Oduah's N255M Scandal, that Money can pay 14,000 workers in Nigeria

Nigeria’s embattled Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, could have easily bought an Eclipse 500 private jet with the whopping $1.6 million (about N255 million) used to buy her two BMW bullet-proof cars, investigations have revealed.


Although most private jets cost between $3.5 million and $25 million, with the larger ones like the Boeing Business Jet gulping as much as $100 million, an Eclipse 500 private jet goes for between $1.5 million and $2 million, according to Controller, a general aviation trade publication in America.


With the two outrageously over priced cars, Oduah could have also bought at least five presidential limousines used by United States President, Barack Obama, at the cost of $300,000 each.

Each of the two bullet-proof BMW 760 Li cars bought for Oduah by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, is also more expensive than the car used by British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

While Oduah’s cars go for $800,000 (about N127.5m) each, Cameron’s armoured Jaguar XJ X351 car costs £200,000 (about N52m).

Oduah could have also bought as many as 1231 cars, the type used by Uruguayan President, Jose Mujica, who drives a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle worth $1,300.

With a monthly salary of about $13,000, Oduah would have been able to pay Mujica’s salaries for 127 months or approximately 10 years.

The world’s poorest president would have certainly found the gift preposterous and would have certainly given out most of it to others as he does with his monthly salary.

He has refused to move to the official presidential residence, opting to stay in the simple home of his senator wife on the outskirts of the capital, Montevideo.

At an exchange rate of N155 to $1, the N255 million Odua used to buy the two cars would have conveniently establsihed eight cottage clinics of N30 million each, or fund sinking of 50 boreholes in a country where only 17 percent of its over 160 million people have access to pipe-borne water, according to a UNDP report.

And with a minimum wage in Nigeria at N18,000 or about $118, Oduah could have paid the monthly salaries of 13559 people.

Besides, had the prices of the cars not been inflated, Oduah would be able to save about N195 million of taxpayers’ money.

Since the revelations last Tuesday of the purchase of the expensive cars in August, Nigerians have expressed outrage and calls for Oduah’s sack have become strident.
http://www.nigerianeye.com/2013/10/revealed-oduahs-n255m-cars-costlier.html