Ogun’s House of Commotion

Comfort Obi

The sacking of the majority members of the Ogun State House of Assembly, led by its garrulous Speaker, Hon. Tunji Egbetokun, by the minority members stinks of the absurd. But Ogun State is the permanent residence of the absurd. Since 2003 when Otunba Gbenga Daniel took over the running of the state, with a bunch of juvenile House of Assembly members, and especially since 2007, the state has been a theatre of the absurd. Egbetokun had it coming. Since he and his group sacked the former Speaker, Titi Oseni, for alleged closeness to Daniel, nothing has worked. The state has been static. Everything has been politicised. Democracy dividends are no longer taken for granted. While the people are suffering, and asking who cursed them with the crop of politicians who bestride their state like a nightmare, the politicians are on an ego trip, walking with a swagger.
I have since lost hope that anything good can come from the crop of politicians Ogun State parades at the state level. I thought they have so descended to the gutter level that they can no longer be worse. I was wrong. Now, they are beneath contempt. What has gone on in the state in the past three weeks is frightening. And you simply ask: When will the good people of Ogun state have a breather? The current shame in the state began this way.
The craze amongst state governments is bonds. It is now like a competition. Truth is, nobody knows exactly, except in a couple of states, what they do with the bonds. They would reel out a chain of infrastructures which they want to use such bond to provide. A whole lot of the projects they claim they want to use it to execute are white elephant projects. They neither benefit the state economically, nor does the common man gain anything from it. I equate it with the craze for airports and state universities. Almost every state governor wants to build an airport and a university. They neither take into consideration the viability of such projects, nor their maintenance. Such projects are just status symbols. The governors are on an ego trip. But I digress.
So, like a whole lot of his colleagues, Daniel decided to take a N100 billion bond. But Ogun state is like no other. Members of the State House of Assembly are divided into two camps. The Speaker, Egbetokun, leads 14 others who are loyal to those opposed to Daniel. The remaining 11 are loyal to Daniel. The Egbetokun camp are in the majority. So, literarily, they have made governance hell for Daniel. Nothing goes easy for him once it gets to the State Assembly. On more than one occasion, they refused to clear a couple of Commissioners-designate sent to them. But trust Daniel. He usually finds a way around it. Once, they accused him of swearing-in Commissioners without confirmations from the House. Both camps are engaged in a dangerous battle. He hits them, it is alleged, by refusing to fund them. They are cash-starved, they claim. So, when Daniel sent his Bond papers to the House for approval, they threw it back at him. An angry Daniel lamented that the state would be worse off if the Bond is not approved. Not surprisingly, they wondered why Daniel would want a Bond in the twilight of his administration. His tenure ends on May 29, 2011. They allege that he wants to pocket the money, or at least, part of it. But Daniel explained that the Bond issue has been on the cards since 2007. The cross-fire between the two camps got so ridiculous Speaker Egbetokun challenged Daniel to a debate on the issue. A date was chosen, and renowned economist, Professor Pat Utomi chosen to moderate. Then, things got more ridiculous.
In one of the most irresponsible words to come from anybody in recent times, Speaker Egbetokun alleged, publicly, that he was offered the sum of one billion Naira in bribe money to approve the Bond for Daniel. The implication is that Daniel wanted the bond so desperately (for personal use?) that he would be prepared to give out a billion Naira from it. But we shouldn’t take Speaker Egbetokun for his words. He is lying. And that is putting it mildly. Why would anybody offer him one billion Naira in bribe money? At his level, how can he be this ridiculous? If he is not lying, let him make public the name of the person who offered him the money, and on whose behalf. He said he rejected the money. So we clap. Not so fast. The Speaker is not patriotic. In deed, he should have resigned as soon as his claim was published. Here is a Speaker who presides over lawmakers, telling us that he was offered one billion Naira bribe, and he let the person go free. He does not mention the name of the bribe giver? He did not take the money and use it as evidence? He did not report the person? Obviously, the insinuation is that the offer came from Daniel’s camp! And this man, who has been giving Daniel hell, allowed the purveyor to go scot-free? Bribe giving is a criminal offence and Egbetokun would have been so glad to nail Daniel.
So, what is Egbetokun’s punishment? After the false allegation, capable of setting the state on fire, the Speaker is still walking free. The Police did not arrest him, or invite him for questioning in order to learn more from him on how state funds are wasted to bribe people like him. Neither the EFCC, nor the ICPC, invited him for questioning. They did not call him to prove his allegation so that the bribe giver could be arrested. Need we then ask why lies and gossips and fabrications thrive in government? Anybody can just fabricate anything and get away with it. In more civilised countries, Egbetokun should have been behind bars by now for making such wild claims. But he is free and still talking. No wonder the minority camp in the House did the unprecedented. They sacked the Speaker and his group, appointed a new Speaker, and for good measure, approved Daniel’s N100 billion Bond as a gift for providing them logistics! Just imagine! Eleven people sacking 15. Now the Speaker and his group have recovered from their initial shock. They reconvened this other day in, wait for it, a primary school in Ijebu Ode (not even in Abeokuta), suspended the other group, and cancelled Daniel’s bond.
Problem is: while this nonsense is going on, governance is suffering. The people suffer untold hardship. The state is in a state of comatose. Just when will the people of Ogun State chase these jesters out of the court?