National Assembly as Haven of Redundant Overlords

I found this article written by Pius Okaneme very interesting and worthy of being shared. Please, sit back and read.

Nigerians should be very proud of their parliamentarians if visual representation is the mark of excellence.  The lawmakers wear the latest designer traditional attire and delicately walk in comfort in finest European leather shoes.  The princes and princesses march into the auditorium of sophists as if on a fashion parade in Milan.  The wall of the National Assembly embraces the show with grace.  But the vast openness inside is hollow.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have progressed immensely in the arena of legislative discourse.  The arguments on the floor of both houses have passed the level of embezzlers wanting to add another title in their honours list.  The House leaders credibly boast about the many bills they have successfully passed into law.  Ironically, a critic of the Nigerian situation may argue that it is like filling a waste basket with junk legal papers.  There is no visible point to the effects of these laws on the masses.

Members of the House polish their public persona with fine language.  They appear on television and talk storm about strengthening the nation’s democracy.  When the war front gets tight, they escape into their havens in Abuja.  Nigerians question the cost of pampering the lawmakers like endangered species.  They are quick to respond that their role is to make laws.  Maybe the unemployed youths should crowd the gate of the National Assembly and look for scraps of passed laws to build their lives.

The legislative arm has power in a three tier system of government.  Surprise they always win when it comes to fighting for huge salary increase and other benefits for themselves.  The problem is that the members have no regard for the welfare of Nigerians in sum.  Most see the National Assembly as a redoubt for redundant honchos, an exotic place for influential politicians to hibernate while they retool their career.  Ex-governors especially find the Senate convenient to buy time to mitigate their exploits while in office.

Some legislators have distinguished themselves though.  They showed that lawmakers can influence national politics and attract federal projects to their constituencies.  The conscientious arbiters make judicious use of their constituency allowance.  Contrastingly, captains of oil boom politics would rather stuff their war chest with funds allocated for their constituency projects in readiness for election battle.

The audacity of puffy cheek lawmakers is mind-boggling.  They disappear in swanky lofts in Abuja for four years and come back to their constituencies and run for re-election.  They schmooze with the electorate with hope to buy them with sweet rhetoric and vacuous gifts.  The enlightened voters know that if their candidate is grossly obese and rides in a convoy with blaring siren to his vulgar palace that their message, as the saying goes, to the chimney smoke has not reached heaven.

Lords of the jungle know their dark route back to Abuja.  The Independent National Electoral Commission has been incapable of closing the back door.  Godfathers use their loot from the national treasury to finance election fraud.  Nigerians perpetually watch to see if the God that created this endowed nation will abandon it in backwardness.

See: http://www.punchng.com/opinion/letters/national-assembly-as-haven-of-redundant-overlords/ 

•By Pius Okaneme, Umuoji, Anambra State. piusokaneme@yahoo.com