Okonkwo Slams Keyamo Over Kwam1’s Ambassadorial Position

By Kenneth Okonkwo

A lot of things are wrong with the administration of President Tinubu, especially in the area of upholding the rule of law. But Tinubu’s Minister, Festus Keyamo SAN, has taken this official impunity to another level by his abominable action to reward Kwam 1 for, in the words of the Minister, “physical blockage of the aircraft from taxiing that is the reprehensible conduct here which (is) akin to a hostage situation” and Ms Comfort Emmanson who, in the words of the Minister, “went berserk and physically assaulted both the flight crew and the ground staff” with ambassadorial posts.

Let me admit that the indecent public exposure of the private parts of Ms Comfort Emmanson legitimately constitute an infringement on her right to dignity and should be dealt with accordingly. This does not excuse her for allegedly disobeying the legitimate orders of the flight crew and the ground staff. Frequent flyers understand the dangers occasioned on the lives of other passengers by unruly behaviours of passengers once a plane is airborne and passengers must obey the legitimate commands of the Captain and flight crew. The fatality of air mishaps demand this duty on passengers.

To add salt to injury, the Hon Minister even misled the people by equating Ambassadorial positions with community service. Unbelievable!

The formal definition of Ambassador is “an accredited diplomat sent by a state as its permanent representative in a foreign country.” However, in this context, the dictionary defines an Ambassador as “a representative or promoter of a specified activity.” It went further to give example of the context this definition can be used – “he is a good ambassador for the industry.” This means that an Ambassadorial position is meant to be a reward for good behaviour given to a deserving good personality to represent and promote a country or an industry.

Community service, on the other hand, in this context, is defined by the dictionary as an “unpaid work, intended to be of social use, that ‘an offender’ is required to do instead of going to prison.” The example given by the dictionary is ”a community-service order.” This means that a community service is actually a punishment meted out by a competent court to an offender as sentence for his/her offence after being found guilty of the offence.

For the avoidance of doubt, Festus Keyamo incompetently halted every investigation into the alleged offences of the unruly passengers and withdrew prematurely the charges against them. The halt of these processes meant that the court would not have the opportunity to inquire into the culpability of these alleged offenders, and the public will be denied the opportunity to know what actually transpired. The issue of community service no longer arises as it’s only the court that can sentence any Nigerian to community service. The Hon Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has no power by law to punish any Nigerian citizen without the order of the Court.

It’s bad enough that Keyamo committed this misconception in law, but it’s terrible that he wants to reward bad behaviour with Ambassadorial positions in the name of community service. Does this mean that the Minister is telling the youths, “go out there, hijack a plane, assault the flight crew and the ground staff, and become ambassadors to teach people how to benefit from being a criminal or being unruly and disobedient to constituted authorities.” This is the worst abnormality Keyamo has dabbled into since he was born.

Forgiveness is allowed on demonstration of genuine remorsity, especially where the offender incurred some reciprocal damages on their rights, but encouraging and rewarding bad behaviour with good and noble offices is anomalous It sends wrong message to the next generation that anti-social behaviour pays. This will increase the assault on constituted authorities and disregard of legitimate commands from officers of government. As a scholar of rule of law, I am aghast by these uninformed decisions by the Honourable Minister of Aviation, whom before now, I was even trying to distinguish from most of Tinubu’s incompetent and corrupt officers. I respectfully urge the Minister to reconsider these decisions and rescind them accordingly. The consequence of not adhering to the rule of law is an invitation to chaos and anarchy.