There has been no
shortage of controversy and hair-raising incidents from the 8th National Assembly
of Nigeria, but nothing breaks the heart more than the name-them-shame-them
letter that has been sent to the speaker of the House of Representatives by the
US ambassador in which he accused three Nigerian lawmakers of sexual misconduct during an April 7-13, 2016
participation in the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP).
The three
lawmakers are Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC, Bauchi), Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom)
and Mark Terseer Gbillah (APC, Benue). In his letter to the speaker,
James Entwistle says Gbillah and Ikon “allegedly requested hotel parking
attendants to assist them to solicit prostitutes” while Gololo “allegedly
grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex”. This was
reported to the hotel management. The use of the word “grabbed” sounds quite
deliberate in its Nigerian-ness.
Whoever threw
that phrase in knows certainly well, that Nigerian lawmakers who spoke against
a Gender Equality Bill, and who have done nothing to protect the Child Rights
Act which pegs the age of marriage at 18, are most likely to abuse women and
grab anything that their libido finds attractive. Of course, as expected, the
three indicted lawmakers have claimed that they are innocent, that nothing of
such happened and that they have been denied the benefit of fair hearing. Mark
Gbillah has written a windy protest letter, like a petition for a visa denied, in
which he not only affirmed his innocence, but he is also alleging defamation
and the threat of possible lawsuits. Gbillah is even asking for a video-tape
proof! You’ve got swag hen, bros, the way
you just dey halla…
But I will advise
you and the two others to just drink cold water and chill, and as they say,
calm down.
Without any
technical or express malice intended, the truth of this matter is that the US
Embassy in Nigeria and the US department of state have just thrown you and the
two others under the trailer. Read Ambassador Entwistle’s letter again,
the word “allegedly” is used but the letter suggests that the weight of the law
of the United States could have been brought to bear upon the three of you
right after the reports were made, but now, two clear months later, after
investigations have been conducted and the US government is convinced, the
decision has now been taken to name and shame you, and punishment has been
issued: your visas to the United States have been cancelled. The case against
you is already closed.
Your threat that
you will go to court amounts to nothing. It is your word against theirs.
And it is not just the three of you the Americans are shaming, it is the rest
of us, and so the shame is an embarrassment to Nigeria. If you guys don’t think
so, please hire an intelligent person to decode the following excerpt: “The
conduct described above left a very negative impression of Nigeria, casting a
shadow on Nigeria’s National Assembly, the IVLP, and to the American hosts’
impression as a whole. Such conduct could affect some participants’ ability to
travel to the United States in the future”. What? All of these insults – just
because three male Nigerian lawmakers could not manage erectile functionality?
It seems to me
that part of the problem with many of our public officers is that they enjoy
free meals and free rides so much that they hardly pause to understand the
implications. They jump at every invitation to dinner from foreign embassies
without knowing what it means to go there and start blabbing. Every word gets
recorded! They also don’t know what it means to accept a free ride to the home
country of those embassies under whatever guise. Everything you do during the
visit is monitored and everyone around you, including the programme guides and
the staff of the hosting hotel, has been specifically detailed to keep an eye
on you. The IVLP is organized by the US department of state through US
embassies across the world. It is a “premier professional exchange programme.”
The American
government funds it, and in its 75 years of existence, 200,000 persons, mainly
“current and emerging foreign leaders” from 190 countries have participated in
it. The objective is to provide an opportunity for interaction and exchange of
ideas with counterparts in the United States and to offer exposure to the
workings of the American system and democracy. People don’t usually apply; they
get invited.
In its wisdom,
the US Embassy in Nigeria chose ten lawmakers from Nigeria including Gololo,
Ikon and Gbillah. These three gentlemen should go and take a second look at
whatever documents they signed before they collected a free ticket, free
accommodation and some dollars, to cover the cost of their stay in the US as
guests of the American people. They should check the small print carefully.
They may just discover a line about good conduct somewhere; and what the US
Embassy in Nigeria has just issued is a report and a testimonial on a trip that
was paid for by the American taxpayer!
If so, can the
Americans be blamed for protecting the integrity of the American woman, who
paid the taxes that provided funds for the US trip by Gbillah, Ikon and Gololo?
I am tempted to write something else on the in-context onomatopoeic
suggestiveness of this last name but good conduct says No. Let me just ask
then: should the US Congress fund a programme that allows foreign visitors to
come and harass the unwilling American woman for sex or solicit for
prostitutes?
I must say this
though: it is not only Nigerian lawmakers who act sometimes as sexual
predators, either at home or abroad. The United States also has a long
list of lawmakers who attracted odium and sanction, because they could not keep
their libidos in check. The only difference is that whereas in the United
States, such predators when caught out are named and shamed, and they often
show contrition, in Nigeria high social status is taken as a licence for sexual
predation and that is why the indicted have been sounding soarrogant and defiant. When Nigerian public officials go
on any trip, local or foreign, they usually make special arrangements for what
is called “man no be wood”. This is the euphemism for the
money that is set aside by an individual for taking care of prostitutes, female
companions, or accidental bedroom partners during such trips.
There are male
public officials and even company executives who in fact swear that they will
never sleep alone on a bed during any offshore trip. They will, therefore,
either travel with what they call “a handbag” (this is the word for a mistress
taken on a trip), or may be their wives who are knowingly introduced to others
on the trip as madam, but generally no trip is deemed successful without the
accompaniment of a “cover cloth” (that’s another word for a woman whose task is
to satisfy the sexual needs of a Nigerian travelling offshore). There are even
more denigrating terms in the local languages. In Yoruba, such women are
referred to as“agbesun” or “aso
ibora”.
And of course, in
many countries, female hotel attendants, particularly housekeepers are ready
targets. Nigerian men are known in some countries to be quite generous, when paying
for such special services. This instructively has nothing to do with religion.
One of the guys in the present case, is said to be a devout Muslim (yet, he was
allegedly soliciting for a prostitute), the other is said to be a practising
Christian and an elder in the Apostolic Church of Nigeria (these religious
labels hen?) and the third is described as a Christian (in this matter, there
is obviously no religion!). What has also not been said is that some personal
and special assistants to Nigerian big men attend to this same matter as part
of their job definition. The sociology of misogyny, sex-solicitation and
phallocentrism in Nigeria is quite an embarrassingly interesting subject.
The present
scandal under review will not put an end to it, but the testimonial from the US
Embassy is a cautionary note to all future Nigerian travellers to the US,
especially public officials. Gbilla, Ikon and Gololo have had their visas
to the United States cancelled. They may never again be given a visa to that country.
And it may also be the case that other embassies in Nigeria would have taken
note of their indictment by the US Embassy, and hence refuse them visas or
opportunities such as the one they have just enjoyed and abused.
The leadership of
the House of Representatives has reportedly set up a panel of inquiry. We
expect in typical Nigerian fashion that the panel will stand by the three
lawmakers, declare them to be honourable, guiltless gentlemen; the panel may
also summon the American envoy and possibly interrogate him, but all of that
will not change anything about the Americans’ decisions about a programme they
organized and sponsored and whose terms and conditions the three indicted
lawmakers agreed to. By the way, in the state of Ohio, US, where the lawmakers
visited, sexual harassment, prostitution and solicitation are illegal. The
allegations against the trio are akin to a breach of contract and trust and a
shameful record.
The indicted
lawmakers probably do not understand how serious this is. But I accuse the US
Embassy in Nigeria of overstating its case and it is like this: All that talk
about negative impression of Nigeria, and the National Assembly and the threat
to future participants is too saccharine. It is unfair to label the rest of us
in that manner. Many Nigerians have participated in the IVLP over the years and
they behaved well. Even in this instance, out of 10 Nigerian participants,
there has been no need to complain about the seven others. So, we should
always name and shame the ones who fall short of standards and expectations but
save us the stereotype, don’t jump from three to 200 million Nigerians and
start tarring all of us with the same brush. The terms of participation in the
IVLP should be between you and the individuals involved and not the House of
Representatives or the rest of Nigeria. Gbillah, Ikon and Gololo do not
represent me, just as they do not represent many readers of this comment.
Dr.
Reuben Abati was spokesman and special adviser, media and publicity to
President Goodluck Jonathan (2011 – 2015). He tweets from @abati1990.
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