by Eddy Odivwri
For over a month now the issue of how and why a private jet belonging to a man of God was used by the Presidency to load huge hard currency to South Africa purportedly to buy military hardware has refused to leave public discourse. Matters were not helped by the fact that just last week, yet another sum of money, this time $5.7m was again seized by the same South African government over the same cash-for-arms deal.
That incident has further Iengthened the questions arising from the deal.
I must confess that I had had my worries over why Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is the man in the middle of the puddle.
My worries for the Pastor dates back to when and why he had to belong to the league of rich clergy men who must add private jet(s) to the array of their riches. It is an extreme class of epicureanism, I thought.
But Pastor Oritsejafor who has put in nearly 42 years in the service of God as a pastor, who drums it hard and strong that “I have no reason to lie”, explains that he never went out shopping for a plane. It was a gift arranged for him by a few persons who had benefitted from his ecclesiastical ministrations in the past. The gift which was dumped on him, with the active connivance of his wife, has now become the source of some “troubles” to the CAN President. Put simply, if Oritsejafor did not have a private jet, he would have been saved from the present controversies and the accompanying patches.
The private jet, it was explained, was meant to “promote”, “facilitate”, “enhance” and “support” (a chain of progressive verbs) evangelism within Nigeria, and as St Paul will say, to the uttermost part of the earth.
Over two years now, I am not aware of how much evangelism or spread of the gospel, the jet has been used to achieve. And as the pastor himself would attest, he has not used the plane more than or up to five times in nearly two years. In the times it was used, I am not sure it was all for missionary journeys.
But having received the mega gift (a Bombadier Challenger 600) from grateful beneficiaries of his anointing, would Pastor Ayo have rejected it, or sold it or leased it? He opted for the latter so the givers of the gift would not be disappointed.
But where would a man of God who is supposed (mark the word: supposed) to be in piety and leading a lifestyle that should not be far from hedonism have funds, huge funds in hard currency to sustain a private jet? Leasing the plane was therefore inevitable, if it must remain sky-worthy. Therefore, I am aware that maintaining a private jet is a huge challenge. No amount of tithe from his church can service the huge financial demands of an engine which whether it is flying or parked on ground, the owner is paying, and in hard currency.
Many including this writer would however argue that the moment the aircraft is put on lease so it can generate enough fund to keep it serviced and serviceable, it crossed the line of ecclesiastical essence to entrepreneural essence.
No doubt, as the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo’s role has graduated into the political arm of Christendom, dealing more with the spin-offs of group identity and administrative niceties, than with the substance of Christ’s business. But Papa Ayo, as he is called these days, with statistics and locational examples argues that he is yet very much in the grill of spreading the gospel within and outside Nigeria.
To be candid, some of us in Warri then, were over-awed by Pastor Oritsejafor’s charm in the 80’s, what with his signature BJ haircut at the time, plus all the theatrics that accompanied his sizzling preachments. All that, like old things, have passed away now and today an Oritsejafor sways past with long deep-coloured robes like a Jewish rabbi.
So back to the brewing scandal on the use of the pastor’s plane to ferry some cash– of $9.3 million, to South Africa, the questions that arise are as many as there are no answers, yet.
First, who are the two Nigerians that accompanied the Israeli to go buy the arms with the seized cash? It is instructive that the federal government did not down the deal and the crew.
The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), perhaps in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence are the government offices that handled the arms-purchase deal. They could never have taken the decision to but the arms o their own, without the express permission of the president. So the President is presumed to be aware of the deal.
The other question is why did the government refuse to use any of the planes in the president’s fleet to ferry the cash, but preferred to go hire a private jet? What was the government trying to hide?
And having decided to hire a private jet, how did the planners of the deal arrive at picking on the plane that belongs top Oritsejafor out of the over 300 private jets in the country? Was it mere coincidence? Was Oritsejafor’s plane considered more air-worthy or newer or friendlier? Why was another jet not chosen?
Many had reasoned that given the perceived connect between Pastor Ayo and President Jonathan, the latter may have just called on his “paddy-man” to make his plane available for some national service, presuming that that was how the deal was struck.
But Oritsejafor swears by the huge cross (the symbol of his creed and faith) dropping low from his neck, that he knew nothing about the arrangement, either on who was hiring it, for what date and for what purpose.
He swears further that he is not as close to Mr President as is generally seen in the public. “ I do not, for instance,”, he laments, “have a direct line to President Jonathan. Anytime I want to talk to him, I have to call through a general pool line and sometimes, they keep me waiting for thirty minutes before talking to him or I could be told nobody is around to take my call…”
He charged those who see him as Jonathan’s Man Friday to site specific instances of that closeness, arguing that all they see in the public domain are the cinematic effect of TV cameras, and not more. From his own rating, he may not even be Jonathan’s ‘Man Monday’
The choice of his plane for this greasy deal has forced the Man of God to be struggling to explain himself out of the loop of suspicion he has been thrown into. Expectedly, those who are interested in generating political capital out of the issue have celebrated all kinds of partisan imputation out of the matter. And Oritsejafor is “troubled”.
Was Ortisejafor’s plane knowingly picked by the NSA out of sheer mischief or were they trying to genuinely patronise the business concern of Mr President’s friend?
Indeed, did those who chose Oritsejafor’s plane know it is his own?
Perhaps more importantly is the latest seizure of $5.7million where the narration of the government is that it wired the money for the second deal. So if government knew it could transfer the amount electronically, why did it prefer to load raw cash into Oritsejafor’s plane to South Africa? Did the government resort to wiring the cash for the arms after the bungling of ferried cash deal?
Is this the first time the Nigerian government is procuring arms? Why the resort to this defiled option, using a Man of God’s jet?
And perhaps finally, is whether all these funds now ($15 million) seized by South Africa were indeed appropriated. I am aware that the senate recently approved the request for loan of $1 billion. That sum couldn’t have been release that soon, as we do not have the history of such speed and efficiency.
I know that some of these questions may never be answered, but let it be said that the rest of Nigerians are worried and disturbed about that is going on.
The needless seizure of the funds has ridiculed Nigeria in the eyes of the civilized public.
We know how politicians can turn wild and weird in election times. Is there a correlation between the arms to be procured and the activities of the 2015 elections?
This article first appeared in Thisday newspaper.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
