By Bankole Fasan
IT follows the usual pattern, a pattern of dragging former office holders straight from their executive mansions to jail. This pattern was set in the last eight years or thereabout since the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC, became the watchdog or, more appropriately, sharp-eyed eagle of our economic temple.

It all started after the first four years of our democratic experiment under the Obasanjo administration and past governors who had hidden behind the shield of executive immunity suddenly had their cover blown off and were compelled to stand eyeball to eyeball with Nuhu Ribadu, the dreaded founding chair of the EFCC, later presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria whose main backer, Bola Tinubu, has for so long managed to keep the folds of his flowing agbada away from being caught in the talons of the EFCC eagle. Now it’s the turn of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole.

Described by some foreign media as the fourth most powerful man in Nigeria until his arrest about a fortnight ago, Bankole was barely out of office than he was being chased around by the EFCC. He did his best to keep out of their way- but not for long.

After an apparent truce following a stand-off between his personal security detail and EFCC investigators, Bankole was finally grabbed like a common fugitive from the law and hauled into detention. His media assistant called his arrest an abduction.

He was not even allowed to formally handover to his successor Aminu Tambuwa whose emergence is yet another reminder of the divided house of commotion that the PDP has become. Thus in a simple T-shirt and trousers and sandwiched between EFCC operatives, Bankole was led into detention.

His arrest afforded the Nigerian public one of those very rare occasions when the former speaker would be seen in anything but his ubiquitous white kaftan, a personal fashion statement that is now besmirched by corruption or, to be legally correct, allegations of corruption.

We may have to wait until June 26 when the case is again fixed for hearing to know how solid are the charges against him. But meanwhile not even the oxen-like neck of Dimeji Bankole can bear without serious aches the 16-count charge thrown around it. The man seems thoroughly weighed down by it all. Isn’t it a year ago that the House under him took on Dino Melaye and his team of rebels? Things have never been the same for Bankole since then.

The charges are the usual ones for which Bankole’s predecessors to the EFCC office have had slammed on them: inflation of contract to the tune of N894 million among other financial malfeasance. State officials have been quick to tell Nigerians that the prosecution of Bankole was in line with the promise made by President Goodluck Jonathan to give no quarter to corruption.

But others not strangers to Nigerian politics know that dogs don’t eat dogs, that a Nigerian politician would not sit back and watch one of their kind disgraced. No, Nigerian politicians would not sit back watching as a senior member of their class suffers the ‘indignity’ of being paraded for corruption which is a common malaise among them except where such member has fallen out of favour.

Which is to say that Dimeji Bankole’s arrest and detention could only have happened because President Jonathan chose to look away. Not that the President was responsible for fabricating the charge. Rather, he chose to allow the law to take its course in the matter of a man who didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about supporting the President’s ambition to occupy Aso Rock Villa either after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua or during the presidential contest that pitched the President against Muhammadu Buhari.

He was unlike David Mark, the Senate President, whose support for Jonathan was unflinching all through the shenanigans of those who sough to desecrate the presidency by keeping an unconscious President Yar’Adua in detention while running the country in his name. But whether Jonathan chooses to give Bankole soft landing or not is his prerogative. He did not ask the former speaker to engage in corrupt enrichment. And now he’s been caught in the web of his own making he must answer for his activities, the presidency seems to be saying.

Those who see Bankole’s travails as persecution should hold their peace until they can show that he is not guilty of the charges against him.

They should also exercise patience until that time comes when those presently being shielded by the powers-that-be find themselves, to paraphrase a popular expression, in the court of a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph.

One may not be able to explain away why Aminu Tambuwal, newly elected Speaker, and some other principal officers under Bankole who were part of the decision that led to the inflation of contract and purchase of Peugeot vehicles to the tune of N2.3 billion, not to mention the taking of N10 billion loan to enable the House increase the allowance of members from N27 million to N42million- it may not be easy to explain away the EFCC’s failure to invite Bankole’s co-actors in this unfolding saga for questioning.

None of the principal officers of the House under Bankole but still in office now has been seriously investigated. Tambuwal, it was, as Chair of the House Committee on Budget, recommended that members’ allowance be increased from N27 million to N42 million. Neither Tambuwal nor Emeka Ihedioha who was former Chief Whip of the House and is now Deputy Speaker have been subjected to any kind of investigation.

These two men like several others were instrumental to Bankole’s decision to obtain the N10 billion loan; purchase the Peugeot cars, etc. Yet none of them has been invited by the EFCC. It’s not enough for the EFCC spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, to tell us that no invitation was extended to them because they were not seriously implicated in statements obtained from those being investigated and so have no case to answer.

What Babafemi should own up to is that the people in question are still in office and so could hide behind the clause of immunity to protect themselves. Yet what goes around comes around. Dimeji Bankole was until recently one of the powerful men of Abuja. He certainly must realise now how transient power could be. And so would those still strutting around with a bloated sense of power.