Grandiose Parlor

This post is a compendium of updates on several issues discussed earlier on this site:

Fraud at Afribank
The Afribank banker that squealed to the National assembly about some accounting irregularities seems to have some truth in his petition afterall. The lower house will appoint an independent consultant to investigate the case against the bank’s board of directors.

“The House committee is launching an investigation into how the bank allegedly “round-tripped” a N500 million loan, disguised as agricultural loan to PAMOL, a subsidiary of Dunlop Plc, so that the company could repay at a rate of 14 per cent. The House was also interested in knowing if Afribank registered the N500 million loan with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) so that it may benefit from the Federal Government’s subsidy of six percent on agricultural loans. Members of the committee had expressed concerns that the bank’s activities smacked of economic sabotage.” –Thisday Nov. 1, 2006.

Another Impeachment and the rule of law 
Another Nigerian governor - Peter Obi of Eastern state of Anambra - has been impeached on some frivolous charges of which corruption is one. Obi assumed power about 8 months ago after his predecessor, Chris Ngige from another party, was kicked out after being found to have rigged the election. It took about three years for the election tribunal to figure this out! The tribunal did come to this conclusion after the former governor has had several hellish and embarrassing encounters with a well-connected political godfather. The decison of convenience, it seems. 

Obi is the second state exec to lose his job in 4 weeks. It appeared the run-away Anambra state legislature acted out the scripts of the Oyo state legislature that fired its governor some 9 months earlier. The last time a state exec got fired (Ekiti state), the impeachment got botched and hell broke lose, the feds had stepped in and put the state under-lock down, by declaring a state of emergency. It is amazing what some belligerent hyperactive Nigerian legislators can do.

Interestingly, in an unprecedented twist of fate, that impeached Oyo state governor (Ladoja) did get a reprieve some days ago when the Appeal Court ruled in his favor by reversing an earlier ruling of a lower court and the decision of another set belligerent legislators.

“Lawyers yesterday reacted to the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Ibadan which reinstated the impeached Oyo State Governor, Rashidi Ladoja, saying that was  a victory for democracy and rule of law. They called for the immediate return to power of Senator Ladoja as Governor of Oyo State. Also, they were of the opinion that approaching the Supreme Court by Akala does not translate to a stay of execution of the judgement.” — Vanguard, Nov. 2, 2006.

Not unexpectedly, the imposed governor (Akala) and his political octogenerian godfather (Adedibu), think nothing of the court verdict, using the word of the thuggish godfather, “no Jupiter can bring Ladoja back!” We’ll see, maybe another state of emergency declaration is in the horizon.

The Nigerian airway ‘orisha replaced 
Lastly, the ‘Orisha’ (deity) that has been causing havoc in the Nigerian airways, has been removed. I called for his removal just as several bloggers. Aviation Minister, sorry, former aviation minister aBorishade has been redeployed to an agency where he would have ample time to confer with the other numerous orishas in Nigeria, Ministry of culture and tourism. His replacement, Fani-Kayode, wouldn’t be any better going by his penchant to make utterances before thinking. Does he even have any experience remotely related to aviation?

It is odd that the president even chose to keep the ‘Aborisha’. This is a man who persistently struck the wrong notes as the education minister and didn’t get any work done. Yet the president deemed him fit to man another agency by making him the aviation minister. I remember that aBorishade was rejected by the national assembly when he was first presented as a ministerial candidate, the president kept submitting his name until the assemby gave in. I wonder what relationship exists between him and the president. People, this might yield some interesting revelations…if some smart journalist would look into it. Lets start digging!

Laspapi’s post: “In a land where anything can happen“, speaks to several of these happenings it is a good read.