Date Published: 06/10/09
THE POLITICAL OFFICE HOLDERS´ WIVES: WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO TURN NIGERIA INTO?
By Temple Chima Ubochi
Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible. (Margaret Mead)
Intuition is truly a feminine quality, but women should not mistake rash conclusions for this gift. (Minna Antrim)
All young women begin by believing they can change and reform the men they marry. They can't. (George Bernard Shaw)
Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president. (Eleanor Roosevelt)
If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. (Abigail Adams )
Igbo Proverb tells us how “the lizard said that the tongue does not hold hot topics for long (ngwere si n’ okwu di ökü anaghi ano ödö n’ ire)”. This issue deserves our reflection. Another Igbo saying has it that “a land where the women are the mouthpiece of their husbands, is as good as a lost one (ala nwanyi bu onu diya, ala nke ahu aruolä)”. There’s something wrong here. Are we running government by the madams in Nigeria, can things happening in Nigeria happen elsewhere in this planet, have we all lost our sense of direction, why are the first ladies in all the three tiers of government imposing their will with impunity on the people?
The wife of the president is nominating ministers and assigning them ministries by herself while conniving with the Northern Union (NU) and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to northernise the federal government, agencies and parastatals. Ministers are running errands for her in order to earn her favour instead of that of the president, because, they know that her words are like law in Nigeria. Turai YarÁdua is the real president of Nigeria. The crux of this topic is that the wife of the Borno State Governor, Mrs. Fatima Ali Sheriff, just granted amnesty to five female prisoners in the state. She granted the amnesty when she toured some prisons in Maiduguri to asses the condition of prisoners, especially female prisoners with a view to assisting them (Champion June 9, 2009). Not too long ago, the wife of Alao-Akala, the governor of Oyo State, imported contra banned textile materials into the country, had them removed from the cargo airport without them passing through the Customs and without paying the import duties on them. The wives of the local government chairmen in Osun State intimidated their governor into buying each of them a brand new car, but, later, the state house of assembly ordered the local councils’ first ladies to return the vehicles to the Osun State government. The stories go on and on, from one state to the other, about how the first ladies have turned the law upside down and‘ve been contravening the constitution. Who gave those ladies the impetus and audacity to be behaving unconstitutionally? Afterall, they should know that only their husbands were (s)elected to “serve” the people. In as much as they can help out, does not mean they have to usurp the duty of their husbands.
It is the prerogatives of those ladies to behave or live the way they deem fit within the four walls of their homes, but, when it comes to national, state or council matters (as the case may be), they have no authority to usurp or snatch the decision making process from their husbands or to super-impose their will as they were not “elected” into the offices of their husbands.
Nigeria has really gone bananas: The first leaders at all levels of government are supposed to be in the shadow and under the wings of their husbands, but, in Nigeria, they are over-shadowing and over-flying their husbands.
This writer has nothing against the women, as some people might misconstrue my intention here; so before the “feminists” or the “women defenders” or the “emancipated ladies” start murmuring, let them put their thinking cap, let’s not allow sentiment to becloud our sense of judgment and reasoning. We should do things based on how things are supposed to be done and not upside down, afterall, “we are not eating through the anus” (please forgive my vulgarity). If we decide to overlook or support this salient affront to the constitution, the first ladies might misapprehend our acquiescence as a tacit support and might do worse things later.
Many of our women have proved to be high flying achievers; some of them are trail blazers in their different fields. This writer has always extolled the virtues of some of our women and have praised many of them for succeeding where the men failed. This writer thinks it’s high time our men hand over the leadership of the country mostly to our womenfolk since they (men) have been ruling since independence and still cannot get their act together, so let’s try the women for “size”. But that should not be done through the “back door” or surreptitiously.
Here in Germany, the head of the government is a woman and her performance is above average. People like her very well, her party won the highest number of seats during the European Parliamentary election held on June 7, 2009 that will send people to represent the country at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and her party is most likely to win the upcoming German parliamentary election. If that happens, Angela Merkel will continue ruling Germany. The Germans practice a peculiar parliamentary system of government (proportional representation) in which the party with the absolute majority in the federal parliament forms the government. The Parliamentary seats are shared on percentage basis. The Chancellor is the head of government while the president has ceremonial functions only.
In my article of Thursday, August 30, 2007 caption “Prof Dora Akunyili: Blessed among women and in a class of her own”, I eulogized her for the good job she was doing then at NAFDAC, unfortunately she has started “missing her way” since becoming the information minister. Here is an excerpt from the aforementioned article:
“I’ve observed that the women are succeeding where the men failed: Dora Akunyili, Oby Ezekwesili, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke are pace setters. Oby Ezekwesili, who is now the Vice President of World Bank incharge of African affairs, is also a rare breed. Obasanjo brought her over from Transparency International to head the Due Process Office and from there she took over the ministry of solid minerals and then to the Education ministry. She excelled everywhere she was posted to. She was called “Madam due process” because she brought sanity to the contract awarding system which was before she came in, rotten to the core and the easiest way then of embezzling the national wealth. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala contributed more than any other living Nigerian in seeing that Nigeria is a debt-free nation, thereby earning a lot of respect for Nigeria in the international scene. She toiled hard to achieve that feat despite all the organised odds against her and her efforts. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke is leaving an indelible mark in a place that is supposed to be the preserve of men. The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) she is heading is growing and waxing stronger every day. Ndi is doing what the men were unable to do, she is conquering frontiers men found insurmountable.
While these and other achieving women were bestriding the landscape and towering it like colossuses, the men ( be they politicians, civil servants or technocrats) from YarÁdua to the last man were like “dogs with their tails tucked between their legs”. While these women were standing, their male counterparts were crawling (save from this group are some men who are achievers too like Soludo, Ribadu, Rufai and some bankers etc.). Dora is still standing tall, while the politicians right from the president down are quivering. Dora Akunyili is telling Nigerians through her work that we can achieve more, if, we put our minds to what we are doing. While the men are flip-flopping, some of the women (not the likes of Patricia Etteh, Speaker of the House of Representatives) are charting new courses and excelling where the men failed. These women of substance are succeeding because they did not allow corruption to deter them from doing their jobs. The women are succeeding, because, they are not thinking of how to be the richest persons in Nigeria”.
However having wrote all of the above then; it still does not warrant any woman to start carrying out functions nobody assigned to her, afterall, the constitution assigns no role to the first ladies.
That a woman is covertly ruling Nigeria should not make the country a “women republic” and every elected male official a “woman wrapper”. Any woman who wants to wield executive powers should submit herself to the electoral process, if she is elected or selected (as is the case in Nigeria), so be it. The Borno State governor’s wife had good intention for those she granted amnesty, but, she should know that it is the prerogative of the governor to grant amnesty by the fact that the executive powers are vested on him. The Borno State first lady should have given the advice or suggestion to her husband to implement. She has advisory role no doubt, but, she should not cross the “Rubicon”, she should pass her wish(es) to her husband to implement. The power to grant amnesty cannot and should not be delegated, it is an executive function only a governor can perform at a state level.
Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu while commenting on this amnesty granted by the Borno State first lady, wrote: “I am yet to read any part of the Nigerian constitution which empowers a governor's wife to exercise the prerogative of mercy and do jail delivery.... I have not seen any legal or constitutional backing for this action”. Eric Ayoola on his own part, wrote: Can any of those supporting the ultra vires act of the Borno Governor's wife granting of amnesty to prisoners please point to the appropriate part of the constitution that she derived the powers to do so from?
Section 212 - Prerogative of Mercy of the Federal Constitution of 1999 states quite clearly that: - 212.
(1) The Governor may -
(a) grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by any law of a state a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions;
(b) grant to any person a respite, of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence;
(c) substitute a less severe form of punishment for any person for such an offence; or
(d) remit the whole or any part of punishment for any punishment imposed on that person for such any offence or of any penalty forfeiture otherwise due to the state on account of such an offence.
(2) The powers of the governor under subsection (1) of this section shall be exercised by him after consultation with such advisory council of the state on prerogative of mercy as may be established by law of the State.
This is not to say that the prisoners do not deserve to be freed, rather, when we condone illegal acts that appears favourable and humane, how can we then criticise it when the Governor and his wife appropriate public funds for themselves and their family?
Looking at Borno State today, it is not hard to discern why their first lady decided to take the law into her hands. Hussaini Monguno of University of Maiduguri wrote that in Borno, governance is in the name of the son, the wife and the father. In his words: “Borno is gradually becoming the land of despair, despondency and dilapidation; politically that is. That the government of Ali Modu Sheriff has cocooned every one into a shell of desperation is no longer in contention. That every one else, other than himself, his wife and his father, is in dire need of rehabilitation is also not in any doubt. That Borno resembles a land that has repeatedly been serially raped and abused is another dictum. That everything about governance that is not defined in naira and kobo is bunkum is another undeniable fact. How did we, the people of Borno State get it all wrong? The answer to this question can be found in the fact that the very day we all went to sleep and allowed a family of merchants and contractors to corner power was the very day we surrendered our rights and our fate to a clique of people who care less about what becomes of us all.
At the advent of this administration, the politics of Borno State became thugs-infested. A group of miscreants, drug addicts and misfits was unleashed on the people of the state who had to endure with violence, rape, robbery and murder visited on them by what was then known as ECOMOG. The group used to intimidate perceived political opponents and succeeded in putting fear in the minds of the people of the whole state. After a lull, the ECOMOG group has now been re-armed and rehabilitated by Borno State Government in preparation for a fresh offensive on the people.
We are however consoled by the fact that Governor Ali Sheriff is no longer relevant in the politics of the state with the enemies he has made for himself out of virtually all the people. When a mob threw stones and sand on the Governor's father at the funeral of the late Shehu of Borno, the people were unanimous in their rejection of a government that has lost touch with the people. The generality of the people of the state, who have become poorer due to the concentration of resources in very few hands of a clique in a family, are angry with a system that has closed the door of equal opportunities.
Today in Borno State, no one apart from the Governor, his wife and his father can be said to have faired better materially in the real sense of the word. The deputy governor for example, who ordinarily should have been the exception, is about the poorest and the most deprived deputy governor in the history of politics in the country. He is so ignored that he had to sojourn to places like Kano and Yobe, cap in hand begging for patronage to live a decent life.
If you take away three commissioners in charge of the choicest ministries and a couple of permanent secretaries and about two directors, a conservative total number of eight people all together, no one else in the whole of Borno state is any better for it. Even this eight eat out of the crumbs from the table of the master. No local contractor, in fact no contractor of any hue has laughed to the bank because all contracts above a certain limit go to a clique.
We are consoled by the realization that no matter what they do, the end is in sight, we also know that no matter how much they take away, nothing filthy has ever ensured everlasting happiness. If they don't atone for their misdemeanor here on earth, they will surely do that at the appropriate time and in the fullness of time. We have already started seeing the signs that those who must destroy others in order to prosper will have destruction waiting for them at the post of their own success.
Since the advent of the Ali Sheriff's administration, every political step he has taken, has turned in an embarrassing failure. What other signs do we need to tell us that there indeed, is an end in sight for a regime that demonstrated such a debilitating failure instinct?”
About Turai Yar’Adua calling all the shots; we learnt from Mallam El-Rufai recently about how Yar'Adua was removed from EFCC corruption list. There, El-Rufai recounted that when Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC Chairman, compiled the names of "corrupt Governors," Yar'Adua's was initially on the list, but Ribadu was persuaded by Aliyu Gusau (Obasanjo's National Security Adviser) to remove his name ". El-Rufai claimed that it was because of this omission that made some of them to support Yar'Adua for the Presidency. El-Rufai further told us how Yar'Adua was running a caucus-based government comprising close friends and financiers, adding that his wife, Turai, was the person needed to approve policies and contracts "in record time" at Katsina Government House.
We learnt that Turai YarÁdua took $1.5m from one Ukachukwu in order to deliver Anambra PDP to him and that the deal has pitched Turai Yar’Adua against Ogbulafor, the PDP national chairman. We also read how Turai YarÁdua is fighting the minister of agriculture, Alhaji Abba Ruma, who is also from Katsina State and served in her husband’s government when the latter was the governor of Katsina State, to the standstill because she wants to be disbursing the agric ministry’s budgetary allocations herself.
Alhaji Musa Salem wrote this: “I was with the school of thought that President Yar'Adua was responsive when he led Katsina State, but may have changed now he is the President. I now feel that he allowed things that may have changed him. And I believe that the wife's present attitude may be one of the main causes; she refused to be behind. No wonder some people were not happy during Yar'Adua's visit to Sokoto sometime ago. As the President was alighting from the presidential aircraft, it was Turai that came out first, waving to the crowd; she was then followed by Mr. President. That did not please most of the people that came to the airport to receive their President. Some saw it as a sacrilege. Another point is that the almighty First Lady is alleged to have influenced the wedlock of their daughters to the governors of Kebbi and Bauchi. It is being rumoured that a third one is about to be woven around the neck of the Sokoto governor. (I once requested to marry one of the daughters but I was never given any opportunity.)”
It seems that one of the guiding principles of this government is: Once in power, one should allow his wife to be ruling by proxy. Is it still any wonder that Aisha, the daughter of Ibrahim Babangida, was married off to Governor Shinkafi of Zamfara State as his second wife, Zainab, the daughter of President Yar'Adua, was married off to Governor Dakingari of Kebbi State, also as second wife and Nafisa, another daughter of President Yar’Adua, was married off to Governor Yuguda of Bauchi State as the third wife. We should be careful before we continue setting pernicious precedents which will come back to haunt and hurt us the more. An old saying in Igbo has it that “the tortoise farted (fouled the air) and asked his brethren to applaud him for that and they refused saying that evil should not be applauded”.
THE THANXS IS ALL YOURS!!!
Temple Chima Ubochi writes from Bonn, Germany through ubochit@yahoo.com
