Now that the frenzy that greeted the allegations against three House of Representatives’ members seems to have subsided, it is fit and proper to examine the matter dispassionately.
I take it that you know what I am talking about. In case you don’t or you have lost track of it all – no thanks to the dizzying rate at which events occur here – here is a recap: United States Ambassador James Entwistle petitioned House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, accusing three Honourables of improper conduct, attempted rape and soliciting for prostitutes during a trip to the United States. Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC, Bauchi), Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom) and Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue) were members of a 10-man team that participated in the International Visitor Programme between April 7 and 13.
“Galolo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex. Gbillah and Ikon allegedly requested hotel parking attendants to assist them to solicit prostitutes,” Mr Entwistle wrote.
The three lawmakers are threatening to go to court to defend their integrity. Dogara has demanded proof of the allegations even as the House has mounted a huge probe of the matter, which has portrayed the lower chamber and its honourable members as aggressive philanders, whose accounts in the bank of decency and morality are in the red.
Nigerians love salacious stories, especially those spiced with sex, the kiss-and-tell type. They squeeze it and squeeze it endlessly, like some orange, throwing away the seeds, sucking it all up until the last drop and then licking their lips to ensure that all the sweetness is captured. They gave the gentlemen no benefit of the doubt. They lashed out at the lawmakers for what they called their sexual peccadilloes. Some, without any scientific or sociological evidence, threatened to prove that their libidinous peregrinations have been hampering the discharge of their onerous legislative duties.
How?
Weighty matters of state have been shoved aside by this titillating tale of lawmakers who, allegedly, would not zip up. Wadata Plaza, headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has become Fallujah, with the two major factions tearing at each other in an internecine war to capture it. The party has been wracked and wrecked by a terrible leadership battle that has imperilled its ability to stand as a sturdy opposition party.
Hitherto respected men have been behaving like Ibadan touts taking over a motor park. Boko Haram is gasping for breath, its bestiality contained by our gallant troops. Herdsmen killings continue. Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is on its hazy vengeance mission. Gone is the vociferous agitation for the government to name those who have been returning what they stole.
As I was saying, the alleged concupiscence of our lawmakers has grabbed the headline. But, in my view, many of the comments have been either totally off the mark or out rightly subjective. When the matter moves from a barbershop talk to the courts, the truth will surely come out.
Some of the comments have been romancing the past. Nostalgic. When lawmakers were not just presumptive but proactive, when they were worthy representatives of their worthy constituents, said some of the commentators, they had style. Those who loved wine had their choice from the best wineries, specially processed to suit their delicate tastes and delivered in customised bottles on which their photographs were emblazoned.
When they embarked on trips to either hone their skills or undertake some oversight duties, they took with them their bevy of beauties or got them delivered in the right specifications as part of a big package of some legislative privileges. There was no space for foreign women of easy virtue. No. In other words, our lawmakers had taste. They had style. Not anymore.
But then, isn’t it too early for us to pass a judgment on a matter that is yet to go beyond mere allegations?
The matter seems to have become an inflated balloon. I have been told that a group of women of easy virtue operating under an umbrella body which goes by the bizarre name, National Association of Nigerian Prostitutes and Allied Practitioners, briefed a Lagos human rights activist who is also a lawyer well grounded in commercial law. He is to take out a writ on behalf of these poor women, hereinafter referred to as his clients. He will be urging a high court to make:
- a declaration that our lawmakers erred in law to have solicited for women in America when members of the association are here battling the prevailing economic crisis;
- a declaration that the lawmakers, who are at the forefront of the “ buy Nigeria campaign”, are hypocritical, lacking in patriotism by attempting to fritter away scarce foreign exchange when the very materials they sought to purchase are here in abundance;
- a declaration that by their alleged conduct and misconduct, the women’s fundamental right to making a honest living has been breached by the way and manner these Reps conducted themselves in the United States; and
- a declaration that the women are entitled to generous compensation by the lawmakers as well as an order restraining the lawmakers, their servants, agents, privies and whomsoever designated as honorable from such acts of sabotage that are against the spirit and letters of the “patronise made in Nigeria” campaign.
A source, who pleaded not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, has told me that the women will be asking a reputable accounting firm to establish how much it costs a day to procure the services of a woman of easy virtue in the United States. This, I learnt, the association will calculate based on the number of days the trio spent in the United States and work out at the prevailing naira/dollar market forces exchange rate how much its members may have lost. This, I am told, will enable them know how much damages to ask for.
What iron clad proof do the Americans have? In the case of Hon. Gbillah and Hon. Ikon, how reliable is the verbal account of some inattentive car park attendants? Is there a recording of their alleged solicitation? Are we sure some opponents of these gentlemen, who lost the last general elections have not gone this far to damage their reputation and tear their record of moral sanctity?
Will the lawmakers be allowed to return to the United States to prove their innocence? I am told they are willing to go that far – unlike another lawmaker who the other day threatened to commit suicide should law officers seize and bind him and bundle him onto a plane bound for the United States where he is expected to face charges for alleged drug offences. He rushed to the court for protection. Now he is sitting pretty at the National Assembly, making laws for the wellbeing of fellow Nigerians and pontificating on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption battle. Please, pardon the digression. I return to the serious matter at hand.
Hon. Galolo, who allegedly grabbed a housekeeper, has been pertinacious in his denial. All questions pertinent to the situation must be raised to enable the discerning public get to the root of this matter. Is there a genuine video of the alleged grabbing? Did the housekeeper scream? If so, did her colleagues or other guests rush to snatch her from his grip? Where did he grab her – by the waist? From her back? By the chest? By the buttocks? By her laps?
What was the weather like in Cleveland, Ohio, on the day of the controversial incident? Warm? Cold? If cold, how cold? Chilly; the type we call “weather for two” here? Cold enough for a Nigerian big man to request for a “wrapper” or “cover cloth”?
These and other pieces of evidence will form the test of integrity to which these weighty allegations will be subjected to see if a prima facie case has been established against these respectable lawmakers. It is not enough for Amb. Entwistle to fire a petition. It is, after all, trite in law that affirmati non neganti incumbit probation; that is to say “the burden of proof is upon him who affirms – not on him who denies”.
The popular thinking here is that the housekeeper did not realise the worth in cash – in dollars – of a Nigerian lawmaker. She would have smiled seductively. Ours are believed to be some of the best paid lawmakers anywhere. Sitting allowance, constituency project allowance, stewards’ allowance, mistress allowance, children’s allowance, bodi no be wood allowance, gardener’s allowance and all that. Could it be that the housekeeper felt the crashing oil prices might have affected our lawmakers’ enviable standard of living? This is neither here nor there.
Like so many other serious matters of urgent and grave national importance, this American allegation has provoked many jokes among some disillusioned Nigerians, those who will not accord our lawmakers some credibility, no matter how little.
There is the joke about a married woman who was found on a bachelor’s bed three streets away from her matrimonial home. Asked why she abandoned her family, she replied: “I’m sorry, I don’t know where I am; it was raining and the flood carried me.”
Some patriots have, however, suggested that the aggrieved lawmakers should not take their case to the high court where it may drag on and on like a Lagos Bar Beach show, a circus. They should go to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the patriots have recommended, because, according to them, this is serious business. Shouldn’t they?
