NO MADAM SPEAKER, IT’S ABOUT THE PEOPLE

KPerspective October 6 2007

KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE

With REMI AKANO

e-mail: remiakanosr@believeandrepent.com

The House of Representatives is on recess. The recess, according to House leadership, is to enable the Honourable members consult with their people and do committee assignments. This is as it should be and I sincerely hope they spend the two-week period for those two purposes, especially the first – consultation with their electors.

I say that because if they do, they are likely to discover that the people are so disenchanted that if they have their way the House should stay permanently on recess! I am not exaggerating.

Look at it this way: What has this House really been in about 150 days except on recess? The noblest things they have done is to mourn and bury the dead. The rest of the time has been spent scrambling for committee positions, particularly the so-called juicy ones and stage a legislative pugilist of the year show in defence of due process and anti-corruption. To the eternal ‘credit’ of this present House, the nation celebrated her 47^th National Independence Anniversary with accusation of corruption against the Speaker as an ugly backdrop.

Were I to have the privilege of meeting my representative, I would have drawn her (or is it his?) attention to at least two reports that ought to serve as a wake-up call to our so called legislators.

The first is a “survey on best and worst performing countries in Africa”. According to an Empowered Newswire report, the survey, released as part of activities to mark the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, listed Nigeria as 37th in the continent and among the 12 least-performing countries.

Conducted by Professor Rotberg of Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the index gave Nigeria its best performance in security and safety with 62.8 score, followed by 49.5 in human development, 44.3 in rule of law, transparency and corruption and 44.2 in participation and human rights. Nigeria scored lowest where it mattered most: sustainable economic opportunity.

The survey, according to the professor used 58 indicators of governance, and evaluated each of the 48 sub-Saharan African countries according to five categories of analysis. The categories used were safety and security, rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunities and human development. He explained: that the premise for designing the categories “is that good governance is the delivery of essential political goods to the people.”

Speaking on Nigeria’s ranking in the survey, Rotberg was quoted as telling Voice of America: “It is quite clear in Nigeria’s case that you lose massive points for conflict; and Nigeria, as everyone knows, has been under turmoil and conflict. Secondly, Nigeria, according to Transparency International, is one of the most corrupt places on the planet, and corruption loses you many points”.

For reasons of comparison, I would have drawn the Honorable legislator’s attention to a part of the report which reads:” Mauritius was named the best performing government, while Somalia, which has not had a government for several years and is considered a ‘failed State,’ was rated the worst….Among the top best-performing countries in the survey are Seychelles, South Africa, Botswana and Cape Verde…”

The second report which would have put the issue in clearer perspective and hopefully show where the legislature comes into the picture glaringly was highlighted by Kayode Komolafe in his The Horizon column in ThisDay newspaper recently. I seek your indulgence to quote the first few paragraphs of the piece he titled, Compare N686m with N628m:

“Compare these two amounts of money: N686 million and N628 million. The first (about Euro 3.9 million) is the amount the European Union is reportedly making available for the provision of clean water and sanitation in 12 towns and communities of Enugu and Jigawa states. The second figure is the alleged value of contracts for renovation official residences and purchase of cars for some officers of the House of Representatives. Spot the difference. Foreign donors are funding water supply and sanitation with N686 million in a country in which N628 million is allegedly to be spent in renovating official residences of two public office holders and purchase of some official cars.

“In arithmetical terms, the difference between N686 million and N628 might appear marginal, but there is a world of difference between the uses to which they are put in the Nigerian socio-economic and political system. It is this huge difference that clearly shows what hundreds of millions of naira could do in improving the quality of lives of hundreds of thousands of people even at current value of the currency…Three Local Government Areas would benefit from the scheme in each of the two states chosen for the implementation. They are Gumel, Tankarkar and Maigatari in Jigawa; and Nkanu East, Udenu and Igbo-Etiti in Enugu State. It is expected that about 410, 000 people would benefit from the scheme out of which about 30, 000 are considered to be in vulnerable situations. The local governments, civil society organisations, artisans and volunteers would also be involved in the implementation…”

I wonder whether these two reports would have meant anything to my representative or not, but, I certainly cannot see any signs that it would pull any string in Madam Speaker’s heart. And I make this statement very regrettably.

As I indicated in this column last week, I did not want to join in pointing fingers because the report of the Honourable Idoko-led investigation panel was being awaited. More importantly, I wanted most desperately for the right Honourable Patricia Olubunmi Etteh to survive and eventually succeed; to continue the great run of success by the “Esthers” at least pending the time that the “Josephs” of our nation will get our acts together.

Well, the report came and although it refrained from recommending sanctions partly because, its terms of reference had been so craftily worded to avoid that; and partly to prevent a kind of “hung jury”; it did identify wrongdoings. Responsibility for some of them lay squarely at the Speaker’s table; while the National Assembly bureaucracy could be fingered for others.

Predictably, reactions came, as the cliché goes, fast and thick. Calls for Madam Speaker’s resignation top the list. One of the most damning came from PUNCH columnist, Azubuike Ishiekwene who in a piece titled,” It’s time to go, Madam” noted among other things that “The Idoko Panel …has said, unanimously, that the process of the award of the contract was marred by serious procedural lapses. Contrary to the requirement of the Public Procurement Act, the contract was neither advertised, nor was a quorum constituted before it was awarded. The bill of quantities and the technical drawings that ought to have informed a rigorous and competitive process were not filed and some of the companies that got the contract were not even registered as required by the law. On top of this, the speaker’s personal aide, Iquo Minima, who gained notoriety in the last House for slapping a fellow legislator, Emmanuel Bwacha, won the N71m to provide the furnishings. The speaker had approved this sweet deal and other contracts for the renovation six days before she hastily constituted another meeting to ratify the decisions. Her defence that she was misguided is not unlikely, but is at best shallow and at worst irresponsible, given the fact that one of her personal aides benefited directly from the contract. The whole thing was a sham by any standards, which the speaker, in her sober moment, would find hard to explain, even if it had been a contract she personally awarded for the renovation of any of the hairdressing salons in her two houses in Abuja…”

But it is Madam Speaker’s reaction to the reactions to the panel report that I find most amazing. It is her reaction that gives me the impression that the speaker thinks this is all about politics, NOT people, NOT principles, NOT morals and certainly NOT about staying with the solemn pledge she made to the Nigerian people in her first few minutes of taking office.

A statement issued from her office disingenuously, not to say shamelessly, spoke about “emotional blackmail” and described calls for her resignation as “unfair, inaccurate and unfortunate". This according to her was because, “the Speaker set up that probe panel along with her colleagues. She was elected by her colleagues. Only her colleagues can decide what happens next”.

Hear Madam Speaker please: “Those championing this curious cause of ‘Etteh-must-resign’ are those aware of the facts of the case and their campaign is beginning to look like a haunt borne out of hatred. The probe panel’s report has been laid on the table and what it contains are conclusions, not recommendations for punishment. One wonders when non-members of the House of Representatives started deciding how 360-members of the lower chamber run their affairs... “If I get her drift, our representatives have a kind of divine right to shut us out of “their affairs”, once elected. Translation: it’s none of your business, noise makers. Apart from the “small matter” of the credibility of the process that brought many of these representatives into office, since when has the people’s sovereignty been annulled by elections?

She continues: "The House of Representatives is made up of people elected by Nigerians to represent them. Those who elected them trust them enough to do the right thing. The House has procedures and rules on every issue and only members can decide how the House is run…What the procedure says is that the report will be debated when the House reconvenes after its two-week recess…” Due process eh? The same that the panel said was not followed?

Next she said: “…It is therefore unfair and misleading for people to stay outside and tell 360 members of this honourable House what to do. It is like telling Nigerians that the people they elected cannot do the job…When non-members start instructing the House how to run their affairs, then there is cause for Nigerians to worry…” There is indeed cause for Nigerians to worry but not about any infringement of the divine right of self-serving legislators, many of whom were rigged into office in the first place. There is cause to worry when popular opinion of the vocal section of the hunger-silenced majority is being so arrogantly disdained in high places.

Then the clincher: “Nothing in the conclusions of the panel report showed that the Speaker in any way has been indicted…” Well, I agree; black is white and chalk is cheese! If Mrs Etteh sometimes reads her bible, she should please read Proverbs 12:19; 16:18 and see whether she doesn’t need a change of heart.

First published in a Nigerian Daily, the Sunday Independent, published in Lagos Nigeria.

IS THE ERA OF ESTHERS ABOUT TO END?

KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE

With REMI AKANO

e-mail: remiakanosr@believeandrepent.com

Somebody please tell me that this is all a nightmare, a bad dream from which I shall soon shake awake! Somebody, please rouse me from this troubled sleep!! How is it that a nation that’s having the wonderful experience of the era of the “Esthers” is, all of a sudden, being told that it’s all over, before the “Josephs” are ready? How distressing.

Many years ago, the late and (according to me) great Dr Edwin Louis Cole, founder of the Christian Men’s Network, was visiting one of the countries of Southern Africa (cannot readily remember which, now). A group of people had been praying fervently, seeking the face of the Lord for change in their land. Finally, the word came. And it went something like this: “there have been the days of the “Esthers”; now is the era of the “Josephs”. Put very simply, even simplistically, there are those moments in the life of a people when deliverance comes through the womenfolk, but it does come to an end and the men take their place, once again at the head of the table.

As I follow, with amazement the tragi-comedy playing out at the Federal House of Representatives over the award of contracts for the official residence of Madam Speaker, the Honourable Mrs Patricia Olubunmi Etteh and her deputy, I found myself musing: Is it all over; is the era of the Esthers over; so soon; so unceremoniously; so prematurely; and most unhappily of all, before the Josephs are ready?

Esther, for those who might need reminding, was the Jewish orphan girl in the Bible who, under the tutelage of Mordecai, her elderly cousin, became Queen at the imperial court of King Darius of Persia. She was the mother of Cyrus, the commander of the Persian armies. She earned her place in history as the brave young queen who risked her life to deliver the Jews from imminent genocide (please read the Book of Esther). Joseph, on the other hand was the dreamer boy who became prime minister of Egypt against great odds (see Genesis Chapter 37, 40 & 41).

As I implied on this page last week, Nigeria is a nation in search of men; men who have grown out of self-centred maleness into strong Christ-like manhood. That is the explanation for the domination of our national space by a certain crop of women who, like Queen Esther, stuck out their dainty necks in the service of fatherland.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala shone like a million stars, managing the finances of this nation with a certain clarity of direction and an eye on international best practices. Were she anything but a lady of integrity, you can guess what her fate would have been when she finally fell out with the “king.” Instead of becoming Nigeria’s first female Foreign Minister, she would have been guest of Nuhu Ribadu and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Not even Chief Gani Fawehinmi, who fought and won a legal battle against her Diaspora-Fund funded dollar denominated salary, has had anything negative against her person and character.

Obiageli Ezekwesili was, for the most part, the woman with all the difficult jobs. Madam Due Process, as she became popularly known, had to step on several, possibly hundreds of giant toes in her foray into the forbidden territory of price monitoring and ensuring value for each contract-Naira. Recall how she repackaged and branded a vibrant and attractive product out of a dull, drab and unproductive, but rich solid mineral sector of our national economy. Brand MSMD will hopefully never return to the bad old pre-Oby years. And even if she did dive into controversial waters at the Ministry of Education, none could doubt her zeal and passion for change; change for development.

Esther (yes one of them was really so named) Nenadi Usman held her own, first as Minister of State under Okonjo-Iweala and later as her own “man” at the Federal Ministry of Finance. Remember the courageous disclosures about increase in foreign exchange transfers as soon as governors received allocations from the federation account. How the governors sought to skin her alive!

Professor Dora Akunyili, easily the long distance runner is still around. Veteran of many battles and winner of all, she stands tall, an Amazon in the battle against one of the best organized crime syndicates in Nigeria - fake and adulterated medicine importers and manufacturers. It is to her integrity that she owes her continued survival in office. For, were she to have a price, this international syndicate of death purveyors would have paid it.

Ifueko Omogui is also still holding sway at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), restructuring, re-orientating and also, building a brand. So is Irene Chigbue whose success has been relatively modest at the Bureau of Public Enterprises. And I dare mention the calmness and relative dignity with which Remi Oyo carried out her task as spokesperson for a boss unknown for civility! She stood out of a crowd of uncouth and acerbic mouthpieces, conveying Obasanjo’s views without denigrating the opposition unnecessarily and assaulting our sensibilities. It was indeed an era of the Esthers and even the men couldn’t but applaud and ask for more.

Clearly, it is to these women, rather than to her two hardly distinguished terms at the House of Representatives that Madam Speaker owes her election, some say selection as presiding officer of the lower house of the National Assembly and Nigeria’s Number Four citizen. And it is therefore in her ability to walk in the same integrity and character that her position’s tenability would generally be appraised.

But see what we have playing out (by the time you read this, it would most probably have played to a kind of dénouement). Madam Speaker, according to her accusers, approved a certain amount of money for the renovation of her official residence and that of her deputy. They put the figure at N628million. The National Assembly bureaucracy says the project was an upgrade, not a renovation, and that the figure was N591million not N628million. Madam Speaker says the figure is far lower at just over N200 million and in any case she and her deputy would have spent that much on hotel expenses were she to be as profligate and unmindful of the ordinary man as her opponents are making her out to be.

Her opponents say the contract award did not follow due process. She says it did. In passing, perhaps Mrs Ezekwesili should be recalled from her desk at the World Bank to decide who’s right on this score. The Honourable Idoko-led panel established to investigate the issue has been inundated with tons of documents and plenty of sometimes sanctimonious or condemnatory; sometimes forthright or evasive verbiage from witnesses at its public sittings. The panel members have also had the privilege of ringside tickets to one of the most thrilling mixed-grill physical combats in recent times. It was a combination of boxing, kick-boxing and wrestling. Fela would have called it “roforofo fight”, I call it legislative madness. They say they have expunged it from their records and so it did not happen! Thank God, that even if they were to, commando-style, have the tapes seized from the various television stations, they cannot expunge it from our memories.

But, I digress. From the belated rebuttals coming from the speaker’s office, Mrs Patricia Etteh obviously thinks this is a fight for her political life and to some extent, it is. But I think it is much more than that. She needs to ask herself a number of soul-searching questions. Is she totally innocent of the crime she’s being accused of? I mean, was she advised by some brilliant do-gooder to save the nation over N200million Naira from hotel expenses and make a bit of it for herself in the process; thus making a name and a nest-egg? Did she make any promises to those who glowingly eulogized her at nomination, and once in office decide it wasn’t the correct thing to do? What bargains did she make to clinch the office?

These questions and many more go to the heart of some of the things I have been saying on this page. One, that every Christian in public office must live their Christianity to the full, not partially. That is to say the Christian must literally wear the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) wristlet, so that in every situation, in taking any decision, the question rings in his or her heart. What would Jesus have done? Yet if the Church leaves her members to be sponsored to office by people who do not share the values of true Christian living, it will come at a price, the price of compromise. And I have also said that the organized bodies of the Church have a pivotal role to play in this.

I shall refrain from making any pronouncements over Madam Speaker’s culpability or innocence, but there are those, like the writer of this joke, who have: “Epitaph: Here lies the remains of an e-speaker, digital hairdresser, analog friend of baba, 3-terms representative of her people and patriot of the next century who saved her country the ordeal of having to pay the statutorily allowed N2.09345794392million per day in a hotel but chose to renovate and upgrade her official residence for only N238,852, 192.90. She came, saw nothing, said nothing, did nothing. There will be two verdicts: the verdict of the House and the verdict of the people (CyberschuulNewsJoke).

Contrast that with this extract from Madam Speaker’s inaugural speeches: “…I solemnly pledge not to disappoint you. I promise, from the bottom of my heart, to serve with God‘s wisdom, the people of Nigeria and ensure a strong House…My vision is to provide leadership for a re-invigorated legislature that will be responsible and responsive to the yearnings of Nigerians… Let us fasten our seat belts as the flight of the sixth House of Representative of the Fourth Republic of the Federal Republic of Nigeria takes off. By the grace of God, we shall arrive safely at an economically prosperous, politically peaceful and progressive destination”

That’s why I am musing: Is the era of the Esthers unraveling so soon?