Former Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah was in Enugu over the Easter holiday where she received an award from the Ikenga Award for Excellence Foundation in recognition of her contribution to the development of the aviation sector as minister.
Speaking during the presentation of the award, Oduah said she felt privileged to have served her country and countrymen.
“It is a privilege, like I said, to serve Nigeria; to serve my nation…a country where you have 170 million people and you were given the opportunity to serve and make a difference, you leave a footpath behind, it is not easy, it is an honour, and I am very grateful to Nigerians,” she said.
She said there was a well articulated master plan left behind for her successor to follow.
“I believe he (her successor) would follow the master plan to the letter; and really, anybody that does contrary to that is doing a disservice to the Nigerian people and there must be a continuation of the development of the aviation sector. It must be mainstreamed.
“President Goodluck Jonathan has started mainstreaming and that should continue because we do this for a very well developed aviation sector and if you look at it really, aviation is employment-generating and contributes to nation’s GDP, so why would it not be given priority? It should be given priority and the president is doing that,” Oduah said.