Nigeria's Aviation Minister

Senate Hears How Nigeria's Aviation Minister Used Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria To Buy Four Other Bullet-Proof Cars

A Senate committee holding hearings into the aviation sector in Nigeria today shockingly heard   how the Aviation Minister Stella Oduah spent $1.6 million on the purchase of two armored cars today, also the committee received further confirmation that the minister received several other cars from another agency under her control.
George Uresi, the chief executive officer of the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), admitted before the Senate’s aviation committee, led by Hope Uzodinma, that FAAN bought four bullet proof cars for Ms. Oduah at N70 million each. SaharaReporters, which broke the news of how the minister forced the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to buy her two bullet-proof BMWs at the inflated cost of $800,000 each, had also subsequently reported that other agencies under Ms. Oduah had also bought her extremely expensive, overpriced cars.
Mr. Uresi’s testimony today confirmed our earlier reports that the minister hauled in at least six armored cars from a variety of aviation agencies.
Our correspondent reported that Mr. Uresi, the CEO of FAAN, sweated profusely as he told Senator Uzodinma’s committee that FAAN bought four bullet-proof cars for Ms. Oduah. “He was sweating bullets even though the committee room was heavily air-conditioned,” said our citizen reporter.
The FAAN boss’s testimony revealed that the transaction resembled how the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) bought two BMW armored cars for the minister at inflated price.
According to Mr. Uresi, FAAN bought two armored Lexus limousine cars and two Prado armored sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for Ms. Oduah.
Contacted later this evening, a member of the Senate’s aviation committee told SaharaReporters that he had heard rumors that the leadership of the committee was looking for ways to cover up Ms. Oduah’s car-buying scandal. “Some of us will not allow anybody to cover up anything,” said the senator.
Senator Uzodinma gave Mr. Uresi till Monday to provide the paperwork for the purchase of the four cars his agency procured for the minister’s use.
Meanwhile, a source who works at FAAN told SaharaReporters that the deal for the purchase of the cars was done through a company linked to Ms. Oduah. “The finance department of FAAN was not in the know of the purchase as the deal was done at the minister’s office with Uresi signing off on the deal.”
Although Mr. Uresi admitted to the purchase, he refused to provide the Senate committee members with details of how the deal was finalized with a bank. He also refused to disclose if Coscharis Motors Limited was involved in the latest scandal. Coscharis Motors, which is owned by Cosmas Maduka, was involved in the shady deal for the supply of the two BMWs paid for by the NCAA for the personal use of the minister. SaharaReporters reported earlier that Ms. Oduah received more than N100 million as kickback after she arm-twisted NCAA officials to sign papers certifying delivery of the two cars. No officials of the agency ever saw the vehicles before signing the delivery documents.
SaharaReporters had also reported that another agency, National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), also bought four Toyota Tundras for the minister. After our revelation, NAMA authorities went on a desperate search for companies to claim ownership of four limousines parked at the aviation agency’s TRACON site in Abuja. Today, the Senate asked NAMA officials to bring over the supposed owners of the vehicles along with proof of their ownership.
In the end, NAMA claimed that the vehicles belong to a local airline, Overland Airways. But in a clear indication of fishiness, some other company had called SaharaReporters to claim ownership of the limousines.
Ms. Oduah is expected to appear before the House of Representative tomorrow (Wednesday) to answer questions on the scandal of the $1.6 million she squandered on the purchase of two armored BMW cars.
In the wake of our revelations of the minister’s car-buying spree, she traveled to Israel as part of President Goodluck Jonathan’s official delegation to religious sites in that country.  Mrs. Oduah returned to Nigeria on Monday night  a few minutes after she attended a ceremony where a Bilateral Services Agreement was signed with Israel.

Michigan Museum Showcases Racist Artifacts That Will Make You Cringe.

• In a March 14, 2012 photo, David …
  
• In a March 14, 2012 photo, the …
  
• In a March 14, 2012 photo, David …

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The objects displayed in Michigan's newest museum range from the ordinary, such as simple ashtrays and fishing lures, to the grotesque — a full-size replica of a lynching tree. But all are united by a common theme: They are steeped in racism so intense that it makes visitors cringe.

That's the idea behind the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which says it has amassed the nation's largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.

The museum in a gleaming new exhibit hall at Ferris State University "is all about teaching, not a shrine to racism," said David Pilgrim, the founder and curator who started building the collection as a teenager.

Pilgrim, who is black, makes no apologies for the provocative exhibits. The goal of the $1.3 million gallery, he explained, is "to get people to think deeply."

The displays are startling. The n-word is prevalent throughout, and many items portray black men as lazy, violent or inarticulate. Black women are shown as kerchief-wearing mammies, sexually charged Jezebels or other stereotypes.

The shocking images exact an emotional cost.

"There's parts in that room — the main room — where it's quite gut-wrenching," said Nancy Mettlach, a student conduct specialist at Ferris. "And the thought that was going through my mind was: 'How can one human being do this to another human being?'"

Pilgrim, a former sociology professor at Ferris State, started the collection in the 1970s in Alabama. Along the way, he "spent more time in antique and flea markets than the people who work there." His quest for more examples was boundless.
"At some point, the collecting becomes the thing," he said. "It became the way I relaxed." He spent most of his free time and money on acquisitions.
In 1996, Pilgrim donated his 2,000-piece collection to the school after concluding that it "needed a real home."
The collection spent the next 15 years housed in a single room and could be seen only by appointment. Thanks to the financial support of the university and donors — notably from the charitable arm of Detroit utility DTE Energy — Pilgrim's collection now has a permanent home, which will have a grand opening ceremony April 26. Admission is free.
Today, the school has 9,000 pieces that depict African-Americans in stereotypical ways and, in some cases, glorify violence against them.

Not all of the museum's holdings are on display, but the 3,500-square-foot space in the lower level of the university library is packed with items that demonstrate how racist ideas and anti-black images dominated American culture for decades.

Visitors can forget about touring the exhibits and retiring untroubled to a cafe or gift shop. Some leave angry or offended. Most feel a kind of "reflective sadness," Pilgrim said.

But that's not enough. If the museum "stayed at that, then we failed," he said. "The only real value of the museum has ever been to really engage people in a dialogue."
So Pilgrim designed the tour to give visitors a last stop in a "room of dialogue," where they're encouraged to discuss what they've seen and how the objects might be used to promote tolerance and social justice.
Some of the objects in the museum are a century old. Others were made as recently as this year.

Ferris State sophomore Nehemiah Israel was particularly troubled by a series of items about President Barack Obama.

One T-shirt on display reads: "Any White Guy 2012." Another shirt that says "Obama '08" is accompanied by a cartoon monkey holding a banana. A mouse pad shows robe-wearing Ku Klux Klan members chasing an Obama caricature above the words, "Run Obama Run."
"I was like, 'Wow. People still think this. This is crazy,'" Israel said.
One of the first rooms in the museum features a full-size replica of a tree with a lynching noose hanging from it. Several feet away, a television screen shows a video of racist images through the years.

The location of the museum — in the shadow of university founder Woodbridge Ferris' statue — also catches some by surprise. The mostly white college town of Big Rapids is 150 miles from Detroit, the state's largest predominantly black city.

Ferris, who later served as Michigan governor and as a U.S. senator, founded the school more than a century ago. He once said Americans should work to provide an "education for all children, all men and all women."

Pilgrim, who is also Ferris State's vice president for diversity and inclusion, initially considered giving his collection to a historically black college, but he wanted to be "near it enough to make sure it was taken care of."

Most of the objects "are anti-black caricatures, everyday objects or they are segregationist memorabilia," he said. Because they represent a cruel, inflammatory past, they "should either be in a garbage can or a museum."

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If You Go...

JIM CROW MUSEUM OF RACIST MEMORABILIA: Located in Ferris Library for Information, Technology and Education, 1010 Campus Drive, Big Rapids, Mich.; http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow or 231-591-3500. Monday-Friday, noon-5 p.m. or by appointment. Free admission.