The POLITICIAN 1000

Prior to her appointment as Minister of Aviation,
Princess Stella was the CEO of Sea Petroleum and
Gas (SPG) Nigeria limited, a major player in the
downstream oil sector and it was a company that she
started after spending almost a decade as an executive
in NNPC.
When she first took the helms
of leadership in the Ministry of
aviation, many criticised her appointment
because they felt that
they were more qualified and experienced
Nigerians who should
have been given the position.
However, with just 2 years in the
job, many of her critics have suddenly
become mute because her
works are indeed speaking for
themselves. The revamping of the
International airports and the
construction of over a dozen new
ones across the federation have
shown that she is truly a visionary
leader who understood only
too well the impact that overcongestion
was having on the few
functional international airports
in the country.
This arduous task to build world class international
airports in the six geopolitical zones of the Federation
will not only create thousands of jobs for the indigenes
of those zones, but will also create an avenue for rev-
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enue diversification, because an international airport
impacts many other sectors of the economy such as
hospitality, tourism and retail. Princess Stella Oduah
has only been in this exalted position for 2 years and
her proverbial “hand writing” is already on the wall.
Therefore, I am equally optimistic about the resurrection
of our National airlines. I, just like many other
well meaning Nigerians would love to see Nigerian
Airways resuscitated, revived, reformed, re-born or
any other form of “re” that will cause it to return unto
our skies, and I sincerely hope that this is on the horizon.
As a nation, we are rich enough (both in human as
well as in economic resources) to build a world class
airline which is fully owned and fully operated by
Nigerians. We don’t need Engineers from China and
pilots from America to run our airlines because we
have well trained Engineers and Pilots of Nigerian
ancestry both at home and in the Diaspora who are
well able to run our national airline. Princess Stella,
our beloved Sister, you are making us proud, please
keep up the great work, and may Nigerians see and appreciate
your tireless effort to breathe new life into our
aviation sector.
Leadership isn’t easy and people
rarely take the time to assess the
real situation of things, they simply
jump on the critical “bandwagon”
and begin to unleash
their venoms of insults and verbal
abuse upon their latest victim.
It is an open secret that I am not an “Obama” fan. I
don’t like his politics or the corresponding policies
which proceed from them but I sincerely believe that
some of the criticisms and verbal assaults that segments
of the American press have unleashed on him
are unfair, especially as it relates to the economy.