The news that closed last week from our hallowed chambers was not very cheering. It had nothing to do with any of the things we pay them such exorbitant sums to debate. It was not about the economy that needs all hands on deck. It was not about youth restiveness and rising crime. It was not about the malnutrition in IDP camps and children dying of hunger on a daily basis. It was not about the avengers in the South or Boko Haram in the North or herdsmen in between.
It was not about any of the national issues crying for attention. It was about the Senate looking inwards. But it was not a critical self-introspection like the amount of money it guzzles from our depleted purse. Or the number of times it goes on recess in a year. Or its poor attendance record not to talk about its low attention span. Or the rightness of a select group of people collecting pensions and salaries from the Senate. No. The news that closed the week was about two senators who threw decorum to the winds and allegedly used words that should never have left decent lips. The issue that led to this was not, like I said, about national interest. It was about self-interest and the need to protect certain high ranking officials from facing the consequences of their actions. It was about caucuses and the Nigerian penchant for turning everything into politics including crime. This is not what we pay them for but this is what they do.
This time, neither of the two main caucuses allowed itself to be browbeaten or intimidated.
The result was a shouting match that led to a gutter language. One allegedly called the other a thug and a dog. The other in response, allegedly threatened to beat her up and ‘impregnate her’ on the floor of the Senate and ‘nothing will happen’. He was alleged to have further said that she was too skinny for him anyway and would prefer a fleshier senator like…. .(name of the ‘fleshy’ senator is withheld for decency). These comments if true, show that this person has no regard whatsoever for womanhood. It shows him to be an uncouth chauvinist who is utterly contemptuous of the feminine gender. His defence, a press statement a couple of days later was even worse. How could he impregnate a menopausal woman he asked in his statement.
He forgot that he was speaking about somebody’s wife, somebody’s mother and a fellow senator. This is from an honourable member, a distinguished senator, a two-time Member of Congress. This week opened with the news that this distinguished senator flew to Lagos, and videoed himself walking down Bourdillon Street, the home of the female senator to show that nothing could happen to him. I do not expect this kind of antic from even a student activist. I felt sorry for him, his family, his constituency and the country.
This guy has no idea of the import and the weight of his office. This is a man whose long time ambition is to one day rule this country. You’ve got to feel sorry for Nigeria. How is it that this is one of the people that are supposed to make laws that will govern Nigeria? I have been expecting some reactions from the leadership and public condemnation from same that these two people brought the hallowed chamber into disrepute. I have been expecting other senators to re-emphasise the need for comportment and decorum in the conduct of senators. Nobody has the right to call another person a dog, least of all a fellow senator. And nobody has the right to drag a body, especially a body of the status of the Senate to the low that it was dragged to by the other gladiator.
But all we have heard from the hallowed chamber is a deafening silence. And all we have heard from APC, the party of change to which the two belong, is also a deafening silence. This is the Senate that wants immunity for its principal officers in the first instance. This Senate of anything goes including possibly murder, wants immunity. This Senate that has not shown any regard for corruption and crime wants immunity. This Senate that does not recognise talk less of protecting those who put them there wants immunity. Immunity from who? The government or the people? You can imagine giving this our man in question immunity. There is no doubt in my mind that we need a body that will check the excesses of the executive.
Especially an executive like this one that tends towards being autocratic. But it cannot be the Nigerian Senate that allowed the scale of corruption that took place under Jonathan. Or this present one that is so self-absorbed.
We need a robust senate that is ever so conscious of the long term needs of its constituency and the long term needs of the country. A senate that will earn its respect by the quality of hard work of its members and the quality of debate on the floor of the House. The people have a role to play in making sure that we clean up the Senate and have an upper chamber that we desire. We should stop accepting whatever it dishes out to us. We should insist on getting value for money. Nobody is paying a senator to follow his principal to court.
If there is anything to be learnt from the Turkey experience, it is that we the people have more than a say. We have power to effect a true change. We have the power to resist individual ambitions that are not in the collective interest. And we should never have allowed the past Senate President and all his fellow returnees who supervised the malfeasance that characterised the last administration to still be in the Senate.
An article credited to Rtd General Alani Akinrinade made the rounds last week. Whether it was written by him or not, it is an article that all senators and House of Representative members should read because it encapsulated how people really feel about our Congress. Titled: ‘A joke too far’, it talked about the carrying on in the present Senate; its achievement or lack of it and lambasted it for daring to talk of impeaching a democratically elected President.
He called its members prodigal sons and suggested to concerned Nigerians that turning out en-mass to ‘OCCUPPYNASS’ would not be a bad idea. Now, would it? Especially if it would make our ‘distinguished senators’ to shape up or ship out.
END
Be the first to comment