The troubles of Dimeji Bankole
The line between ‘saints’ and ‘sinners’ in the anti-corruption perception index is becoming thinner and thinner and we hardly know who to believe anymore: between a desperate, unreliably mischievous government with unconcealed motives for repressing dissent or the very political adversaries she throws up for inquisition on the anti-corruption gyroscope. Begging yet the question: are […]
The line between ‘saints’ and ‘sinners’ in the anti-corruption perception index is becoming thinner and thinner and we hardly know who to believe anymore: between a desperate, unreliably mischievous government with unconcealed motives for repressing dissent or the very political adversaries she throws up for inquisition on the anti-corruption gyroscope.
Begging yet the question: are those on the anti-corruption ‘clean bill of health’ only so because they have managed to stay out of incumbency’s trouble’s ways, or are those hounded by the EFCC simply victims of incumbency’s power-play? Because it is now the norm and not the exception that corruption charges –contrived or concrete- against enemies of government have a miraculous way, not only of suddenly coming to life, but indeed of quickly assuming a notoriety entirely their own.
This farce ironically heralded the Jonathan administration with the shock treatment meted to the ruling party’s Chair, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, who suddenly became ‘corrupt’ only after telling truth to power about a most odious and vexatious issue, zoning. And we saw how, with a sickening display of ostensible righteousness, our anti-corruption Chiefs, suddenly remembered, dusted and revived a decade-old case file against the erstwhile chair.
And to leave no one in doubt that the whole gambit was not about corruption, Ogbulafor was replaced, ironically, with an ‘indicted’ former Secretary of the party and the much celebrated case against him was heard no more.
We saw also, before the last Presidential Primaries of the PDP, the EFCC deploying crude anti-corruption tactics of blackmail and intimidation to help whip PDP governors into Jonathan’s anti-zoning rank and file. And no sooner was this achieved than the whole circus around governors ended happily-ever-after. Nor was there better proof that the whole thing was a charade than the surreptitious end to the case allegedly involving my brother, Governor Lamio of Jigawa, about whom the EFCC had already gone to town with a gong.
Then there was the sudden pre-election cat and mouse between the EFCC and Tinubu; and which eventually turned into a post-election bi-partisan love tango with Jonathan’s PDP almost breaking its neck to pay back electoral good turns received from an erstwhile EFCC’s ‘most wanted’. Suddenly Tinibu’s charges went with the winds, confirming the Hausa saying: ‘barawon da ba’a kama ba, sunan shi Muhammadu’ –‘the thief you have not caught, his name is ‘holy’.
And we are expected to jump to high heavens in praise of the anti-corruption Caesarean, Farida Waziri for arresting former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole on corruption charges! But the moment we ask only one out of several other questions: ‘where was Farida when the nation’s coffers became Jonathan’s personal campaign purse and during which the most horrendous, mind-bending campaign spending in the history of politics in Nigeria happened?’, we suddenly become cynical, kill-joy and see-no-good journalists.
The truth is as with virtually every high-profile EFCC case, Bankole’s corruption charges are no less contrived smokescreen for larger political issues. And although entering into a legal discourse on the merits or otherwise of the case could be sub judice, it is safe to say that his ordeal bears the outlines of things past and indeed of the shape of things to come, on the political front. This is without prejudice to whatever facts the commission has against the former Speaker.
That the former number four had for long been a marked man of the Jonathan Presidency will not be news to keen observers of happenings both on the legislative arena and across the executive branch. Chief among issues leading to his travails was his openly pro-North posture both in the trying days of Jonathan’s quest for Acting Presidency and in the subsequent zoning brouhaha during all of which he managed to keep the House unsexed by the Jonathan philandering power mongers. Many say that the President’s entourage believes that Bankole’s totally unsupportive role first in Jonathan’s ‘victory’ over his sick principal, Yar’adua and his eventual ascension to the presidency, revealed deeply inveterate anti-Jonathan sentiment that is not likely to heal even with time or patronage, or both.
They reckoned that left within the ruling party unscathed, such strong, youthful and amiable political character from the deeply progressive South West and one who has endeared himself to and has garnered tremendous goodwill from the North, Bankole, come 2015, could play a crucial role in any northern bid for power when (not if!) Jonathan’s current single-term pledge is jettisoned –as indeed it will be when the time’s ripe. Thus for the Jonathan hawks, the House finance matter was more than just auspicious; it became a heaven-sent double-edged sword as well for political pay-back as for preemptive action.
There is also former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu whose Vice Presidential ambition come the next dispensation is all too apparent; and who believes that his party’s recent electoral performance entitles him to be the man the rest of Nigeria must negotiate with in the South West. He thus views any rival for prominence in the region with hostility and especially the continued presence of the former Speaker in political contention as distracting.
Not surprisingly, his media empire has been playing a damaging role in orchestrating Bankole’s troubles, the objective being to remove any possible South West contender for national prominence from the picture of 2015. In fact the current efforts of the Tinubu group to present their man as the new Awo by deploying strident media attacks against the late sage’s family is enough evidence that in the pursuit of this objective, nothing and no one is sacred. Not Bankole!
In fact former President Olusegun Obasanjo should have more than one reason to delight in Bankole’s current travails; not the least of which would be the vexatious circumstances leading to Bankole’s emergence as Speaker in disobedience to Obj’s counsel. Moreover after the failure of his third term bid, Bankole’s ascension to the position of Speaker represented a second major defeat for Obasanjo, given the fact that the deposed Speaker, Patricia Etteh was his sole candidate. Besides they say that the jostling for influence within Egbaland (which is the traditional homestead of both men), in the tempestuous politics of Ogun State, and Obasanjo’s well known aversion to the emergence of any contending Yoruba forces on the national political arena, makes Bankole’s travails all the more an Obj delight.
Adamu contributed this piece from Abuja