National assembly and Nigerians’ sufferings

National legislative assembly in democracy has a vital role to play. Aside from making laws, it serves a check and balance function for the other arms of government. The power of national assembly is so huge that its chamber is compared to how God’s name should be referenced. It is referred to as  ‘hallow chamber’. Ideally, members are supposed to be gods or principalities in notable endeavours of life before they are given seats in the chamber.

Members of national assembly are elected to represent the populace in a defined constituency.  They are individually supposed to be knowledgeable in matters of economics, governance, policy amongst other. They should have advanced and tested knowledge than the average person on the street. This is the essence of their election. This gives them the power to adequately represent those who elected them. It is the combination of the tested knowledge and passion to serve which empower them to make outstanding contributions to the debates on the floor of the house.

Even though I am not that old, but I have been a bit conscious of what governance and check and balance in government means towards the end of the second republic in Nigeria. The divergent views and enriched opinions of different party members within the national assembly then strengthen the voice of the opposition in the  Senate as well as the  House of Representatives. Many of them refused to flow with the popular or selfish opinions. We did not see many of them cross-carpeting neither did they become ‘yes men and women’ in matter of debates and policy formulations.

Then, there seemed to be many voices on the side of the average citizens compared to what we have now. In no way does this mean some of the members of the second, third, fourth and fifth assemblies did not find their ways into the national assembly through crook means. Despite this shortcoming, debates were a bit geared towards issues affecting common man on the street.

When we looked at the fourth, fifth, sixth and Seventh national assemblies, we could still recall few who stood out in their outstanding but divergent contributions. Some of the sessions were stormy. There was occasional removal of house leaderships in both chambers.

Since inception, I have paid closed attention to this eight assembly and I am afraid most of the members therein do not consider the welfare of those who elected them as paramount.I stand to be corrected.

I must acknowledge also Nigerians deserve the kind of legislative men and women we have now. Many Nigerians will rather accept their fate by continuing to fight for their daily bread instead of paying attention to the real cause of their struggles. When members of the national assembly are in error, we will rather turn our faces, argue at the newspapers stands or in our homes than to collectively speak out against a group who should help but are self-serving.

Some of the few outstanding species in the national assembly who were vocal in the sixth or seventh assembly had learnt their lessons in a hard way. They saw what happened to Abdulmumin Jibrin in the House of Representatives. Jubrin Abdulmumin spoke out against alleged illegal enrichment within the house. Abdulmumin could not stand such callous act oozing from the house leadership. He raised the dust and spoke against the system.

The few who were upright in the Senate also saw what happened to Senator Ali Ndume when he positioned himself on the side of the people. These distinguished persons earned themselves suspensions and other forms of punishments. The whole house ganged against them and unfortunately the masses they were fighting for turned the other eyes. These individuals became orphans overnight as they were sent naked into the cold.

I remembered people like Prof. Adeyeye days in the house of representatives with nostalgia. He is a Senator now. What about Mr. Integrity who later fell to the alleged bribe from the oil magnate as well as Honourable Femi  Gbajabiamila amongst many others? It appears they have suddenly lost their voices.

At the beginning of the eight senate, Senator Remi Tinubu was seen challenging the status quo. Though some of her arguments were laced with emotions instead of sound legislative logics. But at least there was something to look out or forward to.

Today, what do we have? We have subtle motions raised with religious undertone A member wants female youth corpers to stop wearing trousers. We also have motions for  NGO bills (which has some good in it but facts are politicised).  Recently we heard of a death sentence proposal for hate speech. In a time when international organizations are advocating for the ban of death sentence for capital offences like murder, manslaughter and the likes.

The Senate had presently suspended approval of any request sent to it from the Executive as long as Magu remains in office as EFCC chairman. The monetary policy committee cannot make meaning decision now. Its present members cannot form a quorum. Meanwhile, names of new members had been submitted to the national assembly by the Presidency.

Even if the Presidency wants to rejig its cabinet, which many had been clamouring for, the President’s hands are already tight. The question is will two wrongs ever make a  right?

On the contrary, I often find myself watching live debates of the South Africa’s parliament than ours. The Economic Freedom Fighters and many other oppositions’ voices are very loud. Africa National Congress may have the majority in South Africa’s parliament but they do know they cannot have a free ride when it comes to discussions and debates.

Come to think of the fact that  Nigeria paid heavily for South Africa’s political freedom one cannot but shake his head.