ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN examines the metamorphosis of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, from his assumption of office to his current travails and concludes that he has a strong survival instinct.
In this season, when a lot of political ambitions are being truncated and politicians are running in every direction – from the Judiciary to outright defection from their party – to secure tickets for the April polls, one man’s name stands out as surviving the various blocks on the road that will take him back to the National Assembly in April.
He is Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. For Bankole and many other indigenes of Ogun State, the situation in the state is currently tense as two elephants – former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Gbenga Daniel are not only trampling the grass beneath their feet, they are also crushing every smaller animal that is caught up in their fight. There is a dichotomy of candidates’ lists as a result of parallel primaries conducted on both sides and up until now, it has not been concluded, which of the lists will eventually be used in April. Both Obasanjo and Daniel are sparring, aiming at each other’s chest and they are relentless in their efforts in trouncing the other as both sides have obtained court injunctions against each other.
Caught between Obasansjo and Daniel are Bankole and other Peoples Democratic Party’s candidates in the state. But unlike others, the speaker has managed to squeeze himself out of the friction between the warring factions based on various political calculations. The latest list released by the Independent Electoral Commission showed that names like Daniel and Mrs. Lola Abiola-Edewor, the daughter of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, were missing.
The name of a former Commissioner in the state’s Local Government Service Commission, Mr. Segun Alawode, appeared for the Abeokuta South Federal Constituency, which Bankole represents.
But when the list was displayed, there were indications that Bankole’s last card had not been played.
Bankole has played the two sides so successfully, that although he emerged victorious at the primaries for his constituency conducted by the Daniel group, his name was said to have appeared on the list submitted to INEC for clearance by the Martins-Kuye faction, which has the support of Obasanjo.
Either way, Bankole is deftly picking his way through the rubbles that are building up as a result of the Obasanjo/Daniel fight. He is obviously not going down with the two fighters because, on Sunday, Alawode, withdrew for him and now, Bankole will be coasting on the party ticket to contest the April election.
It is curious how Bankole managed to emerge as the candidate for both factions. It was less than a year ago when the rivalry between him and Daniel came to a head and he allegedly attacked Daniel in a bus fight.
There had been stories that Bankole was interested in Daniel’s office and was scheming to upstage the governor. There were series of fights between them, many of which they denied. On many occasions, Daniel made some very derogatory remarks about the Speaker. For example in July 2010, at the inauguration of the Ota bridge, the governor said that Bankole had no achievements in the state.
He was quoted as saying, “Tell the Speaker to stop claiming responsibility for the construction. The project was started by the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and we want to thank him. Tell my younger brother, the Speaker, that he should do something before his tenure lapses. We all have less than few months to leave office.”
At a public ceremony last year, Daniel denounced Bankole, saying that he was a curse to Ogun State.
Today, both parties are allies with Bankole attending the state’s last Christmas service with Daniel. Even though the speaker led many politicians in the state to fight the governor, when the primaries were to be held, Bankole jettisoned his supporters and reconciled with Daniel.
The governor was not the only person he fought. There was also the case of a member of the House of Representatives, Independence Ogunewe, over a simmering issue between the two, which started with a lousy joke and nearly ended in an exchange of blows. Beyond all the fights, Bankole has faced several impeachment threats in the House.
Just in January this year, there was another impeachment threat against him, which, like the others, was eventually quashed.
Some members of the House, enraged that they didn’t get their parties tickets to return to the House, schemed against the speaker and threatened to remove him. Like so many other scandals, once again, Bankole survived this plot.
His appearance at the Ibadan presidential rally for President Goodluck Jonathan, where he was given a flag, was the initial indication that he had scaled another hurdle, which Daniel is still battling.
Bankole, was a bachelor and not so known when he became speaker; the man who wept before the representatives of the Children’s Parliament has transformed into an eel and is snaking his way through the various hurdles others have found difficult to scale.
Since he became the Speaker after Mrs. Patricia Etteh’s resignation, Bankole has gone through several challenges and has survived most, if not all of them. When he was taking over the mantle of leadership from Etteh, he was the youngest person to become the Speaker. Unlike another Speaker, Salisu Buhari, who had to resign over a certificate scandal, Bankole came in well educated that it fired a zeal among younger people that it was time for youths to begin to take over sensitive positions in the country.
Bankole himself said at his inauguration, “I am taking over the mantle of leadership at a very difficult time. But these are hard times, we need to build confidence again and assure the populace that we are still their representatives. I want an independent house that Nigerians will be proud of. This is my first task.”
The various crises he would encounter in office started coming one week after his inauguration. His political opponents claimed that Bankole did not complete his one year National Youth Service Corps Scheme, which is mandatory for all Nigerian university graduates of 30 years of age and below. Bankole scaled that hurdle and then faced another when the story broke that an executive session he presided over approved the purchase of 380 units of Peugeot 407 cars; five for each of the 76 committees of the House.
Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, which supplied the vehicles, allegedly supplied inferior vehicles at a much lesser cost than what was approved.
Although, the Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, said the commission had sent a report of its findings to the Presidency, the latter denied ever receiving any report from the EFCC, and advised the agency to follow the rule of law as the Presidency was not supposed to vet law enforcement reports.
The N3.2bn car scandal, has more or less, died a natural death like other allegations.
Since then, one scandal after the other has erupted in the House. These include the N5.2bn rural electrification scandal and the alleged mismanagement of N9bn out of the N11bn allocation to the legislative house in 2009.
In June 2010, Bankole suspended 11 members, led by Dino Melaye, indefinitely for fighting in the house. The group of 11 has since gone to court and won. Initially, they were prevented from going into the lower chamber until public outcry rose against Bankole, forcing him and his men to backtrack on Melaye and the rest.
Now, with the April elections approaching, Bankole still has more battles to win on the political arena. He will need to contest and work hard enough to win and make it back to the House, not just as a Representative but as the Speaker to show just how politically astute he is. This time, if either of the southern candidates contesting as president makes it to Aso Rock, Bankole will need to employ his political wizardry to ensure the zoning formula ends up in his favour and takes him back to the seat he currently occupies.
Source:Punch
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