Borisade: Time to Quit

Comfort Obi

I don’t quite know the background of Minister Babalola Borisade, a professor. But in his shoes, I would quit as a Minister in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. His sojourn in government has brought him nothing but woes. In more civilised countries, he would have quit several months ago. And proceed to write a book entitled My Woes. But here, in a country of many shameless individuals, he prefers to sit back, take every rubbish, be tossed from one ministry to the other, all because he wants the prefix, Honourable Minister, attached to his name.
Since he became a minister, it has been one crisis or another. His educational qualification was the first to be called to question. He was told he had no business attaching the prefix, Professor, to his name because he, allegedly, was an Associate Professor. His first portfolio as the Minister for Education was a monumental failure. Nothing worked. Nobody felt any impact. Compare his tenure to what Obiageli Ezekwesili, without a doctorate degree, (yet) is doing in the ministry now and you have the feeling that somebody who knows what she is doing is in-charge. In Borisade’s case, he was not only as dull as dodo, but his tenure was marked with one crisis after another. It was so bad that when President Olusegun Obasanjo forwarded his name, after he had been dropped as Education Minister for months, to the Senate for confirmation, they rejected him three times. He was then appointed a Special Adviser, from where, after months of lobbying, the Senate reluctantly confirmed him.
I was at the VIP lounge of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport the day his name was announced as Aviation Minister. The response from one man sitting by me was: “How could Mr President have committed this disaster? How can he give a man who had been rejected for incompetence such a sensitive ministry to manage?” I differed. But luck was definitely not on Borisade’s side. His appointment was heralded by a plane crash (Cargo) at the Murtala Mohammed Airport. And, it took the whole of 36 hours to move it. The delay proved disastrous for his image. Flights were either cancelled, or delayed for hours on end.
As if that was not enough, since his appointment, it has been one plane crash after the other. From Belview, Sosoliso (other not so celebrated ones, including the one which claimed the life of the pilot son of Dr. Ahmadu Ali, the PDP chairman), the military plane crash, to the most recent ADC airline plane crash, all have happened on Borisade’s watch. It is on Borisade’s watch that Nigeria lost 10 Generals in one fell swoop. It is on Borisade’s watch that Nigeria lost over 60 brilliant children in one fell swoop. On each occasion, the man makes a noise, and it is forgotten, waiting for another. He produces no results.
The limit of Borisade’s incompetence surfaced with the fatal ADC plane crash of October 29. In the face of our sorrow, grief and pains, Minister Borisade made the most insensitive statement I have heard from a top government official.
Hours after the plane crash, Borisade told the world, without any proof, that the pilot, Captain Kolawole Atanda, was responsible for the crash. According to the Minister, Atanda snubbed the Air Traffic Controllers who had asked him to wait for 10 minutes before taking off because of bad weather. Apparently, that was the story he heard from the Air Traffic Controllers. So you ask: What made him think that the Air traffic controllers were not trying to save themselves and their jobs? Was there any investigation before Borisade’s elementary reasoning? In a most insensitive manner, Borisade “killed” the wife of the pilot, and made nonsense of any investigation. She collapsed after hearing Borisade. She should. In addition to becoming a widow with six children so suddenly, Borisade worsened her case by putting the blood of over 100 people on her husband’s head, She will live with the guilt and stigma! And so will her children.
Borisade never thought of her safety. Did Minister Borisade watch Onyema, a son of DCP M. Lawal, who died in the crash, breaking doors and windows at the ADC office on the day of the crash with bare hands? What if he had rushed to the pilot’s house after hearing Borisade? On top of that, Borisade attributed the crash of the Belview airplane to the same thing: Intrasigence on the part of the pilot. Why has nobody told us till now?
It was because of Borisade’s pronouncement, and his “ill-luck,” that Nigerians, including senators, asked for his resignation. But he rejected the calls with a convincing argument. “The calls for my resignation is based on the fact that people thought I should have spiritual or divine power which I don’t have."
But divine help has come. President Obasanjo has come to his aid through divine intervention. He has made it easy for him to quit. He has re-assigned him to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. He swapped position with Femi Fani-Kayode.
My reading of this is that Mr President has lost confidence in Borisade. He has, without exactly saying so, called him incompetent. He has told him that he does not have the capability to run the aviation industry. And so, he demoted him to Culture and Tourism. When your boss loses confidence in you, you quit. It may not be a Nigerian thing, but former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala did it. If Borisade does not quit, one day, he will be made a Clerk in Aso Rock. He will accept it because he wants to remain in the corridors of power.
But let’s get something right, Culture is sacred. It does not need a Borisade who many people are now cursing. Tourism is a money spinner. Borisade will scare tourists and investors away. It is on his watch that some foreign countries warned their citizens off Nigerian planes. How can they now encourage tourists to come, with a Borisade in charge.
In Borisade’s shoes, I will quit. I think he should.