Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo
25 October 2007
opinion
Lagos — When the House of Representatives resumed penultimate Tuesday, it also returned to the fish-bowl, thanks to Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, who remains the Speaker de jure but who de facto, has long lost the instrumentality of office. Initially that Tuesday seemed so far away, like out of Sidney Sheldon's "If tomorrow comes." In spite of its lack of significance in our national scheme of things Nigerians anxiously awaited that fateful Tuesday and when it came, it kicked in hard, culminating with the death of Dr Shuaibu Aminu Safana, the morning after October 17th.
Allow me to return to Segun Adeniyi's style when he penned his column, The Verdict, on this page. Segun almost started a book club, which makes this a page for avid book readers. One of my favorite authors, Ayn Rand, taught the virtue of selfishness and the disintegration of rational inquiry. Her best seller Atlas, Shrugged, is however one book that I return to every now and then. The book was written in 1957. Ayn Rand, a Russian migrant that lived in the USA and became a house-hold name for her teachings on objectivism, was probably the best known and perhaps widest read philosopher of the 20th century. She was a woman of substance.
Years ago when I first read Atlas Shrugged I immediately contextualized it in Nigeria . But little did I know that a stalemate would result from a warped definition of objectivity, a dire need for a political philosophy and a shrug by an Atlas - Umaru Musa YarAdua. Atlas Shrugged is for me a book for all times. It groups objectivism, self-interest and capitalism all in one. In plain text, according to Ayn Rand herself - nature is to be commanded and must be obeyed, or wishing won't make it so; you can't eat your cake and have it too; man is an end himself; give me liberty or give me death.
Nigeria witnessed the disintegration of rational inquiry recently when Patricia Olubunmi Etteh's power rangers insisted that she would be judge in her own case. Looking at what transpired in that dark period of the House of Representatives that culminated with the death of Dr. Aminu Safana, one would expect nothing to follow but recall, to rid the house of the pea brains that turned it into a house of horror. To think out of the box is one thing. But to think stupidly out of the box in order to justify the unjustifiable, for whatever reason, is sure enough reason for an elected representative to be shown the way out.
What the National Assembly suffered was an attempted swindle of N529million. Like the age of a woman, the figure was frequently revised that a country of both Professors Chike Obi and Iya Abubakar, did not know what figure was fiddled with. However, the point remains that a rose by whatever name smells like one.
Where do we stand as a nation when people insist on eating their cake and having it too? While Nigerians have since hung up the velvet gloves they used to treat corrupt public officers, there are those who do not read the handwriting on the wall. Some of them still believe absolutely in the invincibility of bottom power. When Etteh began to shape the House in her own image, she showed every sign of a flawed leader. Her handling of matters proved that she belongs in the hairdressing salon; she showed that she would need promotion to even be a village idiot; that she requires a ladder to climb to the realms of rational thinking and that is why she sped full throttle to graft - that terminus that cut three former speakers of the senate and Salisu Buhari.
When Nigeria drove on this road in the past, it used the one-way-lane. In November 1999 after months of denial over allegations of criminal records and falsification, Evan Enwerem, the speaker of the Senate was booted out. 90 of 109 Senators voted against him. Dr. Chuba Okadigbo who succeeded Enwerem failed to read the writing on the wall. He failed to live up to his admirers' expectation and on August 8, 2000 the senate impeached him, following an inquiry into contract awards, similar to Etteh's. The Senate voted 81 to 14 to sack Okadigbo, after he refused to comply with an earlier resolution asking him to resign or be impeached. Adolphus Wabara fell to bribery in the education ministry. In the House of reps the Speaker, Salisu Buhari, was kicked out and fined a few quid - a mere slap on the wrist - for certificate forgery. How will Etteh be rated against this list of infamy?
Since 1999, the senate chamber had been a glorified pension scheme for the rich and clueless. Nigerians relied on the house of reps for progressive, people-oriented legislation, which is why corruption in the lower house elicits passion. Before he departed, and aware of the potency of the house of reps, former president Olusegun Obasanjo imposed a flawed leadership on the house as proof of his adherence to the virtue of selfishness. The idea was to turn the house into "Ettehville," where no legislation would call the former president to account for his deeds. But Madam Speaker quickly became Madam Sticky-fingers.
She brings us to the next principle in the theory of objectivism that Ayn Rand propounded. Every man is an end to himself. By committing a crime of her own, she proved the well-known maxim, you scratch my back I scratch yours. Etteh is an unapologetic believer in Abuja ability. The syndrome extols the virtues of selfishness. Initially her scam seemed like a foul air that would blow away. But those who supported Etteh, obsessed with power and publicity, demonised the house. Their testosterone level let hell, which hath no fury like a woman scorned, loose. They fought for Etteh like wayward children.
They turned all logic on its head. Accused of violating due process they were bold enough to call themselves the Due Process Group. The group which attempted to swindle the house of N529m could not source N7m to distribute official annexure of the Idoko Panel to members. Etteh and her foot-soldiers showed knowledge of nothing more than "powder and lipstick." Their you-chop-I-chop heritage was too glaring to hide. Her spokesman, Dino Melaye, put it succinctly when he stated that she is a woman "with two boobs; the old sucking one and we are sucking the other."
The biggest casualty in this whole brouhaha is the YarAdua appeal. He has been widely criticised for not meddling. As the nation's Atlas, many interpreted his shrug as an endorsement of Etteh.
Perhaps it is not. Common-sense dictates that people practise what they preach. Considering that his predecessor was notorious for meddlesomeness, Yaradua made sure he avoided the same mistake.
The AC said YarAdua'a silence was not golden. Nigerians must begin to accept consistency even against the groundswell of political mischief. In an interview the president gave a while ago, he showed this consistency. Asked about his simplicity as governor, he responded with the following words:
"You see, I have been praying under that tree for the last 18 years, and I am not about to change now just because I became the governor. My concern is not really for myself, but for women and the children. I do not want them to get used to something, only to lose it some day. As for me, even if I wake up tomorrow and there are no cars or anything, I can adjust, but women and the children find it very difficult to adjust to such changes. This is what makes many public officers to steal money in order to be able to maintain such facilities for their wives and children when they are no more in office."
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