Whenever a strange pregnancy results in a family, there is always gossip within the rank and file of market women, family members and strangers who hardly know the family.  For example, if a black couple produces a purely white baby with blue eyes and silky long hair, such a rare birth may imply that something calamitous has happened.  It is either there is a gene mutation, or the wife was not faithful.  Whatever the case, something would assume to be definitely wrong somewhere.

The recent financial gerrymandering by the Speaker of the House, Ms. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh and her deputy points to a deeper problem within the rank and file of the PDP and the general political establishment in Nigeria.  Whenever such a political mismatch occurs in Nigeria, one then sees politicians who partook in mismanagement: a) Scramble to defend the indefensible; b) If their defense is weak, implicate them, or may not quell the brewing political hurricane, those defenders dissociate themselves from the dubious plans such that the culprit alone faces the music; and finally, c) There might be an invisible hand asking Ms. Etteh to use the renovation to loot and transfer some of the money to his/her account.  Whichever way it goes, it does not look good for a mother and a one in a life time woman Speaker of the House.   The Ettehgate has finally exposed the wisdom of the enemies of Nigeria to be foolishness. 

In a town square, everyone knows who the father of an illegitimate child whose mother pretends not to know and whose father has no clue.  Even, the mother of an unfaithful wife knows but vociferously defends her daughter by comparing the looks of that child to the look of great great-grand parents once removed.  To support the great family name, other family members may give a protracted reason why the child looks different.  But at the town square, everyone may have figured out and put together solid evidence to justify varying assumptions - something is amiss.  The issue with the speaker of the house of representative deserves no less DNA scrutiny.  Even the mother of the Speaker did not waste time defending her daughter.  Our mothers are no longer standing for facts and truth but are ready to defend where their paltry blood support comes.

Ettehgate also, in part, exposes PDP as a party that is imploding through acts unbecoming of any group of patriotic citizens.  PDP’s policy, which President Yar ‘Adua must make concerted effort to change, is to establish ways of sharing Nigeria resources within the party without adding value and to say to hell with all other citizens that are not in the party.  Although PDP projects success at all levels but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that majority of members in the party are spirit dead, unpatriotic, unprogressive, and could care less about the corporate entity call Nigeria.  When it comes to money, PDP makes wrong political move 95% of the time.  Even if President Yar ‘Adua is an honest man, he is still among the wolf that are ready to devour him if he makes what they perceive as wrong move that is stopping them to have devil’s advantage.  The President has decided to eat with the devil and hopefully he has a long spoon.

Mr. Perfect, OBJ, who went after the looters may not be clean himself but he has given his fate to history to judge him very harshly if he did.  All we know is that he set very bad precedence in strategic looting.  One won’t mind if a leader made tons of money by embarking on good policies that grow businesses through which the leader benefit.  But when money is made from selfish policies, citizen’s blood and on pain and sufferings of citizens, all patriotic citizens must make their dissenting voices known.  When we keep quiet to the raping of a nation as long as we partake in the raping, I have problem and God also has bigger problems with it. 

When will Nigerian citizens cry out for justice and stoppage of the criminal looting and awarding of an incongruent, self deprecating, and mind boggling contracts by the political elites?  When will Nigerians rebuild their conscience in order to start assuming positions that are neither safe, popular nor polite?  If we recall that one of the reasons Kaduna Nzeogwu group gave for taking part in the first Nigerian coup was the concern for the 10% contract kick back by early politicians.  If only they knew that decades later, politicians would be getting 200% kick backs without executing the projects.

This reminds me of the joke about a Nigeria and an Angolan that graduated from the same American university and returned back to their different countries.  Five years of practice after graduation, the Angolan invited his Nigerian counterpart to his country.  When the Nigerian arrived in Angola, he found his friend was living in a peaceful and beautiful house relative to people around his neighborhood, and his Angolan friend drove a very nice looking car.  The Nigerian purse for a minute and asked his friend how he managed to acquire so much within five years.  The Angolan responded and pointed the Nigerian to well paved roads and working streetlights and said, “my company was awarded the contract and the company’s profit after executing the project yielded the Directors including himself dividend part of which he used to purchase the house and the car. 

The Nigerian left for home.  After five years, the Nigerian reciprocated by inviting his Angolan friend to Nigeria.  When the Angolan got to Nigeria he found his Nigerian friend with more than fifteen mansions, fleet of exotic cars, and assorted girl friends.  Not to be out smarted, the Angolan repeated the same question the Nigerian asked him in Angola.  The Nigerian friend pointed and said, you see those paved roads, those streetlights, don’t you?  The Angolan friend queried which paved roads and which streetlights?  The Nigerian said, he was given contract to pave the roads and put the streetlights in strategic locations but that he and his partners never executed any of the projects.  However, all of the contract sum which he never shared with his partners bought him the mansions, the fleet of cars and attracted beautiful women.  This is the story of our lives and of our physical, mental, and spiritual developments in Nigeria.

The story of Ms. Etteh is not strange to Nigerians, it is a story within a story and it will never be an outlier in the story of political maneuvering in Nigeria.  Ms. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh knew from the onset that she was representing the best that we thought our young girls, sisters, mothers and grand mothers could offer.  Why did she decide to give up an opportunity to set a good legacy for our Nigerian women and mothers?  Instead, she followed the path of the unholy men in Nigerian politics and became an equal opportunity looter.   As if she was competing with the men that have long lost their spirit to know the truth, speak the truth and act truth, she failed to act in a compassionate way which women with milk of human kindness do.  Now, we are able to observe through Ms. Etteh that education and wisdom, in some sense, work together in building a character of a good leader and she lacks both.  With this act of hers, one may not be able to deny that the systemic corruption, endemic looting and deceit have been permanently engrained in the DNA of Nigerian.  For those politicians that believe that telling lies and looting is part of governance, let them know that diplomacy is not acting on the wrong side of history but on embellishing the truth in order to smoothen out pains that come with telling truths.

Ms. Olubunmi Etteh must quietly resign if she is to redeem her soul, this is the least she can do toward her penance.  Unfortunately, for Ms. Etteh, her plan to live in a mansion has ended her an inglorious home of shame.  We pray that our women will not follow this inglorious path which Madam Patricia Olubunmi Etteh chose to take.  Money and properties when illegally acquired will not build a soul but instead deadens an already irreparable soul.  Nigeria needs a change of guard and a rebuilding of our spirit.  Does Nigerian politics groom heartless citizens? If we groom heartless politicians and citizens, I believe it is time that we become a generation in need of a serious paradigm shift.  May the almighty raise a messiah in the midst of all her unpatriotic enemies – amen.

Robot  # 1 | 04.09.2007 15:20

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