Good news as Nigeria’s embattled House of Representatives speaker Patricia Etteh and her deputy Babangida Ngoroje stepped aside today, pending the outcome of investigation of allegations of corruption leveled against them.
Although they finally bowed to pressure, it comes very late. At least one life was lost on the floor of the house when a session to debate the crisis turned chaotic. The deceased, I hear, was a staunch supporter of Madam Speaker Etteh. He was a medical doctor and a former secretary to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government in Katsina State. Well, Dr Aminu Safana is gone, but Patricia Etteh and Babangida Ngoroje live to answer questions regarding their alleged sins.
However, a pertinent question is what will become of them? Will they be pardoned and told to go and sin no more? Or will they be made to face the dreaded EFCC? They may have immunities as serving legislators, but will that be enough to save them? Given that they have allowed so much time to be wasted and nerves frayed for too long before they agreed to take the path of ‘honour’ will there be any justice for them?
What remains to be seen is how those who staunchly called for their heads will handle unfolding events in the house. After all even Hon Farouk Lawan, the man behind the Integrity Committee which insisted on and successfully pulled Etteh and Ngoroje down, was the same person who nominated her for the post. Was he not aware of her credentials when her vouched for her? Why was he so vehement in ‘whacking’ her. It’s all politics for you. Now let’s see who he’s going to nominate for the job? Or he may chose to stand aside and look, which I sincerely doubt. He’s a political animal and politics must he play. God help Nigeria.
Nigeria speaker goes in graft row
The speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, Patricia Etteh, has resigned after weeks of pressure.
An inquiry found her guilty of breaking house rules in awarding contracts worth $5m to refurbish houses and buy cars.
But she had repeatedly refused to step aside and allow a temporary speaker to chair a debate into the findings.
Parliamentary business, including a debate on Nigeria's budget, has been held up for weeks as a result of the affair that has gripped the nation.
The affair has become a major embarrassment for President Umaru Yar'Adua who promised zero tolerance on corruption but failed to intervene, despite increasingly angry protests.
Mrs Etteh, a former beautician and ruling party member, is accused of irregularities in spending $5m of government money to buy 12 cars and renovate two official residences - her own and that of a deputy.
She had consistently denied any wrongdoing but opponents argued forcibly that she should step aside temporarily to allow someone else to chair the debate into the findings of the panel of inquiry, chaired by David Iroko.
The row became so heated that a brawl broke out in parliament earlier this month, during which one pro-Etteh MP collapsed and died.
Mrs Etteh's aides told the BBC that the speaker had decided that she could no longer continue and that her deputy, Babangida Nguroje, has also resigned.
The lower house elected Terngu Tsegba, an opposition politician from central Benue State, as the acting speaker.
Mr Tsegba will now preside over the Iroko debate, which is expected to take up to a week.
Parliament will then have to elect a permanent replacement to Mrs Etteh.
The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/
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