The incidence at the Villa gate

The incidence at the Pilot Gate of the Presidential Villa on Thursday 26th October over attempts to have security checks on some members of the National Assembly and what followed must have left many egos badly bruised. As reported in the Daily Trust of Friday 27 October, the lawmakers took umbrage when the security men manning the Pilot Gate insisted on subjecting them to individual screening. The lawmakers led by their Principal Officers were at the villa on that fateful night to attend a scheduled dinner with the Vice-President and other top officials of the Presidency. The lawmakers numbering 20 who were conveyed in a white coastal bus refused to alight for the screening, when the security men at the gate insisted on screening all of them, with the exception of the Senate President and the House of Representative Speaker. The bus turned back in a huff to the residence of the Senate President.

It would be futile blaming the security officials at the Pilot Gate for insisting to screen the visitors because these operatives normally function in accordance with precise, strict instructions. They would not have any wide latitude on how to deal with visitors, unless otherwise instructed. On the other hand visitors who are deemed to be special invitees would expect to be treated differently. It is even more so with members of the National Assembly who deem themselves as equal partners to the Executive and the Judiciary in running the affairs of the country.

 And when one considers that this dinner was thrown up to be an opportunity to engage the lawmakers in a pre-budget discussion with stake holders in the Executive as a means of reaching some level of all round understanding, one is left aghast at what happened. Obviously the invitees to this exclusive dinner felt slighted at the turn of events as they considered the indignities of individual body search to be conducted on them as indecorous. As it was, the situation became embroiled with all the ingredients of a mishap that was bound to occur. However readers should not consider this as a one-off occurrence. Whether it is at the gate of the Presidential Villa or somewhere at the gate of a State Government House, this kind of scenario must have been enacted many times over.

Many officials who had worked in the villa or the various Government Houses can relate to you horror stories of how a muddle at the gate had bungled the appointment schedules of their Principals – Presidents or Governors – and left a trail of bruised egos and rancour. I recall an incident in 1990 when a mix-up at the gate of Maiduguri Government House caused so much embarrassment to the Military Governor, Col. Mohammed Lawan Maina. One of his predecessors, Brigadier Musa Usman, had arranged to come into the Government House to discuss some matter with him after the maghrib prayer. When the Brigadier came he was turned back at the First Gate by the soldiers because his name was not on the visitors list for the day. Now Musa Usman was not just a former occupant of the Government House, he was the first and its longest serving occupant (1967-75) as Military Governor of the North-Eastern State (now Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe States).

That evening I was the Head of the Government House Administration (PermSec) and was settling down to do some file work in the office after the maghrib prayer when I was summoned to the main house to meet my very agitated boss. He explained his predicaments and asked me to drive personally and bring the Brigadier to the Government House. I enquired and found out that the Brigadier, who was visiting from his base in Kaduna, was staying with his friend and a colleague former Governor of North-Central State, Brigadier Abba Kyari, whose house was just a short drive from the Government House. I drove there and was relieved to find them heartily laughing over the matter. Musa Usman came with me and being the first time with him I found him a very charming personality. Throughout the short drive back to the Government House he regaled me with stories of his first days as Military Governor and how he selected the site of the Government House, built the infrastructure around it, etc. But that will be a story for another day.

This anecdote might not exactly capture the predicament that arose at the Pilot Gate on Thursday night because what happened in Maiduguri in 1990 was resolved without any untoward consequences. It is however too early in the day to know if the Pilot Gate imbroglio has really been laid to rest and the frayed tempers of the lawmakers have been assuaged. We say this because the utterances of spokesmen of the National Assembly after the event have not been exactly too friendly. It could be evidence of the fact that the strained relationship between the two supra bodies is still on. One would wonder where the Presidential Liaison Officers and their foot soldiers were when all this protocol brouhaha was taking place at the Pilot Gate. I suppose they should have been at the Pilot Gate to pre-empt any problems with security checks and smoothen the entry of the National Assembly members into the Banquet Hall. 

 We have watched with consternation how the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature had affected the timely legislation and implementation of the national budget in the last two years of this administration. Tawdry budget process arising mainly from bad blood between the Executive and Legislature has been the major constrain to achieving some improvement in our dire economic conditions. We thought two years would be long enough for some lessons to be learnt. However, if what happened at the villa gate on Thursday is anything to go by, we still have some way to go.  

From my mail bag on Fela

Firstly I want to thank you for sending us down memory lane and giving us that sense of nostalgia for us the ardent followers of Fela’s music. It might interest you to know that I started following Fela’s music right from the sixties when he was playing both high life and jazz. I am talking of the Oni dodo oni moi moi era. I read the articles you wrote as your contribution to Felabration. Some few errors that I noticed: (a) Fela never settled in Mushin. He lived in his mother’s house at Alago Meji and named Kala Kuta. Late Beko Ransome Kuti had his hospital in the same compound, (b) His club Africa Shrine formerly Empire Hotel was a stone throw from his Kala Kuta Republic, and (c) After his fracas with soldiers on 18th Feb 77, Fela didn’t go on exile to Ghana he relocated to Cross Road Hotel at Jibowu, living and having his gigs for a while before he later relocated to his house on Gbemisola St Ikeja. There is so much to be said about Abami Eda but for now let’s just pray for the repose of his soul. Thanks for reminding us of our younger days of all kinds of escapades.