|
 Published
June 30th, 2010
When I read
the newspaper reports about the show of shame in the
Nigerian House of Representatives, I felt three distinct
mixed emotions of anger, amusement and embarrassment surging
through my being at the same time—anger at the criminal
insensitivity to the prevailing socio-economic conditions in
Nigeria; amusement at the clearly orchestrated crude
attempts to intimidate and silence the whistle blowers in
the House to cover up the alleged scams and; embarrassment
at the utter desecration of the hallowed chambers of the
nation’s parliament by rascals and political misfits, who
have demonstrated their utter disregard for the nation’s
image by throwing elementary decency and decorum to the dogs
in resolving their internal disputes.
It’s
Nigeria’s season of corruption and here we go again with the
nation’s House of Corruption. The House of Representatives
should be renamed the House of Corruption, because it has
earned that appellation. There is no more fitting
description of the House than that. The EFCC boss, Mrs.
Farida Waziri, was therefore, spot on when she recently
described the House in similar unflattering terms during the
presentation of the scam petition to her by the
“Progressives.”
Bankole’s
House stinks to high heavens and in dire need of fumigation
services by the nation’s fumigation agencies comprised in
the EFCC and the ICPC. It has been reduced to a veritable
engine of corruption, generating one corruption scandal
after another right from its inception to date with no let
up. The nation deserves a break from this steady stream of
scams and corruption scandals emanating from its lawmakers,
who are supposed to be above board in order to effectively
and credibly carry out their oversight functions over the
executive branch. It is now clear that the House of
Representatives itself is in dire need of oversight
functions by outside agencies to keep its corruption-prone
leadership from dipping its sticky fingers into the nation’s
honey pot at will.
And to think
that this chamber is mostly populated by the cream of the up
and coming Nigerian youths equally led by a youth should be
of great concern to the nation, because it unmistakably
sends the troubling signals that those who are taking over
the reins of power from the older generation, which has
candidly and forthrightly declared itself a “wasted
generation,” could be a whole lot worse than the old guards
themselves. Where then lies the nation’s hope of salvation
and redemption if the younger generation has so
enthusiastically imbibed and internalized the sick ways of
the discredited older generation? I see no hope in the
horizon if this trend is not checkmated and nipped in the
bud. This is bad news for the nation that must be addressed
squarely before our nation is again condemned to relive the
deleterious ways of the old guards over and over again.
It is
increasing becoming crystal clear that lawmakers of both
chambers have deliberately turned our democracy into fishing
expeditions and an opportunity to feather their own nests at
the nation’s expense and to the detriment of our national
aspirations. Other than purely out of habit, therefore, I
couldn’t understand why we still refer to them as reps since
no Nigerian would come forward to vouch for his or her
representation by any of the House members. They have been
busy representing their wallets than to remember their
constituents who put them in power to represent them in the
first place.
They could
stage a fight to protect their personal interests, but would
not lift a finger to fight for their constituents. They have
stuffed their ears with cotton wool to prevent them from
hearing and answering the groans and shrieks of their
constituents, who are reeling from economic deprivations and
hopelessness. They have turned their backs on their people
who look up to them for succor and alleviate their
sufferings. Though they profess Christianity and Islam,
they’re far from God and Godliness. Their hearts are made of
stones and their minds attuned to greed and
self-centeredness and consumed by inordinate materialism at
the expense of their own people.
How many
people have read a single story about a House member or
senator for that matter, raising his or her voice in the
House or in the Senate let alone fighting and spilling blood
over the interests of his constituency or the public in
general? How many people have heard or read of any
legislative measures in the House that are designed to put
Nigerians back to work? How many times has anyone read about
our lawmakers having a showdown with officials of the
Ministry of Works over the poor conditions of Nigerian roads
or the officials of the Ministry of Health over the
appalling conditions in the nation’s healthcare facilities,
or for that matter, officials of the Ministry of Education
over dilapidated educational infrastructures? Not in Nigeria
and certainly not in Nigeria’s House of Corruption. Their
orchestrated oversight sessions are anything but oversight
and are designed essentially to extract financial
gratifications from the executive in secret sessions after
the public shows. This is nothing but cash and carry, bazaar
democracy we’re practicing in Nigeria and the president has
got to put a stop to it regardless of the separation of
powers, because it is his administration and his legacy that
is at stake here.
With half of
the nation’s budgets going for the salaries of public office
holders as recently disclosed by the Accountant General of
the Federation, the nation is clearly being shortchanged by
its lawmakers because it is not getting value for its money.
This is a bad trade. One could count on his fingers the
number of bills passed by this House since it was
inaugurated almost four years ago, excluding budgets even
though it’s a full time job with jumbo, full time pay. Going
to the nation’s parliament is like winning a Power Ball
Lotto ticket. We’re using half of our entire budget to
service less than 1% of our population and perhaps the other
half of the budgets is lost to corruption schemes hatched
and executed by the same people, leaving the remaining 99%
of the population with next to nothing to wallow in poverty.
It’s, therefore, not a surprise that majority of Nigerians
are eking out miserable existence in an otherwise oil rich
nation, with less than a dollar a day!
Having
managed to pass a harmonized constitutional amendment bill,
which the rascally House is now impetuously and piously
accusing the Senate of “doctoring,” calculated to divert the
nation’s attention from the corruption scandal without as
much as crosschecking its facts or even finding out from the
senate before rushing to the press, the House had nothing
else on its plate than to stage a fight to cover its crooked
tracks.
That wolf
cry by the House alleging the Senate’s submission of a
doctored version of the harmonized constitutional amendment
bill to the State Houses of Assembly was clearly calculated
to divert the nation’s attention from the broiling
corruption scandal in the House. But it wouldn’t stick
because it was all a lie as the Senate president had
submitted to the chairman of the Speakers of the State
Houses all three versions of the bills comprised of the
Senate bill, the House bill and the harmonized bill to make
a complete record for the guidance of the State Houses. And
rather than seeking audience with the Senate leadership to
seek clarification of any misgivings he might have had
regarding the authenticity of the bill submitted to State
Houses, Bankole rushed to the press to cry wolf where there
was none all in a desperate bid to change the subject.
Thus for the
second time in less than three years, the first time under
disgraced ex-Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh,
Nigeria’s House of Representatives, led by King Kong, Dimeji
Bankole, brought shame and disgrace to the nation. But more
than that, it dragged its own reputation, if it ever had
one, into the mud, which is the natural playground of pigs
rather than humans.
Don’t get me
wrong. I’m not calling our Honorable (?) members of the
House “pigs” because Nigerians have a better appellation for
them—“Area Boys,” since they have turned their hallowed
legislative chamber into New York’s Madison Square Garden
and Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace rolled into one where
opposing sides contest their supremacy in turf wars in a
Muhammad Ali/George Foreman’s “Rumble in the Jungle” style
smack down in the Congo. Nigerian parliament turned into a
boxing and wrestling arena in this day and age—fighting over
loot!
I remember
writing similar lines during the Etteh saga about three
years ago, and here we are again with repeat performance. At
the end of the combined boxing/wrestling tournament, the
victorious gang side led by the King Kong himself succeeded
in not only reducing its challengers, led by hard charging
Dino Melaye, to pulp and taken away in stretchers, but
summarily expelled them from their fiercely contested
territory to claim the hefty prizes at stake.
What prizes,
you asked? You want to know the prizes? Let’s see how much
are we talking about here. Gosh! It’s not peanuts, folks,
it’s in billions of naira, and that’s your money. And here
is the run down: N5.2bn Rural Electrification Project,
N2.3bn for special cars for Bankole and his buddies in the
House, and the latest N9bn capital projects.
As reported
in the papers, the House leadership under Bankole has been
pointedly accused of giving
approval
for the purchase of four units of Range Rover Jeeps; three
units of Mercedes Benz S-600 cars for the use of the speaker
and his deputy to the tune of N335,500,000. And, as if that
was not enough outrage, the House leadership has also been
accused of purchasing LCD 40 Samsung LNS 341 for members at
the cost of N525, 000 per unit, alleged to be well above the
market price of N180, 000 per unit of the product.
Speaker Bankole is at the heart of all of the above scams
and seems to have his finger in every pie. Isn’t that
something? However, many of these allegations are not new
but have not been addressed in the past before now simply
because late President Yar’Adua literarily went to sleep on
corruption.
Now, discounting the Mercedes and the television sets,
that’s some hefty N16.5bn of our money poured down the drain
or, if you like, poured down the pipeline of corruption into
someone else’s private accounts. Yes, our money going into
someone else’s private accounts, no questions asked! That is
our Nigeria under Yar’Adua, the chief exponent of zero
tolerance for corruption!
To give the reader an idea of the scale of what is involved,
that sum is enough to equip all our higher educational
institutions with computer labs or to equip our teaching
hospitals with state of the arts diagnostic medical
equipments like those available abroad and stock them fully
with badly needed drugs or enough to equip all of our
hospitals’ operating theatres with power generators in the
absence of stable electricity to avoid carrying out critical
surgical operations under candle and torch lights as has
been reported. That’s what Bankole and his men have been
accused of frittering away without batting an eye in a
nation in dire need of social services and beset with huge
unemployment numbers.
If these allegations are in fact true, and I have no reason
to believe otherwise, it means these guys and gals just sit
there pocketing our money through the award of fraudulent
contracts in the name of lawmaking for which they’re already
receiving outrageous salaries and perks to be begin with, in
a nation where the vast majority of citizens is forced to
live with less than a dollar a day.
Contracts are the conduit pipes used to siphon our money
into private pockets and that’s why the president has
bemoaned the unusually high costs of projects in Nigeria
compared to similar projects in other African countries. But
it’s not enough to bemoan the situation and the president
must not deal with the cankerworm squarely by bringing the
culprits to book to serve as deterrence.
I don’t know whether Bankole is guilty as charged or not and
I don’t want to pre-judge the outcome of the investigation
because we don’t yet have the facts before us. But this much
I would say for now—his conduct is consistent with that of a
man labouring under the burden of a guilty conscience. And
that perhaps explains the shameless resort to violence to
cover up his tracks while leaving the substance of the
allegations totally unaddressed. As of today, not a single
committee has been raised by the House leadership to probe
these allegations. What does that say about the guilt or
innocence of the House leadership?
Why, it might be asked, was it more important to the House
to expel members of the Progressives than to investigate the
allegations of corruption against the House leadership? That
is not a conduct that is compatible with an innocent state
of mind. Such desperation bespeaks a guilty conscience and I
won’t be surprised if a verdict of guilty as charged is
returned against the accused House leadership.
When we
total the sum, including the costs for the Mercedes cars and
the television sets that is some serious dough that’s worth
fighting and perhaps spilling someone’s blood for, because
not even the famed Mike Tyson earned so much in his long
career in less than one hour of action packed pugilism. And
that would explain why the Speaker staged that fight in the
House that would make those staged in the legendary
Portuguese parliament pale into insignificance. The
Portuguese would indeed be proud to watch the video footage
of how much improvements Nigeria has made to their imported
shows under “Tyson” Bankole.
It may well
be that one of the unwritten qualifications for election
into the Nigerian House of Representatives, which, by the
way, might have been included in the constitutional
amendments proposed by the House, is to be a trained boxer,
wrestler, judo, taekwondo or karate fighter. And a
combination of two or more of the above qualifications might
put one on the road to becoming a chair of an important
committee of the House. To ascend the position of a Speaker
of the House, however, one might need to be a heavy weight
boxing or wrestling champion or, at least, a black belt
holder in martial arts. In addition, he or she might be
required to have demonstrated his or her proficiency to the
satisfaction of the whole House in staged shows in the House
carefully shielded from public glare. And perhaps the
inability of ex-Speaker Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, to
demonstrate her proficiency in martial arts might have led
to her early exit as Madam Speaker thus aborting her
precedent setting tenure. Etteh was a rookie and so was
easily felled and pushed aside even though her alleged
offense pales into insignificance and unremarkable compared
to what is happening now under her successor.
And here is
an important notice to you guys and gals out there nursing
political ambitions. Anyone out there wishing to contest
election for the House of Reps had better go get some hard
training in boxing, wrestling or some other forms of martial
arts. Forget about academic degrees and work experiences,
because only boxers, wrestlers, judo cats and taekwondoists
can make it to House, and if you’re none of the above, then
forget it, unless of course, Bankole doesn’t make it back.
Seriously,
Nigeria must now begin to do away with the practice of
rookie legislators becoming House Speakers and Senate
presidents. It is never done in other democracies where
experience and member rankings matter in leadership
positions. The nation cannot afford to pull people
literarily from the streets and make them Speakers and
Senate presidents as heads of her lawmaking bodies in the
name of zoning. This is another reason why zoning must be
jettisoned now to save our democracy and give the nation the
qualitative leadership she deserves.
Bankole has
proven himself smarter than Etteh and has learnt his lessons
from the previous Etteh episode. He is ready to prove that
he is not rookie Madam Speaker, but King Kong himself, who
could take down his challengers with lighting combination of
upper cuts and dazzling swings to leave them sprawling on
the floor in a state of stupor and taken out on stretchers
by paramedics with their bloodied faces contorted in
excruciating agony suffered from the brutal encounters with
the Lords of the House. Only Bankole could successfully
execute such a fight. Ex-Speakers Etteh and Buhari could not
and they lost out big time.
And the same
fate has befallen Bankole’s determined challengers in the
House. They lost not only the tournament prizes like our
flat-footed Super Eagles, but their salaries as well with
their expulsion or, was it suspension? Never mind, it
doesn’t matter which since, by the extant rules, they may
not even come back to the House before the House ends its
tenure, with Bankole still in the saddle, as their
suspension could be extended by the House leadership under
the House rules.
Yes, Bankole
put up quite a show and the leadership made good its threat
to deal with the “Progressives” for spilling the beans
rather than allowing themselves to be bought up and shut up
as many in their positions might have done. However,
Bankole’s victory might prove temporary and short lived in
the end.
No one knows
how many more episodes of these shows are lined up for their
morbid entertainment. But this one had all the trappings of
a block buster had it been televised live. It was a show
that would have dwarfed the World Cup in terms of
viewership. And if it was syndicated by the NTA with foreign
broadcast media and pay per view outlets, it could easily
have become block-buster shows of the year. Who says our
House members don’t know anything better than writing laws
that would benefit themselves alone? Who says scheming for
corruption is their only forte? And who says they only know
about constituency projects and furniture allowances? Not
true, as they have proved time and time again that they’re
prized fighters as well who could hold their own against the
Mike Tysons and Mighty Igors of the world. Only those who
missed the action in the House would doubt it.
It’s
unfortunate though Nigerians were not allowed to buy tickets
to watch the fights in the House from the public gallery as
the shows were not beamed live on television. Goodness! How
could they have left that out? That was a terrible
miscalculation by the House that seems not to be as business
savvy as it is in hatching corruption schemes to fleece the
nation. Had tickets been sold for the show, the House
members might have raked in billions of naira for themselves
enough for them to keep their sticky fingers from our
national treasury, at least for a while.
It was a
missed business opportunity. Hopefully though some business
savvy Nigerians might cash in and make the full video of the
Bankole House fights commercially available to that those of
us who missed the action live.
While hoping
for a chance to watch the digital reproduction of the
fights, however, we can’t wait for Bankole and his
“victorious” gang members parading themselves as “House
Leadership” to tell the nation what happened to our money in
their custody and the place to make that explanation is the
Economic and Financial Crime Commission otherwise known as
EFCC and the ICPC. That should be the beginning point but
the end point must be Kirikiri or Wuse Prisons. Period. No
mid points. No political settlements. No PDP family matter
bullshit this time around. It’s our money that was allegedly
stolen and someone deserves to cool his or her heels behind
bars, whether or not we’re serious with corruption, bottom
line.
Reports had
it that the PDP Chairman, Chief Nwodo, had summoned Bankole
to Wadata House for a thorough dressing down for the
disgraceful conduct of the House under his watch. Now Nwodo
must not limit himself to the disgraceful conduct, but must
address the real question of corruption at the heart of it.
Nwodo must prove himself in this more so as his predecessor
was thrown out of office on corruption charges. Bankole and
his clique must, therefore, be forced to answer more summon
from EFCC and the ICPC, and of course, the Code of Conduct
Tribunal.
This is a
litmus test for the Jonathan’s administration’s oft repeated
total commitment to the anti-graft war. If truly there are
no sacred cows in the anti-graft war, this is the test of
it. Nigeria, nay the world, will know from this festering
sore case, whether Speaker Bankole is a sacred cow or an
ordinary cud-chewing cow like the others. It’s also a chance
for the PDP to redeem its tattered image.
Did Bankole
say he’s a graduate of Harvard University? One has got to
ask whether it is Mike Tyson’s or Barack Obama’s Harvard?
It’s got to be the former rather than the latter, because a
true product of Obama’s Harvard would not resort to a show
of shame in order to cover up charges of corruption. Rather,
he would welcome, even encourage transparency and
accountability in the disbursement and utilization of public
funds entrusted to his husbandry. And where allegations of
financial improprieties are made against his person, whether
maliciously or not, would promptly step aside to ensure
proper investigation to establish his innocence or, at the
very least, readily submit himself to investigation by the
House Committee on Ethics, rather than resorting to the rule
of the jungle. Allegations are not proofs and only a guilty
conscience resorts to violence to cover up and prevent
investigations into mere allegations to establish their
veracity.
Leadership
uncompromisingly demands transparency and accountability in
public affairs and it is up to leaders to live by this credo
and establish precedent-setting best practices to guide the
nation in all such matters in future. If a supposed Harvard
graduate cannot demonstrate these elementary leadership
qualities in public service, we don’t want another Harvard
graduate in leadership position in the nation anymore!
Bankole is not only a disgrace to Nigerian youths, but a
disgrace to Harvard University and all proud Harvard alumni
in Nigeria and abroad in that he has demonstrated
conclusively that the nation, long betrayed by her older
generation, has no hope in her youths as represented by
Bankole.
Here is a
word of advice for the distinguished Harvard University
though: It bears notice that the famed institution has
become the university-of-choice for discredited ex-Nigerian
public officials. While that might be good news and music to
the ears of its financial officers who are struggling to
balance its budgets, it is bad news for its hard earned
reputation. It should not allow this category of Nigerian
fat cats with obviously questionable sources of sudden
wealth to rubbish its hard earned reputation. The university
must, therefore, begin to look at the caliber of ex-Nigerian
public officials flocking to it to boost their egos with its
credentials before greater damaging is done to its
reputation. Its association and romance with Nigeria’s
political class will diminish rather than enhance its
status.
Harvard
should be concerned with the source of the hundreds of
thousands of dollars they’re bringing to its coffers without
batting an eye, because it is blood money that deprived
Nigerian children education and Nigerian patients basic
healthcare. Yes it is blood money that denied our nation
good roads and responsible for the untimely deaths of
hundreds of thousands in road accidents.
Harvard must
be sensitized to this Nigerian reality. Harvard should care
about the source of the funding by its Nigerian candidates
particularly ex-public officials, because it is blood money
and must not turn a blind eye to its source.
This whole
series of scandals feed into the question about the
direction of the anti-graft war. These allegations must keep
the anti-graft agencies busy 24/7 to get the bottom of it.
The nation is sick and tired of our so-called
representatives turning the business of legislation into a
commercial venture to line their pockets. The nation is sick
and tired of those vested with the constitutional
responsibility of oversight of governmental ministries and
extra ministerial bodies turning around to rob the nation’s
treasury blind through fraudulent procurement contractual
schemes in flagrant violation of Public Procurement Act and
due process. The nation is sick and tired of her lawmakers
buying one unit of television at such astronomical costs to
her coffers seeing lawmakers ridding in limousines, while
the rest of the population rides in Molues and
Danfos and Okadas.
Yet we must
ask why is this matter only just surfacing now? Didn’t we
hear of a Lagos Lawyer, Mr. Keyamo accusing Bankole and the
House leadership of ripping off the nation to the tune of
billions of dollars in a petition submitted to the EFCC long
ago? What happened to its report that was supposedly sent to
the Yar’Adua presidency for action? Did late President
Yar’Adua sit on the report to protect Bankole while busy
chanting zero tolerance on corruption? And if Yar’Adua sat
on the report, why has it taken President Jonathan so long
to move against Bankole as he did to Vincent Ogbulafor, his
own party chairman? Is Bankole a sacred cow or is it because
he didn’t want to be seen as fighting another arm of
government and be accused of witch hunting his perceived
enemies in the House as they did to OBJ? He should not be
deterred by the cries of political victimization during the
OBJ era each time a lootocrat was nabbed by the Nuhu Ribadu
EFCC.
When
Governor Alami Alamieyeseghai of Bayelsa state was nabbed by
the EFCC after he fled from Britain in disguise, it was
because of OBJ’s third term plot; when Governor Fayose of
Ekiti state was impeached, it was because of OBJ’s third
term plot; when his counterpart in Plateau state, the
sleekly Joshua Dariye, was nabbed after he escaped from
Britain, it was because of OBJ third term; when VP Abubakar
Atiku was investigated and found guilty, not only by the
Special Investigation Panel set up by the government, but
twice by the Senate itself headed by Nnamani, no fried of
OBJ, it was because of OBJ’s third term plot. And when
Governor Ibori was being hunted on charges of corruption, it
was because of OBJ’s third term plot and resource control.
Third term bogey was turned into an omnibus defense as if it
is somehow an acceptable defense or exculpating factor to
corruption charges in Nigeria. It is not, period! We’re sick
and tired of these lame excuses.
Henceforth,
whoever is accused of corruption must have his day in court
and establish his or her innocence. That is the irreducible
minimum. The nation is no longer prepared to countenance
these lame excuses and charges of political victimization,
because that does not address the underlying issue of
corruption.
That Atiku,
Dariye, Ibori, Fayose and Alami template is still there for
looters and would be looters to use against him as they did
against OBJ and got away with. Jonathan should, therefore,
prepare himself for similar lame excuses designed to pool
wool over the nation’s eyes and obfuscate the real issues of
corruption with politics. They will accuse him of going
after his perceived political enemies because he wants to
contest the 2011 presidential election. We’ve heard similar
things in the past during OBJ tenure and we will hear them
again and again. They’re all smokescreens. He shouldn’t be
deterred or lily livered and must charge on.
Nigerians
are not interested in paying lip service to the war on
corruption or doing selective prosecution. President
Jonathan should not give the slightest appearance of
indulging in selective justice no matter the personality
involved whether he is a friend or benefactor, because as he
himself has said times without number, perception is just as
important as reality. Whether or not Bankole is the head of
a different branch of the government is totally immaterial
and has nothing to do with his investigation and possible
prosecution, because the Speaker and House members enjoy no
immunity whatsoever from prosecution, unlike the governors.
That is not to say that governors should be treated as
sacred cows, for no one is above the laws.
To
demonstrate his unwavering commitment to the anti-graft war,
therefore, it’s time to haul Bankole and the entire House
leadership before the Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Tribunal or Federal
High Court to face prosecution without further delay,
otherwise Jonathan’s credibility is at stake.
Good a thing
though, both the EFCC and the ICPC are now on top of the
matter as it should be. And given the unprecedented quick
reactions of the both bodies to the petition against the
suspects, there might be hope yet that justice will not only
be done in this case, but seen to be done. Nigerians are
watching with bathed breath in anticipation of what will
come out of this case. We will just keep our fingers crossed
to see where the various investigations will lead
eventually—whether to Kirikiri or Wuse Prisons. That should
be the abode of our treasury robbers.
It is
reassuring to note, however, that the president has
reportedly said that Bankole and the House are on their own,
and therefore, would not interfere with what’s going on
there. That is as it should be and allow the anti-graft
agencies do their job as best they can without any form of
political or executive interference whatsoever that could
amount to obstruction of justice. To that extent, therefore,
I would give the president some credit for issuing that
statement to make that position absolutely clear to all. The
anti-graft agencies must be given a free hand to operate
under the laws and let the courts do their jobs
administering justice with no outside interferences
whatsoever.
In
conclusion, if anyone is looking for the next shoe to drop
after Ogbulafor, he or she might not be altogether mistaken
for looking in the direction of the Speaker Bankole, King
Kong of Nigeria’s House of Corruption. Where else should we
be looking, anyway? All things being equal the shoe might
drop before long in the ongoing efforts to cleanse the
Augean stable and give the nation a new lease of life devoid
of scams, schemes and corruption scandals in high places.
It’s time to say to them: Enough is enough, straighten out
your acts or get the hell out!
Franklin
Otorofani, Esq. contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com
|
