NaijaLeaks: A Speaker so disgracefully indiscreet

NaijaLeaks another torrent

If we thought the Nigerian version of WikiLeaks (NaijaLeaks) had stopped like a case of a plumbing mishap, we were met with another seemingly shocking exclusive released as a teaser by the 234Next.com newspaper yesterday.

As we discussed the issue on Twitter, it did not dawn on us that the exclusive being announced was sourced pre-emptively from WikiLeaks where the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives had met with the then US Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders in 2009 to discuss a number of topics that included electoral reform, the fight against corruption, the presidency and the then recently conducted rerun of elections.

Once again, there are sensational and headline grabbing points that jump out of the cables [1] which I believe would be covered extensively by other newspapers and blogs, there are more pertinent issues however that inform the quality of these cables.

If we were under any illusion about the job description of an ambassador only being the representative of a country and its interests to another, we might have missed out the additional work being done that in non-diplomatic terms really is espionage, spying, subterfuge, suborning and eliciting information from the powerful and in the know whose egos when adequately massaged will reveal almost unprintable material.

The Speaker’s Weakness

The Speaker it was suggested had become a confidant of the President leading the Ambassador to expect to glean a lot from the meeting but it appears she was not prepared for all that she heard.

Certain elements of the Speaker’s character were described in the cable, it would appear that not only was he a speaker, he was a talker and garrulous at that; I having seen him on the BBC HardTalk programme; he does appear smug too.

The Speaker, the cable avers is known for his gregariousness, reading through the cable, this was offered hardly in praise but more in derogation that the Ambassador was keen to take advantage of. The precursor to the meeting suggests he was sometimes elusive but certainly ego-driven.

Gregarious generally means being sociable which is a good trait of politicians; it also means the seeking and enjoying the company of others – in the presence of other powerful people or those who accord the person a sense of importance, this trait can lead to delusions of grandeur, exaggerations, assuming airs, indiscretions and worse as the cable refers to rumours of his abuse of power.

A man full of himself

As a senior politician, he had opinions that he freely shared about every issue he was asked about but there seemed to be a wide gulf between his actions and his good intentions which was evidenced in his suggesting receiving inputs about electoral reform from civil society but had not to that time when asked consulted with civil society.

In fact, it was the Ambassador that informed him of which organisations to consult with and she offered to facilitate forums about such matters; this considering he was supposed to be a high-ranking representative of self-same people he should have consulted before.

The ambassador observed “Changing his entire body posture” and this must have been the Speaker getting quite comfortable to be as indiscrete as one fully inebriated or as one tweet suggested, he succumbed to the effects of administered truth serum.

There are many instances where the cable suggests the Speaker lead and helped the Ambassador further her inquiry as the cable used phrases as “Given that Bankole had opened the door”, “taking the queue (sic, that should have been cue) and implication on board”; it appears the Speaker could not exercise restraint as he claimed, he stated, he added, he lamented, he agreed, he said and it is doubtful that he can at the revelations of this cable suggest he was quoted out of context – he appeared to be in his full garrulous element exhibiting all gregarious traits bordering on a Williams Syndrome trait; the unusually cheerful demeanour and ease with strangers.

She gets more than she expects

The Ambassador [2] comes with glowing credentials that make for her ability to tease information out of Nigerians with ease, with degrees in international relations and having held sensitive policy advisory positions in the US government, she had every making of an interrogator handing you a glass of wine with a smile whilst getting all she planned to get out of you.

Everyone who seems to have conversed with her appears to have been too forthcoming for comfort, however, having massaged the ego of the Speaker the revelations in this cable are not only scandalous but call into question the whole democratic experiment in Nigeria as one hardly representative of the people, the fight against corruption being one of personal vendettas and gaining pecuniary advantage, that electoral reform might not produce the real dividends of free and fair elections, that the justice system had been completely suborned and money shielded criminals from prosecution.

Not a pretty picture of the Speaker of the House of Representatives who cannot keep his mouth shut and definitely not a pretty one of Nigeria’s immediate future.

Sources

[1] 234next.com | Wikileaks CABLE: 'Supreme Court Bribe'

[2] Robin R. Sanders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigeria: We must make the case at the Supreme Court

A transcript is required

There would be continuous commentary and analysis of the judgement offered by the Federal Electoral Petitions Tribunal yesterday regarding the validity of the election of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

However, I do not think we can objectively comment on these matters till we are provided with the transcript of the judgement which was read for well over 3 hours.

Now, the needs for justice as we are sentimentally inclined to have desired might not have been served, but the one for due process and its legal requirements have been served.

A case must be made

I am concerned that the judgement came out as unanimous, but that simply implies that the case and evidence presented by the plaintiffs did not convincingly satisfy the judges beyond reasonable doubt – which meant they could not find in favour of the plaintiffs.

I also worry that the executive inadvertently tried to influence or interfere with the proceedings by plucking the chairman of the tribunal out for the post of Associate Justice in the Supreme Court of Nigeria – that really should have waited till all proceedings in which the judge might have been found to have a professional duty and honourable cause had been completed.

Law of evidence not weight of sentiment

In all, it appears the evidence gathered for presentation has to attain a higher standard of quality to admissibly influence judgement in favour of the plaintiffs, they do have their work cut out.

We also have to note that justice in and of itself cannot exist in a vacuum; it needs to operate in the context of the society in which the laws that govern that process thrives.

If the election of the president had been annulled, the order of precedence which is in complete disarray at the moment with the annulment of the election of the senator who also happened to be the Senate President would have had us going to the 38-year old Speaker of the House – the 4^th in line.

It would have meant all houses of legislature losing their leadership as the executive goes into meltdown and the Speaker tries to steady the ship of the our great nation for possibly 90 days.

Not with this INEC

Conducting another election under the auspices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which still has Professor Maurice Iwu as chairman would have been untenable.

We still have no confidence in the ability and competence of that organisation to run free and fair elections, they cannot now suddenly have gained the competence to perform, rather they might just have perfected how to cover up the loopholes the tribunal proceedings might have exposed.

The plaintiffs do have a solid case and have another opportunity make that case better at the highest court of the land and to seek justice with a judgement in its finality because inadvertently, the tribunal might have shied away from the culpability of plunging the country into chaos.

Prove the case convincingly

I would hope the President would move speedily to overhaul and revamp INEC with more trustworthy and competent leadership and when this case does get to the Supreme Court, one would expect the newly appointed Associate Justice to recuse himself from participating in a case that is reviewing his earlier opinions.

I would say, things are working, so far, so good, those whooping for joy now might soon be in a different state of mind.

If we believe that the elections in April 2007 were flawed, rigged, rotten and falsified, we need to gather unimpeachable and incontrovertible evidence, then present such with excellence before the learned judges – the dry-run at the tribunal should be lesson enough for all concerned - the judges need to be convinced.

Advance! Nigeria! Advance!

Nigeria: Abusing the Honours System

Honoured for service

A few years ago, my father was honoured with a chieftaincy title by the king of our hometown; when I heard of the news, I was certainly pleased for him knowing that he had been conferred this honour by reason of his work and commitment towards the development of our town.

Of his generation, he stood out as one who gathered the people, engaged his peers and encouraged the powerful to raise the profile of the town. Titles like these are primarily the means by which clans and tribes are able to honour leaders in their communities.

The electrification project, the building of the cathedral, the refurbishment of the primary school, the building of the secondary school, the mentoring of the younger generation – they were hallmarks of his service – work of over 40 years rewarded by a grateful people and their king.

The patriot that he is, I am definitely not and if he bore his traditional title in formal address, I would not begrudge him.

Dishonouring honour

However, I worry about the way titles and honours get dished out by whim or caprice by any traditional leader of the hut, hamlet, village, great city, tribal land or kingdom.

Everyone gets conferred with a chieftaincy title such that we are probably running out of people to give modernistic irrelevant but trendy titles that the pets might begin to feature in these ceremonies.

Ológìní of Gbókítí (Cat of Tumbler) or Ajáọba of Mẹ́ranyìí (King’s Dog of catch the goat) – The imaginary places could easily be your homestead.

People go out of their way to flatter and aggrandise themselves before traditional leaders who in turn are captivated and entranced by the show of wealth that could be used to buttress wanton excesses in the throne-room.

Honours by the basketful

This all for the sake of being addressed as chief with the most prized title being Otunba (Right-hand man of the king), though, I rarely see anyone interested in being the left-hand man of the king. You wonder if the king has lost a hand in battle.

I remember when Gbenga Daniel, the governor of my home state, Ogun State ran for election in 2003, he had already bagged about 50 chieftaincy titles from literally every named habitation in Ogun State and more from other states.

He is formally addressed as Otunba Gbenga Daniel; his wife currently holds the fanciful title of Yeye Aare Ajibosin of Owu kingdom and is addressed as Yeye Olufunke Daniel. Yeye being a synonym for mother in Yoruba.

Honours from anywhere

You then have people who seethe with religious addiction and superstitious stupidity whilst in the bondage of subjectivity that gives more credence to evil than good conferred with church or mosque titles.

Reverend, Canon, Venerable, Imam we know, but how would one handle titles which have become the formal style of introduction as Deacon, Senior Assistant Evangelist, Prophet, Apostle, Pastor, Senior Prophetess, Mother-in-Israel or Iya Adinni to mention a few?

This has become the raison d’être of the Nigerian elite, you are nothing if you are not titled, even if the title is conferred by some backwater king who has a wicker stool for a throne and nothing more than loincloth to retain his decency.

Bastardisation of Nigerian honours

A more recent development grates me, after the hairdresser hair-singe of Madam Etteh the erstwhile Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, the new 38-year old Speaker was conferred with the national civic honour of Commander of the Federal Republic.

Members of the House have taken umbrage about the class of honour and remonstrated that as the fourth citizen of the country, she should have received a higher honour because of her status and especially where the Chief Justice of the Federation who is lower in the order of precedence (seventh) has received a higher honour.

I am afraid; this clearly shows that our representatives are clueless about how honours systems work. This is not some conferment that comes by reason of office; it should come by reason of having a track record; a history of service. News of those honoured.

Two Ts short of a citation

Mr Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker, who has not yet been subsumed into the chieftaincy morass of Yoruba culture happens to be the son of a high-chief in Egbaland who goes by the chieftaincy title of Seriki Jagunmolu of Egbaland so, some of those titles might be on the way. I would not be surprised if people are not already needling some backwater king to make him Chief Chatterbox of Backwaterland.

It would go without saying that Mr Bankole’s political base stems from the influence his father exercises and the failed political forays into seeking popular electoral office; it could well be that coming from the same city as the last President (Olusegun Obasanjo) is a coincidence.

I am not convinced that Mr Bankole has the track record or body of work in service of Nigeria to be conferred a national honour at all, we only have to see what the Chief Justice of the Federation brings to the table.

Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, was called to the bar at The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn on the 20^th of July 1965 and he enrolled at the Nigerian Law School on the 22^nd of July 1966 (I have records of all lawyers registered in Nigeria up until mid-1990 since I worked on publishing a Legal Desk Book for 1991), he became a High Court judge in 1976 and was appointed to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1992, then became Chief Justice in 2007.

I think this citation would read for minutes and would attract deserving applause without having to consider the fact that he has been elevated to the post of Chief Justice.

The embarrassing thing about Mr Speaker’s national honour would have been the way the citation would have been bloviated with verbosity and filled in to justify the act after just 4 months of becoming the Speaker for a term that should last 4 years, although he has been a representative since 2003 - the key fascinating fact would really be his age, for which many clapped; everything else is par for the course.

Honour should come after service

However, one only has to see examples in the United Kingdom where Tony Blair was Prime Minister for 10 years and quite visibly a world leader for most of that time – he was not conferred with honours during his term and having left office he might not be conferred with honours for another year or so.

This does not mean he does not deserve honouring; at least a knighthood, but the case in Nigeria might well be compared with giving a Nobel Prize in some science to someone we anticipate would come up with a ground-breaking idea because he is a scientist rather than because of the work that has been done that has served humanity.

In the end, if people are honoured long before they should be with honours way beyond what recognition they should get, the whole exercise is cheapened, and it is made it worthless in the face of many other Nigerians who have no political influence but are even worthier and more deserving of accolade and honour.

The honour should not have been conferred at all, at least not at this time; but until we have objective representatives who are not caught up in the tide of emotion, we can expect such idiocy to grab the headlines.

Etteh resigns!

All for themselves alone

After 5 months of being inaugurated, the House of Representatives have finally reached a major breakthrough about deliberations concerning the people of Nigeria – just themselves.

They have wasted valuable parliamentary time which should have been addressing the serious challenges of Nigeria probing the order for a NGN 98 million or $824,000 body massager that was refused along with the $5 million renovation of the Speaker’s and her deputy’s residences with 12 cars to boot.

It is a shame that a woman attained such a high office in Nigeria and squandered it on greedy megalomania and self-aggrandisement forgetting that she could have been a beacon of hope to all womenfolk not only in Nigeria but Africa at large.

Raised to disgrace

But this is what happens when an “uneducated” beautician is politically imposed on a process by godfathers who have no scruples, whose corrupt claws can be found in everything that makes the democracy in Nigeria a shambles.

The height of the probe into these rotten activities of the Speaker came when a squabble ensued during deliberations and one of her supporters got roughed-up, he suffered a heart attack and died.

To crown the disgraceful situation, a plenary session was held in memory of the hapless politician, I could not find the words to express my disdain – I kept my peace.

As the House tried to debate the findings of the report that probed these activities, the Speaker wanted to sit as chairman of that session rather than recuse herself – well, as if a stark illiterate or a politician given to the culture of impunity that grinds Nigeria to halt would appreciate the need to do the right thing.

The opposing representatives who call themselves the Integrity Group, makes me wonder if there can ever be a politician of integrity rather that self-interest in Nigeria; apart from the “servant-leader” who cannot find a hospital in - the whole length and breath of mighty - Nigeria for a check-up that he has to go to Germany – Again!

Splitting hairs pro-tempore

It got to the point where they were splitting hairs – well, a beautician would know about that – as to whether to have a Chairman pro-tempore or a Speaker pro-tempore to preside over the meetings. These people can leave you completely breathless, they know all about politicking but nothing about the responsibility that comes with having a mandate.

It appears after all the disgrace that has been heaped on Nigeria by these shameless, congenitally corrupt grubs who call themselves representatives through conduct that would unbecoming of the most disreputable criminal organisation that could ever exist, the Speaker has decided to step aside.

Resigned?

Well, the BBC says she has resigned and a temporary speaker, a man has been selected to preside over these meetings – it is unlikely that another lady would be given a new opportunity to take that chair, but hopefully, ex-President Obasanjo would keep his hands out of the cauldron this time – so much for having a protégé that can been hounded out with disgrace.

For now, I have no word for all those who thought the survival for Patricia Olubunmi Etteh meant upholding the dignity of the Yorubas; or that it was just politicking even though that played a major part; you should hold your heads low in utter shame even though none of you would find redemption in sackcloth and ashes.

How long shall we have to glaringly see wrong hit us in the face and do us grievous damage and still insist everything is alright?

Starting with the cabal that makes up the leadership of the ruling party and their cohorts, you are the shame Nigeria needs to be rid of, like cancer, you must be excised and burnt as blubber – you make me utterly, utterly sick – Urgggghhh!

References

PDP liable for worsening House of Reps crisis

Etteh: Follow Due Process, Yar’Adua Tells House Members

Pugilistic debates in the Nigerian Congress

Filthy house of dirty ambitions

Speechless did not begin to explain my emotion when I heard of the cost of renovation on the Speaker of the House of Representatives’ official residence in Abuja, Nigeria.

At about $5 million one would have thought she was breaking new ground for a residential complex rather than making the residence more to her liking after the erstwhile occupants vacated the premises.

Really, one does wonder what exactly needs to be done to the residence that with the ensuing uproar and calmour three major contractors have pulled out of the renovation exercise.

OANDA quotes the exchange rates at 1 US Dollar = 126.826 Nigerian Naira or 1 Nigerian Naira (NGN) = 0.007885 US Dollar (USD), so the oft touted figure of NGN 529 million is really closer to $4 million; but I did not notice Gordon Brown of the UK having craved residing at 10 Downing Street for a decade write out a gravy train contract to cart all the chattels from the Buckingham Palace into the Prime Minister’s residence, just because he could.

Megalomania par excellence

Nigeria however offers an interesting view of the corruption of just acquired power and the megalomaniacal delusions of grandeur that consume the sensibilities of the few who forget their mandate of service for the wanton plunder of the nation’s resources for self aggrandisement.

All the three previous renovations to the residences of the Speaker and the Deputy since 1999 add up to NGN 21.7 million with the latest work being done in 2005, what could have been done to the houses to exact 24 times the total cost of all the previous renovation work leaves one quite bemused, but I am not aware of a blitzkrieg over Abuja in the recent past.

All sorts of things are awry with this project as the owners of the property the Federal Capital Development Authority which should have been involved in the renovations has never been consulted for these activities and even the contractors are not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Madam Speaker is the 4^th in line of succession of Africa’s most populous democracy needs to exude her status and the rigours of office have required the installation of a NGN 98 million body massager, though it is not clear if this was for her or some other representative.

Thieves are not honourable at all

The mind boggles as the hoodlums who stole the elections in April 2007 have found time to install a 9-person panel to investigate how the Speaker is living up the life of Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba combined and leaving them out in the cold to make bricks of straw for their huts.

Having no mandate, it is no surprise that the people who have no respect for democracy, no mandate from the people of Nigeria but having grabbed power by blatant daylight robbery now settled to debate on this matter as Barbarians and Philistines would do, they rained blows on each other on the floor of the House as the Speaker got hurried out of the House.

The House then went into closed session where murder might just be routine as thieves cannot be expected to have honour amongst themselves – at no time has the real desire for democracy where the elected are aware of their responsibilities to the electorate been so pertinent as in Nigeria today.

This is a shame, we have more problems in Nigeria than to have reported in the international news that dishonourable and disgraceful idiots who now represent Nigerians are intelligently attending to the matters of the nation by using their fists – even boxers have rules of engagement.

Shame!