January 26, 2010
Speaker Bankole, the recent story about your ownership of a guest house in Abuja and the horrible response written by your Special Adviser on Communications, has finally done it for me. I believe that it is now time to speak some personal truth to you. I can do this because I don’t depend on you for my daily bread. Sometime in 2008, I met you inside your official quarters at Apo Village in company of a mutual friend.
Speaker Bankole, the recent story about your ownership of a guest house in Abuja and the horrible response written by your Special Adviser on Communications, has finally done it for me. I believe that it is now time to speak some personal truth to you. I can do this because I don’t depend on you for my daily bread. Sometime in 2008, I met you inside your official quarters at Apo Village in company of a mutual friend.
I had to tell you that it was a shame on our political institution that the Speaker of the House of Representatives lived in such a building. Paints on the walls were peeling off or faded and there were even cobwebs inside the building. That is why I was surprised when the news about you owning a guest house in Abuja broke. I said to myself “This can’t be true”, and here I was, calling everybody that I knew, defending you. It was the first time I told any of my associates about the disgraceful state of your official quarters at Apo Village, because the official quarters where I met with you that very Sunday Nigeria played Japan at the Olympics Soccer event did not in any way look like the guest house that was posted on the web.
To anybody reading this article, there is no way Dimeji Bankole, in his capacity as the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will invite any dignitary into that Apo Village residence. The Speaker probably figured that he does not want to get embroiled in the same controversy that swept Speaker Etteh out of office. That is exactly where the Speaker is wrong, and for your Communications Adviser to lay the blame for the non-renovation of your official quarters squarely on the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) is not only lame, but misleading. Mr. Speaker, Let me ask you “What is the essence of power without influence?” If as the No. 4 citizen of Nigeria, you cannot use your office to influence the renovation of your official quarters, then you are no more than a figure head, which I doubt very much you are. The jury is still out on the issue of the guest house, but I still hold on to my belief that the guest house does not belong to you personally.
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Let’s leave the house matter aside, because I think that is not the real issue at hand. The real issue at hand is the impact you have made since assuming the position of the Speaker. What have you achieved as a leader? And that is a question, not an accusation. In November, 2009, you stated in an address that close to N500b, representing appropriation from the 2009 budget was still sitting inside CBN vaults, less than one month to year end. But you stood aside and watched as our sick president was forced to sign a supplemental appropriation on his sick bed in January 2010. The question is why is a supplemental required, when you have not even exhausted the yearly appropriation? You can try to explain it, with some legislative jargon, but remember Nigerians no longer care about your explanations. We see all of you in Abuja as jackals, vultures, parasites that feed fat on the sweat and blood of others, and believe me, it’s not going to go on forever, because if you don’t stand for the people you claim to represent, you will be confined to the dustbin of political irrelevance.
Since becoming Speaker, how many bills have you and your colleagues in the House passed that have directly affected Nigerians in a positive way? Yes, the House can claim to have passed several bills during your tenure, but the true test for the House is not the number of bills passed, but how many EFFECTIVE bills were passed? The FOI Bills is still languishing in the House, maybe if it had been passed every Nigerian will have access to information to be able to decide if the Guest House indeed belongs to you personally or not. The CBN Governor is going putting together legislation about setting a Bad Bank and the relevant House committee chairmen are not involved. The Independent Electricity Network Distribution Operators (IENDO) amendment, which is the most important amendment to Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005, is currently languishing inside someone’s Keep In View box at Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Without the IENDO amendment, there is no guarantee that electricity will be effectively delivered to homes, offices and factories, because even if we generate 100,000 MW today, the mechanism for delivering power to consumers is not yet in place. You probably don’t know of this. It is because you have surrounded yourself with sycophants who will tell you anything just to keep their jobs, including lying to you.
Do you know how to turn around your leadership of the House? Hire real legislative aides, not personal assistants, whose main duty is to carry your briefcase and write error-laden press releases on your behalf. You need to hire legislative aides who will work with you to articulate your vision, provide a platform for your legislative agenda and render it in form of legislation. Mr. Speaker, Nigeria is a country of undocumented citizens and you continue to lead a House that has not done anything to remedy this situation. Without a system of personal identification in place, Nigeria cannot prosper economically, socially or any other way. And that is not a curse, it is the truth.
During our brief discussion when I met you in 2008, I proposed the idea of organizing an exchange program that will have a group of legislators from the House of Reps shadow members of the US House of Reps, to really understand the process of law making. Another idea was for legislative aides to do the same with legislative aides of members of the US House of Reps. Needless to say, neither of my ideas was taken seriously. I was okay with that, because I figured two things were happening; it is either, our House of Reps members are so competent that they don’t need to learn from anyone, or they are just too arrogant to be seen as learning from veteran lawmakers. Looking back now, I believe the latter is probably a better explanation why the idea was not taken seriously, and unfortunately, we see the effect of the combination of arrogance and ignorance of our lawmakers today in Nigeria. Hon Speaker, your Chief Whip could not even answer simple questions at the last Chinua Achebe gathering. When someone asked him where he got the money to buy the $30,000 wristwatch he was wearing, he could not give a coherent answer. Instead, he said he was a rich man before becoming a lawmaker.
Mr. Speaker, do you actually believe that the current disdain with which politicians treat Nigerians will continue forever? Well, I am happy to inform you that it will stop in 2011. The wind of change is blowing, and if you don’t live up, you’ll be blown away. Mr. Speaker, in order to remain relevant, you need to act up to your nickname – “General”. Lead your men to start solving Nigeria’s problems. My mother was once one of your biggest fans, but the last time I spoke with her, she said rather resignedly “Speaker na ti di ara won” translation “Speaker has joined the looters” Is this going to be your legacy?
On a final note, I would like to argue that your adventure into Ogun State Governorship politics is ill-advised. If I were advising you on your political future, I will advise you to forget about becoming Governor of Ogun State and focus your attention on the job at hand, that of the Speaker of the House. Consolidate your influence in the House, pass laws that directly affect the people positively. If you do well as Speaker of the House, you will have an easy election to the Senate in 2015. Guess what? Based on your party’s political arrangement, the Senate Presidency is zoned to the South West in 2015. With good planning and a solid pedigree from being the Speaker of the House, winning the Senate Presidency will be a cake walk. Stay in the Senate for 8 years, and again based on your party’s arrangement, you will be well placed to run for the Presidency in 2023, assuming PDP has not unraveled by then. If none of your advisers has discussed this plan with you, then, I am sorry to say you have the worst set of advisers, and you need to get in touch with people who can really support your legislative agenda. Your foray into Ogun Governorship has not been beneficial to you in any way. In fact, you have made more political enemies in Ogun State than political friends.
Quick question. What happened to all the exercise books your political organization took to Abeokuta South LG to distribute to students? I know the LG Chairman did not allow your team to distribute the materials. Where are the exercise books now? Rotting away in a warehouse or they are being used to sell Guguru and Epa by the road side? Speaker, the truth is that all the people urging you to run for Ogun Governorship are either lying to you or they just don’t have a clue. The worst part of it is that you are fighting a new war with old tactics. I remain your fan but not for too long, if you continue down this path of joining with these old men that have ruined our country. I leave you with a line from the late Dipo Shodipo (Pope). He said, “E s’aye re. Eyin t’aye ba kan. E s’aye re. S’eyi t’o se, ore mi ojo n’lo. Eyi ti o ba se, la o royin. S’eyi t’o se ore mi ojo n’lo ”.
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I had to tell you that it was a shame on our political institution that the Speaker of the House of Representatives lived in such a building. Paints on the walls were peeling off or faded and there were even cobwebs inside the building. That is why I was surprised when the news about you owning a guest house in Abuja broke. I said to myself “This can’t be true”, and here I was, calling everybody that I knew, defending you. It was the first time I told any of my associates about the disgraceful state of your official quarters at Apo Village, because the official quarters where I met with you that very Sunday Nigeria played Japan at the Olympics Soccer event did not in any way look like the guest house that was posted on the web.
To anybody reading this article, there is no way Dimeji Bankole, in his capacity as the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will invite any dignitary into that Apo Village residence. The Speaker probably figured that he does not want to get embroiled in the same controversy that swept Speaker Etteh out of office. That is exactly where the Speaker is wrong, and for your Communications Adviser to lay the blame for the non-renovation of your official quarters squarely on the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) is not only lame, but misleading. Mr. Speaker, Let me ask you “What is the essence of power without influence?” If as the No. 4 citizen of Nigeria, you cannot use your office to influence the renovation of your official quarters, then you are no more than a figure head, which I doubt very much you are. The jury is still out on the issue of the guest house, but I still hold on to my belief that the guest house does not belong to you personally.
articleadslinks
Let’s leave the house matter aside, because I think that is not the real issue at hand. The real issue at hand is the impact you have made since assuming the position of the Speaker. What have you achieved as a leader? And that is a question, not an accusation. In November, 2009, you stated in an address that close to N500b, representing appropriation from the 2009 budget was still sitting inside CBN vaults, less than one month to year end. But you stood aside and watched as our sick president was forced to sign a supplemental appropriation on his sick bed in January 2010. The question is why is a supplemental required, when you have not even exhausted the yearly appropriation? You can try to explain it, with some legislative jargon, but remember Nigerians no longer care about your explanations. We see all of you in Abuja as jackals, vultures, parasites that feed fat on the sweat and blood of others, and believe me, it’s not going to go on forever, because if you don’t stand for the people you claim to represent, you will be confined to the dustbin of political irrelevance.
Since becoming Speaker, how many bills have you and your colleagues in the House passed that have directly affected Nigerians in a positive way? Yes, the House can claim to have passed several bills during your tenure, but the true test for the House is not the number of bills passed, but how many EFFECTIVE bills were passed? The FOI Bills is still languishing in the House, maybe if it had been passed every Nigerian will have access to information to be able to decide if the Guest House indeed belongs to you personally or not. The CBN Governor is going putting together legislation about setting a Bad Bank and the relevant House committee chairmen are not involved. The Independent Electricity Network Distribution Operators (IENDO) amendment, which is the most important amendment to Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005, is currently languishing inside someone’s Keep In View box at Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Without the IENDO amendment, there is no guarantee that electricity will be effectively delivered to homes, offices and factories, because even if we generate 100,000 MW today, the mechanism for delivering power to consumers is not yet in place. You probably don’t know of this. It is because you have surrounded yourself with sycophants who will tell you anything just to keep their jobs, including lying to you.
Do you know how to turn around your leadership of the House? Hire real legislative aides, not personal assistants, whose main duty is to carry your briefcase and write error-laden press releases on your behalf. You need to hire legislative aides who will work with you to articulate your vision, provide a platform for your legislative agenda and render it in form of legislation. Mr. Speaker, Nigeria is a country of undocumented citizens and you continue to lead a House that has not done anything to remedy this situation. Without a system of personal identification in place, Nigeria cannot prosper economically, socially or any other way. And that is not a curse, it is the truth.
During our brief discussion when I met you in 2008, I proposed the idea of organizing an exchange program that will have a group of legislators from the House of Reps shadow members of the US House of Reps, to really understand the process of law making. Another idea was for legislative aides to do the same with legislative aides of members of the US House of Reps. Needless to say, neither of my ideas was taken seriously. I was okay with that, because I figured two things were happening; it is either, our House of Reps members are so competent that they don’t need to learn from anyone, or they are just too arrogant to be seen as learning from veteran lawmakers. Looking back now, I believe the latter is probably a better explanation why the idea was not taken seriously, and unfortunately, we see the effect of the combination of arrogance and ignorance of our lawmakers today in Nigeria. Hon Speaker, your Chief Whip could not even answer simple questions at the last Chinua Achebe gathering. When someone asked him where he got the money to buy the $30,000 wristwatch he was wearing, he could not give a coherent answer. Instead, he said he was a rich man before becoming a lawmaker.
Mr. Speaker, do you actually believe that the current disdain with which politicians treat Nigerians will continue forever? Well, I am happy to inform you that it will stop in 2011. The wind of change is blowing, and if you don’t live up, you’ll be blown away. Mr. Speaker, in order to remain relevant, you need to act up to your nickname – “General”. Lead your men to start solving Nigeria’s problems. My mother was once one of your biggest fans, but the last time I spoke with her, she said rather resignedly “Speaker na ti di ara won” translation “Speaker has joined the looters” Is this going to be your legacy?
On a final note, I would like to argue that your adventure into Ogun State Governorship politics is ill-advised. If I were advising you on your political future, I will advise you to forget about becoming Governor of Ogun State and focus your attention on the job at hand, that of the Speaker of the House. Consolidate your influence in the House, pass laws that directly affect the people positively. If you do well as Speaker of the House, you will have an easy election to the Senate in 2015. Guess what? Based on your party’s political arrangement, the Senate Presidency is zoned to the South West in 2015. With good planning and a solid pedigree from being the Speaker of the House, winning the Senate Presidency will be a cake walk. Stay in the Senate for 8 years, and again based on your party’s arrangement, you will be well placed to run for the Presidency in 2023, assuming PDP has not unraveled by then. If none of your advisers has discussed this plan with you, then, I am sorry to say you have the worst set of advisers, and you need to get in touch with people who can really support your legislative agenda. Your foray into Ogun Governorship has not been beneficial to you in any way. In fact, you have made more political enemies in Ogun State than political friends.
Quick question. What happened to all the exercise books your political organization took to Abeokuta South LG to distribute to students? I know the LG Chairman did not allow your team to distribute the materials. Where are the exercise books now? Rotting away in a warehouse or they are being used to sell Guguru and Epa by the road side? Speaker, the truth is that all the people urging you to run for Ogun Governorship are either lying to you or they just don’t have a clue. The worst part of it is that you are fighting a new war with old tactics. I remain your fan but not for too long, if you continue down this path of joining with these old men that have ruined our country. I leave you with a line from the late Dipo Shodipo (Pope). He said, “E s’aye re. Eyin t’aye ba kan. E s’aye re. S’eyi t’o se, ore mi ojo n’lo. Eyi ti o ba se, la o royin. S’eyi t’o se ore mi ojo n’lo ”.
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