America & The Man-No-Be-Wood Nigerian Lawmakers - By Reuben Abati
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 every one 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 so arrogant 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 house-keepers
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.
