Public figures everywhere, cannot understand why the media, and through it, you and me, is so focused on their private foibles. Thus early in the year when Senator Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu, Deputy Senate President and “Nigeria’s number six citizen”, according to his biographer, delayed a British Airways flight out of Lagos, because he was allocated a business rather than a first class seat, he must have been surprised by the barrage of commentary and editorials on the incident. Even worse, of course, was the scandal last year over the claim by Nasir el-Rufai, that he was asked to offer a hefty bribe to facilitate his confirmation as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Somehow, in a government that says corruption is its major enemy, that matter was swept into the gutter, and neither the career of the Minister or the two Senators (Mantu and Jonathan Zwingina) seems to be affected by it.
It may, however, surprise Senator Mantu to know the extent these question marks have shaped his image with the public. They push to the shadows his substantial achievements as a politician. How as a Muslim in a preponderantly Christian Senatorial Zone (not to talk of the State) he overcame serious opposition from an array of ambitious men to emerge as Senator not once, but three times. Men, such as F. D. Makama (former Federal Permanent Secretary, now Chairman, National Population Commission); Sylvanus D. Lot (former Secretary to the Plateau State Government); and Professors Dakum Shown and Sonny Tyoden (of the University of Jos); men who could and did use everything, including religion, to stop him.
Mantu is also a survivor, which can be a strength or weakness in politics, depending on what you do when you survive. His political odyssey, from Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the second Republic; from Liberal Convention (LC) to National Republic Convention (NRC), where he attempted to be the chairman, in a near solo effort to enthrone Chief Iwuanyawu as a Southern Presidential Candidate, during Babangida’s transition; from the National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN) to the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) which was the first party to adopt Abacha as its Presidential candidate in 1997; and finally from the All People’s Party (APP) which he joined straight from UNCP to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he became a Senator and one of its leading lights; proves that Mantu has the talent for adapting to the shifting sands of Nigerian politics.
Finally, on the home front, the Senator is also blessed by the kind of wife who can be a considerable asset both behind and in front of the cameras. Like Hilary Clinton and Cherrie Blair, Zuwaira Mantu is also a successful Lawyer and Informal Adviser. She also has the looks and style of Maryam Babangida and such is her reputation for cleanliness that even as a young girl she was nicknamed “towel” by her peers. Like all modern politicians with an eye to the future, Mantu is a careful family man. He has not only married well, he has only four children and is anxious to correct the impression that all Muslim men are polygamously inclined. “If anything, Islam promotes monogamy”, he says.
Last week in a new twist to his career, President Olusegun Obasanjo picked Senator Mantu to head a 33 member independent committee that will serve to cushion the effects of recent increases in the price of petroleum products, which has led to a crippling nation-wide strike. In what must be one of the most difficult speeches of his career, Obasanjo began to admit the widening gulf between him and his people. “Most leaders in the world who had been reformers have been often misunderstood, not by strangers but mostly by their own people when they were executing needed and desirable reforms. Most leaders that experience such misunderstanding have in the end been lucky to be vindicated. Some have not been so lucky.”
We will leave it to history to decide whether or not Obasanjo will be counted among the lucky reformers. But it belongs to the present to ask what the Mantu Committee is supposed to accomplish. The president said a committee “to mediate” the impact of high petroleum product prices had already been established under the Minister of Finance, but “the present situation”, meaning the strike, led to the enlargement of the committee to include other stakeholders such as politicians (Mantu and Makarfi), labour leaders (Oshiomhole and three others) and representation of Civil Society, National Council of Women Societies, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Youth Council of Nigeria, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, etc.
The question, is this a sop to a nation that answered the call to strike, or a genuine effort to deal with real grievances. Obasanjo himself gave the game away when he made it clear in the very speech setting up the committee, that unlike past leaders he does not believe in “postponing the evil day” because such a route “is escapist” and will not lay a viable foundation for growth and development. “We believe that tough decisions must be taken when necessary but must also be mediated with cushioning measures as necessary. Hence this committee.”
So after nearly a week of strike we are still in square one. The government is not changing its mind or even willing to negotiate on the new prices. Civil Society groups and the NLC have said they see no point in belonging to a committee that has an uncertain mandate. Most newspapers reported that the NLC president was “tricked” into attending even the inaugural meeting of the committee. Everyone knows that even in places where governance is taken seriously, it has become a standard joke, that the best way to kill an idea is to refer it to a committee, no matter how eminent its members.
However, one should perhaps not hurriedly write off the Mantu Committee. Politicians are known to pull rabbits out of even power shift hats! Senator Mantu was very much around when General Abacha responded to the same deep public cynicism about government’s intention in increasing fuel prices, by setting up the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund. Fairly independent of government, PTF used these extra earnings to make some improvements to our lives. Now I know how members of this government feel about the PTF, even though I never miss the opportunity to remind them of the old truism that when you point out one finger, four others are pointing back at you. But it may well be one of the great ironies of history that President Obasanjo who scrapped the PTF with so much fanfare, may be forced to create a similar institution to replace it. Abacha didn’t create PTF because he loved to share power (or money) but because he saw it as one way to stabilise his regime. Certainly few Nigerians believe that the same government that is so intent on making them paupers today for a better tomorrow, can also devise and implement creative measures to cushion their pain. Unfortunately also, despite his talents as a politician, fewer still will believe that Mantu has the capacity or credibility to pull Obasanjo’s chestnuts out of the raging fire.
