Now that the Abuja High Court trying the case of forgery brought against the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has adjourned hearing of the suit to September 2016, it may be reasonable to ask if the promised shutdown of the Senate by supporters of these principal officers of the Senate would still go ahead. In other words, can we still expect the ‘Like Minds’ senators, all 80 of them we hear, to disavow their legislative responsibilities in sheer solidarity for their leaders? I guess the principal reason they offered themselves to serve Nigerians was so they could keep their allegiance to other politicians rather than work for the good of the country.
Nigerians may recall that some senators who would rather not have their names mentioned in print have been telling the press that they are all for Saraki and Ekweremadu and would have nothing to do with anyone talking about alternatives. They would also not have anything to do with any idea of some pro tempore president of the Senate. For them, it is either Saraki and Ekweremadu or nothing else. They hinge all of this on their so-called fight for legislative autonomy. But as I said here last week, the issue is one of self-preservation for these senators. They know what they are up against. They know once their shepherd is struck down it’s a matter of time before they too become prey to the very forces chasing Saraki and Ekweremadu. The issue is not about fighting for legislative independence. It is about covering their dirty rump from scrutiny.
The Senate is in fact a conclave of cowards, bull dogs that are all loud barks but no teeth to effect their threats. Which is why those senators who have been shadow boxing, issuing threats of a shutdown are too weak-kneed to have their names put down in print.
They go about grumbling about some attempts to compromise their independence while the real truth is that they have a lot to cover about their lives and how they got to their present status. Their boast about shutting down the Senate is actually a pathetic cry for attention. They want a deal and are dying to be asked for one. These are wheeler dealers out to bargain. They’ve been asking for nothing but a deal ever since their leaders became estranged from their friends in the executive arm, especially the Presidency.
In hearing and endorsing the ministerial list submitted to them without asking questions, they were conscious of scratching the back of the executive and expected some payback. It’s incredible how Nigerian politicians, when accused of some malfeasance, talk so eagerly about looking forward to their day in court while doing everything within their might and beyond it to frustrate the court process. This is what we have so far seen in the manner both Saraki and Ekweremadu have responded to the charges brought against them. They are neither willing nor ready to give up what they are accused of acquiring illegally nor are they ready to prove their innocence as they claim.
They’ve tried subterfuge, coercion and blackmail and are now watching from the sides as their supporters make a mess of their role as law makers, threatening to shut down the Senate. Instead of working to clear their names as they claim they’ve been invoking all kinds of forces both national and international to come to their rescue. They’ve written to all kinds of Western agencies, organisations and leaders in their foolish bid for help.
Yet they only need to take one step, just one that would demonstrate their readiness to truthfully have their names cleared. They only need to step aside as Senate leaders and allow those entrusted with the task of investigation to do their job. We need not call the attention of the Senate duo to the examples of other public figures accused of one misdemeanour or another elsewhere.
Those are examples that make no impression on them. But since they’ve turned politics into a career, it makes sense for them to bring down the entire house, literally, than yield to the demands of decency. These senators give people the impression that outside politics there is simply no life for them. And it’s in the same boat we must put their supporters who have vowed to shut down the Senate. Now that the court has adjourned hearing, I hope they set the fireworks off in earnest so Nigerians can have an idea what reprobates they elected or allowed to wangle their way into power. This class of legislators in both the upper and lower houses have spent more time on recess than decency demands. At a time when Nigerians are groaning under the strains of making ends meet, many of our legislators are content to show off the latest automobiles in their garage.
The likes of Dino Melaye are hardly off social media where they post photographs of their baby toys they want the whole world to hear about. In age Melaye is probably older than David Cameron but while the latter grapples with more fundamental issues of governance and disdains the kind of graft that has transformed our country into a ‘fantastically corrupt’ polity, Melaye and his ilk go about playing the one-eyed king in the country of impoverished beggars. They cling to power as if their lives depended on it when Cameron who offered to step down in the wake of the referendum that saw the United Kingdoms leaving the European Union has moved forwards his planned departure as Prime Minister to this week instead of October.
That’s what a leader does- take responsibility for both his actions and inaction. Our present legislators are not proposing new laws that would bring succour to the blighted existence of the citizens of this country. They are not working hard to actualise their electoral mandates. They are talking instead, even boasting about abdicating their responsibilities, just so they can continue with the culture of impunity that fetched them their present status. For if truth must be told, in what way are many of these vain individuals who parade themselves as leaders in the legislature, in what ways are they better morally or intellectually than many of the Nigerians they lord it over and pretend to be better than? Today people are struggling just so they can take care of their survival needs and all our so-called law makers can think of is how to make life even unbearable for them. It’s their likes that go around complaining about the slow pace of development under the present administration. But what are they doing to speed things up? Shut down the government and send the country into yet another tailspin.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/saraki-ekweremadu-senate-proxy-battles/
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