Anyone not trained to respect elders or people in positions of authority would have described some of the latest pastimes of the National Assembly as the acts of people without a sense of why they were elected as legislators in the first place. What is mostly coming out of the NASS reeks of buffoonery, far from matters pertaining to the well-being of Nigerians.
There is a story of a retired university vice-chancellor who was scandalised by the greed of his colleague senators, who wanted to fix huge salaries and allowances for themselves. He, as majority leader, however, found a way to manoeuvre his colleagues off their wayward path.
You may have seen videos of Elisha Abbo, who once represented Adamawa North Senatorial District, bellyaching over unpaid allowances, pay-outs that he did not take and how he was hounded out of the Senate because he did not support Senator Godswill Akpabio to become Senate President.
At the end of the day, Senator Abbo was removed from the Senate by a court judgment that pronounced that his seat be yielded to Senator Amos Yohanna of the opposition People’s Democratic Party that it determined had won the election.
Recently, senators have been projecting negative images of sexual harassment, and distracting everyone with a contrived and bungled recall of a female senator, said to be a victim of sexual harassment by principal officers of the Senate.
The courts that have obviously become irritated even told both the Senate President and his sparring partner not to grant press interviews on the inanities that the two of them are putting the Senate and Nigerians through.
In addition to these allegations of the peccadilloes of some principal officers of the Senate, the legislators thought that they could waste precious time over the asinine issue of putting a cap on the age of those who can contest elective offices.
“These very unserious legislators need to know that Winston Churchill, regarded as the greatest Englishman that ever lived, began his second term as British Prime Minister in 1951, when he turned 77, and ended his tenure in 1955, at the age of 81.”
Members of the House of Representatives who have apparently lost sight of their responsibilities have successfully advanced a bill to ban Nigerians older than 60 years from contesting elective offices of the president, governors and their deputies, to the Second Reading.
These very unserious legislators need to know that Winston Churchill, regarded as the greatest Englishman that ever lived, began his second term as British Prime Minister in 1951, when he turned 77, and ended his tenure in 1955, at the age of 81.
Also, Konrad Adenauer, who took over the position of Chancellor (or Prime Minister) of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, when he was already 73, left it after 14 long years, in 1963, at the advanced age of 87.
Both men, and American President Ronald Reagan, who became President in 1981, at the age of 69, and left office in 1988, at the age of 77, performed excellently well as chief executive officers of their respective countries, in the delicate Cold War years that came with the threat of a nuclear war.
None of these men betrayed any signs of frailty when they were in office. Of course, it has been argued that the immediate past President Joe Biden of America appeared to be absent-minded during his re-election debate.
Maybe those legislators have never heard the Yoruba folktale of animals who killed their mothers during a famine, only to learn that the wiser canine took his mother to heaven, from where she lowered food supplies to him whenever he was hungry.
They are probably unaware of the Yoruba observation that whereas the hands of the juvenile cannot reach the rafters, the hands of the elders cannot pass through the thin neck of the gourd. They also may not have heard of the Yoruba saying that it is with the wisdom of the young and the old that Ile Ife was built.
And by failing to extend this unnecessary age limitation to elections into the legislative houses, the legislators are demonstrating that they are in office to serve only their personal interests. One can only hope that the Senate will not join the mindless circus.
The idle legislators also thought it was necessary to remove the immunity clause of the vice president and deputy governors, clearly forget that Sections 143 and 188 of Nigeria’s Constitution have already provided impeachment as a tool to remove the president, the governors and their deputies so that they could face legal prosecution for any wrong acts they may have committed while in office.
The disingenuous legislators somewhat failed to realise that if the Vice President or any deputy governor was going to carry out any corrupt acts, it must have been with the indulgence and connivance of their principals, who are the President or the governors.
They also did not seem to remember that it is the governors, and not their deputies, who usually become the guests of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at the end of their tenures, after which they would have lost their immunity.
But the 60 legislators who are proposing Nigeria’s return to the parliamentary system of government got it right. In addition to not being as expensive as the presidential system, the parliamentary system can hold the prime minister, who is a member of the parliament, more accountable than the presidential system.
It is important to note that the adoption of the presidential system was not exactly the choice of Nigerians, but that of General Olusegun Obasanjo, an alumnus of the over-centralised command-and-control system of his military alma mater.
But to segue for more compelling and urgent matters of state, one hopes that the delegation of the Rivers State caucus of the NASS, led by Senator Barina Mpigi, reminded Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, Sole Administrator of Rivers State, that the revised 2025 budget that he is preparing must be presented to the National Assembly for approval.
This is in line with the resolution of the National Assembly to set up an ad-hoc committee with members from the two chambers to exercise oversight functions over Rivers State under the state of emergency that has temporarily rendered Governor Siminilaye Fubara hors de combat and placed the state under the sole administrator that was appointed by President Bola Tinubu, in clear breach of Nigeria’s Constitution.
In any case, Section 11(1) of the Constitution makes it clear, “The National Assembly may make laws for the Federation, or any part thereof… with respect to… providing, maintaining and securing of (assets)… as may be provided by the National Assembly as essential supplies and services (that will be funded by provisions of the statutorily approved budget).”
Also, Section 11(4,5) provides, “At any time when any (state) House of Assembly… is unable to perform its functions… the National Assembly may make laws… on matters (including annual budget) as may appear to be necessary or expedient… until the National Assembly is able to resume its functions…”
If they are serious about this oversight assignment, which they told President Tinubu that they will perform, they will be making legitimate operational expenses and the project expenditures that Admiral Ibas will naturally like to embark upon.
Caesar’s wife must not only be beyond suspicion, she must be seen to be beyond suspicion. She may also be helped to be beyond suspicion. The National Assembly must pay more attention to its responsibilities and stop its inanities.
