Date Published: 08/21/09
BANKOLE’S LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES
By Kayode Odunaro
Every leader in a societal setting is faced with one challenge or the other. In addition to the effective management of human and natural resources, in a political setting, leaders are often challenged by internal and external opposition. How they manage and survive the challenges are what determine the success or otherwise of leadership. The challenges could come in form of low capacity of personnel, inadequate resources, dissatisfied and disgruntled opposition and sometimes things referred to as “Act of God” for which no man can be held responsible.
For Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker of the House of Representatives since November 2007, his leadership acumen has been tested on virtually all these fronts except perhaps that there has been no “Act of God” like natural disasters that no man have control over. Surprisingly, Bankole to the admiration of his supporters and consternation of his political traducers has not only surmounted the challenges to his leadership but also achieved some unprecedented feats along the line.
But a recurrent and regrettable challenge to Bankole leadership of the House were attempts targeted at unseating him as the Speaker by the inordinate ambitions of some members and selfish agenda of outsiders. It started just a day after his popular election with a purported allegation that Bankole never served his country as a member of the NYSC. Were this to be true, this would have been the “banana peel” to remove Bankole in record time just hours after his election. Of course, this was the antics of reactionary forces trounced in their bid to impose another leader on the federal legislature body after their original choice was enmeshed in a contract scandal. Friends/colleagues NYSC members soon came out with photographs of Bankole in service and finally, the discharge certificate had to be published on the front pages of national newspapers to send these atavistic forces to temporal abeyance.
But this was a temporary set back for those against Bankole leadership of the most democratic institution in our nascent democracy. From attack on his person, his traducers move on to attack on the institution of the House under him. This followed series of activities of the House under Bankole’s leadership in the area of investigation into key sectors of our national life which affected not a few powerful interests who now vowed to stop Bankole’s reformist agenda. Also not a few public officials and civil servants were angry at him for spear heading the move that led to the unprecedented return of over N450 billion unspent fund in 2007 Budget.
The opening for attack came shortly after Bankole reconstituted the House’s Committees and those that lost out of the so-called “juicy committees” became fodders in the attack on the institution of House of Representatives. Using an activist lawyer, Festus Keyamo, and documents that were later discovered to be faked and forged, a serious allegation of corruption was raised against the House leadership in the purchase of Peugeot 407 cars for House’s Committees oversight activities. While it lasted, the controversy generated overheated the House and virtually grounded all its activities. At the end of an open and exhaustive investigation, the House’s Ethics and Privileges Committee found that Bankole and the leadership of the House were blameless in the whole saga. Not only was it proven that the decision to purchase the car was that of the whole House through an Executive Session Resolution but it was also shown that the National Assembly Management handled the purchase directly from PAN which saved the nation over N1billion were it to have be purchased from car dealers in term of normal markup, a usual practice that Bankole changed. But more interestingly, it was revealed that Keyamo paraded faked and forged documents in the pursuit of the case and he was recommended for investigation by the police and other security agencies. To prevent this eventuality, Keyamo quickly ran to the court to obtain an injunction stopping his investigation.
More challenges for Bankole leadership was still to come as having failed in the attack on his person and the institution he leads, the attackers on Bankole’s leadership went after his family in the allegations on the N5.2 rural electrification contract. Without any evidence, the companies of the father of Bankole and his younger brother were alleged to be beneficiary of the contract for rural electrification. But try as they did, nobody could pinpoint any of the companies charged to court as belonging to the family of Bankole. So this leadership challenge aimed at casting doubt on the integrity of Bankole through his family who have right anyway to get contract also faltered as it was based on fiction.
Indirectly again, those bent on upstaging Bankole’s leadership went after other members of the leadership with sundry allegations of corruption against the Chief Whip, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, the Majority Leader, Hon. Tunde Akogun and the deputy Majority leader, Hon. Baba Shehu Agaie spearheaded by Hon. Dino Melaye. The allegations were in relation to assignments that these House leaders were given to perform namely, the celebration of 10 years of Democracy, the House Retreat and the Afro-Arab Parliamentary Conference respectively. But at the point where there is need to establish his allegations that held the nation spell bound for weeks in expectation of upheaval in the House, Hon. Melaye did a volte face and ‘seriously apologize’ to members and the House! He said his issue was merely a case of “social sins” of Hon. Ihedioha for being ‘arrogant’ ‘highhanded’ and of ‘non-performance’! So a plot targeted at creating a domino effect to unseat the leadership of Bankole failed.
Now the present plot is to allege that Bankole is a ‘tyrant’ by a faceless person/group sending text messages without any point to prove tyranny against Bankole. Obviously, the allegation of tyranny is based on Bankole’s penchant for preventing the usual leakages of funds that had been in place through the ‘business as usual” corruptive tendencies. The charge is that Bankole is not allowing “money to flow” into pockets. Example of such was Bankole’s insistence on return of unspent fund from the House 2008 budget. But Bankole, whose stand is based on a generational need to run an accountable and transparent legislature and to reverse some of the wrongs that had bedevil governance in the past is sticking to his gun and luckily, a majority of members are behind him in this. Indeed, his shunning of corruptive tendencies and his majority support from members are the sources of his staying power in the onslaught against his leadership.
In face of all these challenges, Bankole has chalked up unprecedented feat in two years that the House has not achieved in the first 8 years of democracy in Nigeria. In the area of law making, the House under Bankole passed an unprecedented 59 bills into law for good governance of the country. The House also passed over 80 resolutions on various aspect of our national life. In two years the House received 500 petitions from members of the public and so far 350 have been successfully disposed of. In the area of oversight Bankole leadership has redefined this function of the legislature. The investigation of its Finance Committee among other things unearth the fact that over N 3 trillion that was collected by revenue generating MDAs was not remitted to the Federation Account as they should constitutionally in the last five years alone. A bill is presently in the House to put a stop to this constitutional violation.
In the Power sector, the investigation into the Power sector reforms of the last administration by the House revealed colossal waste, absent of proper planning and misappropriation. The investigation has the positive effect of forcing all stakeholders to do what is right including the return of contractors back to site they had abandoned. Similar rot has been unveiled in the oil sector of how oil blocks are auctioned without payment to government coffers. In the area of representation Bankole led House is equally working to fashioned out an electoral system that would make the votes of the people count as well as constitutional amendment to address shortcomings of the 1999 Constitution. All these were done by Bankole led House in spite of all the challenges thrown at his leadership.
But Bankole need not dismay and should remain steadfast as all great leaders worldwide are faced with challenges aimed at removing them from office or even aimed at eliminating them altogether. Chief Obafemi Awolowo had serious opposition to contend with but that did stop his greatness in history. Charles de Gualles, the leader responsible for the French Fifth Republic Constitution that brought democratic stability to France, had 21 attempts on his life. And Winston Churchill, the Great Britain World War II leader that saw Britain through many crises had opposition that ensured his removal from office shortly after the war. But that did not stop his record as probably the greatest leader of Britain.
Opposition will always be there and the true test of leadership is in the quality and frequency of opposition a leader faces and surmounts. So far, Bankole has faced some formidable opposition to his reformist and activist legislative agenda. He has successfully put them in check in less than two years of his leadership of a highly democratic institution of democracy. In our current democratic dispensation, Bankole’s place is assured as a leader who made a difference.
Chief Kayode Odunaro JP
Special Adviser, Communications
Speaker,House of Representatives.
