We do not know of the ulterior and remote causes of the Etteh miscue, if any, but we do know that a case of award of hyper-inflated contract for the renovation of her quarters and that of her deputy was reported and investigated with telling discoveries. It is immaterial that the Speaker might have been ‘innocent’ in the whole saga, probably endorsed the contract under duress or was browbeaten into it by higher forces of interest. What is at stake and what is really disturbing is that the House under Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, has been embroiled in a crisis over approval of a contract – which expectedly passed through her scrutiny, escaped her oversight and which was seen by well-meaning Nigerians as not only outrageous but a slap in the face of the anti-corruption stance of the Yar’ Adua government. It is also disconcerting that the Speaker, after that supposedly scandalous endorsement, waited for the nosy press to scoop it up before reaching out with stories of her innocence. The logic is clear and admits to no ambiguity. The Speaker is culpable. Whatever reasons advanced in her defense, only go to expose the inanity of our body polity. Ethnic jingoists are on standby; trying to unfairly re-brand what was and what ought to be a national disaster. This cavernous hiatus in our sense of probity will certainly prove counterproductive of national interest.

It is inconceivable to expect the Speaker to resign. Not when OPC by the open pronouncement of her founder, Dr. Fasheun, had voiced Mrs. Etteh’s incorruptibility, with undisguised threat to her assumed detractors.  Not when the Ibadan amala politician, the almighty Chief Lamidi Adedibu, had expressed the support of his Garrison fortress to the embattled Speaker. We have effectively shut ourselves out of more urgent national problems. Not even the death of the House Committee chairman on Health after the fisticuff in the lower chamber is expected to mortify the lawmakers and their leaders into civilized resolution of the crisis. It would instead, reach the stage where deputations of elders and PDP apologists would invade the presidency and inundate the press with barely rational versions of the saga, sentimentalize what was in fact a clear breach of trust, cast aspersions at the Hon. Speaker’s real and imagined enemies and call Armageddon on anyone rash enough to dare her hallowed and impeccable seat.

Our nascent democracy is on trial. Nigeria is fast turning into a wild theatre of grave possibilities. This descent through the years, from an erstwhile nation of bright prospects into complete dystopia is most saddening. With the local Government elections gathering momentum in various states of the federation, a new form of electoral transparency is expected but unrealistic. There isn’t enough national reawakening to the monster of electoral dishonesty, instead a kind of tacit validation seems to obtain. The EFCC and ICPC, albatrosses of corrupt politicians, are being checked and vitiated progressively so that the politics of reckless impunity seems on the rise. Electoral materials will certainly disappear in Ghana-must-go bags into the bushes or the houses of anointed political juggernauts. Fictitious results will obtain. In some extreme cases, result sheets of the election would already be in the pipeline awaiting formal declaration after the elections, while law-abiding citizens, disenfranchised, would be too cowed of the levers of power to ever flex a muscle or dare ask questions. There will be – yes, violence untold, leaving in their wake lines of acrimony and vendetta. All these are predictable. And then, the ‘grassroots’ tier of government would be populated with the wrong people, looting the coffers to the health of some illiterate godfather. These politicians who would, on paper be the people’s representatives, would remain hermetically potted from these same masses they purportedly represent, impervious to even well-meaning pieces of advice.

The fact that electoral malpractices, like all other corrupt practices in Nigeria, are deeply entrenched and require more than mere brainstorming is truism. A time has come for the declaration of national emergency on corruption in all its tiers. A drastic situation requires a drastic measure. The Rawlings method is not out of place. Former Ghanaian President, Jerry John Rawlings, piqued at the staggering magnitude of corruption in Ghana then, had lined three former heads of State: Generals Akwasi Afrifa, Fred Akufo and Kutu Acheampong, for the firing squad. But death penalty for culprits of corrupt practices could be tempered with life imprisonment and total recovery of loot. Electoral manipulators, on conviction, should be liable to no less stiff penalties.  It is this method of using stringent punishment as a deterrent measure, coupled with the complete overhaul of our Nigerian mentality and increased literacy that would be the precursor to a fulfilling democratic experience. The electoral reforms should start on the practical side with the local Government elections. The era of utopian and impracticable paper works is over!

Chief Ugwuoha writes from Egbema