Who is her role model?
Before Etteh, history has thrown up women of substance and valour who played laudable roles in the re-construction of the society from independence.
The former Speaker failed to learn from their impeccable characters. Etteh could not mirror Wuraola Esan, First Republic Senator and Iyalode of Ibadan, Margaret Ekpo, the First female legislator, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, frontline educationist and activist and Ebun 0agbola,former Planning Minister.
Neither could she embrace the likes of Prof Dora Akunyili, the NAFDAC boss and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister as models.
Her race, Yoruba, groans in lamentation. Its time-tested cultural values and tradition of probity were eroded. The race becomes a laughing stock. The zone that produced Obafemi Awolowo also bred Olusegun Obasanjo who politically begat Etteh, the beloved privileged lawmaker in whom the South-West is not well-pleased.
False premise
Etteh's emergence as chief law maker in the Lower House was premised on falsehood. It mocked the antecedent of her vast constituency, Yoruba, which relished the import of leadership enlistment based on the criteria of competence, credibility intelligence and honesty of purpose.
Her co-contestants for the seat were more qualified than her using the yardstick of previous occupational and professional experience, scholarship, understanding of public position, roles and limitations of leadership.
Etteh was derided as a wrong choice. She proved her critics right. Her leader, Obasanjo takes the credit for imposing her on the ruling party which endorsed her curious candidature and consequently embarrassed the polity.
To sustain the unwanted speaker in office, the party, instigated by the Ota farmer, attempted to mount support for a dilapidated edifice. It was futile as the image of the speaker was already dented beyond panel beating.
Politicians in her mould must learn from her fall from the frontier of influence. The first lesson is that any political actor in public office who is not propelled by the principles of service and sacrifice would meet her waterloo in the hour of reckoning.
Defection from AD to PDP
But, how did Etteh come to this sorry past? She took off as a supposedly pious federal lawmaker from Ayedarade constituency, ready to learn and imbibe ideology.
Her original base is the progressive bloc. The dying Alliance for Democracy (AC) was her first party.
On its platform, she was elected as lawmaker in 1999. But, she joined a bad company in the middle of the road. Etteh severed the chord between her and her political organisation and sought refuge in the PDP.
In her next point of call, she was one of the pilots who led the invading PDP marauders who marked the South-West for liquidation, oblivious of her past subscription, no matter how partial, to the imperishable progressive code.
Backed by the formidable arsenal of the Federal Government, Etteh managed to retain her seat as a legislator in 2003. Her big brother, the General in civilian robe also installed her by all means and at all costs five months ago.
The value she added to the National Assembly where she had sat for eight years is only known to PDP. It is not on record that Etteh was a vocal voice on the floor in the articulation of the multiple problems rocking her constituency.
It was becoming dear that politics of issues, idea and debates have ended. The portent attraction appears to be the spoils of the office. This too, is a disservice to the memory of the South-West political pathfinders.
The contest for number four position.
or the position of Representatives Speaker, the senior lawmakers from the six states of the South-West were qualified.
Originally, the zone preferred the presidency of the senate. But former president Obasanjo, the PDP Board of Trustees thought otherwise. That was when reality dawned on the Owu Chief that the mood of the region may not accommodate the ambition of her daughter, Senator Iyabo, as the senate President.
If a Senate President outside the nucleus family of Obasanjo had emerged in the SouthWest, then the Number Three Citizen who will become the authentic leader of PDP in the South-West may ruffle feathers with the retired General who is under fire at home for not attracting adequate dividends of democracy.
When the party later zoned the speakership to the zone, the slot also landed in Obasanjo's pocket. Those who should have contested for the port-folio with her kept mute. They were afraid of being branded Children of rebel lion. They were submerged by fear of recall.
The scandal
In the saddle, the speaker grew wings. Apparently, she was quite un prepared for the challenges of an exalted office.
Deficient in refined parliamentary language, presentational appeal and coinage suitable for public relations, the hairdresser gained reputation for discharges typical of Yaba, Gbagi and Dugbe. To her, the crisis was a child play. When the N628 million contract scam blew open, Madam Speaker traveled to Maryland, United States to celebrate her 54th birthday.
Maryland is afar cry from Ikire, her cradle. Electricity is regular and water is not a luxury. The roads are well tarred and infrastructure battle has been won. There, people live in prosperity.
Many have argued that the level of corruption prevalent in the country notwithstanding, if N628 million manages to get the ancient Town of Ikire for capital projects, the heart of the rural villagers will leap for joy.
Without mincing words, there are many legislators who could ~ear that the Speaker's residence vacated by Aminu Bello Masari, Etteh's predecessor, remains a palace. To them, renovation at a huge cost was worrisome.
Observers argue that the manner of opting for the huge sum for such renovation reflected the value held by the people in power.
They prefer to swim in opulence beyond the view of their poverty-stricken constituents. More worrisome is the breach of the due process.
In the opinion of the Speaker's co-travelers in the House, Tenders Boards exist for cosmetic reasons. The Speaker, as some of them explained, was even considerate as she refused to lodge in a hotel where she would have incurred a higher cost.
That line of thought stemmed from moral decay in public life. It is also consistent with the pedigree of smart politicians who secured legislative seats through the back door in a questionable and highly flawed electoral process under the guidance of President Obasanjo and Chairman Maurice Iwu.
But the opposition was not too deep in its slumber. Up came agitators for the probe of greed and kleptomaniac instincts. They insisted that the foul play must be thoroughly investigated.
The House was polarized into pro- Etteh and anti-Etteh forces. To the latter group, Etteh was the main issue. But to those who opposed them, the issues were parliamentary discipline, sanity and defence of the honour of the House.
The anti-Etteh forces won the first leg of the battle when Idoko panel was set up to probe the neglect of due process.
At its first sitting, the anti-Etteh forces played into the hand of her supporters by heaping abuse on her. In response, they went into the archives to retrieve the Akintola resistance strategy" by picking up a fight.
Just as late Premier Ladoke Akintola of Old Western Region detailed Hon Oke to throw a chair at his parliamentary opponents in the House of Assembly and cause commotion, the pro-Etteh forces also engaged their colleagues on the other side in physical combat. In the full glare of the camera, federal legislators exchanged blows like area boys and cursed hoodlums on the tensed city of Lagos .
The show of shame triggered wide condemnation of nasty behaviours which was quite unbecoming of the nation's legislators by statesmen, civil society groups and past legislators who endowed the National Assembly with honour and visibility in a sane period.
Idoko Panel rose above board by resisting pressure to engage in a miscarriage of Justice. When the panel tendered the report sheet of the embattled Speaker, she was indicted. Etteh committed severe breaches of due process.
Her "legal advisers" asked her not to panic. They buried themselves in a politics of semantics arguing, belatedly, that due process was a loose concept.
However, the hour of reckoning was still delayed. There was a bridge to cross. Despite the indictment, Etteh's remained the undisputed Speaker.
She roe in defense of her seat, canvassing reasons why she should be the judge of her own case. Etteh forces insisted that she must preside over the discussion of Idoko report.
Her public image has nose-dived. Her career as number one legislator in the Lower House was ebbing away. Not even the appeal to ethnic sentiment by Dr Frederick Fasehun and Chief Lamidi Adebibu of Ibadan could attract Yoruba sympathy. The generality of the people in the South-East predictably insisted on Justice.
The End
Etteh's days as Speaker were numbered. So, her more qualified colleagues who could not even aspire live months ago got instant courage. Osun State government rose to protect its entitlement to the seat as Etteh was sinking. Three aspirants, from Ogun State , David Salako, Dimeji Bankole and Kayode Amusan intensified underground campaigns to replace her. In fact, the state chapter of the party gave a nod to their ambition.
Uproar seized the House on the day the anti-Etteh forces insisted that she should step aside and allow another lawmaker to direct the affairs of the House, in the interim.
There were uncoordinated arguments and counter-arguments. Lawmakers shouted on top of their voices. Etteh was the divisive issue. A pro-Etteh legislator, Dr Aminu Safana from Katsina State slumped and died. The House mourned his passage, but the struggle continued.
The country was also the loser.
Previous times devoted to Ettehgate could have been alternatively used to attend to other salient legislative duties in national interest.
Wednesday October 31, 2007 was the end of the beginning. It was the end of the beginning. It was the end of the road for the agents of perfidy in the House who defended the violation of strict House rules on contracts awards.
In the hour of reality, Etteh saw the handwriting on the wall. The former Speaker was enveloped in tension. She agreed reluctantly to step aside and allow a Chairman plenipotentiary to mount the saddle. Minutes later, exactly 3:55pm, Etteh resigned as Speaker. To her critics, she bowed out in shame.
Culled form The Nation
* Patricia Etteh