Geoffrey Ekenna

When she was elected on the floor of the House on June 5, 2007, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, was so elated that she went back the memory lane to lift a quotation from a speech made by the late President Ronald Reagan of the United States on his inauguration on January 20, 1981.

Reagan had said, “We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. We are going to begin to act, beginning today.”

The elated Speaker, still savouring her election, did not forget that her election was a historical one. She was Nigeria’s first female Speaker and perhaps, the highest ever-ranking female in the history of the country’s governance.

For she added, “I solemnly promise not to disappoint you. I promise from the bottom of my heart to serve with God’s wisdom, the people of Nigeria and ensure a strong House. I have been summoned by my country to be the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Today, we make history and together, we will steer the affairs of this honourable House.”

Indeed, Etteh had every reason to be happy. Unlike in the Senate, where the Senate President, David Mark, had to battle the former Governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume, before emerging as the President of the Senate, Etteh had no obstacles. Both Etteh and Mark were anointed candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Having been nominated by her fellow three-time member, Alhaji Farouk Lawan, and seconded by Mr. Ita Enang, Etteh’s ascendance was carried by the whole House without an exception. Her emergence was in no little way, a victory for advocates of the affirmative action and great believers in the Beijing Conference. It was celebrated all over the country by the women folk and many of her admirers.

Basking in the euphoria of her victory, Etteh was believed to have forgotten that the seat she took was not only historical, but a slippery and controversial one.

Exactly 145 days later, the Speaker found her back to the ground. Her resignation on Tuesday, October 30 was only a culmination of a long fight she had fought since the news broke that she had indeed stepped on what is popularly known as the “banana peel” in the National Assembly.

Her desire to renovate her official quarters with that of her deputy, Alhaji Babangida Nguroje, and to get some Sports Utility Vehicles for some principal officers of the House brought her into the N628m scandal.

The peel had since 1999, swept away the likes of the first Speaker, Alhaji Salisu Buhari, former Senate Presidents, Chief Evan Enwerem, Chief Chuba Okadigbo and Senator Adolphus Nwabara, as well as a former Deputy Senate President, late Senator Haruna Abubakar. In terms of similarity though, Etteh’s case was similar to that of Okadigbo and Abubakar which, strictly, was about contract scams.

Etteh, who represents the Ayedaade/Isokan/Irewole Federal Constituency in Osun State, walked into trouble in the second month of her stay in office. Exactly on July 12, she had presided over a supposed meeting of principal officers of the House and awarded the controversial contracts. But the meeting, according to revelations at the Mr. David Idoko-led nine-man panel that investigated allegations against her, was only attended by only four of the expected officials.

At that meeting, which allegedly, lasted less than one hour, Etteh awarded contracts to various firms which amounted to N628m. The contract turned out to be her albatross. Earlier, some members had been seething in the anger of the constitution of various House Committees, which was believed to have been done in alleged lopsided manner.

Many argued that not only was the renovation of the houses a duty of the Federal Capital Development Authority, but that the sum allocated for the renovation was outrageous and extra-budgetary.

The uproar generated by the contract award, however forced the House to set up the Idoko panel, which had six PDP members, two from the All Nigeria Peoples Party and one from the Action Congress, to investigate the contract scam.

When she appeared before the Idoko panel on Thursday, September 20, it ended in a fiasco, as House members, loyal to the Speaker and those against her under the aegis of the Integrity Group, fought each other openly. She could not present her defence, but insisted the following day, that she was not guilty. Although, the testimonies of the various members of the management of the National Assembly had implicated her, Etteh held that she followed the due process. Rather, to her thinking, she was a victim of an “orchestrated and well-oiled campaign” by some forces whom she accused of planning to foist instability on the House.

She stated before the panel that the contract papers for the renovation of her residence and that of her deputy emanated from the office of the Clerk of the House and not from her office as alleged.

Pleading her innocence, Etteh said, “For the avoidance of doubt, it is pertinent to state, therefore, that the contract for the renovation and upgrading of the residence of the Speaker was awarded at the recommended sum of N238, 852,192.90 and not N628m as being touted by those who are out to malign my good name and the office of the Speaker.

“Only N59.7m, representing 25 per cent of the contract sum has been paid to date. This amount was guaranteed by a bank bond of the value of N181m.”

Etteh further said that in renovating the house, she saved Nigeria the sum of N244m which would have gone into her lodging in a presidential suite of a five-star hotel for about 107 days.

Despite her claims, when the Idoko-panel submitted its report on September 26, it did no favours to Etteh. The panel established that the due process was not followed in the award of the contract. It said that the procedure followed in the award of the contract showed a disregard for laid down rules.

But any Nigerian who thought that the submission of the panel report was the end of the story for the former Speaker was mistaken. For her, that was the beginning of the real battle to save her seat.

The House promptly became divided along the pro and anti-Etteh forces. A day after the submission of the Idoko panel report, the House embarked on a two-week recess. It re-convened October 16, with many hoping that the Speaker would have resigned. But despite calls for her resignation from many Nigerians, she stood her ground. On October 16, when the House resumed sitting, it witnessed a rowdy session over the refusal of the Speaker to step aside to allow the report to be debated. The rowdy session led to the adjournment of the House for Wednesday, October 17. On that day, the logjam continued, but in a more tragic dimension. Dr. Aminu Safana, a pro-Etteh member from Katsina State, slumped on the floor of the House and was later confirmed dead at the National Hospital, Abuja.

Etteh did not resign even when her party, the PDP, for once, found courage to ask her to step aside. The party said it was heart-broken by Safana’s death and agreed that Etteh should not be a judge in her own case. That was a departure from the boisterous arguments of the leaders of the party that she was not found guilty by the panel.

As is customary during the death of any of its members, the House had sat on October 23, to honour Safana. Etteh had her own game plan. Thus, when the House Leader, Mr. Tunde Akogun, moved a motion for adjournment to October 24, Etteh unilaterally sent the House on another one-week break by ruling that the House stood adjourned until October 30. This was much to the chagrin of both her supporters and her critics. Some analysts believe that the first female Speaker had, by this act, laid the foundation for her sack.

Born August 17, 1953, Etteh, a beauty therapist and hairdresser, is also a Political Science student of the University of Abuja. Given her humble background, her rise to the exalted seat of the nation’s number four citizen has been well celebrated. And with what many would see as her inglorious exist from her position, hers is a case of the rise and fall of a politician.