by Nchekwube Efunesi

As he listened intently – from where he stood in the dock – to the court registrar reeling out all seven counts accusing him of seeking a US$3 million bribe, Farouk Lawan still wore that dazed look of a year ago.

It was the look of a man yet to come to terms with the walls that have crumbled around him.

Those walls crumbled – with a loud thud – in 2012 when a video of the diminutive ‘Mr Integrity’ stuffing wads of dollar bills into his agbada pocket as he left the home of billionaire oil magnate, Femi Otedola found its way into the public domain – and shocked the entire nation.

Last month, at the FCT High Court, Abuja where Mr. Lawan and Boniface Emenalo were being re-arraigned, the registrar’s voice sliced through the graveyard silence inside the court room as he read the first count on the charge sheet:

“That you, Farouk Lawan and Mr. Emenalo Boniface sometime in April 2012 or thereabouts in Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did while acting in the course of your official duties as Chairman and Secretary (respectively) of House of Representatives AdHoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime conspired between yourselves and with each other to corruptly obtain the sum of $3 million for yourselves from Mr. Femi Otedola, Chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, as inducement to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from the House of Representatives AdHoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime’s Report and did cause the House to remove the name of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd from the said list and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 26(1)(c) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000, and punishable under section 8(1) of the same Act.”

An angry man

In one of Nigeria’s most defining moments in recent history, the public outrage that greeted the removal of fuel subsidy and the attendant hike in the pump price of petrol in 2012 turned into massive protests across Nigeria, hundreds of Nigerians pouring into the streets, and eventually forcing the federal government to partially reinstate the subsidy.
The partial surrender wasn’t the only outcome of the protests however; they also led to a legislative inquiry.

To determine and verify the actual subsidy requirement as well as monitor its implementation, the House of Representatives, in an Emergency Session on 8 January 2012, instituted an AdHoc Committee on Monitoring of Fuel Subsidy Regime.

With Messrs Lawan and Emenalo as chairman and secretary, the committee was to unravel how an initial budget of N240 billion to finance the subsidy regime in 2011 ballooned to over N1 trillion.
It presented Farouk Lawal the perfect national platform, and he took to it like fish to water.

Throughout the committee’s sittings and public hearings, Mr. Lawan was as vocal as he was angry with the oil marketers and the monumental corruption casting a long shadow over the subsidy regime, his no-nonsense demeanour endearing him to millions of Nigerians.

A Daniel, it seemed, had come to judgement.

On 19 April 2012, the committee submitted its report with sharp recommendations concerning the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), indicted oil marketers and companies that refused to appear before the panel refund N1.067 trillion to the nation’s treasury.

The report also recommended that oil marketers who had been identified as short-changing Nigerians should make refunds within three months.

“Civil servants were to be sanctioned in accordance with the civil service rules as well as under extant laws; management staff and top government officials were based on the gravity of their offences, to be reprimanded, re-deployed, dismissed and in specific cases prosecuted for abuse of office and fraudulent practices,” the report said.

“NNPC should be unbundled to make its operations more efficient and transparent and this, we believe, can be achieved through the passage of a well-drafted and comprehensive Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB),” it added.

The committee further recommended, among others, that those on the management board of the NNPC directly involved in the corrupt dealings identified for 2009 to 2011 be investigated and prosecuted for abuse of office by the relevant anti-corruption agencies.

It was a strong document, and, due to its very public nature, one without precedence.

Unfortunately, the joy Nigerians began to express with regards to this very important milestone was not to last long, at all.
Instead, The submission of the committee’s final report to the House plenary marked the beginning of a series of events that impeached the integrity of the committee members, destroyed their recommendations, and took down Mr. Lawan.

Cap in hand

It was barely a few hours after the committee filed its report that the unravelling began. A group, called the Legislative Integrity Assembly went to town claiming that the committee’s final report had been doctored.

“The list of indicted companies suddenly got shortened within 24 hours,” the group said in a press statement. “This country is in trouble if this is allowed to go unchallenged. It just confirmed that probes in this country are not to be taken seriously.”

Mr. Lawan was not having it, urgently calling a press conference the next day, and addressing the allegations directly. His committee faced severe pressure including from government, he revealed, but they did not buckle and there was no corruption.

“Yes, there was pressure, pressure from so many quarters,” he said, even though he called no names. “The committee made it clear to those mounting pressure on us that as far as they are not guilty of short changing Nigerians, there is no need to panic.”

Unfortunately, as the prosecution is now insisting, he was telling a barefaced lie.

In a matter of days, Nigerians were confronted with that dramatic of evidences: a video. This video, released to the public by Mr. Otedola, captured the lawmaker negotiating the terms of a bribe at the latter’s home; receiving US$250,000 as part payment in the deal to remove jis Zenon Oil from the list of indicted oil marketers. The second receipt of another US$250,000 was collected in a subsequent visit.

In a show that brought the spectacle Nigeria’s already endemic corruption to a new low, Mr. Lawan – champion of the people – was seen stuffing wads of crisp dollar bills into his pocket.

It didn’t end there. Next up was a telephone conversation wherein Mr. Lawan assured the billionaire that his company would be struck off the list of the defaulting companies before the committee’s final report would be submitted.

“Please this thing we are doing, keep it to yourself otherwise you will make it difficult for us,” he pleaded in the recorded phone conversation.

“You will make it difficult because somebody called me now and said that we said we are going to address it. So, so please keep it…yea, because if it is already out that we are going to do something, when we do it, people will think that we are doing it because we had compromised.
“And you know that is something that err…. And if my colleagues get to hear about it, I won’t be able to convince them. So keep it to yourself.”

The conversation continued:

Lawan: “Let it be… Let it not be like anybody is aware of what is happening. If anybody asked you, simply explain that this thing, you know from your records, you have all the records and you have made a case to the committee. You have sent your documents to the committee. Yea. It’s left for the committee; it’s left for the committee to decide what to do. Please keep it that way.

Otedola: Ok. God bless you.

Lawan: Yea, because the moment it gets out now we are going to correct it, then it means we have already haaaa… So let it be… I want to spring a surprise on the floor and that is the only credible way I can do this.

Otedola: God bless you. God bless you my brother. I have been crying anytime I hear your voice.

House of shame

His colleagues, already scarred by years of being viewed as corrupt, leapt to the defence of the Lower House, insisting that their recommendations would not be tainted by the ensuing scandal, and subtly defending their colleague.

“While we await investigation into these weighty accusations, we wish to state without equivocation that this Honourable House will never take side with corruption and we will always stand on the side of the rule of law,” said Zakari Mohammed, its Spokesperson. “The reason we inaugurated the ad hoc committee to look into the controversial subsidy regime in the first place was to expose corruption in the sector, as such, we cannot, for whatever reason, support any underhand dealing from any quarter.

“However, these accusations, whatever their merits, do not detract from the quality of the work done by the committee. The report of that committee was adopted by the whole House and we stand by the resolutions of the House,” Mr. Mohammed added.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Lawan himself refused to cave. In his first reaction to the bribery allegations in June 2012, he  “categorically denied” that neither him nor any member of the subsidy probe committee demanded or received bribe from anyone.

“The present mudslinging is not unexpected in view of the calibre of people whose actions and inactions were found wanting in the report,” Mr. Lawan, who holds a Masters Degree in English, said.

“I am aware that in their desperation to discredit the report and divert attention of the public from the real issues of large scale fraud in high places established in the report, a video footage displaying a caricature of my person allegedly having a dealing with a marketer, reminiscent of the military era when dignitaries were invited to the villa to watch a video clip of a phantom coup involving Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is already in circulation.”

But that face-saving press conference did little to assuage the anger of Nigerians.

“The situation portends a grave danger for democracy because Farouk Lawan has been around for some time and we all looked up to him,” said Joe Igbokwe, a leader with the All Progressives Congress.

Pastor and politician, Tunde Bakare, was more direct, tagging Messrs Lawan and Otedola as “criminals” because one offered the bribe and the other received it.

“In a decent society,” he said at a news conference. “Both Otedola and Lawan and all the people involved would be behind bars by now.” Mr. Bakare said in a news conference. “Unfortunately, Lawan’s greed and naivety got him into a terrible mess. He had the opportunity of being a hero; he ended up a villain because of naivety and greed.”

Lawyer, Festus Keyamo pointed out the irony of Lawan’s denial. “The bare-faced denial by Farouk Lawan of his voice on those tapes, and the denial of his complicity despite these overwhelming evidence gives the clear impression that we are dealing with a hardened, unrepentant crook who is like a thief caught with his hand in the cashbox, but still claims he was only checking the colour of the money,” he added to the debate.

The rage and disappointment was visceral against a man who for one had taken the hope of a nation that oil thieves would be brought to justice, and dashed it against the floor of his own foibles.

But more importantly, there was disappointment. This, after all was the oasis of hope: a man who, in an arm of government defined by corruption, had come to symbolise integrity.

Lawan, the lawmaker

He got that reputation long before the probe: secured from his journey with The Integrity Group; a pack of about eight lawmakers during the 6th Assembly who spearheaded the removal of Patricia Etteh, a former Speaker, in the wake of the N628 million house renovation scandal. It included members such as Abike Dabiri, Ikechi Nwogu, Halims Agoda, Igo Aguma, Mercy Isei and Lynda Ikpeazu.

Mr. Lawan was its leader.

Elected in 1999 into the House of Representatives as a member representing Bagwai/Shanono Federal Constituency, in Kano State, under the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP); Mr. Lawan has been a permanent feature at the Lower Legislative Chamber ever since.

Before the scandal broke, Mr. Lawan was touted as a strong contender for the gubernatorial candidate in Kano State at the 2015 general elections. But, interestingly, critics will say he did this more by showboating than actual legislation.

Between 3 March 2004 and 16 January 2008, the House handled 232 bills, according to the House Committee on Rules and Business. Mr. Lawan’s name was not recorded as a sponsor of any of the bills.

By the end of the sixth Legislative Assembly, 2011, the Lower House had overseen a total of 483 bills, with 154 passed, 43 withdrawn, 63 concurred by the Senate, 138 awaited Second Reading, and 51 assigned to House committees. Again, Mr. Lawan’s name was missing from the bills.

What he lacked in accomplishments, he appeared to make up for in visible, aggressive leadership.

Between 1999 and 2011, he chaired seven different House committees including the Ethics and Privileges Committee and the much sought after Appropriations Committee. He was still the Chairman of the House Committee on Education when news of the bribery scandal broke, forcing Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to suspend him from the position.

The downfall of a man

He has only fallen lower since.

Joining Twitter, he perhaps sought to regain the endless goodwill he once shared with Nigeria’s young influencers, especially on social media. Instead, it only presented proof of how low the mighty had fallen. Every statement is immediately met with a scornful reply recollecting the video that won’t go away.

During the protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), last year, Mr. Lawan attempted to use his position as a former House Committee Chairman on Education to advise both parties on a compromise.

“What we hear is that ASUU has pulled out of the talks to end the on-going strike, this will only worsen the situation,” he said in August as the action entered its third month. “Both parties should return to continue the talks.”

He had hardly finished his remarks than the pushback ensued – and it did not focus on the issue. Officials of the union, as well as opinion leaders across the country pointed to his lack of moral authority. “Cover you mouth,” one such writer said.

The man who once held say when he spoke on any issue has completely lost his bully pulpit.

Again, when a gale of defections hit the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, last September, Mr. Lawan was among the 57 members of the Lower House who crossed to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was immediately singled out for ridicule: “If the likes of roguish Faruk Lawan are members,” a writer on Elombah.com wrote. “You can now see why every decent Nigerian must distant themselves from that rogue group”

He has become – officially – a pariah.

And these days he finds himself a regular feature not just in every newspaper’s list of shame, but somewhere even more humiliating: the dock of a court room.

He even spent a few weeks in jail last year, after the judge adjourned to hear his application for bail. He continues to plead “not guilty”.

Today, 7 July, Mr. Lawan will be in court back fighting for his reputation. What a way to spend his 53nd birthday.

 

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