those that spoke include Senators Victor Ndoma-Egba, Bassey Otu, Heineken Lokpobiri, Haidi Abubakar, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Ita Enang and George Akume.

FG must protect us —Ndoma-Egba

Ndoma-Egba, PDP, Cross River Central, said the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon was in complete violation of the fundamental human rights of the people of Cross River State.

He said: “Bakassi was ceded by Federal Government in spite of protest by Bakassi people, because they are minority of minorities. Bakassi was ceded in spite of the Senate not rectifying the treaty. The least Federal Government can do is to protect us.

“Federal Government must pay Cross River compensation. It is their land, their heritage, their history, their ancestors were buried there and Nigerian government keeps quiet about compensation. The government must protect us.”

Enyinnaya Abaribe in his contribution said the action of the Federal Government in hastily handing over Bakassi to Cameroon depicts that of a coward.

He said: “In which country in the world can a country willingly give away its property? It is a father that is weak that would be quick to admit that his child is at fault when there is a dispute. Nigeria is not a weak father so we must appeal.”

Senators want physical reclaimation

Senators Lokpobiri, PDP, Bayelsa West and Atiku Bagudu urged the Federal Government to use its physical might to quickly reclaim the Island while pursing the appeal.

According to Lokpobiri, “two options are available to Nigeria: the first option is to appeal. Second option is to go back to Bakassi and reclaim it. It is very unfortunate that in the 21st century, we could just hand over part of the country just like that. We should physically go and repossess the land. Since we have a bigger military might, we should go to Bakassi and repossess it.”

Also kicking against the ceding of Bakassi, Senator Haidi Abubakar, CPC Katsina Central said government had no choice but to appeal since no referendum was conducted. His words: “The issue of referendum has not been done. We must force the Federal Government to appeal.

But the former Attorney General of Cross River State, Mrs. Nella Rabana (SAN) who was at The Hague said those who were advising the Federal Government against approaching the ICJ to revisit the Bakassi issue should examine their position because “Nigeria has all along complied with the ruling of ICJ. So, asking that we invoke article 61 of ICJ statue is in fact, part of this compliance process and not a violation.”

Senator Ewah Bassey Henshaw, who represented Cross River South from 2007-2011, told us that the Obong of Calabar and the Efik Kingdom have resolved that they would not concede their territory on the basis of wartime contrivance between two leaders who did not have the consent of Bakassi people.

He said: “There is every reason for Nigeria to exercise its right of appeal which is also part of the compliance rather than shirking its responsibility.”

 Vanguard

Governors Boycott Dokpesi’s Lecture

Raymond Dokpesi

By SaharaReporters, New York

All the state governors invited to the fourth annual lecture organized by Raymond Dokpesi, owner of AIT/Raypower, failed to attend the event in Abuja earlier today.
The governors boycotted Mr. Dokpesi’s event despite the fact that some of them were scheduled to receive performance awards from the controversial businessman.
Among the governors who shunned the occasion were Theodore Orji of Abia state, Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, and Abdul-Fatah Ahmed of Kwara State.
Governor Orji was billed to give the lecture at the event held at the Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Abuja, and organized by the Raymond Dokpesi Center for Media Development.
Our correspondent reported that Mr. Dokpesi delayed the opening of the event till 2:15 p.m., more than two hours behind schedule, because he hoped the governors would show up. But by 2:15, it had dawned on him that the governors were not on their way – and he gave the clearance for the event to start.
Mr. Dokpesi had ordered the deployment of six cameras at the venue of the event, with instructions that the event should run live on both his television and radio stations. “Chief Dokpesi had expected a huge turnout and a big presence of VIPs,” said an employee of AIT. Another source told our correspondent that Mr. Dokpesi “was visibly humiliated by the action of the governors.”
SaharaReporters’ investigations revealed that some of the governors were in Abuja, but decided not to show up at the Dokpesi lecture.
Despite the absence of the governors, Mr. Dokpesi reportedly ordered his stations to still run the events live, hoping that some of the political guests would have a change of heart after seeing the show on TV. Our correspondent reported that the live broadcasts were terminated after a few minutes when the organizers realized that the gimmick would not sway the governors.
In a curious twist, Mr. Dokpesi himself, realizing that the governors and other dignitaries did not show up, also stayed away from his own ceremony. The sparse audience consisted mainly of Abia State indigenes who expected to meet their governor. But they also left unceremoniously when it dawned on them that Mr. Orji would not attend.
Mr. Dokpesi had also planned to use the occasion to launch a book about himself. But with most of his guests keeping away, that money-making scheme fell on its face.

Opinion: Arik Air vs Omojuwa: The missing iPad, and other issues

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by Ovie Albert

A crusader should be sublime and live by example. There is no point in blowing up a can of worms, when in fact your motives itself doesn’t seem to be stellar. This issue ought not to have gone the way it went.

Many folks on twitter must have heard of Japheth Omojuwa, the self-styled social critic and crusader on twitter. One of the most characteristic side of him is the vitriolic words he uses to criticise the present Nigerian Government as led by GEJ.
Before I go on, I’d love to proceed to introduce him, by saying a little about his twitter profile along with the little I’ve gleaned of him on my favourite social media, twitter.
He has a Klout score of 71, and his twitter bio reads;

“I asked Google…guess what Google said… {Retweets are not endorsements}”.

Also, with over 38, 162 Followers, following only about 911 people in return, and 97, 911 tweets so far, he definitely enjoys a celebrity status on Twitter!
Twitter became abuzz today with multiple comments about Omojuwa’s iPad getting missing while he was travelling via Arik Air Nigeria. Gossips included that he had sued Arik Air for N50m, and in addition, his actions and the sensationalism he was giving the issue did not must call for it, especially from a self acclaimed saint-like crusader against corruption.
The bane of the matter
His iPad was stolen while travelling with Arik Air, and he subsequently reported the issue to Arik. However, Arik was unable to recover the iPad for him. This culminated in a break down of agreement between the two parties, with him claiming Arik was high-handed and careless while Arik maintained that the matter be settled as quietly as possible.
You can read about his side of his story on his Blog here. I must confess at this stage that several emails I sent to Arik Air Nigeria to have their own side of the affair have gone un-answered. I even called their customer care hotline but I was informed by the person at the receiving end that she didn’t have enough authority to speak on the matter. However, I’d update this post as soon as I get a response from them!
Back to the grit of the matter. I took time to go through Omojuwa’s Blog posts on same issue to see for myself his own side of the story. Something struck me as funny. For a person who was so full of criticism of Arik Air and even alleged that stolen items are the norms and not the exception on Arik Air, I found it pretty confounding that he still chose to travel via Arik that day, when he could’ve simply used another airline for that journey. That aside, it isn’t any excuse for his iPad to get stolen. And likewise, it also isn’t enough reason to derogate Arik for complicity in the theft.
Arik subsequently banning Omojuwa and 26 others from using their Aircraft is another matter that I don’t fully understand its relationship with the stolen iPad. I’d not go into it here but you can read about it here if you care to.
Excerpts from his Blogpost;
“Shockingly, after the police report had been secured, Arik Air came with a different tune. They needed me to sign an indemnity, that I’d not come to claim another compensation after they compensate me and that I’d not make the whole compensation process public.”
I’m not arguing that everyone doesn’t have a right to protest if he feels wronged. If you misplaced your iPad on a plane, it’s either due to your own fault and carelessness or maybe, perhaps the airline’s fault. And if the airline has agreed to take culpability of the whole debacle it could be hardly logical for you to expect that they pay you and at the same, you retain your rights to thrash them in public!
On Twitter, Omojuwa denied ever making any attempt to sue the airline, when in reality there was a subtle threat to do so. I’d quote his tweets and his website posting to put this in proper perspective.

Ayo @Ayourb

RT @omojuwa: AT NO TIME DID I DEMAND ANY MONEY FROM ARIK AIR. NOT EVEN IN MY CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL DOCUMENT.

26 Sep 12

@omojuwa: AT NO TIME DID I DEMAND ANY MONEY FROM ARIK AIR. NOT EVEN IN MY CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL DOCUMENT.
Another Quote from Blog;

“To hell with secrecy! I just wanted my Ipad 2 returned and now that it is obvious they won’t return that, I will be returning to the Consumer Protection Council to file for a N50 million damage. That is the lowest possible worth of my ipad’s content. More on #ArikWhereIsMyIpad later. The Ariktivization has just begun”

What I got from his post was that Arik was ready to replace his iPad but wanted him to agree to a non-disclosure agreement and in addition, sign that he would not make another claim for same issue in the future. This isn’t the first time an airline would requests for a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). But I felt it was a little alarming that Omojuwa wanted to publicise the whole issue, considering his fame, he must have felt that this case was a recipe for a political point or a good laugh on social media. But at what cost would this be? Does he truly want his iPad back with the promised compensation, or he wants to get all these and at the same time humiliate the airline? Like having your cake and eating it! No corporate body in their right mind would allow this! Both sides needed to strike a compromise.
The quoted statement above looks completely true at first look, but it is better we look at it holistically. Omojuwa, even if he didn’t demand in writing for money or compensation in his ordeal with Arik, at least from the wordings of his Blog post above, he was considering asking for N50M for it, if Arik Air did not meet certain condition. Perhaps that was what misconstrued Tweeps in posting the rumour on Twitter that he was suing Arik Air N50M for his stolen iPad.
A Tech Lesson if you misplaced our iPhone
As a Tech Connoisseur, I’d quickly relate the Tech angle to this palaver.
Omojuwa and other users of iOS products should understand that their devices have certain security features ingrained per adventure it is misplaced or if its stolen. There’re 2 iOS services/apps that can help you mitigate an iPad theft crisis. This services ought to have been initiated prior to the theft! Be warned!
1. Find iPhone app

The name is actually a misnomer in the sense that it is useful for an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch! It is truly a nifty app and as the name suggests, if you misplace your iPhone, it can help you locate it on a map. You also have the option to either play a sound, send a message to your phone or to remotely wipe the iDevice!
So, in the case of Omojuwa’s stolen iPad, all he needed to have done was to log into the Find iPhoneapp on another iDevice or via web from any other gadget with GPS and locate his iPad on a map, and with the help of the police, he can effect an arrest to the miscreant who took it. Caveats; This may however, only be possible with iOS 5 and below which still uses google maps. If you use Apple maps on iOS 6 to locate your iPad, you may just be as blind as a bat! The Apple maps on iOS 6 is appalling, to say the least.
2. Find my Friends app
Yes. This is another great app from apple. Like as I’m a friend of @Deoladoctor on the Find My Friend app service on iOS, all I need to do to locate him or inadvertently his iPad if stolen is to launch the app and I can point him out on a map.
Of course, the same Apple maps caveat also applies here.
ROUND UP
This is a Tech and Medicine site, so I’ve tried to explore the issue which is actually social and I’ve tried to draw extrapolations on its Tech ramifications. If I was the one who got his iPad stolen, I would as a matter of urgency, do a remote wipe with Find iPhone as a matter of urgency. I could send a sound or text message to the offender immediately. If he doesn’t respond, I’d wipe the device remotely. Then I’d try to locate it, if possible, with another iDevice running iOS 5.
If I locate the device or get a new one, whatever, I’d then restore the data and settings intact using my iPad back-up on my computer. That simple.
But for a Social critic, that’s another matter. His compulsion in the whole matter far transcends just recovering his iPad or getting it replaced by the Airline. He wants to get the iPad, be compensated and at the same poke holes at Arik on social media and score a political point. I dare say no corporation would accept those terms without a fight. And with Mr. Mobility criticising this action on twitter, I don’t think I’m much different in my opinion. A crusader should be sublime and live by example. There is no point in blowing up a can of worms, when in fact your motives itself doesn’t seem to be stellar. This issue ought not to have gone the way it went.
A social crusader ought to exercise a level of restraint and decorum in handling grievances with bodies in tangential paths to his ideas. The same yardstick he uses to criticise the government is the manner we’d use to judge him.
Surely, that’s not asking too much, is it?
—————————————-

Ovie Albert is a physician with Tech as one of his hobbies.

YNaija

Revealed: Prices Of Top Ten Private Jets Owned By Wealthy Nigerians

More exciting revelations have emerged that the penchant for private jets acquisition has cost wealthy Nigerians over N1 trillion in five years. The luxury trend actually rose by 650% between 2007 and 2012, this has increased the rate of private jet acquisition from 20 in 2007 to over 150 in 2012 which has placed Nigeria  and China as the fastest growing private jets markets in the world.


Top ten private jets by wealthy Nigerians.
Type                                                              Price                                            Owner
1. Falcons 7X.                                          $51m(N8.2billion)                   Mike Adenuga
2. Bombardier Global 6000                       $45.5m(N7.3billion)       Unknown
3. Bombardier Global Express 5000          $45m(N7.2billion)          Aliko Dangote
4. Gulfstream G550                                   $40m(N6.4billion)             Bishop Oyedepo
5. Gulfstream V                                        $30m(N4.8billion)              Bishop Oyedepo & Pastor Adeboye
6. Bombardier Challenger 604                $30m(N4.8b)                    Mike Adenuga
7. Embracer Legacy 650                        $30m (N4.8b)                      Ifeanyi Uba
8. Hawker 900XP                                 $20m(N3.2b)                 Dr Kashim and Sir Aremu Johnson
9. Gulfstream G450                               $15m(N2.4b)                         Bishop oyedepo
10. LearJet                                           $13.3m (N2.1b)             Bishop Oyedepo and Dr Kashim

BusinessNews

Japheth Omojuwa: On Arik Air, I admit my madness

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by Japheth Omojuwa
In the Land of many victims, the man who dares the oppressor is seen to be mad. For that, I admit my madness.
I left my iPad in an Arik Air flight and that was my fault. I will not excuse that negligence on the fact that flying just days after the Dana crash I was still gripped by its horror. What is not my fault though is the fact that when I returned for the iPad, the Arik Air staff in charge of “Lost & Found” left to check the aircraft and came back saying “they said they found it and put it in your bag.” My response was sharp and simple. How did they match an untagged iPad that was not checked in with a bag that was checked in and tagged? Who gave them the permission to open my bag for them to put the iPad? I asked to make a written complaint but the Arik Air staff, Lanre, said that by speaking to him my complaint process had been completed, that there was no need to write anything. That did not go down well with me. Some have focused on the first part of the issue about why I’d forget my iPad in a plane, they conveniently ignore the part about the Arik Air staff saying they found the iPad and put it in my bag. Someone have even questioned why I’d even forget my iPad in the first place. These are angels and aliens who have never forgotten a thing in their lives. I am human and I forget, not to mention the fact that in about 35 flights this year, that was a first.
I hate to admit it but I live in a country where people have lived with being victims for decades, victimization has become the culture. Rather than take on their oppressors, many Nigerians are still counting on the day God would come down and personally take on that challenge. Here, people never see the principle behind anything, as most things are weighed in naira. For people of principle, my issue with Arik Air had stopped being about an iPad long ago, but for those whose only valuation of life and the decisions they make come from naira and kobo perception, this remains about an iPad and I needed to shut up because “it is only an iPad.” In the end, these are victims of years of oppression, people who have never stood for themselves, people who’d rather adjust to bullies but are now experts on how to treat oppressors. That in itself is normal because I come from a society of many paradoxes.
I do not have a problem with bloggers who would create any fiction out of this to get hits. Many have become the anomaly they report. I once saw a story about Nigeria’s First Lady concerning the Black Sunday plane crash. I knew from the word go it’d be a hit story but I refused to publish it because I could not see the possibility of its content being the truth even though it’d put the First Lady in bad light. Some others did publish and got their hits. For these ones, it is not about the society, it is about their blogs. The hits first, other things second.
Arik Air is yet to say a thing about this officially apart from their desperate Black List, but they have indeed been talking. They are speaking by proxy. A lot of those acting like they are giving personal opinion are indeed doing their job. You know personal opinion when you see one but when you see someone seemingly speaking his or her opinion, yet repeatedly attacks my person and repeatedly seeks amplification for same, it is hard to see that as opinion. Social Media is on the front burner and I am absolutely certain I helped a few people earn some money just by creating a need to defend a company. I only hope the pay is worth it because standing for my own rights has been worth it.
At the end of the day, I have done something few people have ever dared. Given the chance, I’d do it again! When the story is told, no one will remember the multi-coloured friends or the analysis, they will remember the ordinary man who stood against an organisation that even the government of the day had to let go. Rosa Parks was called names by fellow black men who felt her stand to sit when she could have stood up, walked away and avoid trouble was avoidable. There are iconoclasts and the strength of their reality is that they get to do what others never had the capacity to think about, let alone think possible.
I muted in a blog I’d seek a N50 million damage. It is my iPad and my content. It is my right and my prerogative. I never sought the damage but it has become the major line of the long abused victim who wonders how a man could first dare to go against the same people they in their normal state of being victims have learnt to bow to and then go a step further to even contemplate asking for that much. I never asked for that but yes, if I did, it’d be in order.
In the Land of many victims, the man who dares the oppressor is seen to be mad. I am mad.
When Arik Air was called out on their over N84 billion debt by the authorities, they never argued about the content and essence of the issues, instead, they chose to blackmail the minister of aviation Stella Oduah and diverted many from the issue. In a country where many have learnt to chase shadows, diversionary tactics have always been the tools of people who are accused of one crime or the other. It is a tactic perfected by huge debtors and serial tax defaulters. Who best fits the description than one of the subjects of this issue?
Isn’t it also ironic that the same people who heard about the issue being with Consumer Protection Council for over two months without anything to show for it would now advise me to go to court. In a country where justice resides in the court of law, that’d be a natural channel to have justice now but in a country where court judgements are for sale, I’d rather not bother. I will find justice elsewhere because I don’t have N84 billion to bribe judges from and even if I did have, I’d rather justice comes to the fore without bribe incentives. This is would be the anomaly in an average court and I am not about to pretend about it.
I stood for myself and my rights, not just as a citizen but as a consumer, most of those have been beaten into the victim mentality they will always see that as an affront on the norm they have come to accept as the preferable reality.
I have been put on a Black List by Arik Air along with some 25 others including a managing director with one of the industry regulators. That illegality was not communicated even though Arik Air conveniently collected my money last week for a flight and have since not refunded. In trying to board them last week, I had my agent book me on another flight. My attempt to board their flight was my own way of fueling the issue all over again. I knew I was never going to be allowed to fly. The Black List has only just changed the hue of the issue all over again and we will indeed be on this for a while. I am not a victim, I am a fighter and no man alive would cheat me and have an easy ride doing so. Never! That they can abuse and manipulate the system does not mean they will successfully do that with me. I am but one small, ordinary citizen but I will show that sometimes, being seemingly small is not being definitely weak.
“In our quest for justice, we will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail”
YNaija