The sanctity of the Legislative Chambers of the Nigerian House of Representative, FCT, Abuja was broken on September 20, 2007 by none less than the lawmakers themselves in what could be mistaken for a street brawl downtown Ajegunle, the legislators engaged in a free for all fight at the public hearing of the panel sitting to evaluate whether the speaker of the House of Representative was guilty or not of alleged misconduct in awarding a contract of over N638m for the renovation of her official residence.

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Indication that all may not be well with the Hon. Speaker and the legislative assembly came to fore when it was reported in the newspaper that the Hon. Speaker of the House of Reps had traveled to America to celebrate her birthday and thanksgiving on her appointment sometimes last month. The Hon Speaker quickly returned to douse tension by explaining that it was her family and friends in the U.S.A that invited her for the celebrations and that the bill was borne by them. No sooner had the uproar died down than the first set of rumors emanated that Madame Speaker had approved a memo directing that a contract worth N638m be awarded a company for the renovation of her official residence in Apo quarters, FCT, Abuja.

The outcry that greeted the alleged award was deafening and all attempt to douse it by madame speaker by going to the presidency and the PDP party chairman to explain herself did not help, consequently and in compliance with the procedure of the House of Reps, the MHR (Members of House of Representatives) directed that there be convened a public hearing over the matter and a panel was set up to look into the matter.

The panel duly commenced its job by calling for evidence from all affected parties in the matter namely the companies that bided for the contract; the clerk of the House that was alleged to have generated the memo and the Speaker who authorized the contract. At the hearing the 5 companies that bided for the contract were discovered to have had the same names of directors and their GSM numbers on their memorandum and article of association. When questioned they gave lame excuses until one of the company’s representative a lawyer flew up in rage and openly accused the panel of trying to meddle in what otherwise had been approved by the house committee. The panel promptly chided the lawyer and requested that he step out of the chamber the panel insisted that a company staff represent the company and not a solicitor. The 5 companies in response tendered their resignation from the contract and consequently were excused from the panel’s sitting. Then came the turn of the clerk of the house.

At the panel the clerk denied that he generated the memo, he affirmed that just like other memos, the speaker had sent in the past it was his duty to approve or deny memo’s which he found not to be in the priority profile of the House of Reps. He cited an example of the a memo from the Hon. Speaker for the acquisition of a body massager to be installed in her official residence at the cost of N98m a request he claimed he turned down on grounds that it was not a priority of the house or requests that the House fund private foreign trips of MHR’s . when questioned on the alleged proposed renovation work said to cost N638m, the clerk informed that panel that it was on record that the speaker’s official residence was renovated after the former speaker Masari left at the cost of N5m thereby debunking Madame speaker’s claim that her residence was going to be renovated for the first time.

All said and done the Hon. Speaker endorsed the memo authorizing renovation at the cost of N628m and she must have thought it was business as usual. The it was her turn to state what she knows about the matter, No sooner had the Speaker entered the chambers to put up her defense than some MHR began to chant “ole!”, “ole!” A Yoruba word for a thief. From thence on the MHR threw caution to the wind and a free for all exchange ensued with some MHR boxing ability shaming that of the legendary Mike Tyson.

In the middle of the pandemonium the Speaker was whisked off the venue of the hearing under tight security. Although she looks unrepentant she was shaken at the violence she saw, I think it is the first time the enormity of what she had tried to do hit her, and I think Madame Etteh may have lost any moral justification to continue to lead the house. For a woman who on her installation proudly told the world that by ranking she is senior to Hillary Clinton to fall into this quagmire is shameful (to say the least) and for the legislators it goes to show that they are mostly touts and felons parading themselves as honourable men and women.

I hope the Hon Attorney General of the Federation will find it plausible to prosecute all the people responsible for the affray that has brought us international disgrace, right from the person that first chanted “thief” to the ones that exchanged blows.

This morning the 21st September 2007 the MHR claimed to have invoked Rule 9 of the House Rules and directed that yesterday’s show of shame we all witnessed live on TV be expunged from the house records, meaning that the events never happened but would it ever be expunged from our consciousness?