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Nigeria's Madam Speaker in the eye of the storm

Joel Nwokeoma - 8/31/2007

If media reports in the last few days in Nigeria on the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, are anything to go by, it seems then that the woman popularly called Madam Speaker on the floor of the lower federal parliament, has inadvertently hit a rough patch of sorts in her bourgeoning political career. And, it is one bad patch that might lead to her taking a big tumble from her Olympian political heights to the abyss of ignominy and desertion, if care is not taken.

Not too long ago, the three-term law maker from Osun state was on Cloud Nine, when she was figuratively forced down, as some accounts say, on her party and colleagues in particular, by external forces leading to her eventual emergence as the first female speaker in the country’s political history. This automatically made her the fourth highest political office holder in the present democratic dispensation, a no mean feat by all consideration, the first time a woman would get that far in political leadership in Nigeria.

But as the master story teller and internationally renowned author and novelist, Chinua Achebe, would say, those whose nuts are cracked by benevolent spirits do not know what others less fortunate contend with. And, perhaps, I dare add, do not also know that those “less fortunate” might wish that the benevolent spirits would turn their backs on their wards. But, it looks as though that the “fortunate ones” almost always tend to overreach themselves, and in the process lay themselves bare. History is replete with such. And the list might include the name of a certain Mrs. Patricia Etteh.

Madam Speaker’s traducers, and many they and their camp ever increasing by the day, believed by many to be led by the immediate past chairman of House Committee on Information, Mr. Halims Agoda, are calling for the head of the hair dresser turned lawmaker for what they described as her “perceived lapses” in office by approving the award of a whooping N628 million contract for the renovation, not construction mind you, of the official residences of the Speaker and her deputy, Babangida Ngoruje.

The Speaker’s latest tribulation is coming quickly on the heels of the controversy that trailed her reported birthday bash which was said to have held in Maryland, U.S. The media was awash with reactions to the reported bash such that while many accused her of insensitivity and called the reported bash unconscionable, the supporters of the Speaker countered that she traveled overseas on health reasons, and not to celebrate any birthday. She was still smarting from the bad press when the report of the “Rumble in the House” over the award of N628 million contract for the renovation of her official residence tumbled in.

According to an obviously outraged Mr. Agoda, “it amounts to moral struggle to justify that we commit tax payers money to that tune to renovation of official residences of two principal officers”, alone. Many other members of parliament, like Mr. Patty Etete, representing Ikot Ekpene Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom and Malam Abdullahi from Kebbi, perhaps on a newly discovered mission of reinvention and redemption, reportedly called for an outright investigation of the contract in order to “clear the name of the House” as well as “restore its dignity”.

Support, however, quickly came the way of these “crusaders” from the Action Congress, which in recent times has positioned and turned itself into a credible bulwark of constructive and meaningful opposition in our polity, (you recall the organized campaign it orchestrated and sustained to force a hitherto reluctant Vice President Jonathan Goodluck to tow the line of his boss and make public his assets declaration form).

In a statement released in Abuja by its spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed the other day, the party called for an urgent probe of the alleged “unnecessary” renovation expenditure incurred by Etteh and her deputy to ascertain whether the contract award conformed to due process and was indeed budgeted for by the House, while lamenting that “such extravagance made a mockery of the dire living conditions of millions of Nigerians.” Besides, the party was livid that in “an era of transparency” an award of a “huge contract worth N628 million naira to three firms” was made “through the notice board of the National Assembly and without the knowledge of most members of the House of Representatives”.

The Action Congress posed two very pertinent questions which Madam Speaker would evidently be constrained to answer, and which are dear to the hearts of lovers of good governance in the country. These include: “Even if the new official residences were to be built for the these principal officials, should it have gulped such a huge amount of money, especially at a time when the country can use such resources to fight rising insecurity across, maintain roads that have become death traps and rehabilitate the power plants to remove the darkness that envelopes Nigeria at night due to massive load shedding? Even if the houses to be renovated were of Arabian-night standard in terms of size and opulence, should they have gulped such an amount?”

As weighty as this allegation might seem, the camp of Madam Speaker does not seem bothered a bit, instead they have been unhelpfully dismissive and needlessly diversionary in their response. Responding through the chairman, House Committee on Information and Orientation, Melaye Dino, it said that the “attacks on the Speaker was sponsored by unseen hands who are yet to come to terms with Etteh’s historic emergence as the first female speaker of the House”. As if oblivious of the uproar in the House, and polity in general over the reported contract scam, Dino went forward to admonish those he accused of “unnecessary backbiting” on the virtues of “forward looking than to succumb to distractions”.

Pray, does that response make sense to anyone? Or, put differently, has Madam Speaker answered the questions being asked by Nigerians, through those seemingly agitated concerned legislators, whom a recent study showed a large proportion of which are homeless while others live in squalors, even in so called big cities like Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. And this while their Speaker “renovated” her ‘palace’ with a princely sum? Is it still not indicative of the incidence of historic disconnection of Nigerian rulers from the governed, which has become a trademark of our democracy since 1999, where (s)elected political leaders lead a provocatively opulent life while majority of the citizenry subsist in deprivation, poverty and neglect?

Much more than anything else, beyond tongue in the cheek defence and responses, Nigerians need and demand answers and clarifications from our leaders on their activities in office. In particular, therefore, Madam Speaker would do well to explain, as they say, the facts-behind-the-figures on the contract hullabaloo, and not hide under a leaking cover of being hunted for being “the first female speaker”. It is then we can say ours is a working democracy.