Speaker Etteh's Travails Have Little To Do With Her Qualifications As A Beautician

By

Dr. Wumi Akintide

WUMIONE@aol.com 

 More grease to the elbows of Dipo Eniola, Seyi Olu Awofeso and Prince Asagwara for their very educative debate on whether or not Patricia Etteh, as an hair dresser or beautician by profession, should be excused or thrashed  for her failing so woefully to live up to expectation as the first woman Speaker in the History of  our country. She has become part of the statistics for failure and she fully has herself to blame and not her educational qualifications per se.

I so much enjoy the debate and all the intelligent elaboration offered by each side. I won't go so far as to blatantly argue as Mr. Dipo Eniola has eloquently done, that Etteh's travails as Speaker, have nothing at all to do with her educational or professional qualifications. In my own book and I could be wrong, they sure do, without any iota of doubt. But her qualifications prior to her appointment as Speaker, are not the only factors to be blamed for her travails. Her up-bringing and value system as a young woman born and raised  at Ikire and environs in Aiyedade Local Government of Osun State, has to be factored into the equation or viewed as part of the problem, left to me alone. Also at play is  the mind set of the Political party to which she belongs, and how far Corruption and Greed have become an incurable cancer in our country, at all levels of Government.

Surely, Etteh's foibles are not going to be the last in our body politic. If a new Speaker is named tomorrow,  don't be surprised, if a few months down the road, her successor is caught in a similar scandal of a different configuration, because our country is just too corrupt and irredeemably heartless in our reckless pursuit of material wealth. There is no question that most of us, if not all, have all lost our sense of decorum and decency for how else can one explain the decision of the Speaker to go spend such a whopping amount on renovating a building loan to the House , so to speak by another branch of Government, the Capital Development Authority. I am almost sure that part of our calculation could be the assumption that she could end up buying the same House for a chicken change of the price at the end of her tenure, just  like Tafa Balogun and his successor were both allowed to buy over the official residence of the IG under a policy promulgated by her close confidant, the former President of Nigeria who still remains the most powerful person in our country by reason of his elevation as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  That is Nigeria for you and me. Anything is possible.  

Academic qualifications per se or lack thereof, are only one aspect of the Speaker's deficit, because I have known  Nigerians who never saw the four walls of a university but have proved by their competence and acquired professionalism, that some or few of them have proved themselves far superior to University graduates from ivy league institutions all over the world.

I once briefly served under one late Mr. M.A. Tokunbo as Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Establishments in the late 60s. Mr Tokunbo was not a University graduate but I could not think of any University graduate that occupied that office after him that could thrash his record in office. Not one. I knew them all. They were all men and women of distinction in their own right, but Mr. Tokunbo was a breed apart and he was in no way inferior to any of them.

His personal secretary at the time, the one and only Alhaji Yinusa Adekoya who is now Kabiyesi the Dagburewe of Idowa in Ijebu  area would testify to what I am saying here, if he ever stumbled on this write-up.

I can tell you that Alhaji Adekoya who later served, side by side with me, as HEO in the same Ministry, later rose to a level 15 administrator in the Federal Public Service before his retirement and coronation as a traditional ruler of Idowa. Alhaji Adekoya had gotten his baptism of fire when he served his pupilage under Mr. Tokunbo, and that was his launching pad to success in the Federal Service without ever going to any University. Education is not the only yardstick for good performance. Patricia Etteh could be an hairdresser and still go ahead to distinguish herself. She failed, because she lacked the integrity and the vision to differentiate good from bad, and to realize that she was not representing herself alone, but the whole of the Yoruba race.

I once proudly served Alhaji Ahmed Joda as Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education in the late 60s to early 70s. Alhaji Joda had  only a Diploma in Journalism, but I can tell you he was decidedly one of the best Permanent Secretaries I ever served under in my entire career, and he taught me much of what I knew. in that Ministry. I talk of the "Ranka Dede" in superlatives till tomorrow because he is a great Nigerian.

Now let us go into the defunct Western Region of Nigeria where the likes of Peter Odumosu, may his soul rest in perfect peace. Odumosu never saw the four walls of a University but he rose to become one of the most effective secretaries to Government of that era, following the tradition and track record of Simeon Adebo. What of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, the late Bateye of Ode, Remo and so many others like him who only attended the University of the street, but turned out to be the best in their chosen field without any exaggeration? I submit as eloquently argued by Dipo Eniola that being a hair dresser should not in any way disqualify Patricia Etteh from being Speaker, if she has what it takes by way of character to occupy that position?

Adegoke Adelabu "Penkelemess" or "Peculiar Mess" never saw the four walls of a University. His highest qualification was  obtaining his High School Certificate with exemption from London matriculation at the time from the great Government College, Ibadan. He was by far the most effective leader of opposition in the old Western Region as Obafemi Awolowo as Premier, once had cause to acknowledge, in a moment of candor, in one of his books. As a matter of fact, Awolowo was forthright enough to generously give some of the credit for the huge success of the old Action Group in the West to the quality of leadership offered by Adegoke Adelabu who, as the  leader of Opposition constantly put Awolowo Government's feet on fire as expected of him, just like the greatest Boxer of all times, Mohammed Ali once credited part of his unparallel glory and adulation in Boxing to his greatest nemesis, the one and only Smoking Joe Frazier, if you can believe that.

When we are talking of men of timber and caliber in Nigerian Politics, I am not talking of thugs and rabble rousers like "the Garrison Commander" Ekerin or Ekarun Olubadan and "the strong man of Ibadan Politics", Alhaji Adedibu or some of his predecessors in Politics like Eruobodo Adelakun or Oredein of the Action group era or late Omo Pupa of Mushin fame. I am talking of men with little education but with a lot of guts  who know what they are doing, not charlatans who just found themselves on the corridor of powers using their bottom power, or institutionalizing thuggery as an instrument of Politics. Those are mere irritants.

Every nook and corners and Local Government in Nigeria have such geniuses and local champions every where you look. In my own neck of the woods in Akure, the place of my birth, I recall with some nostalgia the exploits of some of our local politicians of the Awolowo era in Akure. Two names that readily come to mind are those of Honorable W.J. Falaiye fondly called the Mayor in Akure, in those days, and Pa Fanibuyan Fabuda, one of the most gifted orators and politicians of that era.

A few politicians don't have to be well versed in the Western education per se before they can make a difference and distinguish themselves in whatever position they find themselves. I cannot help but refer to one Alhaji Yayi Akorede, the pioneer Chief Imam of Akure who eventually became a leading monument in the Islamic Movement in the old West and the whole of Nigeria even though he could neither read nor write.

Patricia Olubunmi Etteh was just a disaster not because she was an hairdresser. I will personally attribute her travails in her present position to her lack of judgment and character . That is what it is. I cannot, for the life of me understand what she is still waiting for. She should have realized, if she had enough common sense, that she cannot lead by force.

She has lost every credibility to remain an effective Speaker of the House, and she ought to have thrown in the towel before she suffers another cardiac arrest and die in office like her Doctor colleague who as a medical doctor knew he had serious hypertension and unstable High blood Pressure that should have told him to steer clear of the kind of fracas on the floor of the House that has made Nigeria a laughing stock around the civilized world. Can you imagine a man of his caliber throwing away his life in order to bail out  a totally shameless Speaker who would wait till somebody puts a gun to her head, so to speak, before quitting with some honor left in her survival kit. It is an outrage to say the least! 

I rest my case.

Dr. Wumi Akintide