The language of politics and politicians is so infectious that at the weekend it seeped into a very unlikely quarter: an Oba’s palace. Being much older in historical time, more deeply rooted in local culture, much better regarded in people’s eyes, existing and flourishing despite lack of constitutional mention, with persons imbued with ample constitutional power as well all bowing before it and seeking its blessing in the form of traditional titles, I thought royal palaces should jealously guard their own language.
Instead, there was this story in the newspapers at the weekend that the Benin Traditional Council, headed by Oba of Benin Ewuare II, had suspended sixty seven Enigie, or Dukes, as one newspaper roughly translated it, from their traditional titles and functions. Secretary of Benin Traditional Council Frank Irabor, who announced the suspensions, said, “This decision was made by Ewuare ll, Oba of Benin, due to their alleged anti-palace and rebellious activities against the Oba of Benin and the traditional institution.”
Anti-palace activities! I have been reading newspapers and listening to radio and television in Nigeria for many decades but this is the first time I am coming across this term. The only hint from the news reports about the nature of their anti-palace activities was that “some of the suspended Enigie, including Prof. Gregory Akenzua and Edomwonyi Ogiegbaen, have earlier challenged their suspension in a Benin High Court,” claiming that the Oba of Benin does not have the authority to suspend them under the Traditional Rulers and Chiefs Law.
A strange thing for them to say. Is the governing ethic of royal palaces local history, culture and tradition or is it some latter-day chieftaincy law? Did any law state that the holder of a chieftaincy title, as well as plain ordinary citizens, should prostrate before the Oba, must greet him in the morning, must wish him long life and good health, must not wear the headgear and regalia that only he is supposed to wear, must carry out their assigned roles during traditional rites and festivals, and must dress in a certain way when going to the palace?
Apart from going to court, there were no details in the news reports regarding the “anti-palace activities” of the suspended chiefs. The Oba of Benin’s palace is known to brook no disloyalty and to deal with its manifestation very firmly in a traditional manner. The best example of that was in December 1991, just when governorship elections were to hold in Edo State and in the whole country. The Isekhure [i.e. chief priest] of Benin, Nosakhure Isekhure, placed the curse of the Oba of Benin on anyone who voted for the NRC candidate Lucky Igbinedion, because his father, Esama of Benin Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, was said to be “an enemy of the Oba.” That curse apparently contributed to Lucky’s shock defeat that week by the SDP candidate Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. Was there a provision in the Chieftaincy Law that the Oba has a curse that he could place on disloyal citizens’ heads, and why did these chiefs not go to court at the time to contest that one?
Anti-palace activities hit the Nigerian national scene at the weekend just when another anti-institutional activity was raging, in this case anti-Senate activities. A two-page ad placed in several newspapers by Senate Leader Bamidele Opeyemi at the weekend summarized what he said were the reasons behind the six-month suspension handed last week to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. They include, “persistent acts of misconduct, blatant disregard for the Senate Standing Orders, gross indiscipline, refusing to sit in her assigned seat despite multiple pleas from the Minority Leader, speaking without being recognized by the presiding officer, engaging in unruly and disruptive behavior, making abusive and disrespectful remarks against the Senate leadership, and refusing to comply with the summons of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Priviledges.”
Phew! That’s a lot of evidence that qualifies Senator Natasha to be charged with anti-Senate activities but you know what? Preciously few Nigerians would be swayed by the Senate Leader’s meticulous compilation. The main issue, as far as most Nigerians are concerned, is the allegation of sexual harassment she made against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Unfortunately for public officers, it is much easier to secure a conviction in the court of public opinion than in a court of law. The fact that a former managing director of the NNDC made a similar allegation against Akpabio worsens his case in the public eye. Nor does his garrulous style of leadership help matters.
However, Mrs. Uduaghan’s case is not totally credible either. For one, one should line up credible witnesses the very day an issue of this nature occurs. She said when her husband asked her what Akpabio whispered to her, she did not tell him. But her husband said in his statement last week she told him at home that Akpabio sexually harassed her. Was it because he realized that her earlier statement robbed her story of much needed corroboration? Then also, she had made similar charges against other persons over the years, notably Reno Omokri and Dino Melaye. Let me pose this question for all Nigerians to answer: is there a dividing line, however thin, between chasing a woman and sexual harassment? In other words, is making a pass at a woman automatic sexual harassment?
I do not know if that was what Akpabio did, but it appears that, from the frequency of her allegations, Senator Natasha’s sexual harassment bar is rather low. Men are making passes at women every day, as they must, because biology wired us that way. How will marriages ever take place if men are not making passes at women [and, increasingly these days, vice versa]? It is only when power relations come into play that we can usefully allege sexual harassment, such as parent-child, uncle-niece, teacher-student, boss-subordinate, police/judge-accused etc. As a former man-about-town-myself, I know that exceptions must be made even in power relations because some teachers end up marrying their students and some bosses end up marrying their subordinates, so it is not all about abuse.
There was a much more familiar story of anti-party activities at the weekend when South South PDP caucus defied the party’s National Working Committee [NWC] and insisted that the “congress” it held in Calabar was legitimate under the party’s constitution. Such a stance has already forced PDP, for the umpteenth time, to postpone its scheduled National Executive Committee [NEC] meeting from this week until May. Anyone can see that the South South PDP caucus’ stance is part of the factional power grab to disorganise and if possible seize control of the main opposition party in the service of the ruling party. There has never been a clearer case than this of anti-party activity, but PDP’s leaders are reluctant to invoke the phrase because some of its top leaders are alleged to be complicit in the scheme. Isn’t there an Isekhure-style curse in politics that can be placed on the heads of anti-party activists?
Yet another case of anti-institutional activity unfolded last week at the Lagos State House of Assembly. Mudashiru Obasa’s shock return to the Assembly Speaker’s chair, when 35 of its 40 members impeached him in the full glare of television cameras, when they roundly elected Mrs. Mojisola Meranda to succeed him, when he used doubtfully procured force to re-enter the Speaker’s office, when only four members attended the “plenary” that he presided over, only for unseen hands to force the Assembly super majority to eat humble pie, for Mrs. Meranda to resign and for them to re-elect Obasa, was anti-Assembly activity if ever there was one in Nigeria.
Governor Alex Otti of Abia was in danger at the weekend of being accused of anti-Government House activities. He has been governing for nearly two years now, not from the Government House in Umuahia but from his private residence in Isiala, Ngwa South Local Government. I think the small territorial span of Abia State made this option possible. If a governor of Niger State were to live in his house in New Bussa, or a Borno State governor were to live in his house in Kukawa, he will probably lose control of the state bureaucracy. Otti, however, is not the first ruler in Nigeria to operate from his private house. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was said to have done the same thing in the First Republic as a sign of modesty, though political opponents later said it was a ploy to upgrade his house. The same thing was said in the Second Republic when Governor Balarabe Musa of Kaduna lived in a small government-owned house, instead of Sir Kashim Ibrahim House. One way or another, there is no escaping allegations of anti-Government House activities.
Even the Supreme Court was in danger last week of being accused of anti-judiciary activities. At issue was the ruling it handed down that the 27 pro-Wike members of the Rivers State House of Assembly had not lost their seats by decamping from PDP to APC. Sure there were technicalities involved, including the pro-Fubara appellants withdrawing their case at a certain point, but on the whole the ruling did not sit well with most observers because there is solid video evidence of the members decamping to APC and of Rivers State APC leaders joyously receiving them into the party. On the flip side, MPs’ decamping “due to factionalisation of the party” is a very dubious issue in this Republic. When they decamp to the ruling party, the Speaker never declares their seats vacant or invites INEC to conduct another election to fill the vacancy.
Four Northern state governments, of Kano, Katsina, Bauchi and Kebbi were accused by some NGOs last week of anti-education activities for shutting down primary and secondary schools in their states due to the on-going Ramadan fast. It was a controversial decision, even though the critics worsened matters by posing it as an inter-religious contest. Personally, I did all my schooling in this region and school was never stopped for a day because of Ramadan fast. After all, most basic school pupils are below the age of fasting, and teachers can effectively discharge their duties while they are fasting, just like all other civil servants and private sector people do. Some Premier Football League players are even fasting; is that not more energy-sapping than teaching in a classroom?
