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ABOUT 50 of them came from America, the United Kingdom, Singapore, China and some African countries under the aegis of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation on a courtesy visit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole.
The July 29 meeting was not however, the usual favour-seeking courtesy visit Nigerians are used to; neither was it organised to give a thump-up to the Speaker for doing a good job.
It was, simply put, a forum for the foreign-based Nigerians, to express misgivings about the spate of corruption allegations in the country. A woman asked why Bankole is still retaining his seat when he is facing allegations of corruption. Bankole struggled not to lose his cool in the face of the tricky question.
Ms. Stella Okereke, a Nigerian resident in America, looked Bankole in the eye and threw the bombshell to the discomfort of not only Bankole but other members of the House. She demanded to know why Bankole had continued to keep his seat when a former speaker of the House, Patricia Etteh, was forced to vacate office for a similar accusation.
Okereke was not done yet. The woman said she watched the events of June 22, 2010, in the House, when 11 lawmakers were suspended for their role in the call for Bankole to step down over corruption allegations.
Her words: “When Patricia Etteh was accused of committing crime against the House, it didn’t take a long while before you people pushed her out. Since what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, we are asking why was Etteh punished when we are having the same thing now. Why are you still retaining your seat when you played a leading role to push Etteh out on allegation of corruption.”
Apart from Okereke, others who spoke at the event organised by the Abike Dabiri-Erewa-led House Committee on Diaspora were Mr. Akin Awofolaji, Mr. Ganiyu Dada and Mr. Jonathan Obaje.
While some members of the group demanded a conclusive investigation of all corruption allegations involving members of the National Assembly others insinuated that Nigerian laws appeared to respect some highly-placed persons, a reason probe into cases involving them were always open ended.
One of them cited the N9 billion capital vote crisis in the House, which led to the suspension of 11 members for their leading role in the issue. The group was also not comfortable with the open display of “excessive wealth by Nigerian politicians often beamed to the outside world by international media networks.
Bankole had initially attempted to rush the programme due to his other engagements, especially the inauguration of the controversial Ota Bridge . But he thought otherwise, apparently due to the barrage of questions directed at him.
He first re-directed the questions, especially Okereke’s query to the chairman, House committee on Ethics and Privileges, Sani Sale Minjibir, whose committee is charged with the responsibility of the House’s self-scrutiny. Minjibir was quick to say that Etteh’s case and the allegation of misuse of N9 billion capital vote were not similar. He said a probe committee, which he was a member of, found Etteh guilty of not following due process.
He said: “The conclusion we reached, which has stood the test of time and adjudged alright by my colleagues, established that the former speaker was the person who was driving the procedures and in all the procedures, due process was not followed.”
Minjibir juxtaposed Etteh’s case with the allegation of mismanagement of N9billion spearheaded by Dino Melaye and said, “When we come to the Melaye case, we must always understand that until proven guilty, one is still innocent. As the ethics committee chairman, I have not taken sides with any party. I don’t attend meetings of any of the sides, and my colleagues know that, as I will do justice.”
He continued: “The Melaye’s case pains me. The rule is that members exhaust internal mechanism dictated by the House rule before anything, but these people did not. However, we are already investigating the issue and there is the presumption of innocence until guilt is established.”
The Kano State born lawmaker added, “I am not anybody’s boy; I will do my work thoroughly.” Whatever that means.
Bankole took over even before Minjibir hanged the microphone and admitted that the House position on Etteh was not a judicial indictment. “I will be as frank as possible” he said.
He added, “For the records, Etteh was never indicted by any court, and was not impeached and remains a former Speaker.” He however pooh-poohed over the allegation of misuse of N9billion capital vote because “the matter is already before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission” but chose to dwell on the N2.3 billion Peugeot car scandal.
Bankole did not only say that the lawmakers who raised the issue forged the Peugeot price list to give a misleading impression of him, but added that it is curious that the same group of legislators who were behind the car scam allegation made the N9billion allegation.
He said Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria price list of 2006 was superimposed on the 2007 price list, so as to give the public the erroneous impression that the prices were tampered with. “They did not know that Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited, which supplied the cars, had their official price list.
“PAN was invited and they came with the actual prices of the cars.
“Why would a member of the House go to the extent of forging documents just to accuse Dimeji Bankole?” he wondered.
“And then the issue of payment into Zenith Bank; we don’t even have an account with Zenith Bank,” he said. The speaker wondered why allegations of corrupt practices spring up whenever the House took decision to probe alleged fraud like the N64 billion airport runway project and the N236 billion Abuja expressway contracts. The visitors, Bankole said, should be mindful of distortions and misinformation about the goings-on in Nigeria , orchestrated to paint the House black.
The speaker said there was no doubt that certain forces who felt threatened by some high profile investigations conducted by the House were persecuting him.
He cited, for instance, that the House under him took steps to stop abuse of public funds and ensured that funds appropriated to projects were accounted for. He specifically mentioned the controversial $16billion power sector probe in 2008, which he said, touched on the toes of some powerful and influential Nigerians and asked “did you expect these people to be happy or sit down and watch?
“Why are these allegations coming up each time we are about to conduct a major probe?” he reiterated rhetorically. Bankole also sought to know why issues were always made out of how much the National Assembly spent and not the “positive outcome” of the work of the legislature. According to him, out of a budget of N4.6trillion passed this year, only about N60bn or 1.3 per cent of it was earmarked for the services of the House.
“If you spend 1.3 per cent to ask questions on how the remaining 98.7% is spent, come on, is that asking for too much”, he queried. Bankole reminded that the visitors that enquiries by the House led to the recovery of over N450 billion in 2007 and N350 billion in 2009. He concluded, “I expect Nigerians to ask what happened to the funds budgeted in previous budgets; but positive things don’t make good news in Nigeria.”
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