After the rough time Mr. El-Rufai had with the Ethics and Privileges Committee of the Senate which had miraculously turned the tables and the accuser had become the accused, bribes were offered thenceforth with a great deal of discretion. It must be mentioned that special notice was taken by the Press of the strategy adopted by |Senate President Adolphus Wabara in his attempt to weather the storm on the N55 million bribe offered by Education Minister Prof. Osuji. Wabara was to deny everything, hang tough and buy time to enable him try to persuade the President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to forgive him. The alternative was to rally his senatorial colleagues to forge a common front against the presidency.
Wabara was still describing the push to oust him as “absolute falsehood,” and Henry Ugbolue, his publicity chief, was railing at a television station which broadcast the news: “why are they allowing themselves to be used to peddle this kind of falsehood?” But later that day at about 3 p.m., disaster struck as the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Affairs, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, brought the report of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with a covering letter from the President. The report, contrary to all Wabara’s protestations, indicted the Senate President, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Azuta Mbata, Senator Chris Adighije, and Senator Okpede, among others.
An hour later, the Chairman of the governing party, the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, arrived to see Wabara on the indictments. It was a brief meeting and Wabara handed in his resignation as Senate President.
Almost simultaneously other bribery allegations were swirling the National Assembly. There was the N15 million offered by the vice-chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri. More “juicy” was the N150 million from the Niger Delta Development Corporation during the Senate screening of nominees. The Independent reported that “its committee on Niger Delta and that of the lower House had a shouting match and almost fought physically in the struggle to screen the nominees because of the huge bribe said to have been offered.”
Ms. ArunmaOteh, ridiculed and victimized by the National Assembly because she had the nerve to reveal that its members asked her for bribes, was not amused. A woman with an enviable education (a first class degree from the University of Nigeria and a Harvard MBA) and a great and rising career abroad, she had been coaxed to return on a rescue mission to save the Nigerian Securities Market. When eventually she came out of the House chamber she shook her head and said: “when I took this job, I was warned that when you fight corruption it will fight back but I did not know the fight would come from the House Committee on Capital Market.”
But it was slowly dawning on Nigerians that the most resilient corruption infrastructure in the country resides in the National Assembly. It is hardened because it wears the toga of a body set up by the Constitution.It maintains a well-oiled support system on the outside ranging from unions through NGOs to vested interests. It has a few minions even in the Press. The consequence is that since 1999 no member caught in corruption has paid the price for corruption. Even the most egregious cases receive nothing but a gentle tap on the wrist.
Nigerians still remember Mrs. Patricia Foluke Etteh, Nigeria’s first female Speaker of the House. She was a hair dresser but she also held a law degree from the University of Abuja. She was a four month flash. Her offence was her seeming extravagance, having awarded a contract for N628 million to renovate her official residence and that of her deputy and the purchase of 12 SUVs. She arrived in June and resigned in October 2007. Her tenure demonstrated there was nothing to choose between men and women in terms of prudence or thrift when it comes to the National Assembly. The row over Mrs. Etteh’s stewardship was so heated that a brawl took place in the House chamber early in October during which one of Speaker Etteh’s staunch supporters collapsed and died.
And among the Speaker’s most vocal critics was Farouk Lawal. Indeed he led what was called the Integrity Group which was totally opposed to Mrs. Etteh.
In January 2012 the issue of fuel subsidies was such that it had brought the country to a standstill and the National Assembly in spite of itself felt obliged to inquire into it. Who else would lead it but the leader of the Integrity Group, Mr. Farouk Lawan. In April, the committee submitted a well received report lamenting that many oil marketers received foreign exchange allocations from the Central Bank to specifically import fuel but had failed to do so. The committee had compiled the list of offenders. Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited and Synopsis Enterprises Limited were in the list. Both belonged to Chief Femi Otedola, the oil magnet who invited Mr. Lawan for a discussion about the fate of his companies. Farouk Lawan, Chairman House Committee on Petroleum Subsidy and Chairman Integrity Group of the House of Representatives asked for $3 million bribe and was offered $620,000 as a down payment to remove the two companies from the list. He collected $500,000 and his secretary Mr. Boniface Emenalo collected $120,000.
The two companies were promptly removed from the list of offenders. “The Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, presiding over the plenary asked the Chairman of the Probe committee ‘Honourable Farouk is this recommendation coming from your committee?’ And Mr. Lawan answered in the affirmative.”
Now, in 2010, Zenon had received $232,975,385.13 while Synopsis got $51,449,977.47 from the Central Bank. Lawan was content to receive $3 million bribe and let the country lose $285 million to Chief Otedola, which gives an inkling how the rich make money in Nigeria.
When the deal leaked, Farouk Lawan denied, denied and denied. And when the facts caught up with him, he changed the story: he collected the money in order to have an exhibit to be used in the prosecution of Chief Otedola. But Mr. Otedola hinted that Mr. Lawan had demanded the bribe, and that he had the transaction in video. That’s when the bottom fell off Lawan’s denials and the Police now stepped into the matter. Four years later, one of the longest serving members of the House of Representatives, elected four times, manifestly caught in bribery, is still walking free.
There is even a dispute about the whereabouts of the cash recovered from Mr. Lawan. The case has gone up and down the court system, that is, from the high court through the Appeal Court to the Supreme Court and back to the high court with no sign that a decision would be reached soon.
NASS: A dark history (2)
