NASS’ leaking roofs

LAST week, there was a  flooding incident at the National Assembly that saw many workers scooping water into pails. It was an embarrassing sight given that the horrible incident  happened at the hallowed chambers of the federal lawmakers. That is a bold pointer to the quality of leadership the country has. It is really depressing. Are these the kinds of leaders that should be running the affairs of the country? How can the lawmaking chambers witness this kind of event? What happened to the maintenance culture and how could the situation have been allowed to degenerate to such a sordid level? If the National Assembly cannot ensure that its building complex is well maintained and prevented from dilapidation, how effectively can it carry out similar and other oversight functions in the other two branches of government? And should citizens not begin to seriously interrogate the effectiveness with which the National Assembly has been carrying out its oversight mandate?

There is bound to be rot all over the place given the proclivity of officials to treat public  properties and assets with negligence and disregard, especially when the lawmakers who should monitor conformance to approved standards  are no better than those they monitor. The argument by the National Assembly leadership that the money budgeted for the renovation of the assembly complex was reduced and that even the reduced amount had yet to be released to it does not hold water. The non-release of funds for huge contracts should not be a reason for roofs to leak so terribly. What was required to stop the roofs from leaking was not money in billions of naira. Was it beyond what the National Assembly’s management could conveniently handle? And why was action not taken when minor evidence of leakage was observed, since it is most unlikely that  water would  just start to  drip or pour into the lobby without previous warning?  Apparently, the National Assembly’s management  was waiting for the release of huge funds to award contracts when commonsense and prudence should ordinarily have recommended the execution of minor repairs before they snowballed into huge and costly repair works.

Also, the revelation that the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), under whose purview the maintenance of the NASS complex falls, has no well articulated maintenance regimen for the National Assembly complex for more than 20 years, is concerning. Somehow, the successive leaderships of the National Assembly could not be bothered by such a development, yet if it were its humongous allowances that were slightly affected, it would probably have held the system to ransom. The FCDA, too, has shifted the blame for the lapses on its part onto the executive branch which it says has serially declined approvals for the award of contracts for maintenance. Even at that, the leadership of the National Assembly can still not be exonerated. It should have approached the Presidency to underscore the importance of maintaining legislative infrastructure, as it  often does when what is at stake is its bloated dues from the government.

And in any case, is it being suggested that the staff of maintenance units at the National Assembly and the FCDA are incapable of carrying out minor repair works? Do these staff draw salaries monthly just to supervise contractors? Must the system always wait until damage to public assets becomes so significant that it has to attract the award of huge contracts before minor faults can be fixed? The point we are making is that the leaking roofs was a minor fault at some point in time, and it should have been rectified in-house. It is imperative to note that the country’s economy is in a bad shape. The ordinary Nigerians who may not know the extent of the parlous state of the economy are feeling the pangs associated with a battered economic system. As such, the era of contract jamboree must fade away, particularly if the government is really serious about repositioning the economy. What that means is increased consciousness in official circles of the imperative of a good  maintenance culture.

Whether the government likes it or not, its apparent single-minded focus on the revenue side of the budget, which has inexorably driven it to a borrowing spree, will ultimately yield ground to focus on  the expenditure component too, where it may become expedient to cut its coat according to its cloth. And one sure way of doing that is to deliberately place high premium  on maintenance culture. The logic is that if new infrastructure is becoming relatively difficult to acquire or build, the existing ones should be properly managed and maintained to prevent avoidable dilapidation and rot.

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