It is that trade cycle again. Some of us wonder why they trade with us while some of us wander with our words in defence of why they do that. Our representatives in the Nigerian parliament need comfort, the type that would allow them to be able to sit comfortably to properly represent us. So, they have flung that contention in our faces again. Ordinary Nigerians, who are always the victims of what we voted for, are arguing once again for or against this. The poorly cloistered extravagance of our lords in the National Assembly leaves so much to be desired. These representatives often leave Nigerians wondering if the leadership of this country is not held in trust for some dark enterprises. The irk they bestow is like the myth of the bat — when you open one you see another.
The House of Representatives is a unique assemblage of one of Nigeria’s troubles. Perhaps, this is as a result of the number of people there. In that parliament, you have a potpourri of individuals — the good, the fantastic, the bad, the ugly, the insidious, the perfidious, the arrogant, the spendthrift, the frugal, the perceptive elderly and the boisterous young — then the old and young who have all these attributes. The parliament in Nigeria, rather than being a solution to a number of the country’s problems, is usually either the cause of the problems or is an appendage of them.
One other attribute of the Nigerian parliament is that the place is increasingly becoming a retirement home for former governors. These men who had reigned as emperors in their respective states now carry their ‘Your Excellency’ mentality to the National Assembly and continue their ostentatious life there on our bill. Some of these unquestionable lords also receive pensions and perks from their respective states in addition to their hefty pay packages as members of the parliament. That is why TV footage of these husbands of ours would only show clumsy men couched like some delicate materials in a cosy ensconce. Each day, they appear wrapped in huge gowns like new grooms and then sleep in style, and in resplendence — at our expense.
More and more, as our country grows older as a democracy, the legislative arm of the nation’s democratic experience is getting more distant from the people. This trend is becoming increasingly disturbing because it is easy to see that our legislators are not in their respective chambers to serve their people but to align with the whims and caprices of whoever the chief executive is. They often act as if they were in the legislative chamber to do us a favour and look aloof when dealing with some matters in their hands.
For the sake of keeping it handy, let us take this offering from just two assemblies ago. In those two previous assemblies before the current one, we had Muhammadu Buhari who was posted to Nigerians as a frugal, no-nonsense, upright man in power. The nation bled uncontrollably under his watch. For instance, when the 8th National Assembly was winding down, there was uproar when news filtered out to reveal how our representatives were helping themselves to our common patrimony. Reports showed that most of the National Assembly property used by the legislators as official items was taken away after their tenure. They were taken away because what they paid for these items was so ridiculous that it would be better to say they were given away. In that assembly too, there was news of how messy contractual deals were sealed among the top brass of the National Assembly bureaucracy, particularly in the contract for the repainting of the offices of the legislators.
In the 8th assembly, a Toyota sports utility vehicle was purchased for each representative at a cost between N24 and N26 million. In addition, their offices were equipped with two TV sets – one for their offices and one for the waiting room. There were desktop computer sets, photocopiers, refrigerators, among others. These items were to ease their work which they began formally on June 9, 2015 and ended on June 11, 2019. When they were done with us and were leaving, they bought the Toyota SUVs at N1 million. The TV sets, computer, photocopier, and refrigerator in their offices were collectively sold to our lawmakers for N360,000. So, for the cars, the TV sets, the computers, etc., they paid N1,360,000. Their excuse? That is the tradition we met in the National Assembly! Meanwhile, all these items would be purchased afresh for the incoming legislators’ use.
Oshiomhole is in the 10th Senate. That is the current Senate headed by Senator Godswill Akpabio. Oshiomhole cried out that he had nothing in the office assigned to him as a new lawmaker. He said the furniture had been carted away while electronics, including computers, were no longer in the office. He did not cry in a corner, he shouted his disgust at this sacrilege on national television. But he was hushed. His seniors in the chamber, who were embarrassed by his outcry, told him to shut up, that he knew nothing. In fact, they told him to apologise to them for indirectly calling them thieves. By saying that his office was emptied of all its paraphernalia, he had committed sacrilege and he was schooled in what they do at the National Assembly.
The Senate told him that a standing rule they made in the 9th Senate stipulated that each of those items he complained about was depreciating by 25 per cent each year. This means that by the end of the four-year tenure of a lawmaker, the items would have come to zero value — the exotic cars, the TV sets, the computers, the refrigerators, the furniture et al. The lawmaker who used those items would be doing all of us a favour by even agreeing to buy them as scrap. The rule, we understand, meant that paying for them was relieving us of a burden and taking them away from the National Assembly would allow the incoming lawmaker to get new, better materials to work with. Oshiomhole has not said a word about this issue since that time.
The 10th Assembly is already flowing in that atrocious tide. Sadly, they gleaned the self-serving behaviour from a self-serving government policy. But as lawmakers, are they not the ones to do something about it? Instead, they have taken out N77 billion and bought Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs for themselves. Each of the vehicles is said to have cost us N185million. It was a modest N160 million for each of the vehicles, but the sprawling fall of the Naira to the dollar has caused the inadvertent rise in their cost to N185 million. These vehicles stand the chance of being auctioned to the lawmakers in the 10th Assembly at ridiculous amounts when they are done working for us.
What if they had settled for vehicles that are not that expensive? Why do we go through the same cycle every four years since, according to the House of Representatives, they are ‘operational vehicles’? What was “improved representation, constituency outreach, and oversight functions” like before the armoured vehicles were acquired for our legislators? Would it be safe to adapt the submission of the 9th Senate regarding property as these? For instance, if a vehicle is attached to a constituency office, is it safe to presume that the vehicle was unusable after four years? The lawmakers receiving these vehicles should include returning lawmakers and former governors. Or, are those ones not in line for the same largesse?
It is preposterous for the House of Representatives spokesman, Akin Rotimi, to announce the distribution of armoured cars worth N185 million each to lawmakers and still talk about cutting the cost of governance in the same sentence. It is indeed an insult to the sensibilities of hardworking Nigerians to whom the government is flinging food packages on the streets.
If our dear Reps are driving the nation further into this kind of fiscal vale, one wonders what the senators would be doing to our national purse.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then