Letter To Patricia Etteh
By Reuben Abati
 Dear Madam Speaker, I have followed your travails in the past five weeks with keen interest and although I have been one of your more ardent critics, I must admit that you have put into the matter, a lot of energy and determination and you have shown uncommon courage. It is natural for you as a human being to stand up and defend something you have worked for all your life. To make the transition from a beauty shop to the No 4 position in the country is no easy feat. But it is also a mark of virtue to realise when you have been beaten, when the game is truly up.
Every human being should pray for three things, and you Madam should take this to heart: the hindsight to know where you are coming from, the foresight to know where you are going and the insight to know when you have gone too far. I believe Madam Speaker that you are just about to take one more step too far in the current scandal of your office's attempt to squander a whopping sum of N238 million on the renovation of the Speaker's House. Or is it a grand total of N638 million (?) - to cover that expenditure plus the renovation of the Deputy Speaker's House and the purchase of vehicles for Principal officers of the House of Representatives.
Madam, I'll like to score you highly on effort. But I am sorry, the combined effect of whatever you may have done so far has been totally negated by the Idoko panel report and the verdict of the court of public opinion. The nine-man Idoko panel presented its report a few days ago. The chief message of that report is that you have been found to be an incompetent leader. According to the Idoko panel, "due process" was not followed in the award of the renovation and furnishing contracts.
The panel pointed out that the tender for the contracts was not advertised, no bill of quantities and drawings were prepared, there was no provision for the expenditure in the 2007 budget, the companies that were given contracts are illegal entities that are unknown to the Corporate Affairs Commission. You told the panel and Nigerians that the N238 million was meant for the renovation of about eight houses in the Speaker's compound, but the panel found that the contract that was awarded was only for the Main House. You told the panel that the Clerk of the House and his team acted on their own. The panel found that you in fact gave written instructions to the Clerk to act as directed by you. The panel added that the basis for arriving at the sum of N238 million can not be established. And that the House that you want renovated was actually renovated in 2005. What this panel has done is to tell Nigerians that the No 4 Citizen of Nigeria is a liar and a lawbreaker. It is a deep and a sharp cut.
In response you and your supporters have been saying that the panel has not indicted you and that only the House can declare you guilty or not. Some people have also said that the panel has not made any recommendations because it was not given the mandate to do so. With due respect. I will like to put it to you that you have, in fact, been indicted by the Idoko panel. The legal meaning of indictment is not guilt but that you have a case to answer, in other words a prima facie case has been established against you. And looking at the proof of evidence, the case is a bad one indeed. You may argue that nobody has accused you of embezzling money, at least not yet.
But corruption is not just about taking money, the abuse of due process with the intent to manipulate the system in one's favour is also an act of corruption. Your case is worsened by the fact that everything has been conducted in the open. You were given the benefit of fair hearing and Nigerians have all been able to assess the evidence. Indeed, if the Idoko panel had sat in camera, perhaps it would have been possible for the nine members to help cover up the scam. But what the nine lawmakers have done is to protect their own integrity by placing all the cards face up. They are all looking good.
Madam Speaker, one newspaper has written that you are "close to the brink". You don't have to wait until you are pushed off the cliff. The Honourable thing to do now is to resign. With the Idoko panel report there is no other story that you can tell Nigerians. Politics is often described as the art of the possible and here in Nigeria, politicians take this literally to heart. But with the benefit of hindsight, you can easily realize that one of the bitter lessons that some of our politicians have had to learn is that certain things are impossible. Like Obasanjo's Third Term, for example.
Should you continue to stay in office as Speaker, you will create a bigger moral dilemma for yourself. You cannot sit as Speaker when the report is to be debated. To do so would amount to being a judge in your own case! If the House allows that to stand, the Nigerian public will point out the contradiction. With you as Speaker, the media will continue to haunt that House and insist on your impeachment. You will become the issue rather than the business of legislation being the focus. Staying on stubbornly and claiming that resignation means an admission of guilt is just being foolhardy.
The word out there is that you are a victim of Peter's principle: punching above your weight and making mistakes. Do not attempt to reduce this to an argument in a beauty parlour, because it looks like that is what you are now beginning to do. The additional danger that you run is that the PDP leadership may decide to sacrifice you. You are already a liability to the party anyway. It is easier and cheaper to appoint another Speaker than to keep you in that office and expose the party to continued public ridicule. Your fellow women are also embarrassed. Your public opinion rating is low.
I can see that you have tried every trick in the books to defend yourself and this is why I praise you for your effort. You have told us that you are a victim of political persecution. But I really can't see your enemies, or how political persecution pushed you to approve the award of renovation and furnishing contracts running into N238 million. Your argument is not standing on any leg at all. Who are the enemies who put pen into your hands and forced you to approve the contracts? Did these unseen enemies also advise you to give further instructions to your subordinates? And also lie to the investigating panel?
You have also tried to pass the buck to the office of the Clerk of the House, but the damning revelation is that you in fact approved everything. You told the David Idoko panel, which the House under your leadership set up, that you were only trying to help people when you overlooked the fact that one of your aides owns or co-owns all the companies that got the contracts. The good thing about what is happening to you is that it provides you the opportunity to learn some lessons.
You must know, for instance, that in a position of leadership, a leader should not hang himself or herself because he or she wants to help people. Leadership is about doing the right thing at all times. It is about trust and integrity. You also said that it is not your duty nor is it your responsibility to go and check whether or not a company is registered. Leadership is actually about responsibility. I watched you on television and I admired the way you asserted yourself, squeezing your face when necessary and letting the panel know that you are ready to stand up for yourself. I'll like to learn that bit about how to squeeze one's face to make a point. You did a good job of it. As a professional beautician you are definitely more knowledgeable in that kind of matter. But still that has not helped your case very much.
You once said that you expect Nigerians to be grateful to you. You had to leave your job as a professional beautician to come and help build Nigeria. You struggled to win elections twice and you have proven that you can hold your own in a male-dominated political space. You have also made it clear that if you wanted, you could have spent N244 million on hotel accommodation instead of staying in your own house, as you are now doing, with a retinue of unpaid aides who like you are also making sacrifices for Nigeria by sleeping on bare floor. I suspect that you feel really betrayed. Even if you spend N238 million on the renovation of the Speaker's residence, the country would still have been owing you N6 million: an amount which out of magnanimity, I know you would have been prepared to write off as your own modest contribution to national development.
But do not despair. Afterall, in the midst of this storm, some people have chosen to defend you. Your supporters stood up for you when one fellow called you a thief at the Idoko panel, and there was a wrestling and boxing match in your honour. This is a perfect case of an advantage showing up where it is least expected. On account of that parliamentary fracas alone, we now know that there are some people in the House of Representatives who can represent Nigeria in boxing and wrestling, and who can possibly win gold medals. Boxing and wrestling scouts would have to come to the House to call upon some of your colleagues to come and put their talents to use at the Olympics.
You have also received the support and goodwill of Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the Ibadan politician who has said that you are being persecuted because you are a Yoruba woman, and that every Yoruba man will defend you. And indeed I have heard quite a number of Yorubas speaking up for you and trying to exonerate you from the scam. But I am not too sure that this is an ethnic thing. Women groups have also tried to argue that you are being queried because you are a woman. You must know that it is not your gender that is at issue. It is your leadership ability. But I must admit that your advisers have done a good job of throwing gender politics into your basket of rationalizations.
And then your masterstroke: the decision to send the House on a two-week recess. That will give you some time to mobilize support among your colleagues and also reduce the attention, particularly media attention, on what some people are now calling Ettehgate. You must have spent a lot of money too: when someone in your position gets into trouble it is an opportunity for some people to make a quick buck.
I hope you have not spent too much money on consultants and professional advisers who must have laid siege on your office and home to tell you that in Nigeria, anything is possible and that people who committed worse atrocities in the past got away with them. They must have told you that they will "package and manage" your image for you, and that they have the right kind of strategies in their box of magical tricks. I also hope you have not been listening to soothsayers, prophets and star-gazers.
. I want you to take a realistic view of the situation. Resign and still retain a little dignity, rather than wait to be disgraced. Even if you are no longer Speaker of the House, it will at least be on record that you were once the Speaker. You can also draw consolation from the fact that Nigerians forget very easily. Two or three months from now, nobody will remember this moment again. Your Governor in Osun state can even organise a special reception for you at the Osogbo stadium, with Adedibu as Guest of Honour. You'll be surprised that many of your present critics will attend the event.
You must know Evan Enwerem, the former Senate President who died recently. At a night of tributes held in his honour, those who used to criticise him described him as the best Senate leader Nigeria ever had. His impeachment was even upturned post-humously. Don't be surprised if after all this, the Federal Government gives you a National Honour. And in a few years to come, you may even be described as the best Speaker of the House of Representatives Nigeria ever had, a role model and a woman of history. Some people may even offer to write your biography and when you read the product, you will be happy. Your people in Osun may also decide to promote you by sending you to the Senate. This is Nigeria: a country where failed politicians are always rewarded. In the long run, everything is possible. So, you must have the foresight to know where you are going. Wishing you all the best.
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